Do you have long term success with suharsonoi or multiacuta

[Tapio]

A. suharsonoi and A. multiacuta are sometimes available. Have you had yours successfully for at least a few months perhaps even longer? Success to me means normal growth and good color.

I have never seen any of these two growing into a larger specimen over time in our reefs, so I am looking forward to seeing your success

 

[Triggreef]

I had suharsoni for about a year with good color and growing well. Lost it in a partial tank crash.

 

[spspirate]

I had a suhar a good while back. Light pale green and grew slow of course but was quite healthy. I ended up selling it on a tank break down. A LFS had a huge colony a beauty and grew quite well for them but lost it to a tank crash. They must of had it for at least a few years that I can remember.

 

[rossco]

I have had decent success with them but both have been the first to rtn at any hint of a parameter swing. Both were grown from a single branch one inch frag, both RTN'ed following a parameter swing.

 

[Apisto]

I bought mine as a frag of "Banana lokani", but I suspect it is suharsonoi. It has been a slow, but stable grower for me for the past 2 years. I have taken many frags from it without incident. I will try and get a topdown pic, where it looks almost identical to rossco's first pic (just a little more mature).

 

[FarmerTy]

I had my surhasonoi for about a year and it grew just fine. When I upgraded, I lost it... so it seems like the theme is it'll RTN very quickly if conditions aren't correct. Kind of the canary of SPS world.

 

[therman]

I've been growing what I think is a suharsonoi since ~2008, maybe longer. Got it as a frag off a wild colony. Chopped many times. Withstood a rough period that killed off about 70% of my other Acropora.

I've started getting longer branches out of mine, pushing three inches with minimal branching, in bright light with very low flow. Not the best photo, but this colony of it wraps all the way around to the other side of the rock. I've had to hack it repeatedly lately to make room for the icefire.

 

[Tapio]

So suharsonoi is definitely one of the hardest SPS to keep then. Some of you had longer success with it. What lighting do you use and could you pinpoint what contributes to your success beyond the obvious of stable conditions and a healthy starter frag/colony. Most photos here show a mostly yellowish color. I wonder if coloration has anything to do with surviving specimens. I have seen purple and very green frags for sale, wonder how those would do.

I have always regarded smooth skin acros with very few polyps the hardest to keep. My reasoning being they come from conditions that are rich in nutrients, so they only need a few polyps with which to feed and also needing less light then for photosynthesis. Conditions that are somewhat harder to meet in captivity.

 

[Tapio]

How about A. multiacuta! Nobody? I have tried a couple of these many years ago from wild colonies. This was well before the frag business began. They both did not make it. I probably gave them too much light back then too, not knowing anything about what habitat they came from.

 

[therman]

Honestly, I have had no difficulty whatsoever with this coral. My Ca and Alk went all over the map for a few months during a rough spell a couple years ago. Mine could be arguably caroliniana too, it is pretty hard to differentiate depending on the conditions the coral grows in. Maybe I have a hardy strain, or it is just extremely well acclimated to aquarium conditions.

Never had any RTN issues, even when other corals did. Frags all survive and thrive, can't remember ever losing one. I chop it back pretty regularly. The purple lokani and simplex types have been a different story, have had a good deal of trouble growing them long term. I do love the deepwaters. Been considering putting together some "low flow Acro packs" to challenge the stereotypes of SPS. Many of these smooth skin and thin branching things thrive in almost stagnant water.

I keep mine all under DIY Cree LED fixtures, survives under varying intensities, varying flow regimes. It is much branchier and tighter growing in higher flow.

 

[therman]

As for multiacuta, I would love to try one. I had something I thought might have been it once, but I think it grew out into something totally different once it hit colony size.