How hard can it be to keep GONIOPORA?

[stephenrsaiz]

I have the reds with yellow polyps, and sporadic flecks of white on the polyps. They are beautiful. I've had mine for about two years. Pristine water cannot be what mine needs. On the contrary, I have a heavy bio load, and feed my fish well. I keep mine to the side of the tank about 24" below a 400 watt MH. It has grown slow, but very well ever since I've had it. I've never had any issues with any sort of declining health with mine. Im sure parameters play a role as well. I keep my alk and calc very stable, and my temperature too. That being said, your mileage may vary.

 

[jc-reef]

Please note! 8 Weeks & 3 months in no way equals success with Gonis! These corals are notorius for appearing to thrive for a year or more..
Then they crash, RTN appears, soon you have a skeleton only. Aside from that issue, they are EXTREMELY prone to Brown Jelly infections. Any mechanical injury can cause it, like hermit crabs walking on them. Clownfish trying to host in them will also kill them.
Matthew

whutwo...I have a nice piece that I won during a raffle at MACNA 2010 and this past week my Clowns have been trying to host it at times and seems to be ****ing it off. I need to find a solution FAST!

 

[Sheol]

Remove the fish or remove the coral, STAT! Personally, I'd like to strangle the person who invented "Reef Safe" which means only that a fish WON'T eat coral. Clowns are the biggest PITAs in this hobby!

Matthew

 

[Gdevine]

Please note! 8 Weeks & 3 months in no way equals success with Gonis! These corals are notorius for appearing to thrive for a year or more..
Then they crash, RTN appears, soon you have a skeleton only. Aside from that issue, they are EXTREMELY prone to Brown Jelly infections. Any mechanical injury can cause it, like hermit crabs walking on them. Clownfish trying to host in them will also kill them.

Matthew

Matthew is correct. I call these "rent a coral" as they almost always never survive captive collection. The biggest thing most think is they are missing something in the tank they get on the reef.

 

[elegance coral]

I had a green gonni for 10 or 15 years. IMHO, its all about food. Without adequate food they go downhill in a hurry. Back then, they had a product like those fresh water feeder blocks you drop in the tank when you go on vacation, but these were designed for filter feeders. I knew when it was time to replace the block because the gonni's expansion would decrease. I also fed it my own blender mush. It grew to about half the size of a basket ball and dropped little ones all the time.

 

[beaker77]

I've kept Goni's for 4 years until a heater malfunction cooked my tank. I recently got my tank up again and I my first coral purchase was another Goni. I target feed mine Cyclopeeze and DT's phyto mostly with pretty good luck.

Here is a good interview with John Kelly, a Reef Central member, and the admin of the former Goniopora.org
http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/resources.asp?show=353

 

[mscarpena]

Them surviving long term is few and far between. I really think it depends on the one you get and where it was collected from. I had one that survived for about 2 years to 2.5 years until my tiger cowrie eat it. I then tried a few more and they all died in a few months. I also did not have as good of a protein skimmer at that time. The skimmer could be the key or lack of one??

 

[thebanker]

There is a guy locally that keeps green goni's with a good success rate. Apparently he uses a lagoon approach. Low flow, low light, and lots of food.

Elegancecoral - i'm looking around the edges of your goni pic, and I see lots of algae. Do you agree that keeping them in a refugium-like lagoon habitat is the best way to make them happy?

 

[williah]

Color is irrelevant. The concern is the species, which may or may not be all that easy to determine.

As far as needing pristine water, I think that is an excuse devised by someone who found that they could not keep theirs alive. Goniopora are predominantly found in lagoon environments - very nutrient rich, often to the point of being turbid. Not exactly what I would call pristine. I have seen suggestions of having them in a tank that does not have a skimmer, so that plankton is not removed from the water. That is probably a very good idea.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2

Very interesting comment. I like, and instinctually agree with, this idea about nutrients and no skimmer.

I've affectively grown my own phytoplankton for 5 months now. I dose 2xday, about a cup + each time. I also removed my skimmer a year ago and added an algae turf scrubber as a replacement. I did this with the thought of creating a more nutrient rich yet low Nitrate environment. The result has been an explosion of growth with my corals.

I've been thinking about getting a goniopora again to see if this more nutrient rich environment will help keep it alive now. I've had 2 in the past, and both died after 6 months, but the tank was much younger and didn't have the current skimmerless/ATS setup.

 

[PaxRoma]

Very interesting comment. I like, and instinctually agree with, this idea about nutrients and no skimmer.

I've affectively grown my own phytoplankton for 5 months now. I dose 2xday, about a cup + each time. I also removed my skimmer a year ago and added an algae turf scrubber as a replacement. I did this with the thought of creating a more nutrient rich yet low Nitrate environment. The result has been an explosion of growth with my corals.

I've been thinking about getting a goniopora again to see if this more nutrient rich environment will help keep it alive now. I've had 2 in the past, and both died after 6 months, but the tank was much younger and didn't have the current skimmerless/ATS setup.

I think you should. I am going the "almost" skimmerless route and have been achieving great result with goni (check my posts for more info). The more ppl try the method out, the more solid evidence we can gather on these species :hammer:

 

[thebanker]

Gotta love the ATS. williah - can you post a pic of your ATS? Since patent laws prevent them from being marketed here commercially, I love seeing how people DIY these things. The best I've seen so far is by sanababit and his skimmerless SPS tank.

 

[CookieJar]

I've had 3 types of Gonis for 3+ years and all have thrived, thrived to a point where I've made and distributed around 10 frags, and I've had very good reports of them continuing to do well. The 3 types are red, green & blue.
I used to target feed cyclops & cyclopeeze, but havent' done so for ~ 1 year and they still do well. I do add other coral foods (reef nutrition) to the tank, which I think helps. I'd consider my water medium nutrient level at the least.

 

[kayaking2]

I've had my red "goni" for for about 4 months which isn't very long. It seems to be thriving at the moment...lots of growth. I placed it in the moddle of the tank with lots of flow and light(LEDs).
I hope it survives and thrives for years to come.

 

[thebanker]

Does anyone keep a goni with biopellets for N/P reduction? My BP reactor is flowing into the DT to feed corals, I'm wondering if a goni would like that sort of environment.

 

[slk55r]

skimmer

skimmer

I don't know about the whole goni doing better without a skimmer bit.

Mine has been in the tank now since April of 09 and has increased in size at least 4fold. (red Goni) I do heavy skimming but with medium feeding.

I just got a rainbow goni and it will be arriving this thursday so I"ll see how that one does.

 

[prickles]

one thing I think really hurts them is being covered by sand. Dunno why, but any area on my goni that gets covered never recovers, and dies quickly. I have had this one for about a year, perhaps more and about 1/2 of it is dead because my bluespots try to bury it. If you have one, make sure it can't fall upside down into the sand, nor get covered. Outside of that, it seems to be surviving. It's a teal color wild caught.

 

[williah]

Ok, I did it. I saw a beauty at my lfs. It was wide open, with its polyps fully extended (3-4 inches), and the guy helping me said they'd had it for 2 wks and it was still looking good and opening up.
It wasn't wide open this morning, but the tips were protuding a bit. I'm hoping when the lights come up it'll open up. I'm going to work my a off to keep this one alive. I hope it works.
Pictures to follow.

 

[seapug]

This is an interesting discussion.
I tried a couple Gonis over the years and never had success with them until I started running zeolites and probiotics. About 1 year ago I decided I'd try one again so I picked up a nice purple one that is growing like mad in my tank where I run Zeolites, dose carbon and bacteria and have a protein skimmer rated for a tank twice the size of mine. This definitely runs counter to the "high nutrient/no skimmer" theory.

What may be the common thread is feeding. Since started Zeolites and probitics I'm able to do dense "plankton cloud" feedings using a rich mixture of PE Mysis, Rod's Food and Nutramar Ova, so that's probably playing a part in the Goni's health.

 

[j.p. harrington]

ive got a goni thats about 8-10 inches across when fully expanded got it on my sand bed in a corner of the tank so less flow there the more flow the less it expands.

i also feed heavily and a huge variety of stuff

cyclops
rotifiers
baby brine
mysis
pe mysis
daphnia
krill
then reef nutrition products include:
arcti pods
oyster feast
rotifeast
phytoplankton

lol i know that sounds crazy and alot but with a good skimmer you can feed like this with no problem

 

[thebanker]

The gonis couldnt possibly eat mysis. I can imagine them eating oyster feast or rotifers but nothing else from the above list.