What’s happening to this goni?

[Dan7575]

So the arms stopped coming out of the right hand side and a day or so after some of the holes have started to go black. I used a syringe full of water and gently blasted it and all the black came off. It hasn’t helped and the black bit is starting to come back? Any ideas?

Ca - 400
Mg - 1300
KH - dkh 7
NO3 - 5
NO2 - 0
Amonia- 0
PH - 8.2

 

[goggs29]

Looks like die off unfortunately

 

[najer]

Is anything bothering or eating it, could it have been stung?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Receeding. May be a dead spot for light and water flow. Have you been feeding it ??

 

[Dan7575]

Is anything bothering or eating it, could it have been stung?

There isn’t another coral close enough to touch, could the sting float through the water?

 

[Dan7575]

Receeding. May be a dead spot for light and water flow. Have you been feeding it ??

The light and flow are pretty much the same all round and is in a central part of the tank so not shielded by anything. I feed it maybe every 7-10 days with reef roids

 

[najer]

There isn’t another coral close enough to touch, could the sting float through the water?

Some corals can send out 3 or 4 inch stingers and more.

 

[Apotack]

How old is your tank?

 

[Dana Riddle]

I did a lot of research on Gonioporas back in the 90's. They are voracious feeders, often preferring phytoplankton or other planktonic foods. Water motion is needed to deliver enough food. Polyps should be 'waving in the wind' and feeding of phytoplankton 2-3x weekly, along with engineered coral foods.

 

[Dana Riddle]

When corals are not fed sufficiently, they, just as humans do, consume body tissue and become emaciated. If starvation continues death will follow.

 

[Dan7575]

How old is your tank?

Tank is roughly 12 months old

 

[Reesj]

Tank age is not the problem but geting sufficent food without degrading tank parameters is the problem with goniopora. I'm having hard time keeping my goniopora which is also a ball like colony like yours.

I feed it reef roids every 2-3 days and still it is a tough job. I also have 2-3 holes that only come out sparsly. Those white colours are not natural to goniopora unfortunetly. That thing is on its way to death from looks of it. Your feeding schedule is no where near enough; even if your tank condition is good.

 

[Reesj]

A healthy goniopora colony like that should expand from it's round ball shaped base also. Not just from tentacles. That round ball you see will be twice the size when it's fed properly, which we could not do inside our aquariums.

This is mine a week after I got it (Now its half this size). Look at it's ball size and tentacle length... If yours was healthy its tentacles would be insdie your hammer and covering that whole picture.

 

[Dan7575]

A healthy goniopora colony like that should expand from it's round ball shaped base also. Not just from tentacles. That round ball you see will be twice the size when it's fed properly, which we could not do inside our aquariums.

This is mine a week after I got it. Look at it's ball size and tentacle length...

I can’t play that file for some reason.

Up until about three weeks ago it was amazing. The ball is about 2.5 inches and the tentacles would be 4/5 inches long but then just started going black in one place and has struggled since. I have moved it now to see if anything improves.

 

[Reesj]

Try to read up about Goniopora. Its very hard to keep the speciment you and I have. try to turn off the return pump and feed it every other day atleast. Moving it will not make much of a diffrance. Also don't blast water in to it. Keep it in a medium flow area where the tentacles are moving around but does not get blasted.

Here is a old perfect condition picture