Any ideas what's going on with my Goni

[jsker]

post

 

[BILLMELLO]

Anything is possible but lighting has been Unchanged for months( I did turn them up to get the picture

Was thriving about a month ago

Feeding
Goniopower Advanced Zooplankton Diet, 30gm

But only about twice a week

Cut way back during the cyanogen outbreak so underfeeding feel like a posdibility

 

[BILLMELLO]

That being said it was covered with a jelly substance before I noticed that earlier tonight I cleaned it about an hour before I read the comments so it might not show in the picture

Searching for answers suspect we probably only have another day or two at most before it's too late

This was a nice coral got it from WWC while I was visiting there over a few months back

 

[Sabellafella]

Unfortunantly, to not cause further problems down the road. You can try to frag the healthy tissue if your willing to try saving it. Otherwise its on its way out =/

 

[jsker]

Tried to past, that I feed reef nutrition oyster feast, R.O.E and rotti feast mixed in with my frozen daily

 

[Sabellafella]

Its a few of the green species of gonis that are very hard to keep. I tryed my hand with them in the past and never worked out for me. I did have one revive from constantly dipping in iodine for a couple months, but even then didnt fair well

 

[Elementalj]

I've never had one live longer than 7-8 months. Poor little buggers never seem to acclimate to captivity well.

 

[sghera64]

1.026
Kh 10
Ph 8.9
Nitrate o
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 50
Calcium 510

@BILLMELLO is your pH really 8.9? That is very high, ime.

I've kept a goniopora stokesi in my 135 gal mixed reef since Nov. 2011. It has spawned many times. In 2015, it was attacked by a powder blue tang repeatedly. My red goniopora was too!. Both took bad hits. The red has recovered well, the green/yellow struggled. I struggle for a long time figuring out why it and a few of its off spring (kept in a protected part of the same system) withered like yours. The answer was that my water quality had wondered into the ULNS range (non-detect PO4 - ULR Hanna checker and non-detect NO3 - Nyos) after I started carbon dosing to treat algae.

Here is a <LINK> to that 2011 goniopora that has begun to recover:

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

@BILLMELLO is your pH really 8.9? That is very high, ime.

I've kept a goniopora stokesi in my 135 gal mixed reef since Nov. 2011. It has spawned many times. In 2015, it was attacked by a powder blue tang repeatedly. My red goniopora was too!. Both took bad hits. The red has recovered well, the green/yellow struggled. I struggle for a long time figuring out why it and a few of its off spring (kept in a protected part of the same system) withered like yours. The answer was that my water quality had wondered into the ULNS range (non-detect PO4 - ULR Hanna checker and non-detect NO3 - Nyos) after I started carbon dosing to treat algae.

Here is a <LINK> to that 2011 goniopora that has begun to recover:

wow 2011
may I ask what lighting? its next to a clam so is def not dark in there,

 

[sghera64]

wow 2011
may I ask what lighting? its next to a clam so is def not dark in there,

I have a 6-foot x 2-foot aquarium (18-inch deep). Over that are 3x 250W 10,000K MH lamps and 4x T5 39W bulbs (Gieseman Super Actinic and Actinic Blue). I keep this particular Gonio on the sand and in the corner so that it is not too bright. Later today, when lights come on, I'll get a few pics of this guy. One will show how far back its tissue receded. The next one will show how well polyps have extended. I know it is on the mend because it is budding again and the edges of the colony are starting to encrust over the dead skeleton. At some point, I might follow @Sabellafella 's advice and cut away the dead part, but for now, it does provide a nice base to sink into the sand in order to keep the live polyps above the sand.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

still thats plenty of good light and and really the key must be good food in the water.
And a skilled reefer

 

[BILLMELLO]

Thanks for the feedback, Ph is higher than I would like but still learning how to affectedly reduce it if u have any thoughts.

Update came home last night to find the brown slim like substance had returned an encompasses about 90% of the coral

Figuring not much to lose, using a toothbrush cleaned off the coral while using vacuum to suction the jelly out if the tank, y and dipped it, for about 10 min, then flushed and returned to tank

Some brown returning but less than yesterday, damage is evident not sure if healing , likely dip again tonight (dipping is consumung about 7 gal of tank water some getting a small water change out if the strategy and limit risk of spread if contagious)

More to follow

 

[WetWhistle]

Most issue with Goni are food related not nutrient. They like a little dirtier water and gain a good potion of their energy budget from dissolved organic matter and through zooxanthellae they receive many of their nutrients. Up to half their diet is Phytoplankton though so unless you feed Phytoplankton or have a productive refugium that produces lots and lots of live foods. Goniopora tend to waste away if you don't have large amounts of Phytoplankton and other particulate matter to feed on.

You need to get its feeding up. I would place it on the substrate where it receives good flow as this is typically where they sit in the wild. Then take a turkey baster and squirt up some detritus into the water. They love to feed on detritus. Or feed some oyster feast and Phytoplankton.

 

[sghera64]

Thanks for the feedback, Ph is higher than I would like but still learning how to affectedly reduce it if u have any thoughts.

Update came home last night to find the brown slim like substance had returned an encompasses about 90% of the coral

Figuring not much to lose, using a toothbrush cleaned off the coral while using vacuum to suction the jelly out if the tank, y and dipped it, for about 10 min, then flushed and returned to tank

Some brown returning but less than yesterday, damage is evident not sure if healing , likely dip again tonight (dipping is consumung about 7 gal of tank water some getting a small water change out if the strategy and limit risk of spread if contagious)

More to follow

1. What are you using for a dip?
   
   
2. What is your photo period and under what lighting is it?
   
   
3. Are you adding anything to the system that might explain the high pH (Kalkwasser, two-part, sodium carbonate i.e. baking powder, Na2CO3)?

I've used iodine (1 mL of saturated solution in 1 gallon saltwater).

My pH has been anywhere from 7.8 to 8.0 (early days when the Gonio was doing well, and I added CO2 as a side-effect of my CO2 reactor). Currently my pH is 8.2-8.4 using plenty of Kalkwasser (stopped using CO2 reactor), but I dose sodium carbonate and inject massive amounts of outdoor air into my protein skimmer to keep it in this range.

I now feed my tank 1-3x per day - - mostly to keep my PO4 and NO3 from bottoming out as non-detect. I found my Gonio (and torch corals) hate the ULNS. I have to feel Selcon with my flake food and I even spike in Ca(NO3)2 1x per week just to maintain NO3 at 0.5ppm-NO3 and PO4 at 0.015 PPM-PO4. Doing this seems to keep my yellow and red Gonio happy.

 

[WetWhistle]

You can try something like lugols solution of iodine dip for the brown rot.

 

[sghera64]

Most issue with Goni are food related not nutrient. They like a little dirtier water and gain a good potion of their energy budget from dissolved organic matter and through zooxanthellae they receive many of their nutrients. Up to half their diet is Phytoplankton though so unless you feed Phytoplankton or have a productive refugium that produces lots and lots of live foods. Goniopora tend to waste away if you don't have large amounts of Phytoplankton and other particulate matter to feed on.

You need to get its feeding up. I would place it on the substrate where it receives good flow as this is typically where they sit in the wild. Then take a turkey baster and squirt up some detritus into the water. They love to feed on detritus. Or feed some oyster feast and Phytoplankton.

When I started out, I used to "bathe" my baby Gionio Stokesi in Oyster Feast. I also got it to eat smashed up Formula One flakes (I'll attach a couple of pics). I could not get my Stokesi to each flakes while it was recovering. To recover, I just used light, kept it on the sand and let it receive a gentle random current.

+1 on the sand location. I also like to stir up the sand up stream of the Gonio with my glass cleaner magnet and let particals drift towards it. Now my sifting gobbie does that for me.

 

[WetWhistle]

Ya them seem to respond better to treatment on the substrate. Nice idea on the flakes.

Target feeding is a good option to. Take a 2L pop bottle and cut the top off and remove the cap, you can adjust the size to how big or small you need by cutting where you need on the bottle. Place over the goni with the cap off and squirt some food into it. Leave in place for 20 min or so. You can do this more then once a day till it is recovering. In fact spreading out the feeding will help greatly as it will have a constant source of food throughout the day.

I like to squirt AminOmega into the container as it is a flavorful food that is fine and elicits a strong feeding response. Plus the amino acids 3 ,6 and essential fatty acids (HUFA) will be nutritious.

 

[sghera64]

Here are pics of my Gonio. The initial ones make it look like a beauty, but after I used my hand to raise it out of the burrow dug by the gobbie, I got the polyps to retract and you can see this guy nearly died all the way.

I think if you can stop the brown jelly, you can probably revive it. I've use my own iodine solution I2 + KI + Ethanol + Water that I add 7-10 drops to a gallon of water. If you can get Logule's from a pharmacy that would be about the same thing.

 

[BILLMELLO]

Final update. Goni did not make it, jelly is gone but it is pure white with no sign of life for a couple of days. I did find some jelly on a few other LPS (Cup Coral & Goni Frag) so dipped those, and called it on the long tentacle Goni to de-risk effecting other corals. Since then no sign of brown jelly

To answer a previous question I used Coral Rx from Bulk Reef Supply (contains no iodine).

Posts have gotten me excited to try again down the road once I am farther down the learning curve as some of you are having success and they are awesome.

Thanks again.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

That's what it's all about!

Bummer on the coral. Keep Reefing.