Where is gorgonian coral found?

The beautiful gorgonian corals (about 500 hundred species world-wide) include sea fans, sea whips, sea plumes, sea rods and precious red coral, and are mostly found near Bermuda, Florida and the West Indies. What kind of coral is a gorgonian?
Gorgonian are a type of coral that forms large, branching structures that can resemble a tree. They are found throughout the oceans of the world, especially in the tropics and subtropics. Gorgonians are also known as sea whips and sea fans and are similar to the sea pen, which is a soft coral.

What is the function of being stony coral?

As they grow, these reefs provide structural habitats for hundreds to thousands of different vertebrate and invertebrate species. The skeletons of stony corals are secreted by the lower portion of the polyp. This process produces a cup, or calyx, in which the polyp sits. Why Gorgonia is known as sea fan?
The skeleton is composed of calcite and gorgonion, a collagen-like compound. The calyces in which the polyps are embedded are in two rows along the branches. Many of the smaller branches are compressed in the plane of the fan, which distinguishes this species from the Venus sea fan (Gorgonia flabellum).

Do Gorgonians have Zooxanthellae?

Some gorgonians contain algae, or zooxanthellae. This symbiotic relationship assists in giving the gorgonian nutrition by photosynthesis. Gorgonians possessing zooxanthellae are usually characterized by brownish polyps. Do gorgonians like flow?

Photosynthetic gorgonians love light, so be sure to place them in an area of your tank where they will be under moderate to high lighting for several hours a day. … Many stores do not keep gorgonians in good light or flow so they tend to be unhealthy.

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Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)

Is sea whip a algae?

Sea Whip is also called Gorgonian Coral (Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae), a marine plant found in very salty water. … They are marine plants or animals such as seaweeds or algae living in forbidding pockets of the ocean.

How do you feed gorgonians?

What is the difference between hard coral and soft coral?

Hard corals are the primary reef-building corals. … Hard corals that form reefs are called hermatypic corals. Soft coral, also known as Alcyonacea and ahermatypic coral, do not produce a rigid calcium carbonate skeleton and do not form reefs, though they are present in a reef ecosystems.

Can coral be black?

Black corals are rarely black, but rather vary in color from white to red, green, yellow, or brown. They also range in shape from small bushes to bottle brushes to fans to single stalks. The black corals differ greatly from stony corals in terms of their skeletons.

Is brain coral hard or soft?

Are hard stony corals solitary?

While most species of stony coral grow on hard substrate and are solitary, some species such as Lophelia can form giant, branching structures.

Do all stony corals live on coral reefs?

Stony corals are closely related to sea anemones, and like them are armed with stinging cells known as cnidocytes. Corals reproduce both sexually and asexually. … Scleractinia.

Stony corals Temporal range:
CITES Appendix II (CITES)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria

Does coral have a skeleton?

Coral skeletons are made of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate. To grow up toward sunlight, corals construct a framework of aragonite crystals.

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Is Pennatula a coral?

Option C: Corals is an underwater ecosystem that consists of Cnidarians like Pennatula and Gorgonia. They belong to the class of Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria.

What is the other name of Gorgonia?

Gorgonia flabellum, also known as the Venus fan, Venus sea fan, common sea fan, West Indian sea fan, and purple gorgonian seafan, is a species of sea fan, a sessile colonial soft coral.

How do sea fans eat?

Feeding. Sea fans use their polyps to trap small food particles, such as phytoplankton and bacteria. The sea fan usually grows so that it is best oriented for the prevailing water current to flow over the polyps for food to be easily trapped.

What is the meaning of gorgonian?

: any of an order (Gorgonacea) of colonial often colorful anthozoan corals that have a stiff branching skeleton and include the sea whips and sea fans.

What do sea whips eat?

plankton Food: Suspension feeder; eats plankton. Breeding: Reproduces sexually by external fertilization. Planktonic larvae float for up to 20 days before settling on a hard surface.

Are Gorgonians aggressive?

Although most Gorgonians are non-aggressive, they still need to be separate from (i.e. completely not touching) other corals. Some Gorgonian corals, like the Encrusting Gorgonian, are actually aggressive and can extend sweeper-type tentacles — so keep in mind the temperament of the Gorgonian you choose.

Do Gorgonians sting?

Gorgonians of different species will usually sting each other if they touch, and even members of the same species will retract their polyps in places where they rub together. The sting of most gorgonians is quite weak, so they tend to lose coral wars with pretty much everything.

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How do you frag a purple gorgonian?

What is a pink sea whip?

Pink Sea Whip Coral. Gorgeous natural Sea Whip Coral (phylum Cnidaria) has a bright coral orange pink coloring and come in small bunches. Shapes, size, and coloring may vary. Size & Shape Range: SHORT represents a general shape style.

Is coral a reef?

A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. … They are most commonly found at shallow depths in tropical waters, but deep water and cold water coral reefs exist on smaller scales in other areas.

Is the Red Sea whip a plant?

Leptogorgia virgulata, commonly known as the sea whip or colorful sea whip, is a species of soft coral in the family Gorgoniidae. …

Leptogorgia virgulata
Family: Gorgoniidae
Genus: Leptogorgia
Species: L. virgulata
Binomial name

Should you dip Gorgonians?

No need to dip. If you want to be cautious – prepare a strong concentration of revive and just dip the base rock. From my recollection gorgonian specific parasites/predators are usually large and visible. Your biggest worry is algae growing over exposed tissue.

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