Renilla sp. sea pansies

[brittlestar]

I just learned about the sea pansy, a tiny and beautiful sea pen from the east and gulf coasts of the US. It ranges from the upper mesophotic zone into the intertidal zone, is usually but not always said to be non photosynthetic, and can move around the sandbed like a plate coral. It has a beautiful and striking bioluminescent display when disturbed. It isn't really available in the hobby but I'm close enough to its native range that I could probably just go find one. Does anyone have any additional information or experience about keeping these? Like feeding, light, flow, parameters, propagation... I'm fascinated and I would love to add one to my NPS tank. They sound like they would probably be pretty adaptable.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I just learned about the sea pansy, a tiny and beautiful sea pen from the east and gulf coasts of the US. It ranges from the upper mesophotic zone into the intertidal zone, is usually but not always said to be non photosynthetic, and can move around the sandbed like a plate coral. It has a beautiful and striking bioluminescent display when disturbed. It isn't really available in the hobby but I'm close enough to its native range that I could probably just go find one. Does anyone have any additional information or experience about keeping these? Like feeding, light, flow, parameters, propagation... I'm fascinated and I would love to add one to my NPS tank. They sound like they would probably be pretty adaptable.

I tried some a few times, but they always just shrunk away on me in a few weeks. I obviously wasn’t able to feed them properly. This was ages ago, I was only feeding live baby brine and liquid invert food.

I got mine from Gulf Specimen Co, but I don’t think they sell to private individuals. Tampa Bay Saltwater might be able to get them for you.

Here is a page that has a link to a cool video about them:

https://gulfspecimen.org/product-category/cnidaria/soft-corals/