Reproduction of blue Goniopora

[G.Alexander]

Got this blue Goniopora about one year ago. After attaching it to a piece of rock it began to grow and also to encrust the rock. The size was about 1.5 inch – until now the coral has grown to 4 inch:



Some weeks ago, while the polyps where retracted I noticed same small balls at the skeleton which where getting bigger. I have noticed they are not attached to the coral skeleton, only the tissue was connected to the coral.

I decided to remove one of them and glued it with some super glue to a fresh piece of rock. Some hour later the piece opened its polyps:



This picture shows the area where the first fragment was detached from:



This is a area where a new one is growing:



And a second one:



G.Alexander

[Aquatic Image]

Alexander great pics. I know these species can be difficult at times. Good luck with the new young ones!

[Orion76]

That is very impressive, considering all aquarium books say these corals are nearly impossible to keep healthy long term.

[cetled]

considering all aquarium books say these corals are nearly impossible to keep healthy long term.

I have read that gonis require iron, Maybe they are doing well as they are getting iron from the zeolite.
My goni is doing great and has been going for sometime.

[Aged Salt]

Alois, are you using the complete ZEOvit method? Thnx. Bob

[Detritivore]

very impressive

[wasp]

Congratulations G. Alexander!!!

First time I have ever heard of this achievement. I think this is groundbreaking stuff!

Are you target feeding the goniopora, or is it scavenging enough by itself?

[G.Alexander]

Alastair, no special food, just the zeo supplements.

Alois, I remember a publication which says iron provides good supplement for Goniopora, however the zeo-iron theory is interesting, but I do not think, the corals / algae can utilize this form of iron. I have seen Goniopra also side by side with other SPS in the wild, which makes me believe they can be kept healthy in a nutrient poor system.

G.Alexander

[G.Alexander]

Got two new babies. The first one got a friend of mine and here is number two and three:





G.Alexander

[steffen]

Hallo Alexander,echt geile Sache mit der Gonio aber ich glaube langsam Du hast einen Bypass von Deinem Aquarium an die Südsee gelegt :-)
Gruß
Steffen

[wasp]

Very Cute!!

[Ruth]

Very very nice. I love these corals but have never been able to keep one alive so after a couple of trys I gave up.
Now if you can just figure out how to ship me one of yours G. Alexander once my new tank is set up that would be great!

[G.Alexander]

Ruth, I am located in Germany so shipping would be impossible over this long distance Sorry for that.

G.Alexander

[Ruth]

I know that and was just kidding but hopefully once my new tank gets running I will be able to find on here in Canada to try again.

[o2manyfish]

I have found that the colored Goni's do much better. I have a metallic red for over 2 years now (maybe almost 3). I have a blue for about a year, while mine hasn't started dropping lil ones yet, it has bee growing rather quickly.

The nice thing about my blue, is that it gets the long blowing tentacles like the greens.

Dave B