Description
The yellow sea whip, Pterogorgia citrina, is a very hardy gorgonia found in the shallow waters of the Caribbean and Western Tropical Atlantic. It is an olive green to yellow color with lots of branches.It will do well in any reef tank, but is small enough for a nano tank. This is a fairly common, photosynthetic, shallow water gorgonia (octocoral) found throughout the Caribbean and Florida. The polyps are a light yellow to white color and will usually be extended during feeding and at night, giving the colony a fuzzy appearance. This is one of the hardier gorgonia available and would be a good starter gorgonia if you want to start keeping them in your reef tank. Most gorgonians like currents, so keep that in mind when placing them in your tank.
All of the gorgonians we sell have been kept successfully for many years in all kinds of reef aquariums and have passed the test for being suitable for marine aquaria. They are hardy, attractive, easy to care for, and will feed on must types of foods designed for plankton feeders. Because they are photosynthetic, they will derive much of their nutritional needs from the lighting in your aquarium, so they don’t require large amounts of supplemental food.All of our gorgonia will have some sort of base to them, which you can mount onto a rock with super glue or epoxy. I prefer to use epoxy because it is less likely to fall off after a few months, but gel super glue works too. Most gorgonians can be safely pruned if they get too big, and the cuttings will grow and survive if mounted on something stable. This particular gorgonian will actually develop new attachment holdfasts on branches that touch non-living things in your tank, so they are easy to prune and propagate.
We have started to also get frags from colonies in the ocean which means it is possible that you will get a gorgonian on a frag plug. It just depends where I went diving and what was available.
Nano: 2 to 3 inches
Medium: >3 to 6 inches
Large: >6 to 8 inches
The Yellow Sea Whip normally doesn’t grow as tall but grows wider and bushier than most other gorgonians. It is the reason why we have different sizes compared to the other gorgonians.
zrili472 (verified owner) –
Ordered a nano but received a nice chunky medium. It has a yellow base and the large fluffy white polyps make it look like one of the fancy NPS gorgs even though it’s a hardy photosynthetic one. By far my favorite new addition to my tank, very high quality especially for the price provided by KP.
gtw1993 –
This item was and extra they threw in for me and is actually one of my favorite gorgonians I have now. Looks a little different under my radions but came healthy and was fully opened the next day.
meli1997 (verified owner) –
Very pretty! I ordered a medium and KP upgraded it to a Large colony. A nice pale yellow with large white polyps. Full polyp extension after about a day and a half. Placed it high up in the center of my tank where it’s getting medium to high flow, which it seems to like. Love this sea whip. Thanks KP!
Zachary Thomas –
Received one of these FOR FREE as an extra with two other gorgs I ordered. Mine has a pale yellow color with purple fringes and it looks super bushy. Polyps are starting to peek out after 48 hours now and they’re a cream color. Honestly, it’s magnificent and it fit my scape perfectly. It was super generous for them to send this as a complimentary extra with my order.
bowmanbob (verified owner) –
Sea whip arrived in great condition? Larger that expected. Took a few day to extend its polyps but they are almost always out now. Great addition to any reef tank!
shornik (verified owner) –
This gorgonian is really nice with a light creamy/almond color and nice polyps. It arrived perfectly and once I placed them in my tank the polyps opened up pretty quickly. I’ve placed it pretty high up in my tank to get good light and it seems to be doing just fine.
jvcasuso (verified owner) –
Ordered a medium but got what I consider to be large. Must be over 7″ high and at least 6″ across. Really nice!
michael cullinan –
received a nice size piece polyps starting to open cant wait to see it fully extended.
Moses Taryanik –
Purchased one Yellow Sea Whip a while ago and it is still doing very well and has grown a lot! Its a beautiful Yellow/Green with white polyps. A+++++!
Gerald Jeffers –
its a year later have 8 now from one all doing great and what a yellow almost glows under atinic likes high flow
Gerald Jeffers –
bought one a year ago now there are 4 from fragging and broken tips that attached to the rock nice yellow thanks
Laurentia Djohan –
I was a bit hesitant to order this at first, but when I received it, it’s now one of my favorite gorg. in my tank. It has beautiful yellow/green branches full of white polyps. It’s great packaging, excellent communications, and beautiful gorg.
Rick Pawlak –
I purchased two of these gorgonias almost a year ago and they are doing extremely well. My reef now has several smaller sea whips growing after the broken tips of the parent attached themselves to the live rock and proceeded to grow. This has proven to be an extremely hardy octocoral for me and a valued addition to my reef.
Chris Newton –
This gorgo really brightened up my tank. It is a very pretty yellow with fairly large white polyps. This coral attaches itself to anything fairly rapidly and is very easily propagated. Its polyps are extended almost all the time and doesn’t seem very picky as far as placement. The order was expertly packaged and arrived in excellent shape.