Goniopora spawning

[Ken Hahn]

I am curious how common goniopora spawnings are in reef tanks. I got a new wild colony of red goni and the 2nd day in the tank, it decided to spawn. I had kept a purple goni for a couple of years and never noticed it spawning.

The majority of polyps expelled a thick white stringy substance and then on occasion there would be a puff of light smoke that dissipated almost immediately from somewhere in the colony that I could not identify. It appeared to me as though both sperm and eggs were being released.

--- Ken

 

[PRESTO2345]

Not very common to happen, but very cool to document! But do keep an eye on your water parameters if its a large colony. Who knows maybe it will trigger your other goni to spawn at the same time.

 

[k.tran]

nice, never seen actual pics of it happening, gl with the babies if they are spawning

 

[stephj03]

very cool!

 

[scottallens]

Awesome! there is actually hope for these corals now. I just love goni's I have a few but eventually they slowly die off after a year or two. What were your tank parameters at the time of the spawn? Lights on or off? What do you feed the coral with? Flow?

 

[Ken Hahn]

The coral spawned about 30 minutes after the MH lights went out and about 30 minutes before the small T-5 lights went out. It was just it's 2nd day in the tank, so I think it was the change in water parameters or water flow that induced it to spawn.

With my purple goni, it was in a predominately SPS tank. I never fed it and it did very well for a couple of years and then I lost it along with pretty much everything else in a tank crash. I also tried a green many years ago and it lasted about a year and was also not target fed.

I got out of the hobby for about a year and my new small tank is pretty much all LPS and some ricordea and polyps and I am planning on doing target feedings a couple of times a week for all the corals including the Goni.