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Goniopora Care by Color Variety
Listed below are a few
distinguishing traits between the different common
color varities of Goniopora:
There are several species
of green colored, several species of purple colored,
and several species of red colored Goniopora that
are common in the hobby. The different species of
the same color are nearly identical looking when they
are compared to each other.
Green colored
species:
- The two most common greens are both more difficult
to keep than either the purples or the reds.
- The greens are more sensitive to higher lighting
over time than the purples or the reds.
- The greens require more food than the purples or
the reds.
- The greens are more susceptible to brown jelly infections
than the purples or the reds.
There is a more in-depth comparison between the two
most common green Goniopora here:
Goniopora
stokesi and Goniopora pendulus comparison
Purple colored
species:
- The two most common purples are easier to keep than
the greens.
- The purples are more sensitive to their environment
(lighting, water flow) than the greens or the reds.
- The purples require less feeding than the greens,
but a little more feeding than the reds.
- The purples heal more easily than the greens; therefore,
they are not as suseptible to brown jelly infections.
Red colored species:
- There are at least two red species that have purple
mouths (top two photos). One species has quite a bit
larger diameter polyps (corallites) than the other.
I currently do not have experience with the larger,
but the smaller is fairly easy to keep with regular
feedings. From other people's experience, the larger
polyped red/purple is also fairly easy to keep.
- There are two other common red species that have
very very small polyps (bottom two photos). These
two species are nearly identical and are also fairly
easy to keep as long as they receive regular feedings.
- Both the purple Goniopora and the red Goniopora
are more sensitive to water quality and sudden changes
than the green Goniopora.
This outline is a simple
comparison of the most popular Goniopora. There are
a lot more species to list and different colorations
to include, but those will eventually be placed in
the Species Info section
of the web site.
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