Sea plume gorgonian (Antillogorgia)

Care at a glance

This sea plume comes from the Caribbean and forms feathery, pinnately branched colonies, purple to beige or yellowish, that can grow more than two metres tall on the reef. No other gorgonian in the region gets that big. Until 2012 it was placed in the genus Pseudopterogorgia, and it is still often sold under that name. Its close relatives are almost impossible to tell apart from it by eye, so what is sold as acerosa may well be one of them.

It contains symbiotic algae and is not fussy about light, but flow matters: in a dead spot, hair algae and cyanobacteria settle on the branches, and that costs it tissue. Feeding fine plankton is not necessary, although it may grow faster for it. Propagation is easy: a clipped branch fixed in a plug usually just carries on growing.

Related species

• Purple sea plume gorgonianMuriceopsis flavida
• Red tree gorgonian (non-photosynthetic)Diodogorgia nodulifera
• Photosynthetic gorgonianPinnigorgia flava
• Fox coralNemenzophyllia turbida
• Acan echinataAcanthastrea echinata
• Long tentacle plate coralHeliofungia actiniformis