Interesting variation in SPS growth

[mcarroll]

These are some Montipora cap. frags I pulled out of the main tank and have currently piled upside down for the photo.

Notice the one on the right. It has full polyp growth on the bottom of the plate.

You can see the rest of the frags have smooth, polyp-free bottoms.

I think this is called something like bi-facial growth vs uni-facial.

This plate was growing directly out into the return flow, so I guess it had such a consistent nutrient supply that it could sustain an army of polyps that weren't doing any light-gathering - just food gathering. Cool!



-Matt

 

[mcarroll]

...a better close-up!

 

[whixley101]

That is crazy. Your TLC is probably the key factor in the growth. I have been following you other thread.

 

[ritter6788]

That's cool. Ever leave a couple frags upside down and see what they do?

 

[TJ's Reef]

If there is sufficient reflected light from sandbed you'll also get good polyp growth on bottom of plating Montipora or tabling SPS colonies.

Cheers, Todd

 

[mcarroll]

That's cool. Ever leave a couple frags upside down and see what they do?

Actually, in the second photo, the plate on the left was actually sitting upside down for a while before getting moved here and you can see the growth "curl" where the polyps are moving "to the bright side". I can't say how this turns out though.

I can say that planting a cap. frag 90º off of horizontal makes for a dramatic, multistoried grow out as plates will form all along the old frag's growth edge. Very cool.

If there is sufficient reflected light from sandbed you'll also get good polyp growth on bottom of plating Montipora or tabling SPS colonies.

With respect to lighting and the plate in my photo, this was growing beneath an overflow box and behind a powerhead, so even the top of the coral was pretty shaded. There would have been almost zero light on the bottom of this plate.

That is crazy. Your TLC is probably the key factor in the growth. I have been following you other thread.

It does look like it has a fairly white growth edge, so you might be on to something! I do stir up crud from the sump every day with my water changes, and I know a lot of that goes up the return to feed the corals and that they appreciate consistency like that. I suppose this is just evidence that it really works like that!

-Matt

 

[like-fish]

i read a propigation thread awhile back that said if you mount cap frags on their end whey will grow faster into a new table. Was not convinced so gave it a shot. Not sure if ti grows faster but its interesting:

crappy cell photo:

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Interesting.