A couple questions - keeping Gorgonia

[goodgreef]

Does anyone keep Gorgonia. I have a few that are not doing very well. What water conditions needed? What to feed them? Lighting?

Mine are currently in a SPS tank. The SPS are happy and growing but the Gorgonias are not.

On Ick, can you get Ick by feeding frozen Brine shrimps? My tank has been Ick free for a long time and I have not fed frozen Brine shrimps for the same period. I am afraid to introduce this monster into the tank by feeding frozen Brine shrimp. Do the cysts die when they are frozen? I just can't bear to go through another Ick episode in my tank.

Thanks

[dougc]

The best gorgonian candidates are the photosynthetic ones. The basic rule is that if it has brown or tan polyps, it is photosynthetic. Anything with brightly colored polyps is not. Typically, gorgonians with thicker branches and bigger polyps will do better than thin ones.

I have a Muricea elongata gorgonian that grows like a weed. I had a purple frilly thin-branched gorgonian, Pseudopterogorgia bipinnata, which was photosynthetic but still did not do well.

Some people keep the non-photosynthetic ones, but they must be fed. Maybe the new DTs oyster eggs will make this easier, since they may be the first food that is the right size and is attractive to corals and other small-polyped predators. Too soon to tell.