Gonipora doing quite well...

[justinpsmith]

I got a Goni from my brother about three months ago for my 24G nano cube. He had it for about a year before I got it but took down his 30G and instead of trading wanted me to take it so he could see how it survives, or does not...He gave me quite strict guidelines on keeping this thing and at first I hated having it, assuming it would just die but now its got a whole lot of new growth and is looking good! He wanted me to take it because I was not planning on using a skimmer in my nano cube as he had not used one in his. I spot feed it twice a week. It seems to eat any meaty food I offer it. I also feed phytoplankton every two days or so for all my corals.

Basically I just wanted to see how many other people have had success with Goni's for more than a year and how? I would love to see how long this guy makes it!

One question I have though is...Is it normal for it to extend at times a ridiculous amount? I mean, it really reaches! I used to think it was hungry or something but even after feeding it often will do this. Is this normal?

Also, when I got it from my brother it was kind of dull orange almost with a slight green on the ends of the polylps and it has really gotten much greener in my tank. Is this normal?

I hope to take some new pics soon if I can find my stupid battery charger for my camera...

[tony7855]

i had a goni about a year ago which i bought at the pet store. he survived quite well for about six months then started to go downhill. they will start to develope brown and black sores onthefoot of a polyp and slowly spread eating good tissue. mine was a nice healthy green when it was doing well. sounds like you have yours in a good location overall. good luck!!

[justinpsmith]

My brother has about 8 more years of experience than me and could have probably kept it alive longer than I can but he had to take its tank down and all his other tanks have skimmers. He seems to think they will only survive without a skimmer, so my nano tank was his choice. Its actually in quite a bit of flow all day and then not much at all in the night. Who knows how long it will last!

[ronkent]

good luck, mine lasted about 8 months, then turned to crap, i took it out and let it dry so i can mount some zoo's to the skeleton.

[cristhiam]

I have one for a little 2 years, but my darn clowns starting to host it and kind of receide it a little from the bottom. But it's stopped, I moved it to a different place with a little more flow and the clowns moved to my torch. I'm telling you my 3 clows where rught on it.
a few pics in this links
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/10months/DSC00049.jpg
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/10months/DSC00057.jpg
and an old picture of it on a 55G
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/fulltank003.jpg

[zoomfish1]

I had one for two years before my tank split a seam. It never recovered. In it's hayday those tenticles would extend maybe as much a 6", food or not. I think it reaches when it's happy. Makes sense dosen't it?

[pink_floyd]

I used to have them but in my experience, it is one of the hardest corals to keep.. just my 2 cents

[Sara B]

I have had good success with a couple of them. A dark red one has been in my tank for almost 1.5 years and has grown quite a bit. I added a bright pink one 4 months ago and I just acquired another "colony" this weekend. This "colony" has 4 different Goni heads on it and each is a different color. It's simply beautiful with 2 heads being shades of pink and one has a yellow mouth. The other 2 heads are dark red and one has a purple mouth. I don't have a camera that can take photo's yet, but when I do get one in about a month, I'll post the photo's then. Sorry to tease and not show photo's!