Goniopora Care

Goniopora corals are one of the most captivating and sought after large-polyp-stony(LPS) corals. They come in a wide array of vibrant colors, including greens, deep reds, and pinks. Their appearance is further enhanced by their long, waving polyps that extend outwards, creating a mesmerizing, swaying motion within your tank. These corals are undoubtedly a stunning addition to any reef tank, as they add lots of interest and liveliness into your tank. However, Gonioporas can also be challenging to care for, requiring stable water parameters and some monitoring. Their delicate nature means they demand an experienced and a well established, stable aquarium environment to thrive. With the right conditions and diligent husbandry, these magnificent corals can add flow and movement into any tank.

Care Parameters

Schutter, Miriam. (2010). 

So why are Goniopora corals so hard to care for? Goniopora corals are fairly finicky due to the way they eat. While they are photosynthetic corals, we find that an additional spot feeding is necessary and helpful. When spot feeding ensure that you are not aggressively blowing the food at the Goniopora, as their polyps will close. This is due to the way that the Goniopora inflate and deflate their tentacles. Goniopora inflate/extend their polyps by intaking water through the mouth at the top of the polyp extension. Most nutrients are provided to the coral through these polyps as the zooxanthellae live within the endoderm(a layer in the tissue of the polyp). Zooxanthellae are single celled dinoflagellates that live within the layers of tissue in the coral and photosynthesize providing the coral with nutrient byproducts. This means that water chemistry is extremely important as they will retract their polyps if the water chemistry is not to their liking. Therefore, keeping your Goniopora happy with their polyps extended is incredibly important for their survival.

What would make their polyps retract?

These corals are also very sensitive to their surroundings as they are known to retract once a fish brushes past them or other small animals such as cleaner shrimp. This is due to the nerve endings and muscles running through the tube of the polyps. So not only is water chemistry extremely important to these corals but flow as well. 

Further reasons for polyp retraction would include too much light, and too much or too little flow. As we all know, too much light can cause bleaching which in turn means the polyps will retract. Goniopora are very picky about their flow as well, most likely due to the way they inflate and deflate their stalks. Too little flow will stop the proper nutrients reaching the inside of the tube and has the potential for detritus build up. Too much flow can blow the skin off the skeleton or cause the polyps to retract due to too aggressive flow.

Do I need to worry if my Goniopora retracts?

There is no need to worry if your Goniopora retracts, within reason of course! This happens naturally as mentioned before, another inhabitant of your tank may have just brushed past it and it receded or got a burst of too much flow. However, there is a need to worry if they do not inflate themselves over a period of time. We typically wait about 2-3 days to see if they will inflate again. If you are continually seeing the skeleton and retracted polyps it is worthwhile to check your water parameters, lighting, flow, and food availability to see if that is what is agitating your coral.  

How can I get the polyps to extend again?

Here are some tactics we’ve used to try and help struggling Goniopora:

• Decrease flow
• Decrease light
• If possible, cut the flow to your tank for a short period of time and feed with Calanus (keep an eye on your water chemistry if you choose to up any type of feedings)
• Up your feedings of phytoplankton so there is more food in the water column to go around. All corals eat phytoplankton so upping the dosage may help boost the amount of food available in the water column for the Goniopora to eat (keep an eye on your water chemistry if you choose to up any type of feedings)

These are all the “remedies” we try before giving up on our Goniopora if they are struggling. They are not guaranteed fixes but we always like to try our best to save a coral before deciding it's too far gone. 

“After a brief period of quiet the polyp commonly resumes its full expansion. The expansion depends on an injection of salt water which is taken in mainly by the mouth.”

Sources:

Dana, James Dwight. Corals and coral islands. Dodd, Mead,, 1890.

Veron J.E.N., Stafford-Smith M.G., Turak E. and DeVantier L.M. (2016). Corals of the World.

 http://www.coralsoftheworld.org/page/structure-and-growth/?version=0.01

Schutter, Miriam. The influence of light and water flow on the growth and physiology of the scleractinian coral Galaxea fascicularis. ResearchGate.(2010). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40909358_The_influence_of_light_and_water_flow_on_the_growth_and_physiology_of_the_scleractinian_coral_Galaxea_fascicularis