Gonipora

[Martyn]

Thought you may find this interesting.
not a recomendation that everyone should keep them.
My Friend Simon (known as SimonH at RC)Has a green gonipora stokesi he thinks.
He has had it for 19 months and has produced 7 babys so far.
the pics was taken after lights out so the polyps are closed up.
I will be trying one of the babys too see if it wil survive in my systems.
Simon is going to see if they will survive in other peoples systems.
I hope they do and bud off in my system I hope we can get lots of them and just maybe we could lower the demand for wild caught ones in our area's a tad.
I know it just a dream http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
Martyn

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...nce=0&res=high

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...nce=0&res=high

[YZ]

Hey, if it's still buddin next spring give me a holler and I'll buy one for sure or maybe I'll look you up. I've got a heliofungia that's doin great, better than anyone I've ever seen, got some pics comin soon hopefully they turned out.

Martyn I hope this works out for you guys. I have had a goni for a year or so. It was given to me and not in great health when I aquired it. I keep it on the sand in a tank that prolly matches the params for lagoonal but unfortunatly it continues to decline. They are spectacular looking when healthy and it would be nice to have a hardy aquacultured
source for these guys. I would never buy a wild caught one givin their track record of survivalbility

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[simonh]

I think the Goniopora is Stokesi. I will get a daytime pic with polyps expanded.

Let me think. I posted this one of the other boards but they deleted the post now.

Tank: 65 gallon (mainly SPS, Clams with a few LPS)
Salinity: 35ppt
Temperature: 82-84F
Filtration: 3-3.5 fine sand bed, Live rock, Skimmer
Lights: 2x250W (goniopora is in a corner of the tank which is quite shaded)
Water motion: 6 x Maxijet 1200 (goniopora recieves gentle current)
Feeding: Tank is fed daily for fish with a mixed diet. Fed 3 times per week with Tahitain blend phytoplankton.


I'm not sure why this Goniopora is so hardy (so far). Think I may just have got lucky dunno. I will hopefully get chance to try the babies in different systems to see if they survive under different feeding regiemes. The baby which is detached and free living was small and attached to the colony when I purchased it. It detached after about 6months and has been slowly growing. All the other 7 babies have developed in the aquarium. One is ready to detach as you can see in the pics. Coral has been handled often (some people report that handling may give a bacterial infection?). Also coral was burnt badly by sweeper tentacles on a brain coral which resulted in the tissue dieing back to the skeleton, since then it has regrown and recovered. Has been in 3 different tanks over the 19 months (I upgraded tanks once and I had to move it during my flatworm crash too). During the flatworm crash the coral was inflated like a football away from the skeleton (maybe due to the toxins from the flatworms) once moved it recoved quickly.

Hopefully it will continue to thrive. Think Rob Toonen has an article coming out soon on whether feeding is the reason for failure with Goniopora.

-Simon

Simon, welcome to TheReefTank http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
THe goni I have is probably the same species I wish I could say that under my care it snapped out of its funk and has taken over the whole tank, but that would be pushin it.
Out of curiosity was your thread on the other BB closed because it dealt with goniopora or because of the verbal firestorm that generally ensues when controversy arises?

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[simonh]

Think it got deleted because it became out of date and wasn't archived.

Have u tried feeding your tank with Phyto? Just wondered if it may help?

-Simon

Yup fed tank with DTs and also make sure it gets reef mush slurry to pick food from

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[simonh]

Hope it starts to produce offspring soon for u. And we can finally crack the mystery of Goniopora.

-Simon

[simonh]

Here's a few pictures with the polyps opened. Sorry about the bad photos (a combination of the halide lights washing out the colours in the pics and my hand wobbling)

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...nce=0&res=high

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...nce=0&res=high

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?...nce=0&res=high

-Simon

[This message has been edited by simonh (edited 11-05-2000).]

[smpolyp]

Every goniopora I have had come in dropping babies seem to slow down in a 1 1/2 years on dropping them. After about 2 1/2-3 years they stop altogether. The babbies get lost very easy after they drop off so attaching them to a large rock is a must.

Hi smpolyp, what can you tell us about the hardiness of the babies that dropped, do they seem to fair better than wild caught?

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[simonh]

I agree that they can get blown around easy. Because the can inflate alot when the tentacles are out the become rather boyant when small.

-Simon

[smpolyp]

I had given all,but one away. The ones that I gave away and still talk to the owners had lost them to falling off the rock and finding them when it was to late. I did keep a couple. All were lost to currents taking them under rocks except for one. It started out with 4 polyps and after 3 years had 22 polyps. About a year after that it died from a sponge taking over.Even though I was scraping the sponge away it was boring into the skeleton. I would say that wild caught are the hardiest. Only due to the fact of losing the babies under a rock and that when they are small they are easily attacked by other organisms.

[Martyn]

Smpolyp.
Would you say that attaching the gonipora babies too a piece of rock and burying the rock in the sand so the bottom of the base of the gonipora babies is level with the surface of the sand bed is the best way too approch it.
Martyn

[This message has been edited by Martyn (edited 11-05-2000).]

[smpolyp]

Strap them puppies down. simonh said they can infate and they can. They are round and water flow on a small ball can result in moving the ball.