www.reef2reef.com
Some gorgonians feed on zooplankton, some on phyto, and some possibly on both; with Blueberry Gorgonians, the water is a bit muddy.
Definitely leave the flow on and feed the plankton into the flow so that it blows into/beyond the coral; in some cases with filter feeders, trying to feed them directly by blowing the food onto them actually causes them stress, so it's typically better to feed indirectly by putting the food into the flow and just letting the food flow to them so they can catch it at their leisure.
So, given the feeding rates above (the last source I've linked below gives polyp counts for the colonies if you want a more specific number to work with for feeding rates), I'd assume that your gorg will probably basically eat as much food as you're willing to throw at it without crashing your tank.
link.springer.com
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Will they eat prepared foods at all? I do need to dose phosphates and I have some roids sitting around, or should I begin culturing artemia?Some gorgonians feed on zooplankton, some on phyto, and some possibly on both; with Blueberry Gorgonians, the water is a bit muddy.
To my knowledge, the common name Blueberry Gorgonian is used for both Acanthogorgia spp. (formerly known as Acalycigorgia spp.) and Guaiagorgia anas - I can't find any info on the feeding of G. anas, and I can only find info on the feeding of one Acanthogorgia sp.; A. vegae.
A. vegae feeds on zooplankton (it has been documented feeding on both rotifers and Artemia in lab settings), so I'd definitely recommend offering zooplankton, but I'd also personally suggest offering both zooplankton (preferably enriched/gut-loaded) and phyto just to be safe (I'd probably suggest a phyto blend, as there's no way of knowing at this point which if any phyto would be nutritious to the coral).
Definitely leave the flow on and feed the plankton into the flow so that it blows into/beyond the coral; in some cases with filter feeders, trying to feed them directly by blowing the food onto them actually causes them stress, so it's typically better to feed indirectly by putting the food into the flow and just letting the food flow to them so they can catch it at their leisure.
For A. vegae and a few other gorgonians, they found that it's optimal flow for feeding was ~8cm/second (though it was nearly optimal at 6-10cm/second; 8cm/second meaning that a neutrally buoyant object would float 8 centimeters through the water every second in the flow); the colonies they tested had 63 and 84 branches respectively (so they were relatively large colonies), but they ate ~1,200 to 1,400 Artemia in an hour. As far as I can tell, yours seems closer to ~1/3 to 1/2 the size, but assuming yours eats zooplankton and would have a relatively similar feeding rate, that'd mean that at an optimal feeding rate it would consume ~400 to 600 Artemia in an hour.
So, given the feeding rates above (the last source I've linked below gives polyp counts for the colonies if you want a more specific number to work with for feeding rates), I'd assume that your gorg will probably basically eat as much food as you're willing to throw at it without crashing your tank.
Sources:
Evidence for trophic niche partitioning among three temperate gorgonian octocorals - Coral Reefs
Trophic niche theory predicts that species in competition for a limiting resource will evolve adaptations allowing them to consume alternative resources and occupy new niche space. Trophic niche partitioning is often identified by differences in the morphology of feeding structures across...Multiscale flow between the branches and polyps of gorgonians
Gorgonians, including sea fans, are soft corals well known for their elaborate branching structure and how they sway in the ocean. This branching structure can modify environmental flows to be beneficial for feeding in a particular range of velocities ...
Ah, yeah, depending on the shop I could see those (or a number of other gorgs) being listed as Blueberries too. I can't find anything on their diet either, unfortunately, but they'll either eat zoo or phytoplankton.
I don't know - though if you have a powerful enough camera and some appropriately sized foods, I'd love to find out.
I'd probably suggest culturing some Artemia and/or rotifers, but, again, they may take appropriately sized prepared feeds.
There's very limited info available on most, and most of what's out there that I've seen deals primarily with chemicals produced by the gorgonians that may be of (typically) biomedical interest.
Is there a specific food radius they would take? I'm not sure if fully mature artemia will be too big for them, but I do have a culture of Tisbe pods that I can feed it with. Also, how often should I feed? I've heard from twice a week to twice a day, and I'm not exactly certain of a gorgonian's metabolism.
Found one that discusses both of these quotes (using the same species as above, Acanthogorgia vegae). Adult Artemia (at ~10,000 microns in size) are most likely way too big, yes - the study I found fed 24 hr post hatch Artemia nauplii (which, as far as I can tell would most likely put them at instar three or four), so they'd be ~800-1,000 microns.
This part I don't know. I know in the studies I've found that it took the colonies ~2 hours to eat their fill (though they continued very slowly snacking for the full 6 hours the food was offered), but I don't know how often they would really want to feed. I would guess daily would be good, but this is again something that if you have a powerful enough camera, I would love to find out, as you would be able to test and see when the colony starts taking food again in earnest.
Interesting. I'm going to try to culture rotifers and phytoplankton on top of 5ml of phyto - feast daily, and maybe attempting oyster feast and reef roids, as people seem to have good luck feeding those to gorgs. It'll probably be beneficial for me to maintain phytoplankton in my water self - sustainably if I can figure out how to do that.
I haven't looked into amino acids enough to know for sure at this point, so hopefully someone else will more input on that. The micronutrients are a fair concern; if the gorgonians accept prepared food, than that could probably compensate for any lacking micronutrients, but if not, then the aminos or some other additive may be beneficial.
Without knowing what's in it, I can't say for sure, but it might be worth a shot.
I see a lot of people feeding oyster eggs and fish eggs, will they eat boiled chicken yolks minced and dissolved? It's definitely not in most food catagories and I doubt it would work without a mucus net(which I don't think they have), but I haven't found anyone that ever tried it.
It's an interesting thought - as long as the particles are the right size and tough enough that they could capture them with their tentacles (not with a mucus net), then they might go for it.
I'm at around 25 ppm nitrates and no phosphates, nitrogenous should be fine. I've still got hungry mouths other than that guy.
I'll add it to the experiment list.
