goniopora-----whats the deal?

[reefgeek67]

i have a 75 gallon reef that has morphed from a ten gallon tank i started 3 years ago......the 75 itself hase been up about a year and the overall heath of the tank couldnt be better.......but i cant keep flowerpot corals for more than 2 or 3 months!!! is there something i dont know? my lighting is 2 150 hqi 20k's i have an excalibur protein skimmer and good waterflow......i feed the tank dt's phytoplankton, zooplankton, cyclopeze and dried seaweed for the tang.....?????????water checks out fine.................

 

[reefnetworth]

the dont like alot of flow, or require alot of light. actinic or 50/50 lighting. i feed Marine Snow every two days. REEF-ON!!!

 

[reefgeek67]

it was in the bottom of the tank but maybe it just didnt like where it was......does marine snow feed most lps corals brains ect.??

 

[Monkey_Bone]

Gonioporas should be left in the ocean.
They are one of the more dificult species of coral to care for.
Tey don tlike alot of flow, they do like medium lighting, and they feed on fiecese LITTERALY.
Thats why the are found on the bottom of the reef slope in nature (usualy right where all the crapcollects).

There in lies the problem with keeping goni's in a modern reef.
Corals we keep today require excellent water quality to survive.
Gonioporas will die in such conditions because their is no " crap" for them to eat.

 

[reefgeek67]

well that makes sense! thanks for the info.........

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

http://www.goniopora.org/

 

[Obi-dad]

Some species are more difficult to keep than others. In order to keep them you need to feed them, target feeding is best. Some of us do manage to keep them long term. My tank is heavily fed (cyclopeeze, freeze-dried rotifers, different sizes of golden pearls are target fed to them, plus I feed heavy to the fish). But...I run a 100micron filter sock continuously, have a skimmer larger than I need for my tank, run carbon and phosban in phosban reactors, and have a very large mass of chaeto in the refugium portion of the sump (which provides nutrient removal and growth of zooplankton). If you are going to feed the gonis heavily and still try to keep acros and keep nuisance algae at bay, you need to filter. Some keep gonis and don't filter heavily, but I couldn't make that work and still keep acros. Now my gonis grow, and my acros grow.

Having said that, they are not beginner's corals, and they have a bad track record. But possible to keep if you are willing to put in the time and effort and set up a suitable environment. A low fed tank is not a suitable environment (IMO).

There is some great info about them by JeNnKerry, justincognito, and John Kelly here on RC.

 

[reefgeek67]

that does sound like some work but i guess it is worth it to have a diverse tank.....

 

[h20cooled]

I agree that they are NOT a beginer coral but I do not believe that they need to be target feed or kept out of reef tanks. I know quite a few people who have successfully raised them in tanks without any target feeding and the coral is thriving. Steve Weast is one that I know of, he has a couple and they are large he does not target feed them either.

 

[Monkey_Bone]

I have never seen nore heard of any one keeping a goniopora alive for more than 2 years 2 1/2 max.

 

[rich415]

Try an Alveopora. They look very similar to a Goni but only have 12 tentacles on each polyp instead of 24. They are supposed to be alot easier. I have had mine going strong for about ten months now and have seen moderate growth even with consistently low calcium (360).

 

[reefgeek67]

thanks, ill give the alveopora a try!

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

Have a look at the site I posted. It has the best, and most accurate info on keeping gonioporas, out there.

www.goniopora.org

 

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7656405#post7656405 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Monkey_Bone
I have never seen nore heard of any one keeping a goniopora alive for more than 2 years 2 1/2 max.

A woman near me has one that came in the size of a quarter, about 5 years ago. Its now bigger than a basketball, has been fragged multiple times, and a large part of our club has frags, all of which are growing well. (Its red)

I think these things are more hardy than people think, they just come in beat to death. (like elegances)

 

[cristhiam]

I have not been able to target feed mine, here is a pic of mine it's in the low light zone of the tank with a pretty good random flow, it's getting close to 2 years. One thing I've noticed, I used to have it on the sand about a year ago and when I move it up it opens up huge!! this one is about a 7" ball I guess time will tell.

 

[R33f3r]

Although it looks good, it looks pretty bleached. Was it green before?

 

[cristhiam]

it's tan green, more on the tan side. when it closes up it bright green between the polyps

 

[cristhiam]

here it is on the old 55G. My lights are 4 6500K 40W with 2 110W actinics, the 6500K doesn't help on the coloration of some corals. Good growth thoug

 

[tgfrench]

I rescued a goniopora from a lfs last summer. It was almost completely bleached from overheating. Only thing visible was a small violet mouth. Today it is a nice pink with bright purple mouths. I did read all the literature on goniopora before i got it but what the heck it was almost dead. I also have the red and yellow suncorals that i do target feed a mixture of DT's, chopped silversides and shrimp, along with a powdered invert. food and cyclopeze. Plus a large fish population. I do skim heavily and run both a sock and refug. along with a coil denitratior, but i still believe my water is pretty dirty, the lil featherdusters grow like crazy.