Goniopra

[kevan]

Can I please have some feedback from people who have kept Goniopra Successfully?
What you put your success down to dosing etc. as I would like to get one but want as much info as possible. (Pics would be nice also)
I had one about twenty years ago in a tank with undergravel filter and had it for year and a half ,it also put out a baby in that time but eventually died.
My tank is 1400mm x 750 mm and 700mm high with mixed reef at moment, lighting is by two 250watt halides with actinic supplement,(I am thinking of installing two Kessil A360W instead of MH.
Two part dosing and running GFO and Biobeads in reactors.
Also dose Iodine.
Use natural sea water for changes 150 litres every couple of weeks depending on weather (System is 900 litres)

[kevan]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/nftt/index.php
very helpful but other peoples views would be appreciated.
also pics of your Goniopra

[Reef Frog]

The bright green, wild collected Gonis have proven very hard to keep long term. It is said that feeding them correctly is the key to keeping them alive long-term, for the few that have done so.

There are captive bred Gonis available however that do very well in captivity. I'm not sure what you have available to you in New Zealand. Can you find them locally where you know that they have lived successfully in captivity for a fairly long time?

[hypostatic]

Hey, I thought I'd share my success with this coral so far.

Here's a pic of my goni frag when I got it:
[IMG]http://i40.*******.com/s5k60i.jpg[/IMG]

And a more recent picture:
[IMG]http://i40.*******.com/2le4hz6.jpg[/IMG]

The basics on care:
High lighting
Moderate/gentle wave flow
High nutrients
Feeding is important with phytoplankton/zooplankton
Iron is beneficial?

Here's a thread I started on another forum on this coral with my and others' imputs.
http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/33992...-success-tips/

Oh and this is a particularly good article i found on them:
http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen20.html

Some excerpts:
"Feeding attempts with newly hatched brine shrimp were unsuccessful, and despite repeated contact with the tentacles, these prey were far too large for the animals to actually ingest. In fact, repeated contact with the tentacles led to the tentacles retracting and therefore an end to feeding rather than the animals actually being fed. Gut content analyses of polyps excised from wild colonies revealed that the majority of the prey were microcrustaceans (copepods and their larvae, juvenile mysids, barnacle cyprids and such) but much of the diet appeared to consist of a mixture of phytoplankton and other tiny non-crustacean plankton (such as polychaete and mollusc larvae, ciliates, and rotifers) of the same size range. Turns out that phytoplankton was found in the guts of every animal examined and probably accounts for a significant proportion of the nutrient uptake by these corals, and was the only prey type that showed significant variation in capture rate by tidal regime or day versus night-time sampling."

"Given the results of Meredith's research, it is not surprising that the occasional reports we see for the maintenance and growth of these corals tend to be lagoonal or refugium-type systems with intense lighting and plenty of opportunity for the capture of tiny plankton and invertebrate larvae. It is also not surprising that a typical pattern of apparent health last for some months before the animal begins to show the signs of starvation (due to both deprivation of planktonic prey and the resultant decrease in photosynthetic ability) followed by a decline and eventually the death of the colony occurs in the majority of reef tanks (in which these type of prey are rarely provided in sufficient numbers). The animals do not need a lot of prey -- Meredith found that supplementing the feeding of wild colonies did not significantly increase growth rate, suggesting that the animals are not prey limited at natural feeding rates (roughly 50% of the polyps contained prey items of the sort outlined above at any given time), but decreasing the amount of prey captured obviously has a strong negative impact. These results explain the observation that adding declining animals to a well-stocked and highly productive deep sandbed system (such as Morgan's at IA) typically results in a complete recovery of the colony, because the renewed capture of phytoplankton and invertebrate larvae in addition to providing nutrition to the colony, in turn should lead to the increase of zooxanthellar output and both contribute the revival of the colony."

[AwwNuts]

I have a few species of Goniopora and they were a challenge at first for sure. Loosing polyps while trying to figure out a food source they would take to stay happy.

If you want something that its much easier to care for without the struggles to maintain it alive for long term i would suggest Alveopora's as their more light dependent and benefit of filter feeding type foods or fine particles. Alveoporas have a close resemblance to Ganioporas but they tend to florescent more under actinics/full spectrum/uv lighting and specially under LEDs.

[geckoejon]

hello,

here are a couple poor quality pics of my goni. i have had the pink goni for 5 months. they started with 10 heads and now have aprox. 30 heads. they are still bright and growing nicely.

the silverish purple ones grow like weeds! not the brightest color, but they are very healthy and fully extended often.

finally, i have the bright lime green ones i got over a month ago. these sadly do not seem to be doing well. they have receded some.

i feed them once a week with fauna marin fine, reef chile, and coral frenzy. i don't dose anything else in my tank.

[AwwNuts]

same here they seem to love coral frenzy so thats where i stopped and put phyto and zooplankton aside

[kevan]

Thanks for replies where in tank do you have them high on rocks or on sand bed ?
And what sort of lighting ?

[AwwNuts]

Mine are on leds. I have 50/50. One goni and alveopora on the rocks mid level and the others on the sand. No particular reason just prefference

[kjboggs]

My large green one is one year old and growing. Keys for me:
High light
Does not like low phosphates/likes higher nutrient tanks
Feed gonipower or another similar food weekly or so
Turn flow off and leave off while feeding

I put a video on YouTube of me feeding mine

[jacksonpt]

My red ORA goni has been one of the more hardy corals I have. It's been happy most any place I put it (different light and flow) and is probably the healthiest, most eye-catching coral I have.

I wouldn't say there's been a "trick" to keeping it, at least not for me. I don't do anything special, and my water params are far from ideal.

A fairly recent pic that doesn't do it justice...

[kevan]

Originally Posted by jacksonpt

My red ORA goni has been one of the more hardy corals I have. It's been happy most any place I put it (different light and flow) and is probably the healthiest, most eye-catching coral I have.

I wouldn't say there's been a "trick" to keeping it, at least not for me. I don't do anything special, and my water params are far from ideal.

A fairly recent pic that doesn't do it justice...

Do you feed and if so what with?
Do you dose iron or iodine?
Looks like you have high in tank

[geckoejon]

IMO, deciding how high to place them would spend on the lighting in the tank. I noticed that when I cranked up the max power on my lights too high that the goni would not extend as much. (The lighting adjustment was done gradually over weeks) it also depends on the individual goni. My pink seem to like a higher par and flow than my green. The silver like anything! Lol

[hypostatic]

Originally Posted by jacksonpt

I don't do anything special, and my water params are far from ideal.

This is the key.

Keeping your tank too clean will get rid of the copepods and phyto that the gonis need to thrive, which is why they sometimes start to decline, seemingly without reason. Because they are slowly starving to death in a nutrient poor system

[Peter Eichler]

Originally Posted by hypostatic

This is the key.

Keeping your tank too clean will get rid of the copepods and phyto that the gonis need to thrive, which is why they sometimes start to decline, seemingly without reason. Because they are slowly starving to death in a nutrient poor system

I've heard this over and over again in relation to Goniopora, along with there being some need to have higher nitrates for these corals to thrive, but I have yet to see a single bit of proof or evidence to support it. I've struggled with low nutrients and keeping nitrates detectable, I skim very heavily and do not spot feed, yet the multiple colonies of Goniopora that I have thrive and grow like weeds. I've had most of them for well over 2 years.

[lhm nole]

Imo really depends if you get a healthy one and also I have had several in the past do very well under halides and vho but if a rock falls on it and it gets a infection its all downhill from there.. I just bought one recently and have it under leds ...The longest I have had one no dead spots and thriving was 2 years and I sold it along with the tank.

[hypostatic]

Originally Posted by Peter Eichler

I've heard this over and over again in relation to Goniopora, along with there being some need to have higher nitrates for these corals to thrive, but I have yet to see a single bit of proof or evidence to support it. I've struggled with low nutrients and keeping nitrates detectable, I skim very heavily and do not spot feed, yet the multiple colonies of Goniopora that I have thrive and grow like weeds. I've had most of them for well over 2 years.

Do you feed your tank at all? What do you feed? How much? How often? DO you do water changes? What else do you keep in your tank?

All of these things can effect the growth and health of goniopora

I think this article describes the evidence pretty well:
http://www.reefs.org/library/article/r_toonen20.html

The basics of the article:
- Analysis of the gut contents of goniopora showed that they eat phytoplankton and small zooplankton
- A researcher found that a decrease in food actually cause a decrease in photosynthesis in the corals
- The researcher also found that adding a declining colony to a highly-productive system would result in the complete recovery of the specimens

[ps1434]

Here is a picture of an ORA red I have had for 6 years. I have fragged it twice and you can see some of the frags. I don't feed it and have never saw a feeding reaction. I keep it on the sand bed under medium current. Lighting did not seem to be a factor. I switched from MH to LEDs and it did not phase it at all. There a lot of different kinds and maybe some need a 'dirty' tank but I have not experieced it. Get an ORA - the local fish store has been selling them for 6 years and has only heard of one person losing one.


Paul

[jacksonpt]

Originally Posted by kevan

Do you feed and if so what with?
Do you dose iron or iodine?
Looks like you have high in tank

No, I don't feed it (I rarely feed the tank at all, actually)
No, I don't dose iron or iodine, only ca and alk.

It's about mid-way right now. I've had it higher, had it lower.

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by jacksonpt

My red ORA goni has been one of the more hardy corals I have. It's been happy most any place I put it (different light and flow) and is probably the healthiest, most eye-catching coral I have.

I wouldn't say there's been a "trick" to keeping it, at least not for me. I don't do anything special, and my water params are far from ideal.

A fairly recent pic that doesn't do it justice...

How long have you had the ORA red goni? I have had mine for a few months and it is doing well. I can't believe how long your tentacles are! Mine are still kinda short.

[boostd2valve]

I have had great success with purple, red(looks pink to me ) and I also have a rainbow, but it only looked rainbow when the polyps in. I never have fed any of them, I don't have the purple anymore but it was triple in size. I've fragged the red one multiple times also, it's pretty much the same color as the ones above.

[jacksonpt]

Originally Posted by Maximus

How long have you had the ORA red goni? I have had mine for a few months and it is doing well. I can't believe how long your tentacles are! Mine are still kinda short.

A little over a year I guess.

[lllesley]

Have a few gonis in the tank. I do spot feed them 2 x a week but I have found they love it when I blow off the rocks and the top inch of the sandbed. I have them at the bottom of the tank as well as the middle and top. Each one responds differently.