Here, I have only seen Leptogorina virgulata in three color forms: yellow,
red and purple.  The bright orange, thicker and less branched soft coral we
see is Titandeum frauendeldii.
Wendell K. Patton (1972) Studies on the animal symbionts of the gorgonian
coral, L. virgulata (Bul Mar Sci vol 22 no 2) had problems because the
coral would start to decompose and fowl the water.  He did a similar
experiment which lasted 3 months and showed a change in shell color.  If
you don't have this paper let me know and I can send you a xerox.
Amy
 
>I recently posed this question to Dr. Gary Rosenberg at the Academy of Natural
>Sciences, but I would like to draw on the knowledge of this group...I will do
>my best to give the "Cliff Notes" version of the delimma...
>
> I recently returned from studying at the Duke University Marine Lab in which
>I began a bit of solo research on the relationship between the sea whip
>(Leptogorina virgulata) and the commensal snail, Simnialena uniplicata
>(Sowerby, 1848).  I have found very little written on either organism (I have
>done abstract & journal searches, etc) and am in need of further information.
>I performed a series of experiments in which I placed the snails from one
>color sea whip onto another color.  I did this with 25 Simnialena from a whip
>with orange color and 25 from a yellow variant.  I also had a control group of
>25 which I removed from their original Leptogorina and replaced on the same
>stalks.  Within 12 hours (actually less) the snails that had been placed on
>the different colored Leptogorina had died while the control group were still
>thriving.  Every effort was made to keep conditions exact.
>If anyone has any knowledge or thoughts to share, please do...
>
>Cheers,
>Brian S. Rayburn
 
 
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