Potential Solution to Goniopora Issues - Need Your Help and Feedback!

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Hey everyone!

I've grown my Goniopora collection recently, and now I am up to five different types. I've always been scared to try them, but I've had success with them so far. I've had some close up, and I had no idea why. I decided to take a small cup with tank water, dump in some Red Sea AB+ and Reef Roids. I added the Goniopora into the cup, and let it sit there for ten minutes, while I occasionally stirred the water to get the Reef Roids suspended in the water column. I put it back into the tank, and within a few hours, polyps were coming back out. By the next day, it looked better than I've ever seen it before. However, I did dose some trace elements, and I did a very small water change. So, I can not be certain that the dip alone helped the Goniopora open better. I did another dip a few hours ago on a red Goniopora, and I am seeing the polyps come slightly out of its skeleton. It's not as significant as the first Goniopora.

If you have a Goniopora that isn't opening up, I encourage you to try these steps and please, report back to this thread on your results.

DISCLAIMER: I am not aware of any negative affects of the dip, however, that does not mean there aren't any. Please, try at your own risk. Don't do something in your tank just to make one coral happy (this may mean no trace element dosing). Please, do your research if you decide you want to dose trace elements!

Step 1: Assure trace elements (specifically Iodine and manganese) are at proper levels. Send in an ICP for exact numbers, or figure out if you should dose any or not.

Step 2: Take coral out and preform dip. Add your preferred amino acids (I did Red Sea AB+). I did a splash of it into a small cup of water. Do a concentration you're comfortable with. Add Reef Roids. Again, no measurements.I did about a teaspoon in the same cup of water THIS MAY TAKE MULTPLE DIPS OVER THE COURSE OF A FEW WEEKS TO DAYS TO GET THE GONIOPORA TO OPEN. It depends on the severity of the issue.

Step 3: Leave the Goniopora in for ten or so minutes, while occasionally stirring the water to keep the Reef Roids suspended.

Step 4: Take coral out and add it back to the same spot, assuring there's no residues or food left on it.

OPTIONAL: Dump dip into water to feed other corals (I always do)

Why I think this works:

It's known in the hobby that Gonioporas need manganese and iodine more than other trace elements. We don't really know why yet, but we know that they do.

As for the dip, this is my hypothesis. Goniopora are very hungry corals. They love to be fed. If they don't get fed, they may start to starve and this may cause them to close. Because it takes energy for the corals to have polyp extension, they stay closed to preserve energy. While they're closed, they can't get significant amounts of energy from the zooxanthellae. So, they fall into this cycle of starvation and staying shut, until they slowly receede to their death.

The dip provides a high level of aminos and phosphorus, making it very easy for the coral to eat. After it eats, it may start to open up again, gain energy from the zooxanthellae, and then stay open like they're supposed to. Again, this may take multiple dips to achieve.

If you have a struggling Goniopora, I’d appreciate it if you could test this dip and share your results. Of course, there’s always a risk... This experiment is obviously not formal, and all evidence would be anecdotal, but community feedback can help us understand if this method has potential.

Thank you and happy reefing!

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

60% of the time it works everytime!

All seriousness though, it makes sense. Ecspecially since i don't feel like genius give you that aggressive feeding response you get with a Duncan, acan, etc so it might just be that the need some extra love to get back to the front. If anything enjoy this bump, but your logic seems to make sense!

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

The red goniopora has its polyps out of its skeleton, unlike yesterday, where the polyps were tucked into its skeleton. I can say almost confidently that the dip is responsible for increasing its polyp extension, because I changed nothing else.

 

[reefer37160]

I may have to try this on my Goni. It was left in a neglected tank for almost 5 years, no water changes she only did top offs. I got it on Saturday, did a 12 hour drip acclamation, heads where just out of the skeleton. Did a 5min coral rx dip, same thing heads just out of the skeleton. Placed it in my dt, and heads pulled back. The pic is before the removal of algae, and dip.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

thanks walker! ive got a couple that are on there way out that i want to try this on!

 

[ryudo80]

Is that 2-3 teaspoon of reef roids in a small amount of water? I just want to reconfirm the amount of reef roids as I usually use a lot less than 1 teaspoon to feed the entire tank.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Is that 2-3 teaspoon of reef roids in a small amount of water? I just want to reconfirm the amount of reef roids as I usually use a lot less than 1 teaspoon to feed the entire tank.

Yes, that's what I did. However I suggest doing what you're comfortable with, as I dont know if too much will hurt the coral.

 

[ryudo80]

Yes, that's what I did. However I suggest doing what you're comfortable with, as I dont know if too much will hurt the coral.

I bought my first goniopora frag about a month ago and it hasn't been doing well and never extended its polyps much at all. Today, I tried what you suggested using Brightwell Restor as the amono acid source and about 1 teaspoon of reef roids in a cup of tank water. 1 teaspoon did make the water very cloudy but I did leave the coral in the solution for about 10 minutes. It's been a few hours now and I am seeing some positive results from the dip. The polyps are slightly extended and looks puffier. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I bought my first goniopora frag about a month ago and it hasn't been doing well and never extended its polyps much at all. Today, I tried what you suggested using Brightwell Restor as the amono acid source and about 1 teaspoon of reef roids in a cup of tank water. 1 teaspoon did make the water very cloudy but I did leave the coral in the solution for about 10 minutes. It's been a few hours now and I am seeing some positive results from the dip. The polyps are slightly extended and looks puffier. I'll try again tomorrow.

That's so exciting to here! I am very happy that this is working for you!!

 

[liddojunior]

If you take a horse to water, it won’t drink. But if you dump your Goniopora in food, it will eat.

That’s such an unusual way of force feeding. Goniopora for me don’t have a very good feeding response. And don’t like being squirted on with food. This might be a good way to feed them when frag sized

My tank is very suited for Goniopora. And I believe it’s because of the heavy pod density and no fish. I feed phyto and rotifers when I can.

 

[stE25wy14]

@VintageReefer

 

[JGT]

While probably obvious, whether this works or not, it's not sustainable in other than a small tank with a couple of gonis. Also the constant movement will likely inevitably result in something bad happening to the gonis.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

While probably obvious, whether this works or not, it's not sustainable in other than a small tank with a couple of gonis. Also the constant movement will likely inevitably result in something bad happening to the gonis.

Good point. Yes, this is meant for frags. Usually larger colonies do well, because most were grown from frags in the same tank so the owner is capable of keeping gonis happy. This dip is kind of to help beginner goni owners get out of the "cycle" where gonis will close and just receede until ultimately they die. If the gonis is in that "cycle" it's likely to die, so if it does happen to die from being moved too much, you didn't really lose much. But the goni should be able to survive a few dips if done properly.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

If you take a horse to water, it won’t drink. But if you dump your Goniopora in food, it will eat.

That’s such an unusual way of force feeding. Goniopora for me don’t have a very good feeding response. And don’t like being squirted on with food. This might be a good way to feed them when frag sized

My tank is very suited for Goniopora. And I believe it’s because of the heavy pod density and no fish. I feed phyto and rotifers when I can.

Your right, it is an unusual way to feed gonis. I wouldn't say that it is forcing the goni to eat. It's giving them nutrient and amino rich water, in a low stress environment. This allows the coral to absorb nutrients and gain some energy to put out its polyps.

Gonis definitely do better in established tanks, and a frag and a colony makes all the difference. Colonies can usually handle stress much better than frags, but even in mature tanks frags of gonis can close for no reason. This dip is (In my opinion) a harmless way to see if you can experiment when you're unsure of what's going on. Of course, this is all anecdotal and the evidence is personal observation.

I'm glad that you found success in keeping gonis! :)

 

[liddojunior]

Your right, it is an unusual way to feed gonis. I wouldn't say that it is forcing the goni to eat. It's giving them nutrient and amino rich water, in a low stress environment. This allows the coral to absorb nutrients and gain some energy to put out its polyps.

Gonis definitely do better in established tanks, and a frag and a colony makes all the difference. Colonies can usually handle stress much better than frags, but even in mature tanks frags of gonis can close for no reason. This dip is (In my opinion) a harmless way to see if you can experiment when you're unsure of what's going on. Of course, this is all anecdotal and the evidence is personal observation.

I'm glad that you found success in keeping gonis! :)

Yeahh. I was making more of a joke since you’re directly putting it in the sauce haha

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I wanted to come on here to bump the thread and discuss new findings. My big green goni has been doing really well the past few months, but also in the past few months I have been really busy and kind of neglected the tank (I also lost motivation to really spend a lot of time on the tank, but don't worry, I did take care of the fish as I always do). I just didn't follow the parameters well. On a crazy miracle, the goni actually did pretty well while some smaller frags died out. Just recently, the polyps have been closed during the day, and this is also around the time that one of my hammers bailed out. I've been keeping parameters stable this past week, and it was still closed. The frag is perfectly glued on the rock, and I didn't want to take it out unless I absolutely had to, so I mixed some reef roids and amino acids together, sucked it up into a syringe and while the flow was off I sprayed the Goni with the food. I'm just a few hours the polyps have come out almost half an inch even with the lights winding down and they keep coming out further. Tomorrow they should be out more. This method really works in getting your exhausted gonis to come out. Sometimes they just need a little energy boost to extend their polyps.

 

[CHSUB]

I have 4 gonis that are doing quite well, growing with poly extension and 3 are over a year old. I have also been feeding the entire time with AB+ and Roids directly with flow off, however not removing from tank. Imo, the most important part of success is selecting captive grown colonies. Years ago wild collected Goni stokesi was commonly sold and nearly impossible to keep. This only is my belief why they were considered impossible.

It's known in the hobby that Gonioporas need manganese and iodine more than other trace elements. We don't really know why yet, but we know that they do.

I don’t agree with this statement. I do ICP and see no indication of manganese or iodine being any more important for gonis than any other coral.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

I have 4 gonis that are doing quite well, growing with poly extension and 3 are over a year old. I have also been feeding the entire time with AB + and Roids directly with flow off, however not removing from tank. Imo, the most important part of success is selecting captive grown colonies. Years ago wild collected Goni stokesi was commonly sold and nearly impossible to keep. This is only my belief why they were considered impossible.





I don’t agree with this statement. I do ICP and see no indication of manganese or iodine being any more important for Gonis than any other coral.

You're right. I guess my wording was wrong in the quoted post. Many people in the hobby have seen that when their iodine or manganese levels go down, goniopora are usually the first to show dramatic signs of irritation. Other corals might have just as much of a negative effect as goniopora, but sometimes they are slower to show the symptoms and it's more of a slow decline rather than with goniopora which In some cases seems like a fast decline. And of course, it all depends on the tank, it's conditions, and the coral itself. But in the hobby we have anecdotal evidence that when idodine and manganese elements are at proper levels, along with the other major events, gonis tend to do well.

 

[X-37B]

3 gonis in my 15 doing well.
I only feed the 2 fish but the whole tank gets fed from 4-5 times a day.
Just took these

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

3 gonis in my 15 doing well.
I only feed the 2 fish but the whole tank gets fed from 4-5 times a day.
Just took these

Feeding is key! Gorgeous gonis!