What's not to love about Gonipora? It's colorful, it flows, so what is it?

[rwreef]

My goni, daisy

 

[LPS Bum]

Their track record for survivability is spotty at best, and from my experience, they don't ship well. Great looking corals though, IF you can get them to do well for more than 3-6 months.

 

[optionrj]

I absolutely love both these guys. Super easy to take care of and add a bit more life to the tank

 

[Stevel]

Have three different frags and always seem to retract and fade over time. I love them but just can’t keep them. All other corals are doing great just don’t get it ???

 

[srobertb]

Goniopora are notorious for not living longer than a year or so. I’ve considered it many times and each time I Google and try to find new techniques, stories, or any anecdotes about them living longer than a year or so and come up largely empty. There are always exceptions to the rule but I just don’t think this is a coral meant for reef tanks given the current understanding and level of science the average reefer brings to our hobby.

 

[FL_Reef]

 

[HillCntrySaltheads]

I just recently (2 weeks ago) Added my first goni to the display. I'm loving how much this coral come to life every morning and the colors it displays. Sorry about the blurry pic, just fed AB+ to everyone.

 

[Rocketfish]

There is a reefer that lives near me in Texas that has been growing and fragging gonis for several years. He does sell the small ones on occasion, and he described what he has seen to be a significant difference.

When he frags the wild caught ones he finds parasites internal to the skeleton. Those tend to be difficult to keep. After he treats them and cultures them a while, those things are dealt with and eliminated, the survivability goes way up.

He said there are a couple major suppliers providing some really high quality cultured frags now. I think based on that they will be easier to keep than wild collected specimens.

 

[Pistondog]

Anyone with experience with alveopora as well? Curious how they are compared to goniopora. Gf wants a white alveopora and been thinking of setting her up a tank.

Alveopora much easier than gonis.
The ORA red goni is easiest, no feeding required. The others need phyto or something else to thrive.

 

[RMS18]

We LOVE Goniopora

To bad non of these are listed for sale on your site

 

[Pistondog]

There is a reefer that lives near me in Texas that has been growing and fragging gonis for several years. He does sell the small ones on occasion, and he described what he has seen to be a significant difference.

When he frags the wild caught ones he finds parasites internal to the skeleton. Those tend to be difficult to keep. After he treats them and cultures them a while, those things are dealt with and eliminated, the survivability goes way up.

He said there are a couple major suppliers providing some really high quality cultured frags now. I think based on that they will be easier to keep than wild collected specimens.

Can you describe how he treats the parasites?
That might also explain why the ORAs are easier.

 

[Freakmachine01]

I absolutely love goingopora. Currently I think I have 12 to 15 different types in my tank I love how they flow. The only cons that I've ever seen is they can sting of course also if you do not have an established tank they are hard to keep alive. When I first started my tank I lost a couple of them. I would acclimate them they would look gorgeous and full and then over the next two weeks they would just shrivel up and die. I don't have that problem anymore one of these days I will have an amazeballs

 

[JaimeAdams]

Its pretty well known that goniopora need manganese supplements. At least that's the story according to most.

 

[T-J]

My oldest is my pink goni. It's over 2 years old now. Started as a tiny frag. It's now approaching baseball size. I've found that they do much better if you keep them off the sand bed. Mount them on a large rock on the sand.

 

[Kayanarka]

I have a few don't really know the names of any, except the rainbow. I also have a large alve. Just got a new purple one yesterday (not in photo)

I have a few (proceeds to post photo of thousands $$$ in goni) lol

 

[Weasel1960]

I also like the Tidal Gardens videos and have been finding them very helpful as I make out my list of preferred corals. They have 2 Gonipora videos and in both of them the suggestion is that the Australian species seems to be hardier than the Indonesian species. I think it would be interesting to run a poll here on R2R as to which species folks have owned in the past and how they succeeded or not. Might be some valuable intel right at our fingertips.

 

[lou2375]

 

[RIC13]

I have two Gonis I purchased 2 mos ago. The yellow opened right away and has never seen an angry day. The purple one is happy 90% of the time. It has started to encrust on the rock work. I dose AB+ and phyto…maybe that helps. I love the color and movement. If all goes well, I want more. Nitrate: 3-5 ppm and Phos: 0.1.

 

[Rocketfish]

Can you describe how he treats the parasites?
That might also explain why the ORAs are easier.

Unfortunately, no. I wasn't there when he did it and he only mentioned it. I do believe he said ORA is easier to keep.

I still haven't bought one from him but I will soon!

 

[charliethetuna]

Heres 3 of mine