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Allelopathy Inquiry 5/11/16
Sarcophyton and Sea Rod 8/23/10
Menella Sea Fan with Ophiuroid/s... no prob. 5/8/07 Hi <Hello Mich with you.> I have brought a Menella sea fan gorgonian, I have had it a few days, when I looked at it last night I noticed about seven tiny black and white bristle <brittle> stars on it, will these harm the fan as it is not opening today, <No, the brittle stars should not bother the gorgonian.> I have looked on your site but found nothing about this. Should I leave them on it <Yes.> or try and get them off <No.> as they are very tiny. <Gorgonians and brittle stars are often found in association in the wild. It is not an unnatural situation. Please allow the brittle stars to remain. -Mich> Help with Gorgonian and anemone 3/29/07 Hello, <Hi there> It was suggested I contact "Fenner or Borneman" <Mmmm, EricB is elsewhere> In reference to what seems to be an anemone that came with a "blueberry" gorgonian that I got. The gorgonian has changed colors and I thought it was dead, but it appears to be growing at the tips, so I don't know if it is dead or some dormant state or shed its tissue or what. <Mmm, these and many other octocorals can/do change color from lighting, feeding, water quality circumstances...> The other question is did the anemone injure or kill the gorgonian? <Maybe> I'm told it is a wrapping gorgonian anemone. Here is the thread where there has been some discussion: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s= < http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1082557> &threadid=1082557 Any help and/or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Rick <Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/index.htm Scroll down to the tray on Anemones, the articles and FAQs toward the bottom there on Aiptasia, Anemonia, Other Pest Anemones. Bob Fenner> Emp. Angel not eating -dying fish from a fan?- - 5/7/2006 Hello, <Mike> First I admittedly made a terrible mistake in collecting from my local beach (San Diego) a small gorgonian fan and added it to my established (2yrs) fish only tank with the following: 125 Gallons with Live Rock and Live Sand. 1) Russell's Lion (8in) 1) Clown Trigger (6in) 1) Fiji Puffer (3in) 1) Cow Fish (5in) 1) Zebra Moray (20 in) 1) Yellow Tang (deceased) 1) Christmas Tree Wrasse (deceased) <Too many fish for this system> 1 month after introducing the fan to my tank the yellow tang went on a hunger strike and passed away. Shortly after, I acquired a 4 inch Emperor Angel. 3 Weeks ago the wrasse also would not eat and passed away last week. While the other fish still appear to have appetites, the Angel has now stopped eating. <I do NOT believe this is from the fan you added to the tank, while it may have had contaminants and or pollutants on it, Your stocking list of fish seems to be the culprit here. You have one of the most nasty tempered triggers maybe even the nastiest fish period (the clown trigger) in with a cowfish, one of the few fish in the world that not only carries tetrodotoxin (the most potent toxin on the planet) but the cowfish can release that poison as a deterrent to predators or due to stress. In a home system such as yours, it can kill everything.> Could the fan, now back in the Pacific, have been the culprit? Bacteria, internal parasites? The angel has gone a little over a week without eating. He still appears to be active, color is good, no noticeable rubbing on the sand or rocks, no visible signs of disease (As with the tang and wrasse). I have tried Angel formula 1 and 2, frozen krill, flakes and brown algae. <My hunch is that the clown trigger is either harassing the angel, or harassing the cowfish and has made the cowfish release enough poison to seriously injure the other fish. I would pull the clown trigger immediately and re-home it to another tank, and do the same with the cowfish. If you do not want to re-home them, setup a tank for the clown trigger by itself, and one for the cowfish by itself as well. If you decide not to move the cowfish, you will still need a 240 gallon or bigger tank to handle the puffer (gets 12-15") the lionfish (18"+ without fins and is very venomous) the 15+" angel and the 8-10" cowfish. The clown trigger will hit 2 -15" or more as well and will become a holy terror to tankmates as it ages.> My water parameters are .22 SPG, Nitrites 0, Ammonia 0, Nitrates b/n 20 - 40 ppm. I maintain a strict regiment in conducting 12% water changes every other week. Is there anything that I can do to help this little guy? I started with a 30% water change yesterday and gave the angel a fresh water dip for 4 min.s. Please advise. <Try setting up another tank for the angel to live stress free for now, and remove the aggressors as above to ensure it is not harassed.> Thank you, Mike Ferrante <Please re-home and remove fish, as this mix will result in death for more if not all of your fish.> <Justin (Jager)> Seahorse Compatibility Hello I've got 90g cube tank, and I want to put in only seahorses and gorgonians. Will they live together? Best regards, Darek <Well, Darek- it is certainly possible to put these animals together. The seahorses will probably hitch on to the gorgonians at some point, which may irritate them, so do keep an eye on things. I'd also make sure that the gorgonians that you are contemplating keeping are species with a good track record in captivity. Good luck! Regards, Scott F.> Gorgonian in aquaria - 2/10/05 Greetings Bob & Crew! <Greetings from sunny N. Cali> I have a question on coral compatibility.....rather is a coral compatible with my system. <OK> My girlfriend bought me a coral for my birthday. Luckily she had it held at the LFS until I am able to get the QT tank setup. <Well.....encouraging to hear> Anyway, she bought me a yellow Finger Gorgonian (Diodogorgia nodulifera??). I have a 55-gal reef that is thriving. It has a large space near the back with no corals, inverts, or anything staking out territory (except for my yellowtail damsel who thinks she owns the tank). It is a relatively high current area, which is why no corals are there. All other areas are occupied by corals or my anemone (hasn't moved in a year) so this location would be good from the standpoint of not coming near any other corals. <Well, let's look at the needs of the coral first The finger coral comes in two colors, bright orange yellow with red calyces and white polyps and the other is red with darker red calyces and white polyps. Finger corals are rather brittle and will break. They usually only grow to about 25 cm (10 inches). They are not photosynthetic.> Lighting - Water flow: These corals are usually found in water deeper than 25 meters (75 feet) on hard-bottom in the Caribbean. They are attached to the bottom in strong current. Difficulty of Care: They need shade or indirect lighting with a strong current. They need to be fed at least once a week or they will starve. There is a lot of information on this coral on the web and in books. Usually can be kept successfully in captive aquaria.> My concern is lighting. This area is almost directly under one of my 175w, 20,000K MH pendants. From what I have researched, these corals are not photosynthetic. <Correct> I have read conflicting info regarding where they can live. Some say intense lighting is of no concern, others say that they cannot live under MH. <I would be more worried about feeding and flow. Do some research (GARF.org seems to propagate these corals regularly and seem to have great success with keeping them> I do have one other area that could fit this coral (with room to grow) in a back corner. The problem is that this spot has a relatively low current flow. <Be more concerned with flow and feeding rather than lighting. Maybe you can place something above it to diffuse the light. Maybe a green Nephthea frag or something.> Can I house this coral in my system? <I don't see why you couldn't. Flow and feeding are the most important aspects to be concerned with (which I have stated several times here already....I know)> Do you have any advice on doing so/not doing so? <I would go for it> Sorry, I guess this was not as quick of a question as I thought. Thanks for your help. <Thanks for being part of it all ~Paul>
Beautiful but Bad Gorgonian Bob, <Anthony Calfo in your service> Thank you so much for your help in the past. <you are certainly welcome to all> I have recently added a yellow finger gorgonian (Diodogorgia) to my reef. I must say that it is a very beautiful specimen. <agreed, but I'm truly sorry that someone sold it to you, most likely. They are extremely difficult to keep. Aposymbiotic (non-photosynthetic)... they are entirely dependent on feeding. It is not clear what they eat to survive and near 100% are dead within a year if not months... some struggle to live more than one year before "starving" to death. I have some good experience with reef invertebrate husbandry and have written a book on coral in aquaria... and I consider this animal out of my skill set (or interest for the tedious work trying to feed it). If you aren't already informed on the topic... begin doing research on phytoplankton reactors for generating food or buying a phytoplankton substitute (like DT's refrigerated)> However, ever since I have added it to my reef, my purple tang keeps nipping at it as if there is some sort of algae on it. There doesn't seem to be any. My flame angel is also doing the same thing. These two fish, which seem to be best friends since I added them at the same time, have never nipped at corals before. The gorgonian seems to be doing fine though. Is this something I should be worried about? <the gorgonian is safe in this regard... most are highly noxious and inedible to fish... the fish may simply be browsing for incidental material... or, if the animal is already beginning to die, they are scavenging. My apologies, Anthony> Regards, Keith HELP! Invasive Coral! I have what a local store calls "encrusting gorgonian" It is a pink hairy coral that is taking over my tank! (220 gallon reef). <yes... Erythropodium sp. Very invasive and beautiful.> When it get near my beautiful green star polyps...it takes them over. <wow... and Starpolyps are quite aggressive in their own right!> Suggestions? It is pretty....but aggressive! <indeed... in this case, there are no natural predators that would be safe with your other invertebrates. Manual extraction by pulling up the stolon mat may be necessary. Else, keep look rock/rubble at its growing edge and pull away the overgrowth as necessary> Thanks, Ron <best regards, my friend. Anthony> 10 year old Gorgonian... battle with Colt coral I jinxed it, no doubt, because now, it has mostly pulled its polyps in, and all I have is the bare gorgonian branches. <bare as in denuded of tissue (rotted away)? Or are you simply referring to the lack of polyp extension (no biggie here)?> Other than being bare, the branches look fine. The other inverts (Tridacna, star polyp, colt coral, shrimp, brittle star) look fantastic. The water parameters are still great. However, the gorgonian had been in contact with a colt coral. <Yikes!!!! Very bad for the gorgonian... Colts are wicked. Will take some time to recover. Keep up good water changes and strong water flow. > Although I can see where that might have caused problems, I am surprised at the timing, because the two had been touching for several months, with no apparent effect to either one. <you are completely mistaken here my friend... it is precisely the prolonged exposure that creates a situation like this. Keep in mind that corals must war chemically and silently. They have no teeth or claws, can't throw a punch, etc. They just shed noxious chemicals over time to slowly poison each other (and themselves in some cases)> I did a water change, carefully removed the colt's rock from the tank and equally carefully removed the coral from the rock and donated it the colt to my LFS. <actually a fine idea. Colts are beautiful... but they are one of the most severely noxious corals for aquaria!> That was yesterday. The gorgonian tried to send a few polyps out, but overall a fairly substandard performance. <no worries... all in good time. Weeks perhaps> I seem to remember something like this a few years ago with it -- I thought at that time it may have "shed" like the colt coral does from time to time. <you are correct my friend... a waxy tunic of metabolites> Also, where one branch has grown against the front glass, the polyps don't come out and that small piece of branch looks a little "smushed" <yes... it has formed a callus likely> On the chance that this area needs some water circulation I am going to rig a way to keep it from touching the side. Any ideas/advice? <I'd simply propagate/prune the branch shorter> thanks for your help, and happy holidays to all! Tom <and to you as well, my friend. Anthony> Devil's Hand and Sea fan: Cnidarian contact 5/30/03 Howdy! <Howdy back atcha, Cathy!> A quick question - can a Devil's hand and a Sea Fan be close to each other? <alas no... no stinging animals (cnidarians- corals, anemones, gorgonians, etc) can touch at all. And most cannot be allowed to stay within close range (less than 10 inches) without responding to allelopathy in Tim> Right now, about 3" away, but if they grow, they may even touch. <they are too close even now... the leather in this case will likely kill the gorgonian after some months or a year or two> I can move the Devil's hand, but it is in a great spot, as is the sea fan, where the circulation is best for both. <alas... it is the difficulty in our home aquariums (space). The leather grows so fast and large in the 3 year picture, that it gets my vote to be moved> Thanks!-Cathy in Texas <>< <ciao, babe :) Antoine> |
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