Menella Sp. (Sea rod/whip) Discussion [Archive]

KeithM

26-02-08, 13:33

Have you tried this coral? What are your experiences with regards flow, feeding and water quality?

Have you managed to stabilise the coral? Are you experiencing growth? or have you experienced tissue recession?

I have only been keeping this species for a short period of time but I have found that they are fast growers and are able to repair tissue damage very quickly. They seem to be able to feed on a variety of particle sizes (about 50 to 800 microns), can take quite strong varied flow and seem to almost always have their polyps extended.

Photos taken from my tank thread:

7th Feburary - a couple days after I purchased this seafan:
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/UR096.jpg

The seafan had been at the shop for a little while and the tissue on the base had started to strip and polyps had receded 1.5cm from the base - classic signs of malnutrition. Unfortunately the photo is quite poor, I should have taken a close up photo of the based but never got round to it...

23rd Feburary - Just over 2 weeks later....
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/UR097.jpg

Coral has based out, polyps have regrown and branches are visibly thicker

I will report back and keep this thread updated on my experiences.

Please post your experiences

rich_tilbury

26-02-08, 15:12

I have one too, a rather large one! Approx 30cm across the fan. It is open most of the time. Had it for about three months. Seems to feed well, but I did notice some recession when I first got it. This has stopped, but I've not seen regrowth yet, although the polyps on the edges of the fan seem biggest and the branches seem fattest here. There are also nodular growth at the base of the branches - I'm not sure if this means that it is going to reticulate.

I have lots of plankton feeding fish, so give a mix of frozen rotifers, cyclops, cyclopeeze, coral frenzy and I'm dosing with FM UltraBAK and MIN.

3 - 4 cubes frozen a day plus 1 pinch of dry food mixed with water.

Tank is MM filtered. I run a skimmer rated for half the tank size, but it pulls out relatively little. Lots of pod life and is heaving with mysids at night, so I assume the plankton load is relatively high anyway.

PO4 low - need to measure again.
NO3 zero.

I have a three frags of purple gorgonia, two look bipinnate, but the other is more of a classic fan and that has grown about 8cm since I got it in about Sept/Oct. I suspect these are all photosynthetic though.

Will keep you updated on growth and status.

Swimmingwiththefishes

26-02-08, 19:45

Hi Keith
i've had mine for 6 months now and it seems to be doing well though the winged oysters that were on it died about a month ago.
It's grown but not loads.
It's open through out the night then closes for a few hours before lights on.
I took three cuttings a couple of days ago and all are looking well at the mo,as in polyps open 24/7 and no recession.
Took them cos i noticed a band of red algae on a bare area half was up a stem,though before that i had seen no recession.
Feed coral 3 times a week (increased to 4 since fragging) and feed frozen cyclops,baby brine or rotifers once a day.
The mother colony seems well but a bit early to see regrowth yet i think.
Tristan Lougher told me it was a Echinogorgia rather than a Menella and Fossa and Nilsen reckon it is too,what do you think?
Cheers Alan

Kreeger1

26-02-08, 21:32

I found it to be a quick grower as well
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e109/kreeger1/yellowpoly10-31-07.jpg
and my newer solid purple on purple mellena
http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e109/kreeger1/purplegorg.jpg
Erik

KeithM

26-02-08, 21:33

Great responses guys. Please post some photos too!

I find that I get a very good response with frozen and live rotifers with this coral.

Alan, unless something has changed with the classifications I'm almost 100% sure that the seafan I have is Menella sp. going by "Soft Corals and Sea Fans" - Fabricius & Alderslade. Echinogorgia sp. looks more rigid and the branches grow tighter. I think the purple seafan sold by fishman is an Echinogorgia sp.

Do you have a photo of your Echinogorgia sp?

KeithM

26-02-08, 21:52

Erik, Welcome to UR! Good to have you here :)

Heres a macro I took a few minutes ago
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/UR106.jpg

Stottlemire

27-02-08, 01:15

Nice ,

I have a couple of Menellas in my NPS tank. They are now a year and almost three months now. By the way, how are you Keith?

Chuck

AhmedLFC

27-02-08, 02:51

I have recently been advised to try marine snow with regards to sea fans, esp the blue sea fan. Anyone have experience of using this?

Thanks
Ahmed

Jens Kallmeyer

27-02-08, 08:34

HI

I had them in two of my previous tanks. They seem to be among the easiest azoo seafans. One I had in the US looked great for some time, then it stopped to open fully, there was always one patch which was closed. This patch moved around, so I took the coral out of the tank and examined every single branch.....and bingo! There was a tiny slug, much like a flamingo tongue, but much smaller. It was bright red with yellow spots, perfectly camouflaged. After I removed the slug the whole coral was open within a day. The slug went into its final place of residency, a vial with formalin. Unfortunately the vial got lost when I moved from the US back to Germany.

Jens

KeithM

27-02-08, 13:33

Hi Chuck, I'm fine thanks! Have you tried fragging any of your Menellas?

Hi Ahmed, I have not tried 'marine snow'. I have been using a paste mix of FM ultraseafan, ultraminF and UltraminS. I also feed a lot of other foods but i think that paste would be enough to sustain Menella seafans. I also get a good response with frozen rotifers and cyclops.

Hi Jens, did you manage to get a photo of the slug? What did you feed your seafans? is it the same frozen test tube mix?

AhmedLFC

27-02-08, 14:25

Thanks Keith,

Yes i see a major response in the fans when feeding the fish, i think this can be attributed to the fish mix im making for them which contains

Rotifers, Cyclops, lobster eggs, oyster eggs, baby brine, mysis.

It seems to drive everything mad, its almost as if they are reaching out to grab stuff. I have moved the blue fan to a higher flow spot and found it slowly seems to be looking healthier. But as you say, i gather they are nearly impossible to keep.

HTH
Ahmed

Stottlemire

28-02-08, 03:26

HI Keith,

Yes the Menella do frag well. The picture of the yellow one Kreeger has is from my colony.

Chuck

Jens Kallmeyer

28-02-08, 09:11

HI Keith

I fed a mix of UltraMin S and F, plus UltraClam and a whole bunch of fine frozen foods, all mixed into UltraPac. The slime was then frozen in 15 ml Test tubes with a hole in the bottom, over the course of one to two hours the stuff thawed and dripped into the tank.
I fed two tubes per day, one in the morning before I went to work, one before I went to bed.

As far as I can remember I did not take a picture of the slug, but let me check the old images on my laptop.

Jens

rich_tilbury

03-03-08, 13:27

Here goes; a couple of pics of the gorgonia. The fish in the foreground is a pretty much fully grown Andaman Damsel for size comparison!

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/gorg1.jpg
The second picture is a closeup showing where the branches appear to form nodules. Not sure if this species forms a reticulate structure.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/gorg3.jpg

Shultz

03-03-08, 13:47

Thats a fine specimein Rich!

Shelton.

rich_tilbury

03-03-08, 14:51

Thanks Shelton, hopefully I won't kill it! I feed a lot of small food stuffs in many feeds over the day and it is generally open most of the time - although today it is sulking! (I work from home, so who needs automation! :p)

If you get Ultramarine magazine the very same gorgonia was featured in the write up of a non-sponsor shop in Great Portland St, London! (Nov/Dec issue I think) I bought it from the shop having read in the Coral Magazine on Gorgonia that they were one of the easier to keep and I'd been keeping an eye open for one for a while. I was quite surprised to see its portrait a few days later when the magazine arrived!

KeithM

03-03-08, 14:59

Fantastic specimen Rich. I have only see small colonies in the shops.

I also have those nodules growing on my seafan. I am not sure what they are...at first I thought they might be small clam like animals that attached themselves onto the seafan and got over grown...but I'm not so sure now.

rich_tilbury

03-03-08, 15:27

Hi Keith
Thanks! AAccording to Mabu it was a part exchange as it had outgrown the tank it had been in and the previous owner swapped it for smaller things! It was in the shop a few weeks before I bought it. I was surprised it didn't get snapped up!

I've got a fairly large system, but I'll be happy if it tries to outgrow mine! :)

KeithM

03-03-08, 15:59

Looks like its ready for fragging ;)

rich_tilbury

03-03-08, 23:30

I'll frag when it touches both sides! :p

Swimmingwiththefishes

04-03-08, 00:52

Mine is fully healed after fragging it last week,all 3 frags look well.
After looking at old pics of it i'd say it's grown about 30% in the last 6 months.
This was taken at Christmas not very good pic,will take some more soon.
http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/Christmas 2007 091 (Large).jpg
I think the nodules are barnacles,or at least they are on mine,the winged oysters don't attatch like that.
Cheers Alan

rich_tilbury

09-03-08, 12:24

I reported some recession at the base of mine when it was added to the tank. I'd like to report that I noticed yesterday that the gorg seems to be regrowing at the base now! :)

KeithM

10-03-08, 14:15

Great news Rich!

By all reports Menella sp. seems like the most suitable candidate for any new azoox coral keepers. I think it is also most likely to do well in a mixed reef situation. I am sure it won't be long until we are swapping Menella sp. frags as commonly as reefers swap SPS frags ;)

I'm looking to get my hands on a purple Menella! Kreeger's specimen is beautiful

rich_tilbury

10-03-08, 14:35

It is good to have something positive to say on Gorgs for a change. He he I was thinking the same re buying a purple next! :)

Swimmingwiththefishes

10-03-08, 14:36

It is good to have something positive to say on Gorgs for a change. He he I was thinking the same re buying a purple next! :)

Me too!:)

stevelup

07-07-08, 10:15

Hi folks.

I picked one of these up at the weekend.

I didn't notice until this morning that there are about half a dozen brittle starfish on it. One of them was bright yellow which suggests it may have ingested some of the polyps.

Any advice? I'll post photo's this evening.

Regards,

Steve

Peculiar_Clown

07-07-08, 13:14

It may be that it's yellow to 'blend' in with the Gorg as camouflage, it may not be a pest in that respect. Maybe sump him if you're worried about it, or I'll have it :teehee:

KeithM

07-07-08, 13:20

I try to remove all brittle starts from my seafans. IMO, they irritate the polyps, steal food from them and can cause them to remain closed

stevelup

07-07-08, 13:26

Any hints on how to remove them? Toothpick perhaps - they are very tiny at the moment (legs about 4mm long)

Thanks,

Steve

KeithM

07-07-08, 13:28

I used tweasers - occationally I would end up just pulling legs off but you get there eventually

Cranners

07-07-08, 13:39

Cranners

07-07-08, 13:50

Menella species are the ones to look out for if you were starting with these gorgonians eh?

I do like these and I have been keeping photosynthetic gorgs quite well along with litophyton - they are quite easy but it is practise for feeding regimes as they all take suspended foods ready for progressing onto the other hardy to keep corals

J

stevelup

07-07-08, 21:04

Hi

Some shots of my new addition. My tank thread is here (http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/showthread.php?t=196378).

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1033.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1034.jpg http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1035.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1054.jpg http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1052.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1054.jpg http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1056.jpg

http://www.ultimatereef.net/uploader/2008Q1/IMG_1058.jpg