Terrible Advice Tuesday: The Newest Non-Photosynthetic Corals
Terrible Advice Tuesdays: Most soft corals including zoanthids and gorgonians depend almost exclusively on phytoplankton for their nutritional needs.
(In case you didn’t know, phytoplankton is one type of food that is commonly fed to corals)
The rest of the story: Where is the head-hanging-and-shaking-head emoticon when I need it? This advice couldn’t be farther from the truth. Zoanthids (a.k.a. zoas) and gorgonians are known for being easy keepers that don’t require supplemental feeding of phytoplankton.
Zoanthids are commonly kept in saltwater tanks and here’s what Julian Sprung, author and one of the most respected names in the saltwater aquarium industry has to say about them, “Zoanthus spp. do not need to be fed directly, since they obtain much of their nutritional requirements from their symbiotic zooxanthellae. They must therefore be provided with adequate illumination to thrive. ”
Julian continues to talk about Palythoa spp., commonly known as palys and often confused with zoas, “Protopalythoa spp. have symbiotic zooxanthellae and must be kept under moderate to strong illumination to thrive.” [source]
If either of these corals depended on phytoplankton for their nutritional needs, there would be no need to mention their lighting needs.
Note that there are a few types of non-photosynthetic zoas and these are not commonly kept in saltwater aquariums.
Moving onto gorgonians, non-photosynthetic gorgonians do exist which obviously need supplemental feeding. Photosynthetic gorgonians are common to the Caribbean and Julian explains that they get nearly all their nutritional needs from zooxanthellae and require little supplemental feeding, “When illuminated with sufficient light the Caribbean photosynthetic gorgonians do not require much feeding to grow in captivity…” [source] Again, if photosynthetic gorgonians depended on phytoplankton for their nutritional needs, there would be no need to mention their lighting needs.
Having kept several photosynthetic gorgonians in my tank as well as my client tanks, none of these corals were given supplemental food and they grew quite well.
If someone asserts that most gorgonians and zoas need to be fed to survive, feel free to share this article with them to set them straight. Of course, no need to waste your money on food for these corals.
Browse the Store! Questions?
I absolutely agree with all you and Julian Sprung say on both these relatively easy kept soft corals, my question is why are the golf ball gorgonians so difficult to keep than encrusting varieties Mark. The ones we get here is Aust. are hard to keep for an extended time. One that is like a carpet which I’ve kept was nearly bullet proof,(deep orange) while the green or yellow golf ball shaped one although will extend fully to a small soccer ball in size at first then after 3,4 months starts to get dead spots and gaps that get worse no matter how perfect the water parameters are.
i think you are thinking of goniapora which are generally regarded as more difficult
On the topic if photosynthic gorgonians, I have one that barely ever extends it polyps. I have it in moderate lighting and it is growing, it just looks so much cooler with the polyps extended. Any thoughts??? Thanks in advance.
Sorry *photosynthetic
Besides not having to feed, I find most gorgonians to be somewhat bullet proof. Even broken pieces can recover. And I’ve transfered some of the gorgonians in my tanks so many times. Almost always never acclimating, and they don’t even flinch.
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