Flower Pot Corals! Gonis and More! | Coral Care Guide

what's going on Reapers Blaine here as you can see back in the farm again and today we're going to be talking about a group of corals I've really grown to appreciate over the past year or so that I've been here at topshelf Aquatics we're going to be talking about flower pot corals now today we're going to be talking about the big three that kind of includes everything together in the flower pot Coral group we're going to be talking about gapur alvia por and Bernarda poro these are three that we actively aquaculture here at Top Shelf Aquatics we're going to do what we normally do in these Coral Spotlight videos we're going to walk around we're going to highlight some of our favorites from topshelf Aquatics we'll get into some of the Care requirements and needs that these corals have in your tanks at home let's go ahe and get right into it and start talking about the big three from flower pot corals let's Dive In [Music] a recurring thought that we've mentioned in a lot of our videos here in the farm and due to a lot of time of the hobby being around science being implemented but a lot of these corals have all been thought to be grouped together in one single group today we're talking about three that are in the flower pot Coral group but G pora and Bernarda pora are going to be a little bit more similar whereas alvia is completely different but all of these corals are going to have very similar care requirements and why they're going to be all grouped together into the flower pot Coral group grp over the course of time and from my understanding from a lot of people here at the topshelf farm it's due to the fact that a lot of the species that are originally were imported into the states were some of the more difficult species to keep because they were kept in such shallow and turbid environments and the species that we are now bringing in and actively aquacultured are some of the species that are going to be a lot more ready to be able to adapt to the aquarium situation so that is definitely something to recognize but obviously as well we've made a lot of changes and progression when it comes to the jav in general what we've been able to do for the corals and all these animals and what we're able to provide to them but overall though giaa alvia pora and Bernarda pora over the course of time originally were very hard to keep in our aquariums at home and now it become much more easy to keep and obviously here at top show of aquaus you guys are going to see all the different species and strains we're actively keeping in growing you can see them behind me it's really easy for us now and it can be easy for you to at home to KI things off let's start talking about Gora and how we can distinguish them from their counterparts now when we're talking about Bernarda pora and we're talking about alvia por they only have a couple species that they're going to have that are actively here in the hobby right now and that are being actively aquacultured as well when G come up in the conversation we are talking about a lot of different species that are grouping together underneath gapur that we are actively aquac culturing and that are available in the aquarium hobby another thing to mention too as well is Gores are going to be widely known for their wide variation of colors whereas there may only be a couple different color variants in the other counterparts and ganes there's going to be a ton of different colors whether it be the highlighter greens whether it's the pinks the Reds the blues there is a huge variation of color and so that's something to help distinguish ganis one fairly easy trick to tell as well whether a coral is a gani aora or an alvora is by the number of tentacles on each pop ganis will have 18 to 24 tentacles whereas alvora will only have about 12 tentacles on each pup so if there's more than you can technically count you're probably dealing with a gapur rather than an alvora that'll be one of those things the easiest way for most hobbyists to tell these corals apart next on our list from the big three we're going to be talking about Bernard aora right next to me is a nice colony of the TSA lafy Taffy and we're going to be talking about three main things to help distinguish Bernarda from the other two flower pot corals the first being when they are frags and even as they grow out but mainly in the frag size the polyps stay real tight and do not extend out to any crazy amount and stay pretty short secondly a tip I grabbed from Jake Adams many years ago is that Goro you will see the tentacles we be much more rounded at the tip whereas in Bernarda poros the tentacles come to a much more pointed tip they can have a roundish form to them like ganes but ganes are a lot more globby when it comes to showcasing their tentacles third and lastly something we've noticed in the farm and something we've seen as well in eilia is that Bernard aora will sting Gora if they're next to one another as they get bigger so if you see some Coral Warfare potentially happening in your flower Park Garden it may have been you thought they were only ganes but there could potentially be a Bernarda pora mixed in with the bunch another thing too remember too is that Bernarda poras are known to be encrusters so once these take off they'll work their way through the Rock work outwards by en crusting all right last but not least in our flower pot Coral selection we're going to be talking about the third group of corals let's start getting to know a little bit better alv aoras this is going to be one of the flower pot corals that when you're looking at the Pops they truly put out the closest resemblance of what actual flowers look like in the early years of the hobby alv aora was thought to be gura but like most things as I said earlier scientific development has now led us to understanding these corals a little bit better and fun fact they're actually closer related to monora than they actually are Gora so something interesting to see in our reef tanks as well now we have a better understanding of the overarching group of flower pot corals we've met Gora we've met Bernarda pora we've also met alvia let's get to know a little bit about the care requirements of keeping these corals happy in our systems at home I mentioned it earlier even though these corals are different their care requirements are going to be very similar so all these are going to be the same when it comes to the care requirements in between all three of the different flower pot corals let's go Ahad dive into the details when it comes to the lighting for these corals we see them to do well in medium levels of light at roughly 100 to 200 par like most corals though when we're adding them into a system we recommend to start them low and then work their way up into more light most will say that these corals do better also in a higher nutrient-rich system system naturally they're found in Fairly turbid areas in the wild so they're going to be getting multiple feedings throughout the course of the day so in our reef tanks we want to kind of emulate that and so having a higher nutrient system is going to be the solution for the when it comes to feeding these ganis people will also mention too that having good levels of Manganese maintaining High feedings is going to help as well with the long-term success of keeping flower pot corals when it comes to the size of food we're giving these corals we're going to be talking about very small particulates in the water column they're not going to be eating really big pieces of food they're going to be wanting extremely Fine Food Products another thing to mention as well with these corals is they have an extremely poor skeletal structure they're actually some of the lightest corals we're going to have in our hobby now with their calcium skeleton it's super important to make sure that your calcium levels your alkalinity levels are going to be staying really up to date and on level so that they can maintain pain growing and heading in the right direction due to the fact that they have such a fragile porous skeleton it's important too when you're moving them around fragging them or anything of that sort that you take good care of these corals another thought to think of too as well when you're adding in these corals into your tank you want to understand the colors that you're adding into your system you're trying to understand and find the right placements for these corals so it's good to understand the flow the lighting of that area and also is the color contrast going to work well in your Aquascape this is a little side tip and note whenever you're getting ready to add any new corals into a tank at home all right it's time for my favorite part of all of these Coral highlight videos let's walk around the farm let's pick out our top shelf favorites let's get to know them a little bit better and let's see some money shots easily one of our most well-known corals that we have here at topshelf Aquatics is the TSA Laffy Taffy this is a Bernarda poro that has really started to take off here in the farm has become a fan fa faite in smaller frags you can see the tentacles holding nice and tight to the skeleton but when this one grows out and puts out to a colony size the sweeper tentacles can really show some absolutely spectacular coloration the contrast of the bright orange and yellow pops compared to the Violet purple stocks that are shown when they extend out is truly a unique color contrast hints of green are seen throughout the coral as well overall though this is easily one of the nicest corals we have at the top shelf Aquatics farm and if it's one you haven't picked up from us this is a TSA signature I think everyone should have their reef tank at [Music] home a really nice Bernarda poro that we have available as well is the TSA raspberry limeade with its brilliant yellow mouth and raspberry red pops and stocks this can be a really nice splash of vibrant color to any reef tank like we mentioned earlier about these corals and as you can see on some of these mini Colony TOS here in the farm they're really starting to encrust out and they're starting to get nice and settled in [Music] now let's talk about a truly aquacultured Goro we have here on our hands and that has been in the farm for an extended period now we're going to be talking about the TSA rose petal gani the blue body that transitions into pinkish Rose Colored poops is really a nice color combo but what's very cool about this Coral is it can transition through time so it's going to be showing one color and over the course of maybe a couple months it may transition show more of the pink or maybe show more of the BL blue so this is something really cool to see in the coral whenever you add it into your system I mentioned this in several videos whenever we talk about our aquacultured corals but there's not enough appreciation for these corals and their fully grown Colony size rather than the frag sizes we technically usually see as hobbyists it's nice to be able to Showcase these Corals in a larger Colony size throughout the course of these videos [Music] another unreal gani that we're going to be adding to our list is The Grandmaster Gora the bright green color with the gold highlights makes this a standout Coral in any tank anytime I walk around in the farm and I step by the section of Grandmaster ganes I'm distracted easily and I end up hanging out there for quite some time recently we snagged one and put it into the studio Reaper 250 if you haven't seen that on one of our last videos here on the channel be sure to check that one out the pups are brilliant with their transition from green to gold with some nice blue tips at the end absolutely aani that anyone should grab if they're collecting them in their Reef or better yet if you're looking to add aany into one of your systems [Music] the last one we'll highlight today and another slick alvia poro we're going to add to our list is going to be the TSA white tip alv aora this is one that grows extremely well for us here at TSA and has a different coloration that you don't normally see in corals especially when you talk about white and corals that's usually a bad sign but for this Coral it's really a nice and unique opposite side of looking at things the white striking color can be a really nice addition to any reef tank at home and I think if you're looking to add an Alvi to a tank this is definitely one you should consider picking [Music] up if any of these flower pot Cor pequ your interest and you want to add them into your reef tanks at home be sure to head over to our website now browse our entire collection of ganes alvia pora Bernarda pora the entire flower pot selection and if there's a specific one you saw on the video that we didn't mention be sure to drop a comment down below asking me what it is or shoot us a message over on Instagram or send us an email whether it be G pora Bernarda pora or alvia por any of our Corals in the flower pot Coral group we love having them here at topshelf Aquatics actively aquac culturing them so we can provide them to every single one of you at home watching these videos whether it be the movement the coloration or everything in between if you guys are looking to grab any of the corals we talked about today or shop our entire collection of flower pot corals head over to our website now and snag them up if you guys have hung out all the way till the end I want to say thank you so much be sure to like subscribe and hit the Bell notifications so you don't miss out on any future uploads [Music]