vijaym85,
The health of the corals we care for is of the utmost importance to us here at Drs. Foster and Smith’s Aquaculture Coral Facility. We do offer Elegance, Red Goniopora, as well as the Purple/Blue Goniopora for sale on the Divers Den section of the LiveAquaria.com web site.
Elegance Coral (Catalaphyllia jardinei)
Elegance corals are exported from Jakarta Indonesia and used to be a very easy coral to maintain in a reef aquarium in the 90’s. In 2003 I believe, both Julian Sprung and Eric Borneman had identified a bacterial infection that manifested itself in exporter holding tanks that cause Catalaphyllia to recede and eventually perish in the home aquarium. This bacteria seems to affect Blastomussa spp., Nemanzophyllia spp., and even Euphyllia spp. to some extent.
We have been fortunate enough to work with Julian Sprung over the last year on a way to eliminate this bacterial infection on Catalaphyllia jardinei. Through testing, evaluation, and feedback from our coral farm, and others in the aquarium industry, Julian’s company Two Little Fishes is releasing this product to the general public. Next month we will have available for sale this new product called ReVive Coral Cleaner. This liquid surface cleaner is based on natural plant extracts and combats this problem that is currently affecting these specific stony corals. The product is administered as a dip, and has proven itself to be affective. Drs. Foster and Smith’s Aquaculture coral facility also utilizes other dips for these corals. Melafix manufactured by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals is another remedy that has worked well for us here at our facility. This product is composed of natural plant extracts as well, and is used at a rate of 15ml per gallon of seawater as a bath. We dip the affected coral in the bath for 5 minutes, and swirl the coral in the bath during the 5 minute time frame.
The Australian government has just recently issued CITES permits for the limited collection and export of corals from that area. Catalaphyllia seem to be one of the more common corals exported from this regain. These corals are more expensive that their Jakarta collected counterparts, but seem to be unaffected by this bacterial infection at their export station. Australian Elegance have done very well at our facility so far, and we have sold a hand full on the Divers Den section of the site.
Flower Pot Coral (Goniopora spp.)
Goniopora spp. vary considerably by individual species on their relative adaptability to aquarium life. I have personally maintained the “Red Goniopora†from Jakarta in my office aquarium for well over 4 years with little to no additional effort. The Purple/Blue variant of this species in my experience does equally as well and in many different types of aquariums.
Charles Veron has identified 24 species of Goniopora, and of them, 19 of these identified species could potentially be harvested from legal collection areas from Bali, Jakarta, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. The most commonly exported coral (which is the most difficult for people to maintain) is the Jakarta Green Flower Pot Coral (Goniopora stokesi).
I was fortunate enough to sit in the presentation by John Kelly at IMAC 2006 where he explained some of the reasons that most aquarists have a difficult time with this species of coral. In a nutshell, he explained that he has had long term success with a variety of species of Goniopora by properly adapting this coral to the aquarium lighting and flow, and target feeding the coral. If you are thinking about purchasing Goniopora stokesi, please make sure to slowly adjust this coral to your specific lighting, and target feed the coral daily.
In response to your question on captive raised Elegance, to the best of my knowledge this has not been successfully accomplished YET. We are working on techniques here to expand our selection of stony corals, and perhaps someday we can add this to our extensive offerings of captive grown corals. Thank you for your questions and concerns.
Sincerely,
Kevin Kohen
Director of LiveAquaria
Drs. Foster and Smith
