Anyone had success with Goniopora??

[REILLY13]

The local fish store failed to inform me of the difficulties with goniopora, so in an effort to give this coral a fighting chance I'm looking for advice from people who have had success with these, especially in regards to feeding/lighting. I've got 80 watts of NO flourescent lighting, mixed actinic and 10000k. 20 gallon tank w 12 gallon sump. Live 20lbs live rock, protein skimmer. 1.024sg, 79degrees, calcium-400, ph 8.4
small hippo tang, coral beauty, madarin, long tenacle anemone, mushroom rock. Feed tank brine shrimp on occasion, phytoplankton every other day. I have noticed when brine shrimp is fed (pumps off) some of the polyps will quickly close it's tenacles in around it's mouth(like an anemone does with a fish)but the stalk remains extended. Is that a "mmmm food" characteristic or "ahh, something repulsive touched me" characteristic?

It has been opening fully in the morning and then by middle afternoon it has been retracting slightly with a few polyps retracting fully. It's placement was high in the tank so I moved it last night to a spot lower in the tank to see if it was retracting because of too much light. I've read that some corals need food to help with photosynthesis, perhaps not enough food to finish out the day? All very speculative, comments please.

[ 05-23-2001: Message edited by: REILLY13 ]

[ 05-23-2001: Message edited by: REILLY13 ]

[ 05-23-2001: Message edited by: REILLY13 ]

[Wrasse Man]

Reilly,

Unfortunatly, with Goniopora, there seems to be no set 'this is what works'.
It seems that just about everybody having luck with Goniopora is keeping them differently.
I have heard of people keeping them under intense MH lighting, with great success. The one I have was thriving under 120W of NO Florescent, then began to retract when I went to 220 watts of PC.
Some people say Phytoplancton, some say absolutly not because there is differing views on whether or not Goniopora can even eat the stuff.
One of the posters here (Mary I think) was beging a Goniopora study with Dr. Ron to validate claims that Goni's did better if they were touching another Goni. I had to back out do to tank and house space, but hopefully she will see this and elaborate/correct me.
The one constant seems to be that the will do well for 6 months-1 year, then slowly begin to die.
My suggestion (and I hate to say it) would be to see if you can't take it back and trade it. The odds of it doing well are pretty slim, and that is not a slam on you, it is just that these guys should be left in the wild until more is understood about them.

Aren't I a ray of sunshine?

Maybe someone else here can elaborate/correct me if I am wrong.

Hope that helps.

[Alice]

Gonipora tend to live in muddy reef flat/lagoon areas in the wild and the speculation is that our tanks are just too clean for them. They are able to utilize very small prey that evidently abound in turbid waters but not in our tanks. There's only been one study done so far on the feeding of gonipora (that I know of) and it was inconclusive. The author of the study had to quit when she began suffering allergic reactions to the goni.

Someone may "crack the code" for feeding thess beautiful animals one of these days, unfortunately, that day isn't here yet and gonipora are best left in the wild.

I'm with Wrasse Man, try to return the coral if you can. AND make sure you tell your LFS why you are returning it. He'll prolly scoff at you and tell you he or one of his customers has had great success with one. If he hasn't had it for two years (which may be how long the coral can live off of its' reserves before dying) than I don't think that can be judged as success. Gonis often do even throw off babies when they are in captivity but they still seem to just fade away within a year or so.

OK...I'm off the soapbox now

~Alice

[REILLY13]

Wrasse Man,
When using the no flourescents what brand and output(K,actinic etc.)bulbs were you using?

Thanks for you input Alice. The LFS guy is a little arrogant and doesn't seem to take his customers seriously unless your dropping really big bills in his store. Unfortunately he's the only guy around. These boards are far more informative!

[ 05-23-2001: Message edited by: REILLY13 ]

[toms]

Reilly,
Just wanted to let you know there is a pretty good article by Rob Toonen about Goniopora in the June 2001 issue of FAMA. Your LFS guy might be interested.

[moe]

ive had mine for 4 years so far .its ready to drop its first bud(baby) i just feed my fish everyday and no other feeding.it gets indirect light from a 250 10000k mhand medium current so far it has been pretty hardy good luck with yours

[Alice]

That's great Moe. Do you run a skimmer? Mary HM is running a gonipora study on reefs.org. Have you taken part yet?

~Alice