Branching Flower Pot Question (Picture incl)

[water`bug]

Can't seem to make this lil guy happy. He was doing wonderfully at the LFS, brought him home and he rarely opens up.

Did a search here on RC and couldn't find the info I needed so I am turning to yall to help me, please.

All water params are dead on. We are breaking in MH's a few hours a day and have it placed at the bottom of the tank in the open for lighting purposes - with moderate to heavy flow.

It seems to like alot of light, what about the flow? Any suggestions?





Thanks!

donna in New Orleans

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by donna`les
Did a search here on RC and couldn't find the info I needed so I am turning to yall to help me, please.

I just typed in 'flower pot coral' on rc and google and found tons of info. Anyways. Your coral is going to die and you never should have purchased it. Be more responsible next time.

[water`bug]

Originally posted by dascharisma
I just typed in 'flower pot coral' on rc and google and found tons of info. Anyways. Your coral is going to die and you never should have purchased it. Be more responsible next time.

I typed in *Branching flower pot* and got nothing. But most importantly, I don't share your pessimism and am curious why you made such a harsh comment with your lack of knowledge concerning our husbandry?

donna in New Orleans

[dustin Combs]

who is the clown? He must of killed some before. Must be an expert. Do we have flower pot police now?

[dustin Combs]

if her can keep a copperband alive, he can keep anything alive...

[dascharisma]

I got the following form http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/goniopora.htm
Goniopora is delicate and long term survival (>12 months) is probably less than 10%. Not recommended for the beginning hobbyist, although success is as much luck as skill at this point in our understanding of this coral. It does appear that the more colorful short tentacled specimens, like the pink and purple shown above are more hardy than the more common greenish brown versions with long tentacles.



So, if success is as much luck as skill, then I don't need to hear about your husbandry practices. You don't share my pessimism because you are uninformed.

[icu2]

Now that wasn't very nice dascharisma. I have a large purp goni I have had for ~ 1 yr now. As you can see, the polyp extension is excellent and it is growing. It is possible to keep.

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by icu2
Now that wasn't very nice dascharisma.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I just don't understand buying living animals that you don't know how to care for. On the other hand, I don't understand putting a naso in a 4 ft tank. I must be crazy.

[water`bug]

Originally posted by dustin Combs
if her can keep a copperband alive, he can keep anything alive...

dustin Combs::::: Bandit is doing GREAT! Eating like a little pig - as are all of our other inhabitants. Thank you for the *positive* acknowledgement and encouragement

dascharisma:::: thank you for your 'vast knowledge and help.'

As I understand, this is what these forums are for. We have been adding a coral every couple of weeks and our LFS guy, who has the contract with *The Aquarium* of New Orleans has guided and hand-held us through this to assure we are doing the right thing.

While we understand flower pots are generally difficult to keep, we were told the *branching* Flower Pot is a little more hardy.

Does anyone *else* have any suggestions or comments?

Thanks bunches!

donna in New Orleans

[tjay]

So, if success is as much luck as skill, then I don't need to hear about your husbandry practices. You don't share my pessimism because you are uninformed.

And you sir or girl or what ever you are, need to take what ever is bugging you out on someone else.

It is amazing you can sit there behind your little google machine and make the assumptions you have. Please move on and bug someone else if you can not share constructive help. When you understand everything about our practices then you can judge us.

Having said that is there anyone else who can help with the question in the spirit of this forum.

One thing we have noticed is that contradictory to what we have read about this coral not liking a great deal of light it tends to prefer the MH over the supplemental T5 lighting that we have. We are considering moving it to a shady area to see if that would help. Also we feed with marine snow, I was considering getting DT's today to see if that would help. I am going back to the LFS today to see what lighting conditions and food they are using there as they have several of these doing great in their tanks.

[alphaferret]

forget the mr downer-
gonis or flower pots are some of the mosrt beautiful corals if kept correctly
it also might be alveopora?maybe?
what lighting was it under at the shop- mh is pretty strong for gonis- he may want some shade- also slow the water flow they like mod flow not heavy
do you have a clown- sometimes they will bother a goni to death
what are you feeding? try liquid life marine plankton

thats about it - other than man the first response was rude and if you ever get that type of response feel free to report to a mod- that was not needed and did not help

yes gonis are very diff. to kepp -imposs. no!

do a search on the member jenandkerry-they have great luck w/ gonis and have alot of knowledge of them multiplying
good luck-alpha

[tjay]

No need to report them, I think cooler heads have prevailed and I appreciate the positive direction. I have a water change to do today so I will move it to a slower flow lower light area when I am in the tank to see if that helps.
Liquid life marine plankton will be added to my list, how does it compare to DT's?

[complexbooger]

Thank you for speaking out tjay.

and for donna`les my close friend is keeping a goni pretty well its been almost a yr and its HUGE and growing.

I have a question though are you sure thats "Branching flower pot" cuz that doesnt look like a goni to me. Looks more like Alverapora[sic] if you count the lil fingers on the polyp.

I know we mix up common names but to make it simple, i dont think thats goni its more like alver to me. My two cents.

If it is alver than i hear it need MH to do well. and even heard you could feed them directly. Goodluck with everything

[tjay]

Intresting. let me check that. It would explain the contradiction.
BTW in case folks dont know donna'les and I are attached at the hip and due to be married early next year.

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by donna`les
Can't seem to make this lil guy happy. He was doing wonderfully at the LFS, brought him home and he rarely opens up.

Did a search here on RC and couldn't find the info I needed so I am turning to yall to help me, please.
All water params are dead on. We are breaking in MH's a few hours a day and have it placed at the bottom of the tank in the open for lighting purposes - with moderate to heavy flow.
It seems to like alot of light, what about the flow? Any suggestions?

Thanks!
donna in New Orleans

Looks like an Alveopora to me (12 tentacles per polyp). Both Goniopora and Alveopora are commonly called Flowerpot corals.

I don't have any experience with Alveopora, but the polyps of yours looks to be pretty brown, which says to me from my observations of Goniopora (closely related) that it was originally located in an area of lesser light as opposed to greater light. It appears from your picture that the lighting is pretty intense. Did your LFS have it under less light or more light than you?
I often use aluminum foil strips taped to the top of my tank, between the lights and the water surface, to cast a shadow on new corals.......to help acclimate them. You may also ask your LFS if they dose any extra vitamins/minerals.

Treat the flow as if it were a soft coral. Flow should be moderate and near the coral, but not directly on it. Strong flow will make it retract and also make it more difficult for the coral to capture the food that you feed it.
Also, do a refreshing water change if you haven't in awhile.....you probably know that tip though .

[JENnKerry]

Originally posted by dascharisma
I just typed in 'flower pot coral' on rc and google and found tons of info. Anyways. Your coral is going to die and you never should have purchased it. Be more responsible next time.

That's not really a fair thing to say. Here is my green goni that I've had for a year and a half that has dropped ten babies so far:



My purple goni that I've had for one year next month:



But I guess they're doomed huh?
I'm sorry about being so defensive. People used to tell us the same thing.

donna`les, my best advise to you would be to check out our website www.reefcraze.com
It is strictly dedicated to keeping gonis. There's more info there than I could type here. Best of luck

Kerry

[tjay]

Thanks Kerry we are on it.
The entire tank is getting used to new MH lights including red slime that we never had before. FUN
We do 15 gallon water changes weekly on that tank and with all the rock and coral it surely does not hold 90 gallons any longer. I have wondered if I may not be doing too much on that issue.

I went back to the place I bought it and they had them under T5s
With almost no flow. I have moved it to a shadier area and less flow.

Now I picked up some cyclopeeze and also sweet water zooplankton. Strangely enough there are no instructions on how much of this to add for a good feeding. So if someone knows chime in. I am going to research that right after I am done here.

We don't have much in the tank as yet. Filter feeder wise a large feather duster, a coco worm some pearl bubble that resurfaced on a dead skeleton we bought with some live rock. Besides those we have some mushrooms, red blue and green and also ricordia blue and orange. So I don't think I need much. I have been using marine snow and that seems to have kept the feather duster happy, in spite of the tang eating its tube in two. Strangely the CBB does not bother it at all.

Thanks to all that put the thread back on a positive track. I love this forum and it has been our guide through the early stages of our tank.

[JENnKerry]

I would be careful with MH lighting. From what we have found out, gonis seem to like lower lights like PCs. If you have MH, try to put it in a more shaded area.

[Obi-dad]

I read here on RC that some goni's were examined in the wild and found to have ingested a lot of phytoplankon, but that it varies from species to species. You may want to use both phyto- and zooplankton to maximize your chances of success. Phyto is good for your tank anyway, so it won't hurt.

I have a bright red goni that I have had over a year and it even survived a hyper-salinity incident that decimated my acros. This and a green one I just got were captive grown frags. The guy who grew the frags (Justin) is doing a presentation on growing goni's at MACNA this year, and he recommends oyster eggs, so I target feed a combo of oyster eggs, phyto, and cyclopeeze (liquid life marine plankton) every day. I also have a branching purple goni with a blue dot in the center of the oral disc that is really cool.

I am not advocating that anyone buy goni's, just that if you can spend the time and money to target feed them you may be able to have success.

[JENnKerry]

We strictly use Liquid Life Marine Plankton. This stuff is great. A little on the pricey side but soooooooo worth it.

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by tjay
Thanks Kerry we are on it.
The entire tank is getting used to new MH lights including red slime that we never had before. FUN
We do 15 gallon water changes weekly on that tank and with all the rock and coral it surely does not hold 90 gallons any longer. I have wondered if I may not be doing too much on that issue.

I went back to the place I bought it and they had them under T5s
With almost no flow. I have moved it to a shadier area and less flow.

Now I picked up some cyclopeeze and also sweet water zooplankton. Strangely enough there are no instructions on how much of this to add for a good feeding. So if someone knows chime in. I am going to research that right after I am done here.

We don't have much in the tank as yet. Filter feeder wise a large feather duster, a coco worm some pearl bubble that resurfaced on a dead skeleton we bought with some live rock. Besides those we have some mushrooms, red blue and green and also ricordia blue and orange. So I don't think I need much. I have been using marine snow and that seems to have kept the feather duster happy, in spite of the tang eating its tube in two. Strangely the CBB does not bother it at all.

Thanks to all that put the thread back on a positive track. I love this forum and it has been our guide through the early stages of our tank.

uggghh....red slime.

FWIW, I change about 5g a week on my 75 w/ a 29g sump...The water always tests excellent, but I just do it to replace any depleted minerals.

I would bet that your Alveopora should eventually adjust to the MH to where you can keep it out in the open instead of shaded. My guess is that it will eventually lighten up some (not bleached, but less brown).......If that happens, it's no biggie, just keep it fed. I would be interested to know if maybe some of the other colors contained within the coral don't begin to show themselves more over a period of time.

Is your cyclopeeze frozen or freeze dried? I explain in This Thread how I use frozen cyclopeeze. Mix a little of your zooplankton in too (hmmm good), but don't make it too runny to spot feed. If you are using freeze dried, it doesn't contain the juices/oils that the frozen does, and therefore probably not quite as nutritious, but it still can be used.

Your microfauna population, along with your other filtration, will determine how much food you can feed on a regular basis. It really doesn't take a whole lot of food though. IME, phytoplankton messes up the water quality much faster than zooplankton. That may just be my particular situation though.

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by JENnKerry
We strictly use Liquid Life Marine Plankton. This stuff is great. A little on the pricey side but soooooooo worth it.

Unfortunately, Liquid Life is a tad pricey, especially if your LFS doesn't carry it (which is most) and you only want to purchase 1 bottle of it.
Fortunately, a bar of frozen Cyclopeeze is the same thing as Liquid Life Marine Plankton, costs less, and is more concentrated; probably is carried by more LFS's too.

If you really have to have Liquid Life Marine Plankton, take a chunk of frozen cyclopeeze and thaw it in a bowl. Add to that 1 or 2 drops of Cod Liver Oil and mix/mash it together. Go buy a Liquid Life Marine Plankton bottle and pour the contents of your bowl into the bottle. Now freeze and pump it out as if it were actually Liquid Life Marine Plankton

[tjay]

Originally posted by JENnKerry
I would be careful with MH lighting. From what we have found out, gonis seem to like lower lights like PCs. If you have MH, try to put it in a more shaded area.

I have several tunnels and have found a shady spot, I hope it will help it out. Yeah I have to find some phyto but they do not have DTs here, what else would work?

[John Kelly]

Originally posted by Obi-dad
I read here on RC that some goni's were examined in the wild and found to have ingested a lot of phytoplankon, but that it varies from species to species. You may want to use both phyto- and zooplankton to maximize your chances of success. Phyto is good for your tank anyway, so it won't hurt.

I have a bright red goni that I have had over a year and it even survived a hyper-salinity incident that decimated my acros. This and a green one I just got were captive grown frags. The guy who grew the frags (Justin) is doing a presentation on growing goni's at MACNA this year, and he recommends oyster eggs, so I target feed a combo of oyster eggs, phyto, and cyclopeeze (liquid life marine plankton) every day. I also have a branching purple goni with a blue dot in the center of the oral disc that is really cool.

I am not advocating that anyone buy goni's, just that if you can spend the time and money to target feed them you may be able to have success.

The study you are referring to is probably the one performed on the gut contents of Goniopora tenuidens by Meredith Peach. Quote "The zooplankton consumed by G. tenuidens included a large variety of crustaceans - mainly copepods, which were also the most abundant zooplankters in the water column - but many other kinds of invertebrate larvae and eggs as well." "Phytoplankton was also found in many of the gut samples, but was not identified to species."

To me, this indicates that a "Hail Mary Mix" of zooplankton is this particular species main food source, while phytoplankton is either secondary or not even needed/sought after. But, you may be right that it varies somewhat from species to species.

The nutrients that are contained in cyclopeeze does help in the corals defense against salinity changes.

I also target feed a mix of cyclopeeze, oyster eggs, and other small foods; plus add in a little phyto maybe once a week. I usually dose phyto at night to help the microfauna grow, which indirectly helps to feed my goni's.

[tjay]

what quantity, how much of the cyclopeeze is a feeding?
I have a 90 gallon with very few corals.

I will look for the liquid life, heck I have to try everything I can to help this thing while not feeding the red slime.
I vacumed all that out today though, unfortunately they did not have chemi clean here and red out, that was available was a little scary to put in the tank. We dont use chemicals other than kalk and I dont really want to start.