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The Care and Propagation of Goniopora
Until recently, I have, in good conscience, offered the same advice heard from reefkeepers across the country when referring to Goniopora: "Yes, they're very pretty, but don't buy them. They won't make it past a year." Personally, I took this statement as a challenge, and set out to change the way we looked at the care of this "impossible" coral. Currently, I am keeping nine species of this coral alive in my systems at Fin and Feather Pets, and have used the knowledge gained from my successes to assist several local customers with Goniopora in their own home aquariums. I can now tell customers that it is possible to keep Goniopora alive, as long as you provide the proper care and feeding for the species in question.
Since starting at Fin and Feather almost five years ago, I have seen our reef department expand from a 90-gallon coral system to thousands of gallons of reef displays and cultivation systems. We have seen our collective knowledge of captive coral husbandry blossom over these years, and this has allowed us to do what we might not have thought possible several years ago.
At our operations at Fin and Feather I have been in a unique position, regularly importing many new and exciting corals and growing captive strains. Coming across thousands of corals, I am still astounded everyday by the diversity (and similarity) of these animals. Some of these exceptional corals were Goniopora. The unusual ones piqued my interest, so I placed them in our "for display only" system. After a few years I realized they were still alive, and were a likely candidate for successful aquaculture; I just needed to determine why I was successful and how my success could be repeated.
In much of the writing about Goniopora these corals are described as being hard to keep (Toonen, 1997, 1999; Borneman, 1997, 2001). These concerns reflect the accounts of many reefkeepers who have been unsuccessful with the most commonly imported species Goniopora stokesi and Goniopora lobata. More recently, Julian Sprung has written about how the different species seem to have varying degrees of success in captive systems (Sprung, 2002). These experiences match my own as I have collected many species, each with its own unique requirements.
Goniopora belong to the family Poritidae which includes the genus Porites, a well-known small-polyped stony coral that many hobbyists have successfully grown and even propagated. Despite its taxonomic affinity with the small-polyped Porites, many Goniopora species have large polyps that can greatly extend themselves, forming long swaying tubes with flower-like tentacles at their tips. Most Goniopora that aquarists are familiar with are the large, long polyped G. stokesi and G. lobata, since these are by far the most commonly imported species. But many species share a more similar appearance and connection with Porites. The several small-polyped varieties we keep at Fin and Feather have shapes that are often mounding and encrusting, reminiscent of common Porites growth forms. Generally, these types of Goniopora are found on the reef attached to substrate rather than being free-living colonies in deep and often turbid waters like Goniopora stokesi.
I didn't mean to sound as if you were trying to take credit for anything. I just wanted to point out that there were other people already working on foods and feeding months before the article came out. Sorry.