Encrusting goniopora care

[reeftoronto]

Hello!

I'm trying to find information on encrusting/short polyp goniopora care. There seems to be a lot of info on regular goniopora care (most of which boils down to "stay away") but I've been told that the encrusting type is much easier to keep. Has anyone had success with the encrusting types? What lighting requirements/conditions do they need and do they need regular feedings? Any other tips?

Thanks!

 

[homer1475]

I've had mine for about 2 years now. Never have fed it a thing other then what it catches when I broadcast feed.

Started out as a frag about the size of a nickel, its now encrusting to the size of a dollar.

I'll see if I can get a couple pics up for you.

This is when I bought it:

And recently in my tank 2 years later(still 6 months old pic it has since doubled in size from this):

 

[homer1475]

Forgot to mention, I've broken it up a couple times from moving it too. First move was a new tank, lost about half the encrusting since I did not reuse the rocks from the old tank. Second move was from trying to clean up the massive GHA I have going on, and lost about a quarter size piece that was encrusted on a the rock I peroxide dipped.

For me it likes it higher in my tank lit by 6 T5's setup, and decent flow, but not so much it's getting blown around. I have it directly in the flow path of PP8 that bursts at 100% every 30 seconds. Quick blast, then gently swaying.

 

[reeftoronto]

homer, thanks for the reply & pics! Nice to know someone's had success keeping them for more than a few months. It seems to be a slow grower though.

 

[homer1475]

Actually it's a pretty fast grower compared to say an acan.

Between being broken up a couple times, and algae creeping in and strangling some of it out, its easily tripled in size in the 2 years I've had it(the few pieces I was able to save I sold as frags to my LFS).

 

[KarenLR75]

homer, thanks for the reply & pics! Nice to know someone's had success keeping them for more than a few months. It seems to be a slow grower though.

I'm glad to hear it too as you'd think that I'd learned my lesson when I brought home an Elegance coral as my 'first coral'...and that I'd ask my LFS very detailed and direct questions before I bought ANY MORE CORAL...

But noooo, I obviously love doing things the HARD way. Went to LFS tonight, they had a sale on certain corals (and my feeble brain didn't even yell 'TRAP!')...and am now the dubious owner of an encrusting goniopora which I have read more time than I care to think in my google search results....is a VERY VERY VERY difficult coral to care for/grow/etc.

Sigh....