How can I tell if my Goniopora is eating?

aastretch64

New member
I have three goniopora, one is doing great, the other two are not. I feed cyclopeeze twice a week, and target feed with turkey baster.

How can I tell if the gonipora is eating or not?

Alex
 
I couldn't tell either for the first week I was trying to target feed mine....no polyps' tentacles were closing...just couldn't tell.

Then I got out my DSLR camera with a 50mm macro lens, a tripod, zoomed in 7x-10x, focused in on a polyp and watched on the live view feature on the LCD monitor on the camera.

Even though the tentacles didn't close, I was able to watch a smashed cyclopeez be eaten as it was moved by tiny fluctuations (almost like mini-muscle contrations but very subtle movements) closer to the mouth in the center, then S-L-O-W-L-Y ingested.

Later as the coral became accustomed to being target fed, the polyps' tentacles closed around the food. The other polyps will sometimes bend toward the polyps who have a hold of food as if to share. It's really neat to see.

I target feed 3x/week with smashed cyclopeez (and their juices) mixed with a small amount of shaved shrimp, Reef Roids, Selcon and phyto-feast. Sometimes I substitute super finely chopped mysid shrimp for the uncooked table shrimp. I would add DT's oyster eggs to the mix if my LFS carried it (and shipping wasn't a fortune now days).

Hope this helps :)
 
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I have one of these. I bought it from the LFS and he said it was an Alvepora and when I got home I realized it was a Goniopora because it has 24 tentacles. My mistake for buying something before I truly knew what it was. Anyway, I target fed mine Cyclopeeze the other night and he ate well. How often are you feeding yours? I feed my whole tank cyclopeeze and/or Reef chili once a week and then target feed the Goniopora once a week in addition. Do you think this will be sufficient?
 
mlbarry, I have recently started target feeding reef chili too.
Does anyone have long term experience feeding this to goniopora?
 
jadeguppy - My other corals seem to like the Reef Chili, but I have only been using it for a couple of months.
 
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