Big Colonies

alten78 · Feb 24, 2017

Sitting here at work waiting for the week to end I had the thought of at what point do you consider a frag to be a colony? I only ever get 1/2"-1" frags, most of my older more common pieces have grown to bigger colonies and sold off for more higher end pieces, which of course led to the thought of 'Lets see everyone else's big colonies!'

The only thing bigger I have is a Tubbs Stellata, when I get home I'll post a pic.

rovster · Feb 24, 2017

I wouldn't call anything acoliny that's smaller than a fist. A large colony would be 2 fists. Obviously there are monster colonies out there and a lot depends on size of tank. I have acouple corals that ate as big or bigger than an open hand and they look pretty large in my 100 gal, in a 400 gal they may look like "minicolonies"...,

Ashish Patel · Feb 24, 2017

I just read good article by Mike Paletta "Where have the big colonies gone" (see below)

https://reefbuilders.com/2016/05/21/where-have-the-large-coral-colonies-gone/

After 1-2 years when the corals that survived start growing out of control, the corals have limited space and start warfare instead of just growing to their max potential. I've experienced this with all my corals and it really does suck when you can't move them. Therefore, I've made my aquascape with minimal rock so I don't get tempted to overstock - The focal point looks like 1 rock but its not connected so I can always separate. The faster growing species such as staghorns and montis will have their own rock. My goal is to have 20 nice size colonies at least 8"+,, So sorry no pictures yet but stay tune and lets bring back the Large colonies =)

Cary Meredith · Feb 24, 2017

My thought is a frag is smaller, yes, but a full clump of zoas on a plug with maybe 30 heads would be a colony, a hammer with more than 5 heads a colony, so on and so forth. Just my thought but I am looking for a few stellar colonies of something, not sure yet what they will be but want some show pieces.

alten78 · Feb 25, 2017

This is roughly 8 inches across, hasn't been exactly happy since i keep moving things around in the tank and just dont have the room for it. Its been in the tank for roughly 3 years? Grown from a 1" frag.