Here is my Goniopora story:

For a long time, I read and read and read about this coral and how it is near
impossible to keep. Anyone on ReefCentral that mentioned they had one were
slammed by the "Goni Police" (people that felt it was improper to buy them as
they would surely die). However, a number of people with Red Gonis were
reporting decent success. Still, the majority were quick to point out that if
people would quit buying them, stores would quit selling them and this coral
would be able to continue to live in the reef for years to come.

I understood. And I avoided them.

One day a new guy wanting to get into business asked me what corals to order and
what were the most popular. Turns out he had access to the divers in Fiji and
could get whatever he liked, and pass along huge savings to his future
customers. He asked about Goniopora, and I told him what I knew. Then I asked
if he could get a Red one. "Sure, that is on my list. How does $40 sound?"
OMG! I ordered one immediately, and looked forward to its arrival.

The day before shipment was to arrive, I get a call from him telling me my
"purple goni" was coming. PURPLE?! I'd never even heard of it. When I got to
his house to see the first shipment of corals, he'd ordered 4 Green and my
Purple, along with about 30 other corals; 20 fish, shrimp, starfish, and two Blue
Ringed Octopus (yes, those are lethal). The greens opened up within the hour,
looking about like yours did in the pictures on your site. The purple looked
like a lump, or a potato. I was not happy. I gave him $20 and took it home in
hopes it would do better.

It never did get better. I had all VHO lighting, but sitting in the garage were
MHs to install. I converted the canopy to make room for the MH w/ VHO
supplemention, and prayed for success. One guy came over and asked me what the
lump was. When I told him, his reply was "Purple? Oh yeah, those are the
hardest ones of all." SIGH!

Weeks went by, but it really never opened up. Each branch would extend about
1/2" with a few reaching 1" long. The flowery head looked like a tight daisy,
not like any Goniopora I'd ever seen. The vendor called me several times to see
how it was doing and if I was happy, and offered to trade it for a green one. I
decided to keep it and gave him $20 for a Green one two. I figured if I could
put them side by side, maybe they'd help each other -- like I'd read on RC. The
green looked good, and the purple did look more pretty but it still never opened
up.

I tried target feeding it with baby brine shrimp, Golden Pearls, etc... and they
looked good together but it wasn't showing any growth. The second picture linked
below was of them together.

About a month after that picture was taken, I had to kill an aptasia in my tank.
I had only one, and it was a big one. I pulled out the rock it was attached to,
mixed up some kalkwasser paste and injected it to kill it. And it died. I
rinsed the rock with one more shot of water, and put it back into the tank.
While I was arranging a few things in the tank, I noticed white smoke drifiting
through the water and it occured to me that it was residue coming out of that
rock. Still not worried, I continued arranging stuff. Then I noticed both
Gonioporas looked really bad. Something was wrong, because the center of the
green was missing and the purple was sloughing off tissue. The Kalk residue
BURNED both corals badly. I was about to be sick. With corals this difficult to
care for, I couldn't believe I'd done so much damage just trying to be rid of one
Aptasia. I wished I'd never touched the thing.

The purple is in my son's tank, and is almost completely dead. It must have
receeded 75% after the burning incident. The green one is in my 29g and
continues to live, with a huge bald spot in the center that is visible after
lights out. The skeleton is visible then.

Finally, about 3 weeks ago, a local reefer was tearing down his tank and put a
Red Goniopora up for sale. He's been feeding it flake food of all things, for 9
months with beautiful success. I bought it from him and put it into my 55g and
it continues to look great. I'm hoping to have it for a long long time, as the
red one is the coral people have success with.

Marc


--BS-- wrote:

Are all yours dead or ??? Hope not they are pretty

Brian

"Marc Levenson" skrev i en meddelelse
...
Brian, what color is the goniopora? It looks very bleached to me, in that
image. However, your camera's colors might be misleading.

Here are the gonioporas I've had:
Green Goniopora: http://melevsreef.com/id/goniopora.html
Purple Goniopora: http://melevsreef.com/id/two_gonis.html
Red Goniopora: http://melevsreef.com/id/red_goni.html


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