My goniopora!

[troubledfemale]

I have two goniopora's however today when I got home I saw that one of them had lost a chunk, I removed it from where it had landed and put it on another rock and it's alive. (strange) And now the big one (the 1 who gave bith to the little chunk) swells up every once and awhile. Maybe some of you know what might be going on with it, if you do let me know!

 

[bdhough]

Is this the same tank with the 6 tangs, stingray, and other fish? More than likely it was knocked over by something in there due to overcrowding..... Was the chunk, skeleton ie hard? Or just skin? Goniopora is an lps and grows a skeleton. If a piece of the skeleton broke off then its probably stressed if it isn't expanding. Are you doseing for corals in this tank? Need more info on the tank like what you dose and what else is in there besides to many fish....

 

[spsfreak100]

Goniopora will commonly do this when under stress, it's often reffered to as a "polyp bailout." If under the proper conditions, it will live. I hate to be negative, but usually the bailouts do not live for a long time in the aquarium. If the colony was stressed, the bailouts have little chance of thriving in the same habitat that the stressed coral was in (unless the original conditions that the Goniopora was receiving was far from what was it was acustomed to).
I think a picture would greatly help, so we could see if this was a chunk, as stated above, that a fish nibbled off, or if this was an attempt to get to a better environment.
Goniopora usually has little success rate in captivity and very few make it past 3-6 months. They often prefer a nutrient rich environment, as they are found in shallow lagoons filled completely with nutrients and food.
Good luck!
Take Care,
Graham

 

[sammystingray]

I agree with polyp bailout.....they drop a baby to survive because the mother colony isn't doing well. It's a survival mechanism for the most part....basically the fact is that nobody has really had long term success with gonis...they die 100% of the time. 18 months if they are doing well, and that is usually starvation at that point.....most die much quicker. When those two die, and trust me they will, please think about not buying anymore...this just causes the store to keep stocking them.