Melting Gorgonian?

shorse · Feb 20, 2025

Hello all! Normally just a lurker but having a bit of issues with one particular gorgonian. The flesh/polyps appear to be melting from the bottom up. I have a variety of gorgonians in this tank, but only this one is giving me issues or showing signs. I had one other gorgonian go through a successful molt/shed a few weeks ago, and this is definitely not that. Pictures of melting gorgonian, and healthy ones, are below.

Water params seem fine (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5-10ppm nitrates, 8.0-8.2 pH). I feed phytoplankton daily and Kent Marine MicroVert weekly. This particular gorgonian has been in the tank for a little over a month, I believe. Only other corals in the tank are a finger leather, two Duncan's, some mushrooms, and GSPs. I have a variety of macro algae, a sponge, one clown, one diamond goby, and six seahorses. Everything seems to be doing excellently except this gorgonian.

Also my first post here, sorry for any issues!!

danieyella · Feb 20, 2025

I have a few random patches on mine that have done this as well, they usually grow back over the area with time. I've found it seems to happen if they get knocked and touch something longer term.

shorse · Feb 20, 2025

Fingers crossed that is all it is! Definitely got moved around several times while settling into it's current spot, and being held onto all day be the horses no doubt shifts it at times. Thank you very much for your reply!

BryanM · Feb 20, 2025

I have also had bare spots on my gorgonian which healed nicely over about two weeks.

Tank looks good!

shorse · Feb 21, 2025

BryanM said:
I have also had bare spots on my gorgonian which healed nicely over about two weeks.

Tank looks good!

Phew, thank goodness. Didn't want to lose anything!

And thank you so much!!

bubble.of.zen · Sep 4, 2025

Did your gorgonian recover?

shorse · Sep 4, 2025

It did! Made a full recovery. I really thought I was going to lose it for a while. It got a LOT worse. One portion of the skeleton lost all flesh and polyps. I split off the good parts, and left the bad part in the tank just to see what it would do, and the flesh wound up growing back. All pieces of the gorgonian are doing very well and expanding!