Goniopora Acting Strange...

[Redeemed]

I have a Goni that is doing very well. However, this afternoon I noticed some odd behavior. The first pic is of him seeming "swollen" with his arms all pulled in but one. Normally he pulls all the way in every evening. But this is weird. None of his arms were moving, even with the water flow. It held everything still.

Then about ten minutes later, he loosened his arms a bit and they stretched out a little and all of them started to quiver simultaneously. As I type this, he's going back to his normal outstretched self, flowing in the water movement. Anybody have any idea what that was all about?

 

[Redeemed]

I know its movement but I guess what I was trying to say is he seemed "inflated" rather than the entire body pulling in along with the arms. It was like the arms pulled in but the body fattened out?

 

[Redeemed]

This is him like what I consider normal.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Possibly some sand caught on the fleshy part so he puffed up to get rid of it.

Beautiful Goni! Do you feed him anything in particular? What are your parameters like?

 

[Redeemed]

Thank you. To be honest, it's my first reef. I've had saltwater before with lionfish, puffers, morays, etc. But have had this for only 3 months. If I had known about Gonis being a bit difficult, I would have held off. But he's been in my tank for a while and seems bigger. Zoas, Blasto, Scoly, Candy Cane, monti, cyphastreas, duncans all seem to be doing awesome.

I have to get my trace elements measured. I should have had all that bought before I got my first coral. Still working on rest of testing today. So far, 1.023 sal, 8.1 PH, 5-7 Nitr. 77-78 F. Scoly gets a thick paste of Reefroids that he loves. Everything else gets handfed more diluted roids.

Occasionally, introduced PhytoFeast but didn't like the film it left on the front glass over time. I realize that's normal but this was filming up to where I had to wipe twice a day.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Thank you. To be honest, it's my first reef. I've had saltwater before with lionfish, puffers, morays, etc. But have had this for only 3 months. If I had known about Gonis being a bit difficult, I would have held off. But he's been in my tank for a while and seems bigger. Zoas, Blasto, Scoly, Candy Cane, monti, cyphastreas, duncans all seem to be doing awesome.

I have to get my trace elements measured. I should have had all that bought before I got my first coral. Still working on rest of testing today. So far, 1.023 sal, 8.1 PH, 5-7 Nitr. 77-78 F. Scoly gets a thick paste of Reefroids that he loves. Everything else gets handfed more diluted roids.

Occasionally, introduced PhytoFeast but didn't like the film it left on the front glass over time. I realize that's normal but this was filming up to where I had to wipe twice a day.

Seems like it’s going well for you. Good!

You might want to think about raising salinity slowly. Corals do best between 1.025 and 1.026. Whenever you get a chance, get your phosphate measured. Reef Roids can cause spikes in phosphates which can lead to algae blooms and other issues.

 

[Redeemed]

Thanks for the information. I will raise the salinity. No reefer should be absent of a phosphate tester and I've been guilty of that. I got into Ammonia, PH, Nitrates, etc. and missed an important one. Ordered just now to arrive in a few days.

 

[Redeemed]

Sadly, it seems like its dying now...

 

[crazyfishmom]

Oh no!!!!!!! I might consider dipping in the event that there’s a critter that’s bothering it. Do you know if this is an aquacultured piece or whether it is a wild collected specimen?

 

[Redeemed]

I imagine wild since I got it for $100 a while back. I looked it over for any jelly excretion or anything and cannot find anything.

 

[Redeemed]

Meanwhile, everything else in the tank is thriving. I have babied this thing and all happened suddenly yesterday. No sand got on it and no hitchhikers in the tank.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Wild caught gonis are really hard to keep alive long term. They look awesome in a tank for a month or two and then a lot of them whither away. If you’re trying to keep gonis (I love them, they’re a must have for me), consider really understanding your water parameters. They’re sensitive to high phosphates. Also manganese and iron levels make a difference.

 

[Redeemed]

Wild caught gonis are really hard to keep alive long term. They look awesome in a tank for a month or two and then a lot of them whither away. If you’re trying to keep gonis (I love them, they’re a must have for me), consider really understanding your water parameters. They’re sensitive to high phosphates. Also manganese and iron levels make a difference.

Thank you for all your help. I never once thought I would go to my LFS and be more thrilled looking for my next coral than a fish. But after having this reef, it's addicting. Yet, there's a responsibility to give everything the best life you can because they didn't choose to be in a glass box in someone's house.

 

[moosevandyke]

Wild caught gonis are really hard to keep alive long term. They look awesome in a tank for a month or two and then a lot of them whither away. If you’re trying to keep gonis (I love them, they’re a must have for me), consider really understanding your water parameters. They’re sensitive to high phosphates. Also manganese and iron levels make a difference.

Curious as to what ya consider high phosphate for Gonis? I also wonder if you have had issues with wild caught bringing in different bacteria strains then the aquaculture ones causing bacterial infections.

 

[crazyfishmom]

Curious as to what ya consider high phosphate for Gonis? I also wonder if you have had issues with wild caught bringing in different bacteria strains then the aquaculture ones causing bacterial infections.

Mine do well below 0.25 (they extend more and their colors are richer). I have lots of aquacultured ones that always thrive in my tank. With the wild collected it’s more hit or miss. Some have done well and a few have withered away. The aquacultured all seem to stick.

 

[Redeemed]

Well, I expected the goni to be about dead this morning but it doesn't have as big of a pocket of closure as it once did. The arms have moved out more everywhere so I am hoping it comes back. I think coral once going the death route, go quickly.

I gave it a light feeding last night and it acted strong enough to be interested in grabbing and closing to digest. I will not feed it for a while as to not stress it with further digestion.

 

[Redeemed]

Update: Interesting turn of events...Over the past couple of hours, the goni has seemed to improve with more arms out and seeming more like its old self. It's still about 25% closed in one area. When I looked closely at the base of it, I noticed something sitting there.

Upon closer inspection, it's a partial piece of an old molt from my fire shrimp with just the antenna and head. I bet this somehow irritated the goni and it finally expelled it wherever it was bothering it. Crazyfishmom-you may have been 100% correct on it being something foreign. I hope that this is all it was. Thanks Goni Queen! lol

 

[crazyfishmom]

Update: Interesting turn of events...Over the past couple of hours, the goni has seemed to improve with more arms out and seeming more like its old self. It's still about 25% closed in one area. When I looked closely at the base of it, I noticed something sitting there.

Upon closer inspection, it's a partial piece of an old molt from my fire shrimp with just the antenna and head. I bet this somehow irritated the goni and it finally expelled it wherever it was bothering it. Crazyfishmom-you may have been 100% correct on it being something foreign. I hope that this is all it was. Thanks Goni Queen! lol

I am so glad to hear!!!!! These are amazing animals.

I kinda like that nickname, but hardly applies!

 

[Redeemed]

This morning the goni is still seemingly ok but I noticed a bit of a "discharge" in the area that was closed. Im concerned about it being brown jelly and I removed it the best that I could. However, how do you know if its a healing process and bad tissue releasing or jelly?

I don't know what the difference is between a coral having issues where some tissue gets released or its the bad stuff.

 

[Redeemed]

Upon closer inspection, the area that was having issues had a bit of slough off, possibly the bad tissue. I barely had to use any suction for it to easily release off the goni. It is now clean of anything that it had on it. It wasn't a lot. If it's brown jelly, does it just release off coral easily or is it more of a coating?

This wasn't coating anything on the coral but only the 1 or 2 holes that the goni has on its skeleton. The rest of the body appears ok. I could be wrong but I thought the brown jelly might be more of a coating slime that spreads? I just don't want to remove this goni and it die if its still recovering and acting better but I dont want the rest of my corals to be affected.