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jhawkor
09/27/2009, 11:26 AM
I bought a goniopora coral yesterday and the guy who bagged it up for me told me that I should feed it phytoplankton so I bought some phytofeast. Do I need to target feed it the phyto or do I just dose it into the tank?

jhawkor
09/27/2009, 02:57 PM
bump

redfishsc
09/27/2009, 07:45 PM
Target feed, very gently. Often it will bend it's polyps toward the baster if it likes what you are feeding. My red does this sometimes (not always).


I highly recommend you feed this goni 3 times a week or so, and plan on dosing iron. I cannot recall (nor find) the article I read that suggested iron defficiency as a reason for death in this coral, but it was definitely convincing.


Here is what I feed my red. Keep in mind I've had it a whole 2 months, which isn't long enough to say "success" but long enough to say "it eats it"

1) Cyclop-eeze. Freeze dried or frozen. Either way, mash it up as fine as you can. Not super critical, but helpful. Goni seems to like the smell of crushed cyclops.

2) Crushed flake food. This is an overlooked coral food by far--- very concentrated nutrients, many LPS love it (esp. my duncans). I use my fingers to powderize it as much as possible.

3) Amino acids. I am currently useing "cheap stuff" (Kent Coral Accel and Seachem Reef Plus since they don't overlap much and seem to compliment each other).



I crush the cyclops and fish food, and use a 5-10 mL of each of the aminos to liquefy the mash. I use a syringe (cat med syringe) and rigid clear tubing to puff this VERY gently on to the goni with ALL powerheads off.

I have to feed the fish at the same time to keep them away, as they also love this mix (smaller fish, anyway). Any fish pecking at the food will cause the goni to retract.



Lastly, just know that the green variety is very, very touchy. It can go a year, perfectly happy (apparently) and then die. A year is the typical "success" party. I've had mine since mid-July (the red goni) and won't be satisfied it's healthy until next summer.


The red, by common consent, is hardier (and prettier IMO, just more expensive).

jdm18honda
09/27/2009, 08:27 PM
i have a pink goniopora for About 8 months and i have never target feed it i just feed the whole tank with reef chili it has done good so far

Runfrumu
09/27/2009, 08:28 PM
Mine was doing great for about 4 months then decided to just melt. If your starts to look like its melting I would get it out so it doesnt foul your tank up.

They are awesome looking corals but too much trouble.

amore169
09/27/2009, 09:01 PM
For what I read the green goni requires a lot of food at all times that will waste away in a home aquarium, good luck.

jhawkor
09/27/2009, 09:07 PM
Thanks for the tips guys. I tried feeding it the phytoplankton today with a turkey baster but all the phyto floated away before me goniopora had a chance to eat it. Is there anything I can do about this? Also, I feed my fish a mix of clams, scallops, squid, shrimp, and some veggies. Could I mash this stuff up into smaller particles and try to feed it to my goniopora?

sacremon
10/02/2009, 12:36 PM
I've been doing as much reading as I can on gonioporas. I have two - a pink shorter polyp one and a longer polyp one that is a burnt orange in color (as well as my red/green colorblind eyes see it), as well as an Alveopora. There is an excellent article (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2) about the care of the individual species, with some guidelines on how to identify them.

I've only had my pink one for about three months and the orange one for little over a month, so I can't say I have successfully kept them yet either, but based on what I've read, these are essentially carnivorous corals. What they ideally want is zooplankton, which feeds on phyto, so that is why adding phyto is good. I culture my own phyto, and add somewhere between a cup and pint every couple days. There is a refugium in the sump for things to grow, and no mechanical filtration to take it out of the water column. I do skim, but have cut down on the aggressiveness so as to impact the plankton less. I have a section in the middle of the tank where the live rock used to be a branching SPS when it was in the ocean, and that is now a garden of hair algae. Normally that would be something people would avoid, but I figure it is providing an in situ place for pods to spawn and be food for the corals.

I'm going to try spot feeding with Oyster Feast as well, as the article indicates that almost all species like DT's Oyster Eggs (and my LFS doesn't stock DT's). None of the fish in my tank would be interested in that food, so I'm not worried about anything else getting to it (no shrimp or crabs due to volitans).

Goniopora are a beautiful genus, but the conditions where they exist in the wild (turbid, high nutrient lagoons) are not the conditions that are typically kept by reefers, particularly those with a bent towards SPS. I believe you need to think outside of the 'reef' box to keep them successfully. We'll see in time if I am correct.

Eric45
10/02/2009, 02:36 PM
I've had a red gonio (more like pink/brown) for about 8 months now. I've never fed it and it seems to be doing fine. The tentacles seem to fully extend - about 3 inches or so, some longer - and disappear at night. It seems to have to have grown an inch or so in diameter. I have tried to feed it various things with no discernable reaction from the extended polyps.

Finsky
10/18/2009, 08:35 PM
I just received my eighth gonipora to go along with the previous seven and one alveopora which are situtated across the front substrate of my five foot 120 gal tank.

I feed the corals goniporas, alveopora, six lobed brains, two favite brains, and a branching and an encrusting Montioporas, Zooplanktos and Microvert three times a week. I also feed my fish four times a week with two feedings soaked in Selcon. I feed the fish frozen food, freeze dried mysis and brine shrimp, Ocean Nutrition One and Two flake and pellet food, along with seaweed cut to bite size pieces with scissors (for the tangs).

I mention the fish food as I see particles floating down into the goniporas and alveopora (Lobed brain) at times and I have a suspicion the fish waste still has some nutrition and also helps the gonioporas.

I do agree a few months is not much time (let us try for years or even decades!) to judge whether the gonioporas are going to make it long term although they should be giving a bit of acknowledgement of what they think of their new home, i.e. my recent short tentacled purple gonipora had all its tentacles out Saturday and it was acclimated to the tank Friday in the dark after arriving from an overnight trip from Dr. F & S Wisconsin facility to Olympia, WA. If the polyps were not coming out for three or four days I would start to wonder what was bugging the coral. Maybe some target feeding? with zooplantos or some other food.

I brought back my green to health in about a month with target feeding from a bit of a down turn about three or four months ago.

03/15/09 Goniopora - green coral
04/22/09 Goniopora - orange/red coral
06/10/09 Gonipora - pink
07/31/09 Gonipora - pink/red
08/31/09 Goniopora - orange
09/01/09 Gonipora - light purple
09/16/09 Gonipora - green/purple
10/16/09 Gonipora - dark purple

08/19/09 Alveopora - pink coral

I do tank and target feed depending on the looks of my gonioporas or other corals.

Case in point, I have a golf ball size purple gonipora which was opening its polyps along with all the others on Thursday with tank feeding. When I relocated it more to the center to make room for a larger purple goniopora in the left front corner, it did not open its polyps Friday or Saturday. It still looks puple and I expect it to come around to extending its polyps after a few more days of acclimation to its new position and a Monday tank feeding. This particulare goniopora is my most fussy one. I can still see the purple color in the polyp holes which is definitely a good sign!

Dr. F & S thought I should skip my Friday feeding due to the new goniopora arriving.

I will be target feeding with my Kent Marine Sea Squirt 35" expandable target feeding graduated bulb syringe feeder(a syringe feeder/turkey baster is a must have for corals) from a plastic cup with aquairum water and liquid coral food on Monday.

At the moment I have my two Hydor 8's 3,250 gph propeller pumps 6" below the surface facing the opposite corner and slightly upward on each end of the tank, the right side hang on Hagen 110 powerfilter and right side hang on Aqua Medic Turboflotor 1000 protein skimmer plugged in to a power strip.

For both tank and target feeding, I turn off the power strip to stop a fairly turbulent water movement and dose the tank with the recommended liquid food on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I am using Brightwells Zooplantos due to it having the options of small, medium(500-1000 microns), and up to the large size (500-2000 microns) in addition to Kent Marine Zooplex(800 microns) and Kent Marine Microvert (larger liquid food the better for gonioporas from what I hear).

I let the food soak in the water for about one hour(for both target and tank feeding) before I turn the power strip back on "without" the protein skimmer plugged into it.

I try to keep the protein skimmer off for at least two to three hours before
restarting it and then I usually do not get over skim. My turboflotor typically skims approximately half an inch to an inch of dark black/green liquid per day.