Coral Feeding? Goniopora Species?

[saltwatergal]

I purchased my first coral yesterday for my 46 bow front tank.
The aquarium store told me it was a bubble coral.
After getting home I looked through "The Reef Aquarium" by Sprung.
It looks like I have a purchased Goniopora lobata or a Goniopora Stokesi species.
It sure isn't bubble coral.
Well I am fairly new at feeding corals.
First is this a soft or a hard coral?
What do I feed the coral and how often.
The aquarium store told me to feed it mysis shrimp every other day.
I have DT's Live Marine Phytoplankton in the refrigerated.
Then I have ZooPlex and PhytoPlex.
When and what should I feed the coral with?
I would appreciate any feedback.
Thanks.

 

[a&m aggie 04']

first off if its a goniopora (flowerpot) they have a very high death rate in captivity. They supposedly do be with unskimmed tanks thats contain lots of nutrients. They do great in a tank months then slowly start to recede until you are left with nothing but the rock.
Goniopora is a hard coral (LPS) i believe.
As for feeding them, im not sure you can direct feed them. Anytime i get close to mine it completely retracts. Im guessing it gets all its food from the water column and light. Add DT's to the tank and it should have plenty to eat.
Can you get a picture of it??
Mark

 

[saltwatergal]

I will try to get a picture tomorrow when the lights are on and the coral is open.
I would like to know what I purchased.
I never heard of feeding this coral mysis shrimp every other day.
I would rather feed a variety of food to my fish and inverts in the tank not mysis shrimp every other day.
Also do you feed it directly into the coral with a dropper. If you feed it above the coral most of the mysis shrimp just floats away for the other inhabitants.
Anymore feedback right now would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[nm reef]

To the best of my knowledge gonipora will not feed on large size offerings...most info is vague about the diet of these corals. But information suggests they do best in nutrient rich systems with plenty of microscopic particles to feed from. Sadly they are not well suited for most home systems and seldom survive beyond 3-4 months. I'll attach a article I found a few years ago...hope it provides beneficial info for you.
Gonipora success?

 

[saltwatergal]

Thanks for the feedback.
I am charging up my battery for my camera. Will take a picture of the coral tomorrow for true identification.
Thanks for the article you attached. I see even when they feed it live shrimp it still didn't have a good survival rate.
I wonder how mysis shrimp would do any better!

 

[steveweast]

As stated above, there are few hard corals as difficult to keep as gonioporas. The success rate on these corals is abysmal....with their demise usually occurring in 2 -3 months. There seems to be little information on the husbandry of these corals available... but the information that is out there suggests that very small particle size (on the order of phytoplankton and maybe rotifer) is nessesary... mysis would be way too big...besides, how can you trust someone who can't even identify the coral to tell what it eats?
Many people seem to feel that high nutrient (under skimmed or no skimming) tanks provide the best chance for success. This may prove true someday...but, there are several reefers on this and other boards that have had some success (keeping gonioporas for over two years) that do skim heavily...including myself. I've had three gonioporas in my tank for about 2 1/2 years now with marked growth over this time. I skim extremely heavily ...but, I feed heavily too. By feeding, I mean the fish with a variety of foods plus pytoplankton. I also notice that there are nightly swarms of very small plankton in the tank. So, it is of my opinion that it may take a high water quality plus a food source... in my case... probably the naturally occurring plankton plus the phytoplankton.
Here's a pic of my purple goniopora:

 

[bang guy]

Great post Steve. Thank you.

 

[saltwatergal]

I have enclosed a picture of my coral in question Goniopora ?
Some feedback would be appreciated for the identification.
Thanks

 

[saltwatergal]

Remember this was sold to me as a bubble coral?
Which I know now it isn't.

 

[fishfreek]

Yes, that seems to be a goni.
These are supposed to be very difficult to keep as stated above, but i've had my green goni in my reef for over 2-1/2 years. I have a 45g reef closed system & run 2x96w pc and 2x30w NO actinics for my lighting. I use no sump, skim moderately and have a some macro algae in the tank for nutrient export. As far as feeding, i feed my fish a varity of foods, alternating foods every other day and feed filter feeding corals, phytoplex or Chromaplex once a week. As a matter of fact, my goni just dropped a baby two days ago! I'm pretty excited about that!! (sorry no pics)
I'm not sure exactly why i have had such good success with this guy, but i hope what ever i've been doing keeps on working.
Good luck!

 

[saltwatergal]

Thanks for the information on the identification.
It took "The Reef Aquarium" by Julian Sprung for me to see what the coral really was.
I am glad you have had such good results with your Goniopora.
I wonder why the aquarium store guy told me to feed it mysis shrimp every other day. Well he also told me it was a bubble coral! It looks like you feed it phytoplanton along with brine shrimp and some supplements.
When you feed the coral do you use a squirt dropper above the coral? Or do you place it where the most current is example from the powerheads? I have a protein skimmer so should I turn it off while I am feeding the coral? How often should I feed the coral?
Need some feedback on this.
Thanks

 

[schroder_reef]

Try to feed couple times a week with an oral syringe. I have found all my corals love this. You can get the syringes for free at any

[hr]
.

 

[saltwatergal]

Thanks for the feedback on the feeding.
Will give it a try.

 

[sammystingray]

Any and all feeding tips you get are guesses at best......as far as I know, not a single person has been able to keep one long term.....Steveweast is a freak, so he doesn't count......his 2 and a half years is the best I have heard of from a "real person"......generally they die in the 8 month-18 month period regardless of what you do......most much quicker. twenty four tentacles on the polyps is an easy ID......bubble coral??? Oh, man! When gonis drop babies......not a good thing.......it's polyp bail out.......in nature they release sperm and eggs.......they don't drop a baby.....polyp bail out is what they do when the mother colony is stressed or dying, and they drop a baby frag in a desperate attempt at survival.....not the way they normally reproduce, but obviously what most will see in a tank. Some polyps from polyp bailout have lived from what I see......but..it is NOT success. Keep in mind that Steveweast does not have the typical tank.....he pulled a 7 foot long worm out of his plumbing not long ago........one of the most beautiful setups I have ever seen, but far from average, and the truth is........gonioporas will die 100% of the time long term......I believe the record world wide for any closed system is around five years as far as I've seen......basically they are quite impoosible to keep too long.

 

[steveweast]

Sammy... I agree that the the feeding requirements are, at best, guesses at this time. However, gut analysis seems to confirm that smaller particle size phytoplankton and larval zooplankton seem to be the food of choice for gonioporas (from a recent FAMA article by Rob Toonan). It is from this information that might explain why some aquariusts have some level of success, while others do not... if there is a substantial micro invertabrate/ pod population that constantly supplies a steady stream of larval zooplankton, the gonioporas survival chances increase. This would then lend some support that the key to keeping these corals might hinge on not feeding the coral, but rather, feeding the micro invertabrate population that feeds the coral (through reproduction). And of course, if something were to affect the pod population (the addition of too many predators, declinig water quality,etc), the goniopora slowly declines.
As for goniopora reproduction... I was under the impression (maybe misguided) that this coral, like many others, can either spawn or bud. On page 449 of "The Reef Aqurium", Deelbeek and Sprung specifically detail goniopora's reproduction as both spawning and asexual budding. Do have another source negating their assertion?

 

[bang guy]

Sammy didn't say that they don't reproduce through asexual budding, he just said that it's a common symptom of stress. I agree. I'm not saying they don't drop buds when they are not stressed, I have no idea, but I know of many LPS that drop buds when stressed. Frogspawn, Candycane, Hammer, etc. I recently had a Ricordea attack a Candycane and the Candycane responded by dropping a bunch of buds. A few of them survived which made me happy

 

[saltwatergal]

I appreciate all of the feedback on feeding the Goniopora Species.
I have just one other question. The fellow at the store told me to feed it mysis shrimp every other day.
Any feedback on that would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[nm reef]

The article I linked you to and the info discussed above both indicate that goniporas feed on particles much smaller than mysis...so based on that info I'd say the LFS gave you some in-correct info. Much of what steve said above is close to the information in the article and is close to what most reefkeepers have said in regard to keeping goniporas healthy long term.
They can be extremely difficult to keep long term....some folks have success with them...but they require conditions and food sources that are not completely understood.Much of what is know is spectulation...but there are indications that a constant food source of the right size may be a major factor in success/failure.
...and to the best of my knowledge direct feedings of mysis is not adaquate for them to survive.

 

[saltwatergal]

I did call the store today and mention to them that it was a Goniopora Species they sold me instead of a Bubble as they charged me for. They said they would give me a store credit for the difference between the two corals.
One thing I did notice after I fed the Goniopora mysis shrimp which I use a dropper on top of the coral.
The coral seem to like the feeding.
The next day the coral was larger and extended longer.
I will feed what everyone else has had success with.
Probably still will feed it the mysis shrimp once a week with the fish and inverts in the tank.
Thanks for the information.