Keeping Goniopora!

[dwall174]

I’m looking for information on keeping Goniopora! Going by the pictures that mojoreef posted in the coral gallery, I would guess the type I’m interested in is the djiboutiensis, palmensis, or pearsoni. I have heard that they are hard to keep alive. What type of water conditions & lighting do the require?

 

[dnjan]

Can't help you with the goniopora, but have you thought about alveopora instead? If it is just the "flowerpot" appearance you are interested in, you can get that with alveopora, and also have (IMO) a better chance of success.

Here is a green alveopora frag:

and here are my pink and green colonies.

 

[dwall174]

If it is just the "flowerpot" appearance you are interested in, you can get that with alveopora,

Yea that will work! What basically is the difference between the two? Mater of fact my LFS has what they call a strawberry goniopora that looks a lot like your pink alveopora colony? It has a little whiter stalks but with light pink centers & darker pink/red tips. What type of lighting & water works best for them?

 

[Anthony Calfo]

good advice... very much agreed: Alveopora is a much better choice.

And please do establish a large fishless (and sans coral) refugium (perhaps a DSB fuge) to support these and other corals before you buy them. Read more in the archives of this board and beyond regarding the merits of refugia for nutrient export and plankter/food production... need to know information.

FWIW... I kept a reproducing colony of Goniopora stokesi for almost six years before sale/moving them... and give most of the credit to the 240 gall DSB Syringodium refugium (some indicatiosn that the phyto and epiphytes produced are nutritive).

Anthony

 

[dnjan]

Look at the number of "petals" on each polyp. Alveopora have 12, and goniopora have 24.

Decide what you want to keep in your tank. I do not believe that alveopora are compatible with a "pristine, SPS tank". I keep montipora and tubinaria with no problems, but acropora don't do well in my tank. I have medium lighting and low to medium water flow in the portion of the tank where the alveoporas are (Anthony chastized me for not having enough water movement). The nutrient level in the tank is fairly high (I skimm, but not overly-agressively). I have a sandbed.

 

[dwall174]

and give most of the credit to the 240 gall DSB Syringodium refugium

Whats a Syringodium refugium?
I have two refugiums! One above the main tank used as a food source, And a lower sediment style fuge used as a nutrient export!

Look at the number of "petals" on each polyp. Alveopora have 12, and goniopora have 24.

Thanks that makes it easier!

I do not believe that alveopora are compatible with a "pristine, SPS tank"

That sounds good to me because I like the look of softies!

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Syringodium is a seagrass... discussed in my Book of Coral Propagation re: the Goniopora reproducing and at even greater length as a plant with/for refugia in my latest "Reef Invertebrates" FWIW

 

[dwall174]

Thanks Anthony!

I’m not really a book reader, But It sounds like something I should look into getting!

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Dwall... I see you are from MI. I believe I have donated copies of my books to the wonderful MI club MASM.org Do check out their library... if they dont have it, ask them (John Dawe) to send me their librarian's addy and I'll post copies for the club.

I'll also be visiting to lecture in April (23rd?) with Kelly Jedlicki and another speaker (trying to get our friend Scott M to confirm). Its a fab conference and wonderful club. Do check them out www.masm.org

kindly, Anthony

 

[dwall174]

Yea I have heard about them! However I usually work afternoons & nights so I normally miss there meetings.

 

[dnjan]

Anthony is a great speaker! Call in sick the day he will be at your local meeting.

 

[dwall174]

Call in sick the day he will be at your local meeting.

Unfortunately I don’t have that option because I’m a self employed contractor! I do however have the ability to schedule things ahead of time! It never fails that the good meetings or events are in the spring or summer which is my busiest time of the year.

 

[flamehawk7]

is this fair?

If your not willing to put in the time to learn about the animals your keeping(I.E reading books) then maybe its not fair to try and keep those corals in your tank. I hope i don't sound like your father here but we are talking living animals that have a right to are best care.

 

[dwall174]

If your not willing to put in the time to learn about the animals your keeping(I.E reading books) then maybe its not fair to try and keep those corals in your tank.

Maybe you should ask your self if its fair that the LFS sell these all the time & don’t even bother explaining their care or requirements! Or that they sell someone a Moorish Idol because “Gill” wants to be with “Nemo” in his 29gal tank!
I fully understand that they are an extremely difficult coral to care for & that’s why I’m asking questions here first! If you bothered to read this whole thread then you would see that I’m inquiring about them & looking for information on their care & requirements! In fact With all the information I have gotten so far from the web, If I do decide to try a “Flower Pot” coral I will go with the Alveopora instead of the Goniopora as suggested by Dnjan & Anthony!

 

[Anthony Calfo]

its not the LFS's responsibility my friend... they only sell what "we" (consumers) buy.

It is always our responsibility to be educated consumers. We alone set market prices for what is offered via our demand (literally) for all goods and services.

I promise you that the LFS, the wholesalers, collectors, etc are not charities... they want to make money. And they will not stock things that don't sell.

Flamehawk is not trying to attack you either Dwall... just giving a pointed reminder that too many aquarists use the dubious quality of information at large on the Internet as their definitive source of information. That IS a mistake unless you are only heeding verifiable quality of information (citations, etc.).

And at last... relax my friend... its a peaceful hobby and most all are good folks wanting to help out. No need to be defensive

kindly, Anthony

 

[flamehawk7]

dwall174 i didnt want to make you mad

Dwall174 my comments were not to make you made but to chalnage you to find out as much as you can before you make your purchase. however if you getting mad at me saved another helpless flower pot then so be it. I hope you don't get me wrong here i want you to get the flower pot but please do yourself the favor of finding out all the requirements of that animal. I think it is great that you used this resource however i challenge you to pick up a book and learn my friend . getting the right requirements for a goniopora dosent mean you have to spend a bunch of money but you will have to do a little studying. Now that we have that behind us as friends i will tell you what i have done to make things better for my goniopora. first i have routine maintenance that i preform like its my religion. i change 5 gal of water every week , clean my skimmer and all prefilters at the same time. i am always watching my water chemistry and i make adjustments as needed. I have refugium and i think that is a big help. so far i have had great luck with my goniopora , i have even had the joy of having it spawning sister corals. My success isn't because i am some smart scientist , i am just a dump fireman that if nothing had the brains to get as many books on this subject as i could. mike

 

[dwall174]

Ok maybe I over reacted a little! But what I got from your reply is that I’m not willing to read a book or do any research on these corals! That’s not the case! Yea the information I’ve been gathering is mainly from the web! However it’s from people such as Anthony & others that have written articles/books on keeping corals including Steve Tyree & Eric Borneman! I have also read most of the articles that are on Advanced Aquarist along with the archived information here & other saltwater BB’s. Here’s two posts on RC that I have been following Thread One & Thread Two on their care & requirements!

I think it is great that you used this resource however i challenge you to pick up a book and learn my friend.

I guess why I stated that I’m not really a book reader is because most of the time these reference books are written by Marine Biologists or Scientists & sometimes they tend to get carried away with the Scientific or Latin names & Terminology. If the book is written in what I call “Layman’s Terms” then I have now problems reading it! When I have to keep looking in a dictionary to figure out the meaning of a word then I will lose interest in the book quick.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

hmmm... you are mistaken, mate. Most hobbyist books are written by hobbyists and not scientists... and most of those with science degrees write in wonderfully easy to understand narratives: Moe, Tullock, Palletta, Julian and Charles, Riddle, Yoshi, etc.

I do think you've inaccurately prejudged ,most hobby authorship

 

[dwall174]

hmmm... you are mistaken, mate.

Oh well it wouldn't be the first time!

 

[Anthony Calfo]

heheee... we all live and learn

The truth of the matter is, that for most of us hobby authors... the drive to publish is from passion for the hobby, pride in sharing our work, accomplishments, vanity, etc... many possible motivations - but money is not one of them. Not that we wouldn't like to make money at our hobby! But there really isn't much to be made.

The list of excellent author's above includes a teacher, a pharmaceutics salesman, an Amazon exec, a retired chap, etc. All experts... all passionate... but none inaccessible or hard to understand in their writings. No dry science types at all