Goniopora/Flowerpot whats up?

blennybabe

blennybabe

Member
I added a Goniopora or flowerpot coral about a week ago. I never intended to get one until I was certain that I could handle one. But it came into work and was opening up in the shipping bag. it was fully open an hour after it was in our sale tank. I have never seen a healthier coral especially a flowerpot. The others always take a week or more to adjust. Hopefully this is what mine is doing. The third day i had it, it propigated. I was thrilled. this means that i am doing something rght of at least got lucky. (probably the latter since i just got it...) Anyway, i took it home the day after it got to the store. all water levels are zero. I havent run a skimmer since it was set up about 9 months ago, but added one the same day as the coral (prism that doesnt pull much out. I guess my system is pretty clean??) well everything was going well for the first couple of days. it extended beautifully and i was thrilled. the lil clone i had to move from where it fell because it was at the entrance to my convict blenny's lair. (you can see his head in the picture.) it put it behind a small rock on the substrate yesterday. the power head is aimed at it, but since the rock is there it gets current to either side of the rock.
OK i guess i should get to the porblem... for the past two or three days the large goniopora wont extend normally. it bloats up and i cant see the skeleton but the polyps arent extended. the clone extends, but not the original. it is getting plenty of light but not too much. scattered light from two 175 MH with 12000k blubs. it is sheltered from the direct flow of the power heads but it still gets current on different sides. I gave it a little more current last night and that seemed to help, 2 hours later the polyps were about 1/3 out. I have never seen this before and i havent read about it either. when i knew that i was going to get this coral is did lots of reading and troubleshooting so to speak. nothing like this came up. I would really appreciate any info. let me know if there is any other information i can get to help better answer the question.
 
fishfreek

fishfreek

Active Member
slick, no one really knows how to keep this beauty alive for extended periods of time.I have one as well in my reef. I've had it about a year with no noticable tissue recssion & it extends polyps fully every day. :D So far so good. I still don't advise anyone buying this coral due to its uncertian needs. HTH
 
blennybabe

blennybabe

Member
Im not certian I can keep one. I had an awesome chance to purchase one for $10 and it is in better condition than all the others I have ever seen, in a store or in someones reef tank. Im hoping that with the help of this board and some hard work on my part to make my tank perfect, or as close to perfect as possible, that I can save this coral from the customers that shop at my work. All but one of them have new systems and most are very stubborn when it comes to something that they want. One customer bought a 10 inch lion fish and a 1 inch psudochromis for his tank at the same time. I didnt want to sell it to him, but my manager made me. (Im still furious about that...but thats between me and my boss.) I know that this coral is very difficult, but water parameters are just about perfect (no phosphate, nitrite, nitrate, amonia) and I do regular water changes. My tank is even better than the show tank at my work because it is more stable and I dont use city water. I dont know what else to say. I hope that this coral does well and I am going to try my best so that it thrives.
 
blennybabe

blennybabe

Member
I didnt want to go into a great deal of info about where the Coral could have ended up. I know it is going to do better in my tank than in the tank at work or my customers tanks, thats the only point im making. I know that this coral will probably die. I can only hope that it doesnt. I have taked to my boss several times about not purchasing these as well as other species that dont do well in captivity. (Mandarins, Alveopora, butterflies and very large fish that we dont have enough room for if they dont sell quickly.) I cant help but feel helpless. But I cant quit my job. Without a job I have no money (poor college student) and my tank fails. It was a mistake to take this coral home, I admit that. I knew that from the beginning. Its a mistake to buy anything without experience. I admit, I am fairly new to this hobby. But I have at least made an effort. Im on this board reading all I can. I have scads of books and Ive poured over those over and over again. I dont want to make a mistake. I gaurantee that I will make mistakes, and have made them in the past, but I'm trying not to. Everyday I learn something new. I love this hobby and I just want to be successful.
Anthem, I appreciate your knowledge and have learned a lot from you. I am glad you are on this board as much as anyone and you respond to tons of posts. Thank you. Im sorry if I am defensive, but I read posts all the time about people who had to have some coral/fish/invert and bought it without even knowing its requirements... I guess I just feel a little picked on by one of the "big guys."
I do appreciate your opinion and would love to hear your suggestions on other corals I could sucessfully keep.
 
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