Goniopora Help Needed

Morpheosz · Jun 22, 2022

Hey gang,

I have 5 goniopora in a cluster in my tank. One of them I've had by far the longest, about 6 months, was thriving and growing up until a few weeks ago. Now it's only extending about 1/4 of what it used to. It has a couple of things that appear to be growing out of it's skeleton and I'm curious if these are pests or incidental? Also I have an ORA red goni frag that I've had about 2-3 months and it was looking fantastic and growing quickly and over the past two weeks as well it has hardly extended at all during the day time. The other 3 I have are looking great but I'm worried that something might be spreading?

I tried to take pics but it was really hard to get a good shot. Here are a couple views. I believe they are pretty hard as I tried to grab them with a needle nose and they felt firm so I left them be for now. Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated. I don't think there is anythign systemic that should be an issue water quality wise as the rest of the tank is largely thriving, lots of euphyillia, acans, zoas, elegance, and a number of other frags. Also I've been testing regularly and everything has stayed status quo and it good ranges.

Lavey29 · Jun 22, 2022

R those its defensive stinger tentacles?

Morpheosz · Jun 22, 2022

I don't think so, they are solid. I thought they just sent out a longer tentacle for defense. I could be wrong though - two of my other goni have one extra long polyp.

Lavey29 · Jun 22, 2022

I have 3 gonis. Large, medium and small. I know phosphate levels bother them or dust in the water column. They are finicky corals. Torches sting my big one but it fights back to. Mine close to periodically for unknown reasons.

Irregardless · Aug 23, 2022

Did you ever figure out those hard things coming off of them? I;ve noticed that same thing on one or two of mine.

Morpheosz · Aug 23, 2022

Irregardless said:
Did you ever figure out those hard things coming off of them? I;ve noticed that same thing on one or two of mine.

I finally just picked them off with a needle nose pliers a month back or so and they have not come back. They were solid, felt calcified. I've had this goni for about 6 months and for the first 3-4 months it looked great, even grew a fair bit, but for the past 3 months it hasn't gone past about 5% extension, just barely coming out. It doesn't seem to be dying as it's been in this state for ages now, but it also doesn't seem to want to bounce back. I have 3 other goni frags that are doing just fine. It's very odd.