Cherry Red Goniopora – Aquacultured

Description

Cherry Red Goniopora – Aquacultured is offered under the retail name shown in the product title.

This is a Goniopora flowerpot coral. Color and tentacle-length terms in the title are aquarium-trade descriptors, not a verified species identification. Species-level hardiness varies, so this coral should not be treated as universally beginner-friendly.

Care Guide

• Lighting: Begin around 75–125 PAR and acclimate gradually. Do not move a newly received coral directly into the brightest part of the aquarium.
• Flow: Use low-to-moderate, random or indirect flow. Extended polyps should sway naturally rather than whip, fold over, or remain pinned to one side.
• Placement: Use a stable lower-to-middle position with room for full extension. Keep expanded polyps from touching rock edges or neighboring corals.
• Feeding: Regular fine feeding is beneficial. Offer a conservatively portioned planktonic or powdered coral food two or three times weekly without allowing uneaten food to accumulate.
• Spacing: Treat as semi-aggressive with contact risk. Start with 4–6 inches of open space and increase it if the extended polyps can reach a neighbor.

Keep salinity and alkalinity stable, change one variable at a time, and use sustained polyp extension as feedback. Do not diagnose a closed flowerpot coral from one parameter or one day of behavior alone.

Shipping: Ships UPS Next Day Air from Key West. Current eligibility and delivery timing are shown at checkout.

What to expect when it arrives

A shipped Goniopora arrives with every polyp withdrawn into the skeleton and looks like a bare ball of rock. This is normal and it is not a sign the animal is failing. Float the sealed bag 15 minutes and drip acclimate over a full hour — goni benefit from slower acclimation than most LPS.

Place it on the sand bed in low flow and moderate light and then leave it completely alone. Initial polyp extension usually begins within 24 to 48 hours, but full extension can take a week or more. Moving it during that period is the most reliable way to prevent it settling at all.

Feeding, which is not optional here

This is the genus where feeding changes the outcome. Goniopora has a high metabolic demand and responds to regular small-particle feeding with visibly longer polyp extension and faster head development. Feed two or three times a week with a fine food, target-fed with the pumps off for ten minutes. A goni that is fed looks completely different at six months from one that is not.

Placement and flow

Low to moderate, indirect flow. The polyps should drift and wave, not bend over or stay compressed. If polyps extend fully on one side and stay short on the other, something is hitting the short side directly — move it or redirect the pump.

Remember the extended polyp field is far wider than the skeleton. A goni that fits a gap on arrival may be touching neighbors once it opens.

Growth

A settled, fed Goniopora expands its polyp field and begins adding new heads at the margin within a few months. Growth is steady rather than dramatic. A goni that slowly recedes from the base over weeks is almost always reporting light that is too strong or a feeding deficit, not disease.