Any luck with Goniopora stutchburyi / burgosi? (Encrusting Goniopora)
 

I have never noticed encrusting Gonipora before, and after reading about it online it seems as though it is much easier to care for than the typical longer polyped Goniopora that is very difficult to care for long term. I am wondering how successful people have been with long term care of encrusting Goniopora stutchburyi and/or Goniopora burgosi?

I just got a piece of this about a month ago. The guy at the LFS was so sure it was flowerpot but I didn't believe him. Eventually I looked it up and sure enough it was. Anyway, the frag of it that I got is about 2"x2" and took about 2.5 weeks to fully "expand", previous to that the polyps were firmly entrenched in the coral and were unwilling to come out. As well the tissue surrounding the polyps was a bit pale. Currently it looks pretty happy, polyps are fully expanded (as expanded as it gets I suppose) and its fully colored up.

Well this isn't exactly long term experience but thought I'd chime in anyways :biggrin:

It's only been a few months but I bought a rather large colony that has since become a HUGE colony. There was some die off when I purchased it but new flesh has encrusted over where the die off was. I moved it to less light and was a bit worried but it still expands huge every day. My Cardinal loves it and sticks by it most of the day since the clowns have the rbta.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y23...w/IMGP5891.jpg

IMO it does well in my tank because of frequent feedings, target fed with cyclopeeze and other small foods once or twice a week but also I never rinse any of my frozen foods so a lot of the juices flow towards this side of the tank and the goni grabs that on its own.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/nftt/index.php
i had red gonioporah for 2+ years now and it was sold to me as such from j&l.
i feed all sorts of small particle food,but oyster eggs is always favorite.
last 6 month though a switched to fauna marine food (ultra seafan and ultra Min f) because of longer shelf life.
My red goni, doing very well, it popped out two babies on top of mother colony, i did not think much about two small balls until the started to separate from mother colony.
Mine is not attached and because i use wavebox, it only encrusted its own rock so much, that it sits on its own tissue.

Wow, mine looks nothing like that. The polyps are extended maybe 0.5 mm. I don't know, maybe mine isn't what I think you guys are talking about.:neutral:

Christy, yours sounds like what I am talking about, corpusse's photo is not Goniopora stutchburyi, however it is VERY nice!! :eek: Goniopora stutchburyi has small polyps usually only 1-2mm widem, and the stalks are often so short they are sometimes mistaken for Porites. Upon closer look it may be Goniopora burgosi I am referring to...the two seem very similar, and little information on identification seems to be available. Do you have a pic of yours Christy?

Goniopora stutchburyi:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005...utchburyi1.jpg

Goniopora burgosi:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005...m/burgosi1.jpg

Here is a pic of mine:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...5/IMG_5299.jpg

I totally agree, I was thinking it was more like a pagoda coral or something at the store. They have one in their display tank which has been in there awhile and is just starting to encrust. It looks slightly different than mine, almost like the polyps are a bit more widely spaced apart which gives it the appearance of being a "mini pagoda" or turbinaria or something. I haven't mounted mine as it was rather pale looking and I was waiting for it to fully color up under my lighting before I start moving it up the water column :biggrin:

Wow that is a terrible photo, but you get the idea :razz:

Ah yes, yours is what I'm talking about! I think I will just go ahead and buy this one I found. It is a similar color to yours. After researching, I am wondering if they are supposed to be red instead of pinkish.

I have a piece of that same stuff. The polyps extend to about 1/2 an inch. I have had it several months now seems to be doing good. I have found that it likes medium light and flow. It tends to go pale in brighter light.

I have one. At the time I purchased it, it looked like 'pin-cushion' polyps as it was not extended.
Had I known it was a goniopora I would not have bought it as it is impossible to keep long term.
I studied up on gonis as much as I could and found that it needed massive amounts of phytoplankton and other tiny foods.
It is surviving and even growing but I target feed it 2-3 times a day.
They say even with the best of care they will only last months and go downhill very slowly.
I would not consider one if I were you.

I appreciate your insight and advice. Personally, I would not consider the long tentacled, large polyped typical Goniopora as they definately are "impossible" to keep long term, but these short tentacled, small polyped Gonioporas are rumoured to have much better long term survival rates. How long have you had yours?

I have had mine for one year.
I do not know whether these are easier than the large polyped types.

Hey PM me with how much he wants for the nice red Goniopora you "found", maybe I could buy a frag of it from you?

Mark

Mark: Bayside corals has two of these red gonioporas, and some bright green ones too. I don't know if you noticed he fragged the green one up? If I do decide to get one I don't think I will be fragging it anytime soon, as I like to have bigger colonies. :) Oh, and my tanks won't be here in Saskatoon for probably a couple months yet. I will take whatever corals I buy tomorrow back to Kelowna with me on Tuesday.

I would say one year is the "long term" mark in my opinion as far as difficult to keep corals go. Does it grow well? Is it well colored? 2-3 times a day target feeding is pretty aggressive...I imagine if yours is not top notch with a regime like that, there is little hope!

All my research points towards the smaller polyped Gonioporas having better survival rates than their large polyped "cousins", but I am yet to be convinced.

You need to be careful as I understand they ship poorly. When I received it it did nothing for about 10 days and than opened up.
I would say the best shape it was in was about 5 months ago. Really colourful and perfect looking. Right now it is so so but not declining. I think it all has to do with feeding once the current and the lighting suits them.
I am not recommending anyone get them though but simply answering your questions.

I have the same goniopora as Corpusse and I've had it about 10 months or so (3 months after end of cycle). Its doing fine and in MHO looks much nicer than the short encrusting ones, especially under actinics or just moon lights. The coral base glows like magna. Simply gorgeous!

What constitutes "hard to keep"?
I would not discourage anyone from getting one of these. Just my opinion based on my experience.

ive got a green goniopora, it was a small frag when i bought it 6-7 months ago, maybe a little longer actually, its now a good foot across and 8-9 inches high when its fully out.

its not red but i think they basically have the same needs, heres a pic when its 75% out

http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/e...531dec0003.jpg

The typical Goniporas with the large tentacles and large polyps (like yours) come from turbid lagoons where there is a huge amount of nutrients in the water. These Gonioporas are notoriously difficult if not impossible to keep long term (like a few other corals like non-photosynthetic gorgonians) as they require such a large amount of food that isn't normally available in our tanks because of protein skimming. There are not many foods on the market that are the right particle size Goniopora (unlike a few years ago), but one often ends up polluting his tank trying to feed these corals enough.

The short tentacled, small polyped Goniopora statchburyi and burgosi (in particular) both come from waters that are much less turbid, and less nutrient laden, so are supposedly much easier to care for as they apparently are not as nutrient demanding as their cousins.

My red gonioporah has tentacles at least 2.5 inch some times 3 inch.
Long enough for Percula clown to host in it.
I only feed once a day and i do not target feed anything in my tank.
May be it feeds on clowns excrement i don't know LOL.
Considering that it produced two offspings i think its doing well .

Your Goniopora is not either of the species I am referring to, but I am still interested how long you have had yours?

Thanks for that info Myka.

Mine is not as large as Michael from England nor does it get as tall.
Here is a quick photo taken by a hand held camera and under moon lights just to show the "magma effect". I figure June to be it's first year aniversary.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1863.jpg
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1864.jpg

BC Mosaic, yours looks like it could be a statchyburyi...would need closer pics. Very nice!!

Myka, I googled "Goniopora Stutchburyi" and I don't think its a match with what I got.
Here is a photo I just took with a tripod and the actinics and metal halides are on and no water movement:
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1875.jpg

I haven't highjacked your thread have I? :redface:

No, you haven't hijacked it at all. This is a thread to discuss Goniopora! :D Is that as long as the tentacles on yours get?

Take a look here, and see if you can identify it if you want: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/10/aafeature2

Myka,
Looking at that link there are two that have half the qualities each to make a match, G. Palmensis and the G. Somalienis (SOMe ALIENis).
Here again are another batch of just taken photos.

This one is a close (r) up shot under actinic & MH + Moon
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1877.jpg

Under actinics & moon
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1878.jpg

Just under Moon
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1879.jpg

Another under just moon
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1880.jpg

Under actinics and water blown by turkey baster (gently)
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1882.jpg

Under actinic & MH. The ribbed pink trails are what glows like magna/lava
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1883.jpg

Starting to peak out
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1885.jpg

Same
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/d...c/IMGP1886.jpg

If we can't figure out which it is then I'd like to call it "SOM ALIEN ". :mrgreen:

Ya, I was thinking the same thing as you. There isn't much info on identifying the species online, but there are a couple different times that I have read that it is often impossible for the average aquarist to pinpoint the specie. So, SOM ALIEN it is!!!

Here's my red flowerpot. I've had it 1 year and 3 months. So far it has been one of the easier corals in my tank that has survived some serious issues in my tank where I lost a significant number of other corals.

http://www.hyperdream.com/reef/coral...g_2103_std.jpg

Very, very nice.
One of my favorite.
Lucky us, eh? :mrgreen:

I have one of the large green goniaporas, so far about a year and a half. I spot feed it dried cyclopeeze mixed with water maybe once every two weeks with a test kit syringe. It hasnt grown much bigger since I aquaired it but it has spawned off a few babies. I dont think this is a hard coral to keep one just has to have a little responsibility with the feeding is all. There used to be a dedicated site for gonias but it has since gone away.