Few Questions on New Coral?

[fishman1234]

So I went to Saltwater Paradise on friday and I was definatly there after the robbery happened. Joe and his wife were there and I was either looking for a anemone or something else to hostmy clowns in. Joe suggested a Goniopora/Flower Pot Coral since he did not have to much in the anemone section. The clowns I have are ocellerious(probly didnt spell that right) and he has those in his big display tank. And the one sits in his goniopora so I gave it a shot. The clowns arent in it yet but they have been looking. Ive looked online and I see they are a hard coral to care for. Some say you should feed them and others say just let them be. Which one is it? Anyone else have any other experience with them?:rollface:

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

To date I've not been able to keep any Goni alive more than a year. Good luck!

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

Some success has been seen more recently on keeping them alive.
Though it's been a popular yet still avoided coral for many people for years.
many don't live past a year or a little more. But hence the lower price on "some" of them. Depending on specific species. A darker beige/green to even the "nucear green" color forms have been the common specimens of the past.. & you still find them.

Much wasn't known and there is more to still find out about them. They are an LPS coral.. sort of. They do have larger polyps typical to LPS. But many have really been found to be closer related to SPS corals. Not that either of those terms is really descriptive of the specific species of goniopora.
It's best to research specific species and not hobby term .

Some prefer mostly light (like the popular species of red goniopora in recent years that have had success being kept.) They seem to like "cleaner" water and very bright light. Much like SPS. It mostly uses light. Feeding only from water column a little and not direct feeding.

Yet Others like many of the green and brown gonioporas have been thought to be from more turbid lagoon like waters with high nutrients. Liking to be fed more. Oyster eggs have been popular food some people try on them. The difficulty is that so many different Goniopora species have different size polyp mouths. It's really been hard to gauge what food was too big or small. (regardless how small it looks to you) Some are thought to even feed on microscopic bacteria. Using a food that may not be correct can just dirty your tank /ad to waste unless something else eats it. Something I think a lot of people did with some suspension foods before that did no good at all.

You could also try "Gonio-power" (a food) created by Justin Credible and marketed by Julian Sprungs- 2 little fishies corp. (PIC included in attach)

Justin (Grable), who actually goes by his industry name- Justin Credible, has studied and aqua cultured many different species of goniopora.
Here are some good links on Goniopora:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2

http://archiv.korallenriff.de/Sindelfingen2006/Germany-neu2.pdf

Clown fish look cool hosting in Goniopora, as they will sometimes do. But it is of course not an anemone.. and a coral that possibly could become irritated by hosting clowns.. which it is not known for sure. But the behavior "possibly" can disrupt the corals habits from time to time and "could" be a cause in exceleration of decline and death rate. To Gonia's kept with fish hosts.

Bottom line: Research the specific species of Goniopora you have. Try to find out what you purchased because they are all so different. I think further in the future we will have more hobbyists having better luck with these species once we know how to better care for them. There has been "some" good amount of improvement in them in the last few years. Some species are hardier than others for sure. The standard common green/brown ones have typically been harder to keep up til this point. There is more work to do in the hobby on "What type of system to keep", as in maintenance and equipment.. & what you put in it.. to be able to understand better what specific species of goniopora requirements need. To see whether it can be accomplished for some with greater success or not. It's hard duplicating the ocean for some sensitive and complicated species. But sometimes, we get better at it. Mr. Credibel has given many of us a closer look.. and possibilities of more to come...

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

I suppose I should look but I believe the are very close to a Porites. The alveopora helped get me into this hobby; I found it didn't seem to care for my clownfish's attention. I plan to give one of the aquaculture varieties a try when things get going.

 

[tmz]

They are not close to sps or porities. I'm not even sure what close to means . They certainly don't resemble one another or live in proximity or need the same conditions.

They die without special care and feeding and even then they are difficult . They last a year or less in almost all cases. They are prone to brown jelly infections which can spread to other corals They have powerful long( up to 12 inch) stinger tentacles too.
I now keep 2 of the encrusting smaller polyped variety which thrive on the bacteria plankton and other plankton in my tank and have for several years as well as other small plankton .But a goniopora stoleski like the one you have would die there, I think; they almost always do.
Clowns may go in them but that will likely cause them to die sooner from tissue damage , infection or just staying closed from irritation or the clown may be stung or both.

They are a quick seller to novice aquarists because they are eye catching and desireable . I tried twice back then on bad advice .
They need advanced care which even very well seasoned aquarists have difficulty providing. I don't think they should be sold as readily as they are in some retail shops but researching specimens before buying them is in the end the buyer's responsibility. In any case , I do wish you good luck with it. Enjoy it.It is a fascinating amimal.

Borneman in" Aquarium Corals", pg 240 notes:

" Goniopora have a long history of failing to survive in aquariums, often going into slow demise for no apparent reason.... frequently thrive for up to a year before declining...they gradually fail to expand their tentacles and eventually etiher wast away or "shut down"..Often brown jelly infections occur which destroy all the corals living tissue.. almost half the food taken in by Goniopora is phyto plankton with the rest very small zoplankton. These prey items are in very short supply in the typical aqaurium....."

 

[NirvanaFan]

Tom, have you ever tried spot feeding your goniorpora rotifers?

 

[GMaquarium]

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0RmmYKvGJB8

 

[DEEP BLUE SIX]

Currently Goniopora "are" in the family Poritidae...(which includes Porites)
There are 25+ species of Goniopora. "Some" of them do prefer conditions like many sps corals for "care" in the aquarium.

Some require much more feeding than others. Some like the stokesi are from turbid waters that are richer in nutrients. Fishman's Goni is most likely a stokesi or close.. It will require feedings. Lots of them. It is very hard to keep
for an average hobbyist. (most systems/people) But not neccessarily impossible for some.. given the right conditions. (though very hard to provide and duplicate in aquariums given the needs of other inhabitants as well)

Goniopora: Their skeletons are very similar to the 14+ species of Porites. They share some things in common. As well as their reef building structure. They share the same porous skeleton forms and growth structures (encrusting, branching, massive, lobed, or plating) in the same fashion, not quite like any other corals. Porites do not have the elongated polyps like Goniopora. But they are much alike in many other aspects. Including sharing some of the same reef habitation areas. Thus some having very similar diets as well as light needs. Some prefering high intensity light. Yet others tolerating lower light in deeper lagoons. (Which all led to them being placed in the same family as Porites)

Cool video G:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RmmYKvGJB8
(The old Justin Credible band)

 

[tent boy]

G, that was quite the video.

 

[GMaquarium]

It's very educational and catchy. Now it's stuck in my head.

 

[tmz]

Taxonomy is a method of classification based on the taxonomists perception of smiilarity in one or more characteristics ;often in skeletal structure as related to corals.

Gonipora ,Porites , Stylarae and Portipora are lumped together in the family Portidae. This may or may not imply some ancient evolutionary link.It implies no closeness in terms of needs of the animal,it's habitat or survivability in an aquarium or suitability as a clown fish host which was the original question.
The taxonomy is irrelevant to the needs of the animal. It's a pedantic detour that can easily confuse the the point.

In the case of the family Poritidae ,estabished in 1842 btw, any implied relationship or "closeness" is even more dubious than in most taxonomical families as that family is a hodgepodge.

Vernon in Corals of the World notes:

Porites and Goniopora are very different but are related by their patterns of septal fusion...Family Poritidae ,is esentially a heterogeneous assembly of distantly related genera.."

The coral Fishman purchased is pretty clearly a clam water, free living species from turbid calm waters,probably a Goniopora stoleski and likely highly heterotrophic( needing lots of food). It has nothing in common with porities in any practical sense .

 

[tmz]

Tom, have you ever tried spot feeding your goniorpora rotifers?

?

No , I haven't with the ones smaller polyped ones I have now . I did try lots of different phyto and zooplankton concoctions with the ones I had years ago though . There is usually a good amount of plankton in the water though. I think these species like the bacteria from organic carbon dosing.

This one has been in my tank for nearly 3.5 years and does very well. Even though it has relatively short polyps it puts out tentacles about 4 to 5 inches long at night:

 

[NirvanaFan]

I've never tried a goniopora before because of their poor track record in our aquariums.

Bacterial feeding makes sense. I remember reading a while back that they feed on different sized small zooplankton. Rotifers are small, gut-loadable, and easy to grow/harvest. I'd be curios if they would be eaten. Spot feeding them rotifers wouldn't totally sustain a goniopora, but maybe it would give them the boost to at least survive in captivity.

 

[tmz]

It could be a nice way to meet some of their heterotrophic needs.. Praticularly , in your case since you keep rotifer cultures running for the clown fry. I just don't do alot of target feeding for anything; I'm lazy about it. I count on the microfuana in the tank along with braodcast feeding mysis, brine , bloodworm and cycloppeze along with some spirulina flake.

 

[AmherstReef]

I have a pink goniopora , had it for over two years, took a good year before I found a place where it's happy. No special feeding yet its doubled in size over the past year. Here's a few pics , six months ago and today

 

[tmz]

Hi Chris the other one I have is a pink with moderately sized polyps. I've only had that one for a few months but it's doing well so far.

 

[fishman1234]

Well got good news and bad news! My black clowns are hosting the Goniopora. I was wondering why the coral was closed for 2 days when the halides werent on but now I know and it seems like the coral has gotten used to the clowns. BAD NEWS IS I had 2 pairs of ocellaris ORANGE AND BLACK and the one black one was getting territorial twords the orange ones and about a week ago I found one orange clown dead!........Not in the tank BTW. IT JUMPED INTO A BUCKET OF R/O water! If only that bucket was filled with saltwater and not fresh! Also let this be a lesson to all! Bullying leads to suicide!!!!!!!!!!! Now I have one lonely orange guy looking to provide E_rock with it because of his clownfish death. Only if I can catch him that is!

 

[MarkKlier]

Lots of good info in this thread...
I had green and pink GP for years. The pink can be very hardy I had that for about 8 years. The green I finally gave away after about 5years because it was stinging my other coral. It does depend on the specific strains some are much hardier then others. I have never seen the real bright metalic green ones do well for any length of time
I love SWP and Joe but I donot think GP is good for clown fish. Clowns are too rough on the GP, and the GP go in at night. Clowns love to sleep in their anemone.
Also tricky keeping two pair of clowns together. I do in a 220 but have one rose on one side of the tank that is hosted, and the other on the opposite side of the tank.

Good luck, keep learning...
MK

 

[saltyscotsman]

Hi mine is still alive after 6 months but is starting to die back it is green and I bought it at SWP also

 

[Flanders]

The most basic rule of keeping clownfish is one pair to a tank.