Please Help! My Goniopora is dieing.

[marrav88]

I'm Vince, an avid freshwater aquarium owner, yet I seem to be lacking in my knowledge of saltwater parameters and am putting my poor goniopora in an extremely stressful, fatal situation.

Here is the down low.

Tank: 29g nano tank with fluorescent, uv, and led lighting.

my goniopora is my only coral. no live rock. I have 2 bw clown fish and a yellow tailed damsel, along with 2 worms, 2 small hermits and 2 small crabs.

I purchased my goniopora from my LFS and he insisted it was a great beginner coral and easy to maintain. note, that before my travels I already measured my water parameters beforehand and everything was good. temp was at 74F as per my LFS recommendations for nitrates and such. I purchased my Green goniopora for $110.00 usd. brought it home and acclimated it for 15 min. I picked a good spot with moderate flow on my sand bed and let it get used to everything for a day. the next day though, it accumulated a white mucus layer over its entirety. I was scared and so I rechecked my water parameters and my salinity was off the charts. literally. my hydrometer is apparently faulty, works when it wants to.

I cleaned it off in fresh, premixed saltwater and removed the mucus. corrected my tank by removing saltwater and adding distilled freshwater. I moved it to another location and lowered my light timing from 8, to 6 hours. now with the proper parameters I let it try to heal itself for 48 hours. it has these "feelers" in 3 locations that seem to respond to touch and often have algae on them. not sure what the proper term is.

I have taken a few pictures in its current state today and registered to this forum only for some assistance from my fellow hobbyists.

Please help me if you can. I have two ears so I may listen twice as much as I speak. im grateful for any help.

Regards,
Vince M.

[heathlindner25]

You got some really bad advice....

[gone fishin]

I have never had any luck at keeping a green goniopora longer than a few months and I am not the only one. Other folks say the other color morphs are more forgiving. I got tired of killing them and will not try one again.

[mcgyvr]

Sorry but that "goni" is pretty much a "goner". Remove/trash it.. and find a better LFS or just do your research first..

And those 3 "feelers" are other creatures living in the coral..
Looks like Polychaete - Flabelligeridae worms which are a harmless filter feeder..

[Brieninsac]

Don't ever go back to that aquarium store. They gave you bad advice and over charged you too. They're very difficult to keep alive and should never be someone's first coral. Buy a few $10 Zoa frags to learn with.

[mcgyvr]

And yes.. thats way overpriced for that coral.. half that or less is "normal"
live and learn..

[marrav88]

Thank you all for the kind advice. and thank you mcgyvr for clearing that up for me. it seems I'll have to improve myself in terms of understanding the habitat instead of relying on someone else who wants to make money.

[mcgyvr]

Originally Posted by marrav88

Thank you all for the kind advice. and thank you mcgyvr for clearing that up for me. it seems I'll have to improve myself in terms of understanding the habitat instead of relying on someone else who wants to make money.

Don't feel bad at all.. We have all made plenty of mistakes in this hobby/trusted the wrong LFS/or just said "but it would look soo sweet in my tank"

[Tanthaitrung]

Hi Vince, welcome to Reef Central

Do not trust LFS, Goniopora is not for beginner. Many expert reef keepers told about the deaths without notice and no one can explain.

How old is your tank? What are your parameters? You need a refractometer instead of a hydrometer.

In my experience, Goniopora needs food and trace elements. I target feed my Gonioporas twice a week and dose some trace elements on the days without feeding. Keeping KH, MG, CA in check and stable.

I'm very sorry, I think yours can't be saved. Do not do any thing before asking, reefers here will help you.

[marrav88]

thank you. should I remove it promptly to inhibit contamination to my tank or is it safe to let my hermits and worms eat it?

[GoVols]

I Insist, he doesn't deserve to be in business!

For the most part there are only 2 kinds of green goniopora (Flower Pot)
1) Dead
2) Going to be Dead

You got ripped for him to move some inventory. I've heard the red ones are more hardy put in no way for a beginner.

Just take it for a lesson and research corals before you make a purchase.

As much as I love Diver's Den they'll list a Bleeding Apple Scolymia as easy.
The truth is if you get 2 years out of a Scoly then you've accomplished a small miracle or got lucky.

[rjjr1963]

Originally Posted by Tanthaitrung

Hi Vince, welcome to Reef Central

Do not trust LFS, Goniopora is not for beginner. Many expert reef keepers told about the deaths without notice and no one can explain.

How old is your tank? What are your parameters? You need a refractometer instead of a hydrometer.

In my experience, Goniopora needs food and trace elements. I target feed my Gonioporas twice a week and dose some trace elements on the days without feeding. Keeping KH, MG, CA in check and stable.

I'm very sorry, I think yours can't be saved. Do not do any thing before asking, reefers here will help you.

What do you feed your Goniopora? I got my first one about a year ago and it's been doing great and growing. I bought a red one this summer and it only lasted about 1 month. I recently bought another green one, it's a different color green but it is already growing. I like this coral but don't understand how I lost the red one while the green one was doing great. I guess I just got lucky because I set my first reeftank up about a year ago and the Goniopora was the first coral I bought.

[marrav88]

I'm going to have a very civil, non-violent conversation with the employees at my LFS and request store credit. they are the only place within 25 miles that carry saltwater species. I will try and get a few Zoas to start. this is very saddening to me and I regret ending my gonis life due to stupidity. I won't make the same mistake twice. I bought the saltwater master test kit and understand how to go about the procedures for proper water testing. also purchased an expensive refractometer from lfs. Once they open tomorrow I better get some answers as to why their employees sold an ameture, a professional level coral. I thank you all for your warm welcome and support.

-Vince

[heathlindner25]

They're trying to make money, this hobbies all about research.

[djbon]

Definitely not for a beginner coral as they need to be fed either manually or naturally occurring foods from an established tank. Under correct conditions (lighting and flow) it will pop up new heads constantly. Mine has been with me for more than 2 years, was struggling to keep it alive until my tank stabilized and matured.

[Tanthaitrung]

Originally Posted by marrav88

thank you. should I remove it promptly to inhibit contamination to my tank or is it safe to let my hermits and worms eat it?

I would remove it

[Tanthaitrung]

Originally Posted by rjjr1963

What do you feed your Goniopora? I got my first one about a year ago and it's been doing great and growing. I bought a red one this summer and it only lasted about 1 month. I recently bought another green one, it's a different color green but it is already growing. I like this coral but don't understand how I lost the red one while the green one was doing great. I guess I just got lucky because I set my first reeftank up about a year ago and the Goniopora was the first coral I bought.

Hi rjjr1963,

I'm not an expert, but I believe that Goniopora needs food, trace elements, moderate light and low. Twice a week, I make a solution: 200ml of tank water + 1 tea spoon of Polyp Lad Reef-Roids + 1ml of Polyp Lab Polyp-Booster + 10ml of Seachem Reef Plus, then use Two Little Fishies feeding tool to feed them (turn off all powerheads and return pump). After that, I turn on the return pump, half an hour later turn on all poweheads.

Sometimes, I also dose some Red Sea A, B, C, D on the days without feeding. They look very happy after feeding (including the red one) and growing well

[homer1475]

And yet I've never target fed my goni or any other coral for that matter(with the exception of the NPS sun coral twice a week). These corals get all the food they need from simple photosynthesis.

Mine has easily doubled in size in the last 2 years, and drops babies all the time. I grow the babies on frag plugs and trade them into my LFS for credit. A goni isn't really all that hard to keep and maintain IMO. Odd thing though, the alveopora(which is supposed to be easier to keep) shriveled up and died in a couple weeks in the same tank.

[Tanthaitrung]

Originally Posted by homer1475

And yet I've never target fed my goni or any other coral for that matter(with the exception of the NPS sun coral twice a week). These corals get all the food they need from simple photosynthesis.

Mine has easily doubled in size in the last 2 years, and drops babies all the time. I grow the babies on frag plugs and trade them into my LFS for credit. A goni isn't really all that hard to keep and maintain IMO. Odd thing though, the alveopora(which is supposed to be easier to keep) shriveled up and died in a couple weeks in the same tank.

Impressive, double in size without feeding.

What kind of your Goniopora? How often do you do water change? What are your NO3, PO4?

[homer1475]

Its an encrusting goni, nopt exactly sure what kind, but certainly not a stokesi's!

WC is 10% weekly. Heres a couple shots of it.

Here it is 2 years ago when I bought it.


And recently(still a 6 month old photo, but it was right after I moved to a newer tank.


My lights are currently off, or I would take a recent right now.

[homer1475]

Lights just came on, heres a recent pic.

[Tanthaitrung]

Thanks for your sharing

Do water change weekly help adding trace elements. I'm doing 15% every 2 weeks

Good job

[gulfstream]

The lfs gave you such a bad advice regarding Goniopora as being a beginner coral. Myself being in this hobby for last 15 years I 've never being able to kept this coral for longer than a year. I honestly believe this coral should be keep in the wild and not being sold at LFS. As for yours it has now become to the point of no return.
Very sorry to tell you the bad news. My advice to you is? Before purchasing a coral do a bit of research to and if in doubt! Post a question here at the club.
Cheers

Sent from my SM-G850W using Tapatalk

[marrav88]

Originally Posted by gulfstream

The lfs gave you such a bad advice regarding Goniopora as being a beginner coral. Myself being in this hobby for last 15 years I 've never being able to kept this coral for longer than a year. I honestly believe this coral should be keep in the wild and not being sold at LFS. As for yours it has now become to the point of no return.
Very sorry to tell you the bad news. My advice to you is? Before purchasing a coral do a bit of research to and if in doubt! Post a question here at the club.
Cheers

Sent from my SM-G850W using Tapatalk

Thank you very much. iv been doing alot of research on almost every aspect of saltwater aquariums. I think maybe I'll start out with a couple small zoa frags like the above mentioned. it's upsetting, but I'm moving forward.

Thank you all for your assistance. I'll be coming straight here for any questions I may have or recommendations. I feel very welcomed and will contribute to the community when the opportunity presents itself.

[Kaydubya]

I would also think about adding some live rock to that tank and let the biological bacteria grow to handle the fish waste. Maybe give that a few weeks and get all of you parameters stable before adding any more coral. Sorry that you had such a bad experience with your first coral. You did make the right choice coming here for help, these folks on here are amazing. Browse the forums and read and research as much as possible and then you will have the right information to make your next purchase. Good luck.