placement of coral

[wanderer90]

just recently bought this Goniopora sp. and was wondering if this placement is good for it... i had it on top of live rock but the current looks like it was too strong for it.....

TIA, Leo

All I can say is Good Luck with the Goni. They are Extremely Difficult to keept long term.. The like to be on the bottom with low-medium current... IMO take it back to the LFS and get your money back...

HTH,
James

[fishfreek]

From the research that the 'experts' in the industy have done I belive goniopora prefers dirter water than most corals. They as James mentioned woudl be classified as difficult to keep at best. Infact many 'experts' will tell you that at this point there exact requirements are still a mystery then it comes to captive care.

http://www.dallura.com/reef/goniopora/goniopora.html

The above link is a good reference on how they can 'turn' with no real changes in care or water coniditions.

You know I have been thinking about some of these corals that are classified as extremeley hard to keep... I know that the experts have tried and recommend against it and that is all well and good, but, if we are to make a difference in the reefs out there, we better find a way to start keeping these beauties... It may be that Goniopora and some others just have been treated with to far pristine water conditions and die off because of this... Just a thought. I would love to be able to do some lengthy experiments. One day I hope to see that someone has been able to keep these kinds of corals alive for years and be able to pass the word on...

[fishfreek]

what you describe is going on at this point aswell. I recall hearing the former director of the wikiki aquarium in HI talk about him and Charles Dibeck working on trying to figure out how to keep Dendronephthya. He talked about how they had set up several experiments with different flow patterns and differnt flow intensities and differnt feeding levels, etc and still where unsuccessful in finding the correct combonation of elements to keep them in captive care. Im sure the same is being done or has in the past been done on goniopora.

Shoot some people have clamed to be able to keep it alive for years in captive care yet others following the exact same care procedures fail mersiably.

Interesting though