Goniastrea MicroEnvironment

[ryantm]

Hi, first time poster. I have a 20 Gallon Nano that I would like to set up a biotope of sorts. I'm interested in keeping goniastrea, favites, and possibly indo-pacific gorgonians. My question is, are these species found in proximity to each other in the wild, and where on the reef would they associate. Also, any information on smaller types of fish that would be found there would be helpful. I've spent hours trolling the web trying to dig up any biotope info I can find. I've also read Tullock's book cover to cover. This isn't a topic that has much coverage in popular literature. Any ideas?

-Tom

 

[Krish]

No sure Tom...Just wanted to welcome you to the forum! Glad you're here and hope you enjoy it here.

 

[NaH2O]

I wanted to Welcome you to Reef Frontiers, while we wait for Anthony's wisdom

 

[Pauls]

Hi Tom. Welcome to RF. I dont have a clue, hopefully Anthony will come along soon with some insite.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

cheers, Tom. Welcome indeed!

Kudos to you for having the very conscientious approach to research these animals before you buy them. A biotope perspective is most always the best long term plan IMO.

However, for a tank this small... it is going to be somewhat difficult to manage it unless you have the great discipline to limit yourself to literally a few corals as well as prune them regularly.

For starters... please do rule out the goniopora. Not so much because of their dismal reputation for captivity at large, but rather because they are indeed deserving of somewhat special care, and the small size of this aquarium is going to impose greater stress/burden on the genera that would arguably be better suited for a larger tank or at least a species-specific refugium.

As for the Indo gorgs... I really don't see how you will be able to target feed them successfully in a mini-reef without being a slave to large weekly water changes t maintain adequate water quality. Moreoever, we do not even know what most of them eat/need to survive long term.

So... about that specialized Faviid feature display Fabulous idea. Seriously. Handsome corals, many species/colors, and all slow growing enough that you could enjoy them for years with minimal prunging (sawing actually).

For more info on coral depth/locales on the reef... see Veron for stony corals (referenced in my fav links sticky thread atop this forum as well as in the RF galleries here) or Alderslade (2001) also mentioned i my sticky thread of fav links.

kindly, Anthony

 

[ryantm]

Thanks for the reply Anthony, much appreciated. Is Goniastrea the Same as Goniapora? I wasn't intending on keeping those. I thought Goniastrea was very closely related to favia. I was actually only considering maybe 2 or 3 very closely species. What area of the reef are favia found? In lieu of gorgonians, would there be some softies I could place in there, maybe some xenia or discosoma etc. Thanks for all your help and patience with a noob,

-Tom

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Doh! my apologies... I was reading mail too fast (answering on three boards at the same time tonight!).

You are correct my friend... Goniastrea is quite different, though not actually much hardier than Goniopora. While most brain type corals are rather easy enough to care for, Goniastrea can be tricky. Its less common and often is collected in extremely high light areas with requirements so severe that other corals would suffer along side of it.

Faviids at large however are found over a very wide range and depths on the reef. Please do take the time to browse the galleries and especially a book like Verons corals of the world. You can easily discover the precise locales of exact species on the reefs of the world.

Do avoid corallimorpharians for this tank. They are too aggressive and too invasive.

But most any of the Xeniids would be excellent!

Again... please do check out my links in the "fav links" sticky thread. There really is a wealth of info there! Starting with some great search tools/databases.