flowerpot coral not opening

[gig]

OK, I had bought it months ago, was opening, looked great. Noticed that is was slowly extending less and less to the point where it was open opening occasionally, then not at all.

Didnt think it was the fish, parameters were fine, then I saw the flame nipping it one day (finally).

Moved it to my fuge, it's been there for a couple months, but still doesn't open. I assume it's dead, but I do see it go from smooth (it looks like a smooth brain when closed) to having little bumps extending where the tentacles would extend out.

So is it dead?? or will it ever come back out? water params are fine.

 

[laurichj]

A flower pot coral, aka Goniopora, is unlikely to make it. They don't do well in captivity and generally die within the first year. Some people have luck keeping them. The theories are:
1) little/no skimming and nutrient rich water
2) Manganese and Iron supplements
3) Twice a week target feedings of most polyps with crushed cyclopeeze (see goniopora.org)

The 3rd seems to be the most likely, but is a huge PITA and still isn't a sure thing. The reds do better than the greens and the other colors (yellow, etc) are hopeless, they've been dyed.

Sorry, they are lovely corals.

 

[gig]

thanks for the reply, so should I just pull it out?

this is what it "used" to look like

 

[ricks]

I overskim my system..

Run a large fuge..

Overfeed my fish..

Never target feed anything in the system..

Have very intense lighting and lots of flow..

Here is a picture of our 5+year old Gonipora, it was the size of a golfball when I purchased it online. It now is larger than a basketball..

Happy Reefing

 

[ggk1988]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12573399#post12573399 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ricks
I overskim my system..

Run a large fuge..

Overfeed my fish..

Never target feed anything in the system..

Have very intense lighting and lots of flow..

Here is a picture of our 5+year old Gonipora, it was the size of a golfball when I purchased it online. It now is larger than a basketball..



Happy Reefing

I think the overfeeding helps which would lead to nutrient rich water. Just my .02

 

[abereefur]

yea its the overfeeding i feed my gonis coral frenzy, phytoplankton, zooplankton, and oyster eggs. with a coral with such a low percentage rate of living in captivity, i would rather overdo feeding than go too little.

 

[laurichj]

ricks: nice goni. I realize I didn't explictly say that no one really has a clue why they do well in the tanks they do well in.

gig: I briefly had one (It was to far gone to revive, so I returned it), so what I'm saying is just a result of my research for it so take with a grain of salt. It depends on how much work you're willing to do and how receded the goni is. If it's just now receding, you could probably nurse it back to health. Check out the goniopora.org site, he's had quite good success with his.

Good luck.

 

[gig]

Thanks laurichj

it's pretty much receded for a couple months now, looks like the starved ones they show pics of on the site. I suppose I need to pull it out, will it pollute the tank? or is the system (nearly 250G) too large have an effect?

 

[JayB1224]

I had on that looked just like yours GIG. I had it for a 2 years then it started to go down hill. Now i have a piece of live rock.
Nothing i did seemed to help.

 

[gig]

well, I may try again sometime, now that I know which type are more likely to survive and how to better care for them in terms of feeding, etc. I really like these guys.

 

[Stewajac]

My green flowerpot coral wasn't extending for a few weeks so I did a Iodine dip with Kent marine's iodine for 12 minutes and noticed syllidae worms coming out of the calcium Base so I pulled out the worms with tweezers put the coral back in the tank and now it's starting to open up agin