flower pot coral.... impossible?

[CHSUB]

Love goniopora, kinda addicted to them lol. I have many of them. They do well for me, problem is I don't know why or how to pinpoint helping others with theirs. They're in 2 different systems, one's a macroalgae dominated tank with very high nutrients and unstable alk/cal levels, the other's an SPS/LPS tank with low nutrients, rock steady alk/cal. Both are temperature controlled by an Apex and temp varies in either system less than 1 degree from day to night. I don't feed either tank any small filter food. I have observed the ORA red goni eating mysis shrimp though on occasion.

My oldest is an ORA red goniopora, this January I'll have had it for 3 years. Even with fragging off about 8 frags the size ORA sells this past year, its still 4x the size it was when I got it.

Others I've had ~2 years are a green with purple/blue tips, a standard green, and a gold:

Others I have that are new (less than 1 year):

Pink

Neon green

Pale green alveopora

Baby green goni buds, starting small!

Also have a blue one not pictured

i have heard that the ORA red goni's are better, and also read an article a few years ago about someone keeping wild goni's alive for 5+ years. however, it involved dumping mass amounts of various micro-foods in the tank: stuff like blood and urchin roe. maybe it feeds on ick? i think ick would be about the right size for goni's to eat....

i have seen offspring before too..but it happened before the first year and later it died, but i wish you continued success...

 

[accordsirh22]

i wasn't "flaming" you. in fact, i agree with trying to keep difficult aminals with the idea of future success. i was writing more about the irony of some reef animals invoking visceral dietribe while others are forgetten. an example would be the sohal tang, make a thread about one and every reef central expert will scold you for even thing about one, but get a coral with nearly a 100% failure record and barely anybody comments? quite ironic?

gotcha, hope mine didnt come across to flamey either lol. i dont check the tang forums at all lol

 

[mordibv]

I have a purple goni sold to me as a aquacultured frag from a LFS order via Route 66 in the summer 2011 . It was barely covering a square tile plug . It is one of the few corals that survived that bad snowstorm in Oct 2011 in the NE coast . It is now larger than a golf ball when not extended .

It is the frag on the 4 row from the left rear .That is when I got it .

This morning ,,,

 

[letter2no]

this is mine....

 

[cap032]

I had a neon green goniopora that grew large pretty quickly. It was truly beautiful. Then, a few weeks after the one year mark.........it retracted (for the first time) and was dead within a few days. I really liked that coral though, so perhaps, one day I will try again.

 

[CHSUB]

I had a neon green goniopora that grew large pretty quickly. It was truly beautiful. Then, a few weeks after the one year mark.........it retracted (for the first time) and was dead within a few days. I really liked that coral though, so perhaps, one day I will try again.

unfortunately this is the case nearly 100% of the time. many folks talk about success and a speciman that is growing larger, only to find the coral takes the typical path of demise. i have read about success, but it involved an approach that was similar to keeping NPS corals.

 

[tektite]

Define 'success' then...if a coral is doing well, including growing? Goni's are sensitive, even if you have one that's doing good and growing if something changes in your tank they can easily die off. I've had multiple goni's for 2 years now, growing, I consider that a success.

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

i love flower pot corals, great information!
anyone know the link to ora?

 

[CHSUB]

quote from Eric Borneman's book Corals; "For currently unknown reasons, Goniopora have a long history of failing to survive in the aquarium, often going into a slow demise for no apparent reason. The novice aquarist often buys a Goniopora coral and then boasts of its "long-term" survival after 6 months. However, Goniopora frequently thrive for up to a year or more before declining."


i bought my first goni about 12 years ago in early 2000's, and i found this to be the case 100% of the time, through frequent failures by myself and others. although i have never tried an ORA goni, but i was told they use mass feeding like i alluded to earlier.

 

[CHSUB]

Define 'success' then...if a coral is doing well, including growing? Goni's are sensitive, even if you have one that's doing good and growing if something changes in your tank they can easily die off. I've had multiple goni's for 2 years now, growing, I consider that a success.

i would define success as being able to define how you have had success and then others duplicating that success. your "success" reminds me of cold fusion...

 

[tektite]

So I have kept multiple healthy goniopora for 2 years, they're growing for me, but because I can't point to specific "that's it!" easy factors that help me do that I'm not successful??? I've got plenty of dated pictures, frags from my goni's are growing in other's tanks, not cold fusion! I keep care of my tanks, they're my babies, so I can't point to one thing that will help.

If you want advice, do this:
Non-zero nutrients - keep some nitrate and phosphate
Alkalinity and calcium stability - dose so they remain constant
Use a good salt mix for reefs, and dosing to keep levels good/constant for stony corals - especially good magnesium (never under 1300 for LPS)
0 TDS RO/DI source water (measured with a calibrated TDS meter, not assumed by color changing DI resin)
Salinity not under 1.025 - measure using a calibrated refractometer, I've seen brand new refractometers measure off 0.006 (HUGE error), good brand too!
Frequent small waterchanges
Minimize aleopathy (coral warfare), keep competing corals away from gonis, run carbon
Temperature stability - my tanks vary less than 1 degree ever
Salinity stability - use an ATO
Underskimming is much better than overskimming
Keep under good lighting

Do that, you won't have problems keeping LPS corals! I would LOVE for people to emulate me and do that all the time, problem is a lot of people don't want to put the work and money into doing so. Don't do the minimum to keep things "alive", go the extra mile and get things to thrive!

 

[barjam]

The red Ora one has been indestructible for me in my bb sps tank.

It doesn't grow but it hasn't died in the three years I have owned it. Sort of weird.

 

[Drew707]

Unman iv had my green 1 for 8 months and its fine I never feed him and he like moderate to heavy flow ...I must have a weird 1 lol

 

[PincheReefTank]

this guy seems to know a thing or two about the goni

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

Believe it or not some thrive in neglected, med flow, under skimmed, over fed tanks

 

[LeLutinBanni]

I think it's possible

October 3

December 29

 

[CHSUB]

any goni's still kicking?

 

[tektite]

All my goniopora but the little buds are still doing good, even fragged my ORA one again. The buds I put in an area of too low flow and they didn't like it.

 

[CHSUB]

All my goniopora but the little buds are still doing good, even fragged my ORA one again. The buds I put in an area of too low flow and they didn't like it.

there are exceptions to every rule...and you seem to be the exception!!! continued success. :beer:

 

[NeilFox]

I love Goni's. I haven't had long term success either. There are a few posts on here with people that have. One of my neighbors has a few that he has kept for over 8 years. The locally available ones seem to be quite hardy. Could be the use of NSW for water changes? Mine is only about five months old but growing back over some damaged skeleton from when it was collected. I have a green also, not as robust. I hope they stay healthy. I will post a few pics in a while. Camera battery dead.

This guy is apparently on to something http://www.goniopora.org/ . I havent seen much content though. There is another guy that seems to be having great success but I will have to search around. He is a forum member I believe. Not sure about the dirty water?, the wild ones here live on the reef anywhere from ten to about eighty feet down. Around 40' they get huge. Clean water and alot of flow (ripping current, dangerous for scuba), I have mostly seen them in proximity to tableing Acros.

 

[NeilFox]

Here is a pic of my 2 Goni's. About 5 months in my system. The Plain Green one isn't thriving as much as the pink one. When closed up it's actually a teal blue colour.