[thezookeeper]

Hi everyone. My LFS has a beautiful RED goniopora. It looks to be in awesome shape. I have read that the red goniopora's are more hardy and I wanted someone with more knowledge of them than I to comment on them. I have been told that the green goniopora's are much more difficult and will starve over a time period if the right conditions aren't met. I want to be informed before I make a decision. Thank you in advance for you time!


Joanne

[ravenmore]

Hi Joanne,

These a very difficult to keep corals period - red is simply a different color morph. The problems with them are symptomatic of starvation. They come from extreemly nutrient rich waters and it is thought that our tanks are too sterile for them. If you do get one, try feeding the tank heavily with Dt's phytoplankton and Golden pearls. I also want to note that they may do well for up to 9months in a tank and then suddenly shrivel and die. It's thought that they can live for quite some time on energy stores acquired while in the wild. The depletion of these stores leads to the event described above. They are primarily a sand bed coral, but I recall Eric Borneman saying that he has seen them on rocks in the wild and in his reef tanks. I personally would place one on a MATURE sand bed in a WELL ESTABLISHED TANK in bright light and moderate waterflow.

Also, common sense dictates that these probably won't do well with corals that require very clean water(sps corals). It's probably a one or the other situation.

-Mike

[thezookeeper]

Thanks Mike! That's pretty much what I understood about goniopora's. I kinda thought there was some hope with the red color morph by reading Julian Sprung's Quick Guide to Corals book. For some reason he rated the red species very high in ease of care. That's what has lead to my confusion. I more than likely will pass this up for fear of gradual starvation.


Joanne

[Ltspd]

Goniopora lobata (flowerpot)

The link at the bottom may be of some help, Eric B on reefcentral.

[ravenmore]

Yep, Eric Borneman's is always a good brain to pick....

He also mentioned that there was a really good article on goni's in FAMA a couple of months ago.

[gerowe]

I have no expert knowledge whatsoever about this
coral in general, but I have had a red goniopora in a reef tank for about 3 years now. It has
doubled in size (from tennis to softball size in terms of the skeleton), extends its polyps up to 2.5 inches or so, and seems quite tolerant regarding current and light levels (tho' there is a fair amount of light everywhere in the tank since I run 400W metal halides). I feed the tank quite heavily (about 3x/day), but have never tried to feed the goniopora directly or treat it as some sort of special case in the tank. So maybe J. Sprung is on to something.

George

[ravenmore]

Well, need to run some stuff by Mr. Borneman. I'm pretty sure that you can't identify the exact species of gonipora by the fact that it's red....I think he mentions something to that effect in one of the links posted. I'm not 100% sure, but you might be able to have more than one species of "red" gonipora.

Gerowe - congrats on keeping yours alive so long. You said you feed 3x/day, what kinds of foods? What kind of filtration do you use on your tank? I'm wondering if your animal is just that easy to keep or if you've stumbled on a good "husbandry" for it.

[gerowe]

The tank my goniopora spent most of its time in was a 120G with 2 400W metal halides and a turnover rate about 15x the tank size. It had a plenum, and I used a Turbofloter skimmer, which is certainly not one of the most powerful around, so I don't think the tank was skimmed super efficiently.

Its habitants included two tangs, a butterfly, two skunk clowns (with a very large Heteractis magnifica, which I've also had for about 3 years now: ditto the tangs and clowns), a flame hawk and bi-color blenny + assorted corals (mostly sps with a couple of large leathers and lots of encrusting polyps, etc.) I fed a fair amount of spirulina, Vibragro, and frozen brine shrimp daily (one feeding of each type of food). I dripped kalkwasser and for the first two years added iodine (but not for the last). Maybe--given the fairly heavy feeding and not-so-powerful skimmer the tank had a higher level of nutrients than some, but I really don't know. The fish and corals, however, always seemed very happy and grew substantially.

George

[ravenmore]

George - Thanks. Mr. Borneman mentions that he uses the vibragrow also. I may have to look into that product.

I'm making the assumption that "plenum" is interchangeable with refugium? That might be important.....it sounds like you're right that your tank might have a higher level of nutrients. A refugium and a deep sand bed (do you have a sand bed, btw????) could produce a lot of nutrition in the form of planktonic organisms in the water column. That's just a guess......also the heavy feedings could lead to higher concentrations of bacteria in the water which corals also can feed off of.

I've been wanting to set up a gonipora specific tank. I was thinking of a small tank - 20 to 30 gallons with nothing but a deep sand bed and the corals (no rock)....maybe a hang on the back ecosystem filter??? No skimmer either. This tank would naturally have a consistently higher nutrient level. I was planning on feeding just the DT's phyto and smaller sizes of golden pearls (up to about 100micron).

Thanks for the info.

[gerowe]

Ravenmore,

I don't think the plenum I had set up--just the standard deal--is really equivalent to a refugium; the refugium is likely far better. I did have over 4" of sand on top of the plenum and a very large number of critters living in it. I suppose I also had a "refugium" of sorts in the overflow, which was always nearly full of water and also had lots of critters living in it (likewise the sump). (I didn't have many snails or hermits for that size tank, however.) Don't know if any of this had any effect on the Goniopora, but perhaps it did. (I do think it liked to have strong light and decent current.) In any case, good luck with your dedicated tank.

George