Caring for sea fan

[ZeRoC00l]

Can anyone with experice in caring for sea fans pls share yr experiences?

Planning to get one... [actually getting tomorrow.... ]

Need to know more abt them, not much details on caring for them on the net.. [at least I can't/ dun know where to find them..]

Details like:

water temp?

water perimeters: NO2, NO3, trace elements?

feeding habits: Food?

Need / don't need light?

Others: +++

Thank you

[Achilles Tang]

Ahh... Gorgonians and Sea fans... I LOVE THEM! They are very common when you go diving.. and some of them can be even taller than you and can come in twirls!

In general, difficult to keep if you do not provide the right food for them. If not, then you will starve them to death.

Feeding: live plankton, live rotifers is best.

Substitutes: golden pearls of different micron sizes (eg. 20, 60, 80 and 100 microns) would be excellent or DTs. Bigger polyps may take pods or BBS or even crushed flakes (target feed)

Current: plenty needed for feeding, blowing away of 'shedded skin', prevention of algae growing on them. Place them perpendicular to the current.

Light: depends on whether you are getting photosynthetic or non-photosynthetic. Usually the colourful ones are non-photosynthetic, the brown with tan polyps are photosynthetic. Non-photo requires feeding of the appropriate foods or they will die quickly.

Fragging: easily fragged.

Note: Gorgonians are like soft corals... they produce some toxins which affect hard corals. Don't place them too close to any.

Check out this article on them.

I intend to keep a lot of gorgs and fans in my tank... and therefore am going through all the effort to provide live phytoplankton and rotifers for them.

[ZeRoC00l]

ARh..

what abt they're living temp?

you mentioned abt : "live phytoplankton and rotifers for them. "

Care to share where / how to get them or how to cultivate them?

And where/ how to get zooplankton / artificial plankton foods / phytoplankton?

The marine shops near my area [Katong] only has Kent Marine products, 1 for filter feeders, 1 for corals and a trace element bottle.

So which should i buy?

Thank you for sharing

[B|uEc@rpEt]

Hey AT...

Where can I find DT's?

R they avail in our LFS? Have yet to see them...

tks

[hongqixian]

Zero, I think your tank is a nano right? The current you need for a gorg will toss everything upside down and the powerhead will generate a lot of heat. Gorgs and not for nanos IMO

[ZeRoC00l]

Zero, I think your tank is a nano right? The current you need for a gorg will toss everything upside down and the powerhead will generate a lot of heat. Gorgs and not for nanos IMO

Nah, my tank is 2.5 feet, with DIY overflow.

Will be relocating and rearranging the tank layout +++ once my room is ready. So this is a temporary setup, just finishes cycling, gona doa water change soon.

Gona DIY / buy [whichever is cheaper] a MH. Already got a chiller in my storeroom. <_<

Back to the topic>>>>

I'm having mine directly infront of 2 outlets now, stuck it in the substrate. got this "skin" flaking..

Not really open yet.. is it ok? got it for abt 3 days plus already.

And what are their temp requirments?

Thanks

[Achilles Tang]

I guess cool water would be best... heh! Some of them are from deep water, esp the non-photos.

As for DTs, golden pearls.. you have to import from overseas.

You can get Instant Algae (frozen phytoplankton) from Reef World... but I bet that batch I bought 1 year ago is the same batch.... and probably have lost its nutritional value a long time ago.

They have to unfreeze the lot to scoop them into little 'chilli' cups (like when you buy chicken rice) to sell... and once unfrozen, they last only a couple of months.

I have Golden pearls and live plankton which will last me a very very very very long time... maybe I can sell some of it to you guys if you want. At least to help cover the cost and fund this site.

AT