Naked Glitter Goniopora

These are cut-to-order frags from our own Naked Glitter Goniopora mother colony, grown out in our Key West systems. The photo shows that colony under blue spectrum reef lighting — long, loose polyps with bright green centers and pale, glittering tips that drift constantly in the flow. Each frag is cut from this colony, then given time on the rack to heal and attach before it ships. Aquacultured in Key West under FL Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072.

About Naked Glitter Goniopora (Goniopora sp.)

Goniopora earned a hard reputation for years, and most of that came from wild colonies that never adjusted to captivity. Aquacultured stock is a different animal. This one has spent its whole life under our lights, in our water, eating what we feed it, so it is already doing the thing most people struggle to get a wild Goniopora to do. The polyp extension is the draw — a healthy colony moves all day and reads more like a soft coral than a stony one. Give it room, because those polyps take up more space than the skeleton suggests.

Care Guide

Moderate. It is not a beginner coral, but a fed, settled, aquacultured piece is far more forgiving than the wild colonies that gave the genus its name.

• Lighting: Medium — PAR 100–200. Too much light shuts the polyps down; if it stays closed, move it lower before you change anything else.
• Flow: Medium — indirect and varied. Enough to keep the polyps moving, never enough to fold them over.
• Placement: Sand or lower rock, with space around it.
• Feeding: High — fine plankton and small particulate foods. This is the part people skip, and it is the part that matters most.
• Aggression: Peaceful — no sweepers, but it will lose ground to anything that has them.
• Water Parameters: Temp 76–78°F, salinity 1.025–1.026, Alk 8–9 dKH, Ca 420–440, Mg 1300–1400. Stability matters more than exact numbers.

Shipping & Live Arrival Guarantee

Ships UPS Next Day Air every Tuesday and Wednesday from Key West, Florida. Packed with insulated box and heat or cold pack appropriate for current conditions. Specimen is carefully secured to prevent movement during transit.

Live arrival is guaranteed. If your coral arrives DOA, photograph the animal inside the unopened bag within 4 hours of the delivery scan and contact us right away. We will work with you on a resolution.

Placement: Sand or lower rock, with open space around the polyps.

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A shipped Goniopora arrives with every polyp withdrawn into the skeleton and looks like a bare ball of rock.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.