However, while such foods may be sufficient for a gorgonian with photosynthetic symbionts, they should not be solely relied upon to feed a gorgonian that lacks zooxanthellae. Personally, I consider any food captured in this way a treat for a non-photosynthetic gorgonian, and an effort to feed them directly seems important to the long-term survival of the animal. Most gorgonians will gladly capture rotifers, and if you happen to culture (e.g., see Moe 1997, or Wilkerson 2001) or buy live rotifers to feed your tank already, that will certainly help with keeping your gorgonian well-fed. Gorgonians with polyps as large as those of D. nodulifera are also likely to consume newly-hatched brine shrimp nauplii. It is important to keep in mind, however, that capture rates for relatively strong-swimming plankton (such as baby brine shrimp) are often much lower than for more easily captured prey (such as invertebrate eggs and larvae), and even a large-polyped gorgonian like D. nodulifera may have trouble capturing many baby brine shrimp unless you feed a lot of them. If you don't have access to these foods, there are a variety of artificial plankton foods, frozen and preserved Daphnia, frozen copepods, commercial invertebrate foods, and even finely ground fish foods that will probably help to keep the animal alive (see Toonen et al. 2002 for a comparison of the relative performance of some common phytoplankton products).