Carmine Sea Spray

About

Carmine Sea Spray (Leptogorgia chilensis) is a gorgonian coral native to the eastern Pacific coastline of the United States and Canada, making it something of an outlier in the reef hobby. Most gorgonians kept by hobbyists hail from the Caribbean or Indo-Pacific. In the wild it grows in cool, subtropical waters, anchoring itself to hard substrate and extending its branching, fan-like colony into strong currents to filter-feed. The coloration that earns it names like red gorgonian and violet sea whip ranges from deep carmine to purplish-red, with tiny polyps lining the branches. Because it comes from cooler, high-flow environments, replicating those conditions in captivity is the main challenge. It is considered reef safe and poses no threat to corals or fish sharing its space, but getting flow and nutrition right tends to separate success from failure with this species. Keepers who do well with it typically run strong, varied flow patterns and provide regular feedings of fine particulate foods since, like all gorgonians, it relies on capturing suspended matter rather than photosynthesis. It is best suited to intermediate-level keepers who already have some experience with non-photosynthetic or flow-dependent invertebrates.