Acro growth - time lapse...VERY cool....
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Yes this is actually an aqua-cultured, (true settlement) from The Coral Restoration Foundation it is technically Ken N's ..he gave it to me when we started the organization back in 2007 and told me to...see what I could do.
It all died off except a small frag I managed to nurture back to health.
I do have a special permit even thought it is aquacultured due to it's CITES and endangered species listing.
It all died off except a small frag I managed to nurture back to health.
I do have a special permit even thought it is aquacultured due to it's CITES and endangered species listing.
I used to be "cocky" about growing Acros... part of what brought me to the Keys 10 years ago to begin working with them... thought "how could there be such as difference?..there can't be!".
...there is, (in my opinion and my experience)...I have never seen an Acropora RTN so suddenly and without warring as I have from both cervicornis and palmata.
They have taught me I don't know everything...to be a humble aquarist... and on the reverses side of things...to not trust someone who claims to be an expert.
example:..for years my cervicornis in the lab would grow thin and spindly, much thinner and with very few forks compared to the growth in the video...I would visit the reef and see cervicornis thickets that were tight and compact with very thick branches, multi-forked... completely opposite from the growth I was experiencing in the lab.
I initially identified the lack of surging current in my systems...knowing I could never really get the intensity or volume of surge...went on to do my best to create all kinds of crazy giant surge devices, (one that actually cracked a tank...(the wave)).
..my cervicornis still grew..some thicker....but most still pencil thin...but no were near the "girth" of the branches out on the reef.
The cervicornis you see here is as thick and multi-branched as I have ever gotten it in captivity...the closest I have ever gotten it to its natural growth-form/appearance on the reef.
there is no current in this tank other then the return on the opposite side of the tank...virtually NOTHING on the colony itself... almost no current at all and it is growing better then I have ever seen it with the most advanced wave machines, and surge devices?...go figure.
With these two corals I throw all logic and understanding that I had previously working with Pacifics out the window and do stuff like pray and weird "Anti-RTN Voodoo dances...I'm knocking on wood right now because this is bad luck just talking about it.-Dave
...there is, (in my opinion and my experience)...I have never seen an Acropora RTN so suddenly and without warring as I have from both cervicornis and palmata.
They have taught me I don't know everything...to be a humble aquarist... and on the reverses side of things...to not trust someone who claims to be an expert.
example:..for years my cervicornis in the lab would grow thin and spindly, much thinner and with very few forks compared to the growth in the video...I would visit the reef and see cervicornis thickets that were tight and compact with very thick branches, multi-forked... completely opposite from the growth I was experiencing in the lab.
I initially identified the lack of surging current in my systems...knowing I could never really get the intensity or volume of surge...went on to do my best to create all kinds of crazy giant surge devices, (one that actually cracked a tank...(the wave)).
..my cervicornis still grew..some thicker....but most still pencil thin...but no were near the "girth" of the branches out on the reef.
The cervicornis you see here is as thick and multi-branched as I have ever gotten it in captivity...the closest I have ever gotten it to its natural growth-form/appearance on the reef.
there is no current in this tank other then the return on the opposite side of the tank...virtually NOTHING on the colony itself... almost no current at all and it is growing better then I have ever seen it with the most advanced wave machines, and surge devices?...go figure.
With these two corals I throw all logic and understanding that I had previously working with Pacifics out the window and do stuff like pray and weird "Anti-RTN Voodoo dances...I'm knocking on wood right now because this is bad luck just talking about it.-Dave
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That's awesome Dave. I can't believe that it is happiest with little or no flow in the tank...that's crazy. Defies all logic as most of us know it with aquariums. Thanks for elaborating.
