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Goniopora Success Tips


hypostatic

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Here is another article, which mentions for important phytoplankton and zooplankton are for goniopora:

http://www.reefs.org/library/aquarium_net/1197/1197_3.html

 

The Mystery of Goniopora E. Borneman Aquarium Net November 1997

 

And a selected quote:

 

In his presentation at the Western Marine Conference this past July, Charles Delbeek showed slides taken in the field of very large tracts of Goniopora in water that was thick and blurry with plankton. He cited that this was a very common area where such fields of Goniopora would thrive. He also showed a slide of the now famous 20+ year old Goniopora at the Waikiki Aquarium which receives natural sea water from the surrounding area. These may not be at first imminently notable, but there is another astounding example of success. Morgan Lidster of Inland Aquatics has not only successfully kept Goniopora, but has taken in specimens that were beginning the classic Goniopora demise (covered later) and found that they recovered and then flourished when maintained in his systems. This has been a repeatable situation with a 95% success rate with these corals. These particular systems are run on algae turf scrubbers powered by low planktonic impact Archimedes screw pumps. And, I have a long term Goniopora that was initially in a minimally skimmed system that has begun to grow rapidly now that it is in an unskimmed system.

 

Dana Riddle provides another piece in the puzzle in his book, The Captive Reef. He notes that Goniopora elicits a feeding response to, among others, the amino acids ornithine, taurine, cysteine, glycine, lycine and phenylalanine. Furthermore, he points out that Goniopora contains up to 35 times the amount of lipid in its tissue as the similarly massive coral, Favia. Goniopora does not produce sweeper tentacles, but is a strongly aggressive coral with potent nematocysts. Its long polyps are adapted to zooplankton capture in areas with reduced currents...generally plankton rich areas. Zooplankton, incidentally, contains fairly significant amounts of heme- (iron) containing elements within their body cavities. Veron notes that because of its aggressive tendencies, other corals are unlikely to be growing near Goniopora, and some colonies may be found to the exclusion of any other coral. Finally, Delbeek and Sprung note that most specimens for the aquarium trade come from turbid lagoon areas. Shimek, in his article "Feed Your Corals, Its the Natural Way," rightly points out the importance and relative necessity of proper coral nutrition.

 

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Wow lots of great info on this thread.

 

Does everyone's gone exhibit the same feeding response? I've got two, my green one accepts reef roids and rotifers, polyps close and retract and visibly digest the food, however the white and blue one I have only responds by inflating it's polyps and opening it's oral disk, not much action apart from that.

 

Normal?

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  • 3 months later...

Wow lots of great info on this thread.

 

Does everyone's gone exhibit the same feeding response? I've got two, my green one accepts reef roids and rotifers, polyps close and retract and visibly digest the food, however the white and blue one I have only responds by inflating it's polyps and opening it's oral disk, not much action apart from that.

 

Normal?

 

It's tough to say what's "normal" with these corals, especially without a lot of research and data. I've seen two different feeding responses in my gonis. 1) after feeding small flakes I sometimes see that some polyps are in the middle of ingesting small fragments. 2) the classical feeding response where the tentacles will slowly close up around food like reef roids -- NOTE: if the polyps are quickly retracting when exposed to food, this is not a feeding response, it's a negative response to touch. I've seen sometimes when feeding that they'll retract, and they actually do this by expelling water (clearly visible water puffs through the food cloud), which means they are not ingesting food.

 

 

I also wanted to share this little bit of information I found on the now defunct coralscience.com, which talks about gonis/alviopora and "pico" plankton/bacteria, which potentially make up a good portion of this coral's diet, which might explain the mystery of the success with this coral:

 

 

"The uptake of non-visible particles may be an explanation for the 'mysterious' success of Goniopora and Alveopora corals in plankton-rich aquaria."

The uptake of small particles is stimulated by mucus production58; nowadays, products are available which are based on this principle, although results remain sparse. By means of polymer-mediated adhesion, various types of plankton can be bound which could stimulate their uptake by coral polyps. Detritus and larger plankton may also be more effectively captured by mucus. Additionally, bacteria thrive in this slimy secretion; the bacterial density of mucus has been found to be four times that of seawater58.

Captured particles are eventually ingested through the oral pore, by means of flagella, cilia and mucus embedding. Flagella and cilia are hair-like appendages which are localised on epidermal cells. They transport particles to the mouth and pharynx, after which it ends up in the gastric cavity. This process likely takes place in most corals, and this can be clearly seen when Fungia mushroom corals are fed with Mysis or Artemia. The uptake of non-visible particles may be an explanation for the 'mysterious' success of Goniopora and Alveopora corals in plankton-rich aquaria.

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Heres my Goni!

16529008784_df9ce1c375_o.jpgIMG_0282 by tduplaga12, on Flickr

 

 

I'm going to keep this short and sweet...Ive had this Goni for about 9 months with extremely slow growth...But hey growth is growth. IMO I think that 1)This coral needs to be fed at least 3 times a week 2) Cannont be kept in water that's "too clean" . Im not saying to keep it in crazy dirty water...But I feel Goniopora needs some nutrients to be a happy camper:)

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Petco has a 30% off fish/inverts/plants going right now. Picked up a goniopora today for $10, wish me luck!

 

Their lighting can't support corals so it was stretching like crazy and looked all brown due to their yellow-ish bulbs. I got it home and it is neon green :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

Petco has a 30% off fish/inverts/plants going right now. Picked up a goniopora today for $10, wish me luck!

 

Their lighting can't support corals so it was stretching like crazy and looked all brown due to their yellow-ish bulbs. I got it home and it is neon green :)

You're gonna love it:)

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  • 4 weeks later...
hypostatic

 

So this shows the actual feeding response for goniopora (shown here with reef roids). I've read/seen in several places that their feeding response is when the polyps will retract in a jerky fashion -- this is incorrect.

 

As seen in the video, you'll notice the real feeding response by the polyp tentacles slowly closing. After that, the polyps will ingest the food, and the top portion of the polyps will become swollen, a sign that the food has actually been ingested.

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Is it worth while to talk about short and Long tentacle Goni differently? They are the same but very different.

 

My short tentacle is very sensitive. Ive had it for about 3 weeks and still struggle to get PE.

 

Have people had different experiences with the two types?

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hypostatic

Is it worth while to talk about short and Long tentacle Goni differently? They are the same but very different.

 

yeah, I think it's worth addressing them as different creatures. I've had zero success with the short-polyp variety (though I've only tried 2 or 3 frags). From what I understand their care is more similar to SPS.

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Mild current, high intensity lighting, dirty tank (relative term) but basically nutrient rich water, and broadcast feeding. I've have good success rates with gonis and they are still one of my favorite corals. This is the only coral I've ever had an allergic reaction too. Broke out in hives all over my body when I touched it with full polyp extension while cleaning. So be careful. 9E4FE78A-4492-4DBF-9148-3E8FEC4720BF.jpg

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hypostatic

This is the only coral I've ever had an allergic reaction too. Broke out in hives all over my body when I touched it with full polyp extension while cleaning. So be careful.

 

yeah, the consensus I've read is that their chemical warfare is pretty potent in general -- though this would be the first time I've read about someone having a reaction I think.

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Red_Blenny

Mild current, high intensity lighting, dirty tank (relative term) but basically nutrient rich water, and broadcast feeding. I've have good success rates with gonis and they are still one of my favorite corals. This is the only coral I've ever had an allergic reaction too. Broke out in hives all over my body when I touched it with full polyp extension while cleaning. So be careful. 9E4FE78A-4492-4DBF-9148-3E8FEC4720BF.jpg

 

Are you by chance allergic to bees?

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No not allergic to bees, even got stung by a sting ray. Been keep keeping corals for 15 years and that's the only thing that got me.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 7 months later...

I'll bump this thread since I posted a while back. I lost most of my LPS due to running my tank too clean but I did not lose the Goni. Closed up because I just moved it but you get the idea of how big this has grown.

 

GUReaGF.jpg

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  • 4 months later...
salty_seadog

My goniopora seem to be doing very well - one in particular has doubled in size. For what it's worth, I think it's due to the way I run the tank - no skimmer, ATS, mild carbon dosing, dsb, refugium and no mech filtering. Natural sea water for water changes. Also activated carbon.

 

I just liked this approach on general principles - then found out the expert consensus also seemed to be it was good for goniopora. Pure dumb luck on my part because I bought one at the lfs knowing nothing about it!

 

Now I have four. They're becoming my favourite coral.

 

Good luck everyone - if we keep sharing what info we have we can hopefully ensure the cute little guys live long and prosper!

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  • 6 months later...

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