How hard can it be to keep GONIOPORA?

[ati70cutlass]

ive heard the color issue before and tend to belive it has some truth. however in my experience ive not been lucky with red or green for more than a few months

 

[psychostieg]

I keep reading about some of you going wo skimmer and others over skimming..... The question that keeps nagging me every time I read a post is how big is your tank?.... I currently have around 600gal, and I feel that going wo skimmer on a larger system is not at all the same as pulling the skimmer off of a 75 or 100gal tank.
Is there any way those of you who have the most success with these beauties (2 yrs or more) could include the size if your tank & overall system?.... I would also be interested to hear anything related to other inhabitants of your systems too. I have wondered for years if Gonipora have some sort of symbiosis that is not purely visible, but with something or some other coral ... etc..... Only way to find out is by asking the extremely successful keepers about their co-inhabitants in hopes of possibly identifying a common species... Microbe..... ... Just my 2 cents..... I absolutely love these creatures, and refuse to attempt keeping them until I study them more. Years ago when I was a beginner, I ambitiously and ignorantly brought these corals home only to watch a beautiful healthy coral fold up overnight after months of looking great. I just can't stand seeing them die..... That was 10+ years ago... And I have learned a lot. I might consider trying one again very very cautiously. Any ideas or thoughts on the symbiosis?..... Lagoon environments are extremely rich in life...... Could be any number of chemical interactions with other organisms.... Ideas?

 

[j.p. harrington]

i wasnt saying that the eat mysis i was just stating what i feed my tank and showing how heavily i feed my 75 gallon mixed reef where everything thrives like mad with me feeding all that 4 times a week with no water quality problems

 

[thebanker]

Ah gotcha. Sea pug said he fed mysis too. JP, how long have you had your goniopora?

 

[singold]

I have a red one with blue centers. Has been doing fine for about 4 months now. No specialized feedings.

 

[seapug]

Ah gotcha. Sea pug said he fed mysis too. JP, how long have you had your goniopora?

The mysis I feed is part of a mixture for the corals and fish. The Gonis don't eat the mysis. As a matter of fact, I've never see them capture anything, but I assume they feed on the smallest particles in the mixture like phytoplankton, rotifers, oyster eggs, prawn eggs, etc.

 

[williah]

I keep reading about some of you going wo skimmer and others over skimming..... The question that keeps nagging me every time I read a post is how big is your tank?.... I currently have around 600gal, and I feel that going wo skimmer on a larger system is not at all the same as pulling the skimmer off of a 75 or 100gal tank.
Is there any way those of you who have the most success with these beauties (2 yrs or more) could include the size if your tank & overall system?.... I would also be interested to hear anything related to other inhabitants of your systems too. I have wondered for years if Gonipora have some sort of symbiosis that is not purely visible, but with something or some other coral ... etc..... Only way to find out is by asking the extremely successful keepers about their co-inhabitants in hopes of possibly identifying a common species... Microbe..... ... Just my 2 cents..... I absolutely love these creatures, and refuse to attempt keeping them until I study them more. Years ago when I was a beginner, I ambitiously and ignorantly brought these corals home only to watch a beautiful healthy coral fold up overnight after months of looking great. I just can't stand seeing them die..... That was 10+ years ago... And I have learned a lot. I might consider trying one again very very cautiously. Any ideas or thoughts on the symbiosis?..... Lagoon environments are extremely rich in life...... Could be any number of chemical interactions with other organisms.... Ideas?

Very good points, psychostieg. I have a smaller, 72 gallon, tank and yet using an ATS for me was not simple. It took some work and fine tuning to get a proper balance. I've read in many forumns that many hobbyists with large tanks (600+) had to stop their ATS use because it was too labor-intense, too large, etc. The lagoon approach might only be practicable for smaller tanks. I do plan to get a larger tank relatively soon, so I've thought of this question many times.

Also, I too would like a detailed descriptions of tanks and location of inhabitants from those who've succeeded (knock on wood) with raising and propigating Goni's. I've begun tracking the details of my tank carefully for future reference.

 

[williah]

So to keep this thread alive, here's an update on my new tank member. I've had him in for over a week. It has not fully extended it's polyps yet, though in a few areas they've come out a bit (no more than 1 cm).

I've re-read the forumn and references, but am only now changing my feeding mixture. My fault in not acquiring the extras right away, but I wasn't expecting to get a goni on such short notice.

I'm currently feeding a mixture of home-grown phytoplankton, cyclopeeze, shrimp (mysis or brine) and algae flakes: unfortunately non of the recomended foods. And the shrimp is for the fish and other corals in the tank, but I mixed it all together in case the nutrient exchange ("shrimp juices") might be beneficial.

I've finally been able to buy oyster eggs and rotifers, which I'm going to start feeding today. I've also order frozen cubes by H2O Life Coral food that has phyto and zooplankton mixed in. I expect this to be useful.

 

[elegance coral]

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?

Sorry for the delayed response.

I think environments that support lots of pods, are good for goni's. As far as food is concerned, that is. These are still stony corals though, and often "refugium-like lagoon habitats" are loaded with excessive phosphate. Phosphate is the stony coral kryptonite. So, me personally, I wouldn't allow detritus to accumulate to feed pods, so that I had a "natural" food supply for my goni. I'd rather keep the system clean and feed my goni every day, when I feed the fish. This way the goni gets the food it needs, but doesn't have to deal with excessive phosphates. That's just me though.

 

[idareefer]

I have a large red blue eyed goni I have kept for years, it sits about mid to upper half of tank, gets blasted by tons of current & halide lighting, have never spot fed, just gets all the nutrition from lighting & whatever is in the system, for what it's worth

 

[nvdiz]

When I first got into the hobby, my LFS told me it was very easy to keep!

It died 6 months later...

 

[atlantisaquari]

i have one species ( a dull red short polyp) that i have had for over 3 years and encrust very quickly. however, every other goni i have seen has perished around 1 year.

 

[stan zemanek]

So after watching this thread for awhile I figured I would jump in with a couple of pics of my red goni with purple tips. It was purchased the day after Thanksgiving. I bought it (after much hesitation) from my LFS and only after I was told it was captive breed from ORA. Before purchasing I asked the owner if she knew what ORA was feeding their gonis. She told me that when they arrived they came with an information sheet that said ORA does not spot feed any of their gonis, and they keep them in moderate flow, with moderate light.

After careful acclimation I placed it on the bottom of my AGA 150 directly under a 250 watt 15k metal halide. the tank is 27" deep. The next day my goni was completly open and has appeared to be happy ever since.

Being that I live very close to a high end seafood store, I was able to get fresh sea urchin eggs the other day. I had heard somewhere that gonis like urchin eggs so I decide to try them. I did the typical spot feeding, only thing I did with the eggs was muttle them in some tank water first so they would dissolve better. Imediately after feeding the goni closed up, but by the next day was completly open again. here some pics taken New Years Eve day.

 

[rivoth]

Imediately after feeding the goni closed up, but by the next day was completly open again.

One thing I would caution here. When feeding you should see individual polyps close up as they capture food. If an entire section of the colony closes up at once then you've triggered a defense response and need to take a gentler approach.

 

[victor escobar]

we are keeping two red goniopora in valencia (spain) now for more than two years. they were brought to the tank from a shop when they were almost dead.

now the have been growing even if it took them six months to recover.

the set up is incredibly simple: living rock, living sand and power for the current (a poket filter with perlon and another one from a freskwater aquarium) the light is almost nothing 35 watts from fluorescent of a fresh water aquarium, that is to say white light 4500-6000 ºK and sun lighs three hours a day.

In summary maybe it is the eaiest coral to mantain but not with strong skimming or perfect water quality. it needs a lot of food natural or manmade and by no means it will accept continuos movement in their location or water changes.

 

[houser]

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.

Prior to getting one of these frags from cookiejar what, 6 months ago, I would have said tough due to lots of bad experiences a long time back. He egged me on to take one and try it. Red with purplish centers. Clearly growing - I put it square on the one detritus buildup spot in the tank and it sure seems happy. I also feed RN OF and RF and PF to the tank in small amounts.
I'm sure it's been said but getting a frag certainly doesn't hurt!

 

[jbell370]

I have one, a green/yellow and it seems to enjoy itself in my tank so far anyway. I generally feed PE, Cyclop-eeze and every few days a shot of Nutra Kol.

 

[dogstar74]

Sounds like a finicky coral, with that said, how do people frag these? Is it just cut and break the skelton? I would be too worried that I'd kill this delicate specimen.

 

[j.p. harrington]

ill try to get some pics of mine up tommorrow. and as far as frag. i have no idea i wouldnt even want to attempt to frag my beauty

 

[Sebastian J.]

I was sure I had seen some articles about Goniopora care that might be helpful. Finally found what I was looking for. It's picture-heavy presentation given at the 2006 Sindelfingen Fish & Reptile fair by Justin Credable (and yes, it's in English). It's just that the formatting is... well, let's say at least he didn't use Comic Sans:
http://www.korallenriff.de/Sindelfingen2006/Germany-neu2.pdf
He's also got an article about them on Advanced Aquarist:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2