Originally Posted by yetti
Hey all....my LFS has a beautiful Purple Goniopora and I was wondering if anyone had one and what they thought of it. I've read they like moderate light and movement, but was wondering if you have found the same thing. I'm thinking about picking it up this afternoon on the way home.
Thanks
I have what is supposed to be a "purple/blue" goniopora tenuidens; according to the LFS where I purchased it. It was originally under 192w of pc lighting for at least a month and didn't look purple/blue at all.....it was light brown all over; probably due to not enough light. I now have it in a 75g under 2 x 175w mh with gentle water flow and target feed it mashed cyclopeeze mixed with a few other types of small foods. It has great polyp and tentacle extension, and the tentacles themselves have gained a very light purple coloration.
If you keep it under metal halide, it may need to be acclimated by shading the light a little bit and removing the shading slowly over a period of a few days; otherwise the coral will/may remain retracted. Mine was extending within 24 hours and I removed the shading over the period of a week. I used a piece of glass, aluminum foil, and scotch tape to make a shade "cloud" over the coral, then rolled back the aluminum a little bit each day.
After the coral was extending, but before I permanently removed the shading, I would quickly take the shading away for a moment and the polyps would immediately curl over..........very sensitive to light; probably because of the zooxanthellae density.
