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

Do you currently have any gonipora coral in your tank?

  • YES

    Votes: 350 52.7%
  • NO

    Votes: 230 34.6%
  • Used to but it died

    Votes: 78 11.7%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 6 0.9%

  • Total voters
    664

Rod999vance

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I’ve tried about four different times in two different tanks and they’ve never survived longer than six months even with regular feeding.
 

cancun

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Great thread! Here is mine, started as two 1 inch frags over 5 years ago. ORA red with blue centers. These pic are from last year. I need to get some updated pics. :D

IMG_20201227_144922.jpg IMG_20201010_130156.jpg IMG_20200810_141631.jpg IMG_20200810_141620.jpg IMG_20200810_141632.jpg IMG_20200810_141623.jpg
 

ahopki1

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I really love Gonipora. I don't have many but I'm starting to really "get my head turned" from other corals by them. They come in a variety of beautiful colors, they sway in the water flow, and can grow pretty fast. So what about you? Here is some great info about gonipora care from @Tidal Gardens.

1. What's not to love about Gonipora? Cons?

2. Do you have Gonipora coral in your reef tank? (pics please)


image via @CoralAddict645
C390B395-6C0C-4D7A-A8A4-29FC3992AFD5.jpeg
 

ahopki1

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I really love Gonipora. I don't have many but I'm starting to really "get my head turned" from other corals by them. They come in a variety of beautiful colors, they sway in the water flow, and can grow pretty fast. So what about you? Here is some great info about gonipora care from @Tidal Gardens.

1. What's not to love about Gonipora? Cons?

2. Do you have Gonipora coral in your reef tank? (pics please)


image via @CoralAddict645
C390B395-6C0C-4D7A-A8A4-29FC3992AFD5.jpeg
 

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Chrisv.

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It's fantastic to see all of these thriving gonipora. When I started in this hobby they were no more than a cut flower.
 

Klyle

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Had a few back in the 90s and they all died relatively fast. I tried an alveopora maybe 6 months after my tank was cycled (2020) and it died. Got another alveopora at the beginning of this year and it has done great! Honestly I think some of the alveoporas look better than the goni's. But I do want to try one soon. It's like a mountain i need to conquer!
 

Dirk diggler

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I have a couple of gonis and in my experience noticed that the Aussie ones can handle medium to high light with acclimation. Gonis from indo are a little tricky as they tend to do best in low light. Too much light and they will slowly bleach and retract in a couple months. Feed weekly with reef roids.
 

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ReefRondo

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I love them but only have them in my frag system and they are growing like crazy. For me it’s all about tank inhabitants causing trouble along with not feeding enough that causes their demise.
 

reefsaver

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I'll never forget my first Goniopora, Spoiler Alert it died. I remember asking if it was easy to keep and the guy said yeah. I remember him taking it out and saying "Ooo that's a nice purple rock" as the polyps retracted and made the stony base visible. It had a single dead polyp on it but I didn't think it was a big deal and thought if I dipped it and took care of my water it would be ok. But it just spread while simultaneously receding in tissue exposing white skeleton. It was a fairly big $50 colony. I realized the Goniopora was heaps of layers of growth that formed the rock the polyps lived on which most likely had hitchhikers survive the dipping process living inside the rock. So eventually I moved it to a Pico in fear of nuking my display tank from a dying coral I bought off impulse with literally no knowledge of it, and was worried about adding hitchhikers that would be a pain in the butt to remove from my main tank. Mind you I could have left it in my tank as the issues seemed to kind of halt but I have a weird thing with flatworms. They're my nightmare. Anyway the Goni pretty much influenced me to generally research what I'm buying. The whole process of it dying hit me pretty hard, I felt really dumb waking up to it every day for a good 6 months only feeling worse. Do I take it back in shame? Would they even accept it because it's not exactly safe for a business to go taking back coral from everyone's tanks. In my head when you purchase livestock you basically void return and warranty as soon as it hits your water. I've just stepped up my maintenance game since then. Testing for Alk, Nitrate, Salinity and PH regularly and soon will be buying some Calcium, Phosphate and Magnesium test kits to finish my Testing collection off. Mind you some probably have an expiry.
 

Mr Cypher

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Love em only have a couple 2 more on the way lol had my fist 2 for a couple months seem Happy I hope fingers crossed
 

pharazon

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Here is a pic of the coral that I got from a good friend of mine, and really kindled my love for goni’s:

Jae’s Atomic Balls:

FEFF5D3B-656F-4942-BD04-DF0AEF80AC91.jpeg


I don’t want to jinx it, but my Balls have grown substantially since I received the original frag, and has been doing quite well. Sometimes it’s a bit moody and it doesn’t extend as much as other days, but generally seems quite happy in my care.

if I lost my Balls, I would probably give goni’s a break and just play with sticks again for awhile - as I find acro’s to be much more predictable animals than goni’s.

Here’s to hoping my Balls continue to grow, as it is one of the most stunning coral I have ever owned and I would love to share them with others one day.
 

Treefer32

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I have a frag of a green goni. It died down to just one head left on my frag rack so I glued it down. It now has 3 polyps. They are nearly microscopic. It isn't growing fast but I see it everyday. I hope someday it's a massive colony of a couple dozen polyps. .. Right now it's a colony of three nearly microscopic polyps. I can't even get my phone to focus in on the tiny polyps. Maybe in a few years?

The strange thing is it reproduced and it's not dying.

I had a colony of Alveopora that was doing great. then I went on vacation, phosphates spiked up to .2 while I was gone, and the colony died. . . .:(

There you go. I love Gonipora and Alveopora corals. . . Not sure they love me. Just my like my Acans. I love Acans.. Mine aren't growing very fast. They are growing, but soooo Slow. Been two years, and I think the skeleton got around 20% bigger and I have maybe 3-4 new heads. So, 2 heads a year if I'm lucky.

Struggling with Gonipora and Acans. . .Not sure if either have anything in common. . .
 

pharazon

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I have a frag of a green goni. It died down to just one head left on my frag rack so I glued it down. It now has 3 polyps. They are nearly microscopic. It isn't growing fast but I see it everyday. I hope someday it's a massive colony of a couple dozen polyps. .. Right now it's a colony of three nearly microscopic polyps. I can't even get my phone to focus in on the tiny polyps. Maybe in a few years?

The strange thing is it reproduced and it's not dying.

I had a colony of Alveopora that was doing great. then I went on vacation, phosphates spiked up to .2 while I was gone, and the colony died. . . .:(

There you go. I love Gonipora and Alveopora corals. . . Not sure they love me. Just my like my Acans. I love Acans.. Mine aren't growing very fast. They are growing, but soooo Slow. Been two years, and I think the skeleton got around 20% bigger and I have maybe 3-4 new heads. So, 2 heads a year if I'm lucky.

Struggling with Gonipora and Acans. . .Not sure if either have anything in common. . .

So weird what you mentioned about phosphates - my goni’s were WAAAAY more extended when my PO4 was so high the Hanna reagent turned blue on contact.

They’ve since been a bit less extended now that I’m in the .02-.04 range.
 

JaimeAdams

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Mn at what level? Do you have a dosing procedure?

Who says this is common knowledge? I'd like to learn more.
There is an 8 minute video with Julien Sprung on you tube. Here is the original hypothesis article. There are more people that talk about that just not a ton on this forum. It seems to be the common theme on FB posts asking about goni care.
I don't have a dosing regime. Iron, manganese are very quickly depleted much more so if you have a refugium. An ICP will test natural levels of manganese, but just barely.
 

tpeck723

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I am still baffled to why my goni died.
Came from a well established colony.
All other corals thrived (40 of em) in the time frame.
IT is a mystery I will never solved.
Reluctant to try again until I get some insight on what causes goni deaths.
(one possible cause of death, stung by an elegance)
Not sure if you dose, but my goniporas noticeably recede if I forget my weekly manganese dose per Triton recommendations on my tank. I had one recently that receded to the point that I thought it was a goner. I did 3 large water changes (30%) over a 6 week period to fix high phosphates and sure enough that goni is taking off again.
 
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