9 to 5 Goniopora and Alveopora Forest - NEW FTS

[mitten_reef]

16 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Thank you! You should definitely add one (or more!) to your tank. They way they dance in the flow is mesmerizing. Outside of SPS, they’re probably the tank keepers favorite coral. 
 

Also, I witnessed something I’d never seen before, after a water change on this tank. I saw a bunch of micro brittle starfish hanging out on top of a rock. 

 

There were two different sections with 3-4 of them just sprawled out on the rock, instead of tucked in to their crevices. 
 

What happened next, I can only describe as NC17. I called the tank keeper over, so she too could witness two male star fish spawning (or as I like to call it, mostly to annoy the tank keeper, “busting a nut”). I couldn’t get a good picture of it, but it looked very similar to a rock flower busting a nut spawning.  I speculate that the females climbed on top of the rock, so they could be in the water column for a better chance of catching the spawn and having babies. We don’t run any filtration (other than rock) on this tank, so the MBS baby batter isn’t escaping this tank. 
 

Also, a quick corner shot of a bunch of unhappy gonis from the water change. 
 

Notice the *ahem* cloudy water. Thanks a lot Micro Brittle Starfish. Now I’m going to have even more mouths to feed. 

@WV Reefer, look, someone else has a starfish orgy in their tank!  😂  

[WV Reefer]

2 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

@WV Reefer, look, someone else has a starfish orgy in their tank!  😂  

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

5 hours ago, joshthebox said:

Haha that has happened to me before, it is quite interesting to say the least! I also find they spawn after a waterchange, maybe due to temperature changes. 

I definitely think it could be related to stress/the desire as a species to continue living… Not that I’m in to voyeurism (No kink shaming here, for those that are!) but it was cool to witness. 
 

5 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

@WV Reefer, look, someone else has a starfish orgy in their tank!  😂  

What can I say? We like to party over here! I’m just honored to be mentioned in the same breath as @WV Reefer. 

It should however be noted, that the tank keeper turned down my incredibly generous offer to compete with the starfish, to show them how it’s really done. Party pooper. 

 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

While I continue to drive the tank keeper crazy in many facets of our lives, having her favorite tank full of random frags is no longer one of the reasons. This tank is now fully cleared out of frags, and ready to be shown off. 
 

Without further ado… 

 

I don’t really like how the Alveopora are staged, so I may end up moving some of them around. 

 

 

There is also a chunk of open sand space, so I may need to find something to fill it… Or maybe we just go for a negative space look? 

 

 

The light hadn’t been on very long, when I snapped these pictures. I’m hoping the next time I get some pictures things will be a little fluffier. 

[WV Reefer]

2 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

While I continue to drive the tank keeper crazy in many facets of our lives, having her favorite tank full of random frags is no longer one of the reasons. This tank is now fully cleared out of frags, and ready to be shown off. 
 

Without further ado… 

 

I don’t really like how the Alveopora are staged, so I may end up moving some of them around. 

 

 

There is also a chunk of open sand space, so I may need to find something to fill it… Or maybe we just go for a negative space look? 

 

 

The light hadn’t been on very long, when I snapped these pictures. I’m hoping the next time I get some pictures things will be a little fluffier. 

Looks good.
I like it with the space. 

[kimdawg]

I like it with the open sand bed.  I never seem to be able to do it though!

 

[Merthynia]

Your full tank shot looks great! 

[M. Tournesol]

wow 😧! You have like 70% chance of having my vote at the end of the contest.

[mitten_reef]

 

OK, tell me the upper right one, second one in from the upper right corner, is that the amazeballz, or something very similar to it?  

 

PS. super jealous of this goni collection, and that trachy is just cherry on top.

 

7 hours ago, M. Tournesol said:

wow 😧! You have like 70% chance of having my vote at the end of the contest.

you know you can't vote for yourself (ethically speaking), i think the % chance needs to be higher than 70%, 🤣

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

22 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

OK, tell me the upper right one, second one in from the upper right corner, is that the amazeballz, or something very similar to it?  

It’s a no name. We picked it up about a year and a half ago at a frag swap. It was just a few polyps, and has done well for us. It’s not as bright as the Amazeballz, but still is a really cool Goni. Here’s a closeup shot of it. 
 

 

Its actually the Goni that smoked the Bernardopora on the last page (that has since recovered), before I knew that they weren’t compatible. 
 

Here’s a closeup of the Trachy, in its current state. 
 

And a couple years ago when we got it. 
 

I think it’s been getting too much light, getting blasted by T5’s. It’ll be interesting to see if it starts to revert under the nanobox. It’s still really cool, but has definitely had a color shift, and isn’t nearly as fluffy as it used to be. 

[debbeach13]

Agreed this tank will definitely be big contender in the contest.

[DevilDuck]

Damn sexy!

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! You sure know how to make a fella feel special. 

A little Goni love for the day. 

 

 

This is a yet to be named Goni, I got from Ben at BSA Corals. It’s both a blessing and a curse to live so close to him. You don’t see many grey/black corals in this hobby, so when I saw this one I had to scoop it up. 

[mitten_reef]

16 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

Thanks for the kind words everyone! You sure know how to make a fella feel special. 

A little Goni love for the day. 

 

 

This is a yet to be named Goni, I got from Ben at BSA Corals. It’s both a blessing and a curse to live so close to him. You don’t see many grey/black corals in this hobby, so when I saw this one I had to scoop it up. 

Waiting for one of his insane scoly’s to show up in this lil tank one day

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

9 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

Waiting for one of his insane scoly’s to show up in this lil tank one day

That could happen one day. He’s a bit of scoly hoarder. He has at least 100 scolys in one of his systems. I’m not a huge scoly guy - but I could easily be talked in to some of those crazy masters that are out there (Or the ever famous Mitten Scoly!) 

 

Also, I’ve decided since were closing in on the last week of the completion, I’m going to try and post daily. It might be something simple like a single picture, or it might be a fun tale of my antics with the tank keeper. Tonight we’re having a BBQ, with a few friends, so I may have a good, albeit highly likely to be hungover, story to tell tomorrow. 
 

If a trachy had a side boob, this would be it! 
 

 

This is the Goni that shifted color on us, that I posted about a couple pages back. It is definitely darkening back up, but still much more red/pink than it is blue/purple. 

 

Time to get my drink on, and chase the tank keeper around the house. Wish me luck! 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

These gonis are waking up, and looking hot today! 
 

 

I however, am laid up on the couch, in my skivvies trying to recover from last nights fun.
 

The odds are good, that water changes are going to have to wait until next weekend. Unless someone has a miracle hangover cure they’d like to share?!

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Happy Monday! The tank keeper and I are both feeling much better today. We sure don’t bounce back like we did in our younger days. 

I forced myself to refill all of the top off containers for the week yesterday, and I fed the fish. That was the extent of my productivity yesterday. Instead, I spent the day watching Inception (The tank keeper had never seen it, and liked the premise of dreaming so much, that about 20 minutes in she decided she was going to sleep through the rest of the movie. Sorry Leonardo!), the new Batman movie (Meh) and a childhood classic, Beetlejuice. 

 

Anyway, back to the whole point of the post. The Gonioporas! 
 

This is one of my favorite gonis. I’m not sure if I’d say it’s yellow, or gold. Either way, I totally dig it. The tank keeper likes it too, but that might just be because she has a soft spot for blondes.  

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Today I moved a few of the Alveoporas around. I didn’t like how the larger ones were covering up some of the smaller ones. Hopefully in a day or two once everything is settled, I’ll get a new full tank shot. 
 

Until then, here’s a green stalk, with gold tentacles Goni. 
 

 

It isn’t a Goni that catches your eye from across the room, but it’s a real stunner up close! (I think it gets the stunning part from the tank keeper! Hey girl.) 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Guess what day it is? 

 

Alveopora day! 

 

I’ve decided that alveoporas are just about the easiest coral to photograph. They’re a lot like me. Average at best in real life, but damn my Tinder profile looked good when I met the tank keeper. It was enough to get her on the hook, and let my humor and charm reel her in. Booyah. 

 

 

I can’t remember where we got this one at, but it’s so unique. It’s like a flower inside a flower. i also find it really interesting that the juvenile polyp tips aren’t nearly as pronounced with color as the mature ones. Nature is incredible. 


 

Also, the tank keeper said I couldn’t post an updated full tank shot, because the glass was “dirty”. It’s kind of like when I’ve cleaned the kitchen, but because she didn’t do it, it’s still “dirty”.  Stay tuned - I hope to have a new FTS soon! You know, once she finishes cleaning the kitchen. 

 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

As I was looking through pictures i took a couple days ago, for todays post, I noticed something interesting. This is our newest Alveopora, with the really small rainbowish polyps, I posted about a few weeks ago. 
 

If you look closely, you can see there are two polyps, sharing the same stalk. I continue to be fascinated by this coral. It’s so different from any of the other Alveoporas I’ve seen. 
 

For polyp size comparison, here’s a picture of the tiny polyp alveopora, next to a more standard sized alveopora we have. I’ll try to get a better shot for comparison purpose the next time I take pictures. 

 

Also, I think this Duncan wants to be an alveopora when it grows up. 

[mitten_reef]

22 minutes ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

For polyp size comparison, here’s a picture of the tiny polyp alveopora, next to a more standard sized alveopora we have.

you found the "bernardpora" of the alv? 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

5 hours ago, mitten_reef said:

you found the "bernardpora" of the alv? 

I’m not sure. There are 12 known species of alveopora. The most common that I think we see in this hobby is Alveopora Gigas. I believe we also have a couple of Alveopora Tizardi. 
 

If I had to take a guess at the species of this one, my best guess would be Alveopora Marionensis or Alveopora viridis. I’d lean more to A. Marionensis though. It’ll be fun to watch it grow, and see if I can correctly identify it. 
 

Thanks Mr. Mittens for allowing me the opportunity to geek out about Alveoporas. Now, time to crack open a cold one, and watch the NFL draft and the Suns/Pelicans game. Go Suns! 

 

[WV Reefer]

1 hour ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I’m not sure. There are 12 known species of alveopora. The most common that I think we see in this hobby is Alveopora Gigas. I believe we also have a couple of Alveopora Tizardi. 
 

If I had to take a guess at the species of this one, my best guess would be Alveopora Marionensis or Alveopora viridis. I’d lean more to A. Marionensis though. It’ll be fun to watch it grow, and see if I can correctly identify it. 
 

Thanks Mr. Mittens for allowing me the opportunity to geek out about Alveoporas. Now, time to crack open a cold one, and watch the NFL draft and the Suns/Pelicans game. Go Suns! 

 

[spectra]

1 hour ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I’m not sure. There are 12 known species of alveopora. The most common that I think we see in this hobby is Alveopora Gigas. I believe we also have a couple of Alveopora Tizardi. 
 

If I had to take a guess at the species of this one, my best guess would be Alveopora Marionensis or Alveopora viridis. I’d lean more to A. Marionensis though. It’ll be fun to watch it grow, and see if I can correctly identify it. 
 

Thanks Mr. Mittens for allowing me the opportunity to geek out about Alveoporas. Now, time to crack open a cold one, and watch the NFL draft and the Suns/Pelicans game. Go Suns! 

 

 

Figured WV tossed shit your way so....................

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Happy Friday, everyone! Not much to report on this tank. Everything just keeps chugging along. 

Alveopora cuddles! 
 

 

Kind of a cool reflection shot, when I turned the MP10 off. 

 

 

And, just in case anyone was starting to think this thread needs more gonis, you’re right! 


 

I’ve got to be extra nice to the tank keeper this evening, and see if I can sweet talk her in to “cleaning” the tank, so I can get an updated full tank shot, that meets her rigorous standards.
 

Sounds like it might require a few drinks + these magic hands + every ounce of my charm turned all the way up. It’s an irritating irresistible trio!