Baby Goniopora - Page 2

JokerGirl · #26 03/08/2007, 04:21 PM

Here's the two that I have. The purple one actually contracted brown jelly and John Kelley has spent the last month of so helping me get it better. I've now got another one that my LFS gave to me to try to fix up. John Kelley has been a huge help and I think we're all lucky to have him around

vijaym85 · #27 03/08/2007, 04:25 PM

Flow should be intermitent and it really should be gentle. Hard flow makes mine retract and mine are very responsive to any type of current. If I so much as dip my hand in the surrounding water and cause a mild current to be forced onto them the affected section will close up. And open shortly after it feels safe it will reopen. I would not blast them with water at all. I have a Tunze wavebox in my tank so it gives them a nice sway.

I too have a small piece in a small hole in my rock. It is about 5 polyps worth. They dont have huge tentacles. If your specimen is very small still then its normal if its tentacles are smaller then the ones in my pic.

Its also important to make sure your specimen adapts well to your light. I run a 400w MH on a 30g at close to 18inches over the water. The coral is about 7 inches below the water surface or 25inchs below the light. mine seems to open on a nice schedule each day; its quite predictable and regimented. At night mine gets smaller and in the morning I let natural sunlight in and it gets a bit bigger then the actinics and it gets a little bigger then with the MH on it begins to open fully.

I feed coral phytoplankton as well.

vijaym85 · #28 03/08/2007, 04:29 PM

Jokergirl very nice pieces. Your purple looks huge!! How big is it??
I see the dead section on it, but the rest is awesome .

Good luck with them

JokerGirl · #29 03/08/2007, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by vijaym85
Jokergirl very nice pieces. Your purple looks huge!! How big is it??
I see the dead section on it, but the rest is awesome .

Good luck with them

Yeah that photo was taken the first week I had brought it home. You can't even see where that is anymore, but its the best photo IMO that I have of it. It's roughly about 7"x4"

If you go on John's forums, you can see the thread of me trying to save it. It was looking pretty gangly for a while there.

I can't wait to see those little green goniophytes to get bigger

They're so silly looking like that. All polyps and no skeleton

G.SMITHII · #30 03/08/2007, 04:39 PM

i have never seen purple. those are SWEET!!!

if it ever drops a baby........

you got my pm!

JokerGirl · #31 03/08/2007, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by G.SMITHII
i have never seen purple. those are SWEET!!!

if it ever drops a baby........

you got my pm!

Unfortunately, it'll never drop a baby (as far as I know). It's a branching Goniopora, so it'll just continuously keep making new heads. I'd have to frag a piece off, and well... John has first dibs

vijaym85 · #32 03/08/2007, 07:51 PM

LOL I got a laugh from this I use the same syringe from my Salifert for feeding as well.
It seems to be the best way to target feed.

http://www.goniopora.org/gallery/dis...album=26&pos=1

vijaym85 · #33 03/08/2007, 07:52 PM

Cool site by the way, John

JTEAGUE · #34 03/08/2007, 08:14 PM

Here is a picture of mine.

graveyardworm · #35 03/08/2007, 08:29 PM

Wow Jokergirl, that purple one really looks unique, what a great find, and good job keeping it alive.

JokerGirl · #36 03/08/2007, 08:52 PM

Thanks!

You'd better post photos when you get your little baby boxes built! They're looking pretty good already though! I love the idea of putting them on tiles/slate. It's inexpensive, and easy to manipulate!

graveyardworm · #37 04/03/2007, 11:41 AM

I'm wishing I had physically attached them to the tiles, but out of fear of damaging tissue I didnt ( there does appear to be some tissue even on the bottomside of the skeleton. Sadly one got blown out of the enclosure and landed in a ricordea it quickly contracted brown jelly and being as small as it was it was gone very quickly even with some attempts to save it. On a brighter note the one remaining is doing well. It appears to have added some polyps and is growing. Here's a couple pics. Please excuse the cyano, its becoming difficult to manage nitrients and keep everything fed and happy.

waterfaller1 · #38 04/04/2007, 05:25 AM

Excuse me for interrupting your thread. John Kelley...so much for gonis only eating small micron food. My purple will eat a huge piece of food if it drops on it..I could'nt believe it if I had'nt seen it with my own eyes. The polyp just opened up, expanded...and took in a chunk of food the other day at least as big as an eraser.
Joker girl, that is an amazing branching purple!

JokerGirl · #39 04/04/2007, 02:57 PM

Thats a shame that you lost the one, but the one you still have is looking great! Hopefully it continues to grow and do well for you!

Thanks Waterfaller1

ILoveLlamas · #40 04/05/2007, 10:38 AM

I have a cleaner shrimp that likes to walk over every coral in my tank, including my goni. Is this okay?

John Kelly · #41 04/05/2007, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ILoveLlamas
I have a cleaner shrimp that likes to walk over every coral in my tank, including my goni. Is this okay?

How big are his feet?

John Kelly · #42 04/05/2007, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by waterfaller1
John Kelley...so much for gonis only eating small micron food. My purple will eat a huge piece of food if it drops on it..I could'nt believe it if I had'nt seen it with my own eyes. The polyp just opened up, expanded...and took in a chunk of food the other day at least as big as an eraser.

The trick is to keep your fish from stealing it as soon as you walk away

. Or, several hours later, the hermits are causing the polyps to retract and spit the food out so they can eat it. Little monsters.

John Kelly · #43 04/05/2007, 11:12 AM

Graveyard,

That's a nice looking little goni. Too bad about your other one though

. I've never had a problem with cyano forming around the coral (from feeding). The small micro-sized blue legged hermits are good for cleaning up around them.

ILoveLlamas · #44 04/05/2007, 05:16 PM

cleaner shrimp sized?

John Kelly · #45 04/08/2007, 09:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by ILoveLlamas
I have a cleaner shrimp that likes to walk over every coral in my tank, including my goni. Is this okay?

I saw photos of your 12g nano in another thread. Your shrimp doesn't have much space to walk anywhere. As long as the shrimp doesn't cause the goni to remain retracted for lengthy periods of time it should be fine. I think the problem you will have is keeping the coral fed without having your shrimp constantly stripping the food out of it. The type of goniopora that you have does not require heavy feedings to keep it healthy, but you will have to feed it on a regular basis; otherwise it will not live. That means turning off the circulation pump and target feeding the polyps with small foods (DT's oyster eggs, Coral Frenzy, Cyclopeeze) several times a week. Keeping it healthy in a 12g nano is possible, but it is going to require your close attention to everything that affects it. Normally you wouldn't want to put any Goniopora in such a small tank.

Aquaticman74 · #46 04/08/2007, 03:47 PM

Is it ok to keep a goni on a piece of pvc? My tank is BB so I keep my brains and plates on pieces of pvc so their flesh doesn't tear. What would be the best way to keep one in my situation?

John Kelly · #47 04/08/2007, 04:45 PM

I use eggcrate.