Is green pocillopora really that bad?

[BradB]

20 years in the hobby with different types in my tank most of the time and never had a problem.

I am not the biggest fan of it. The green/brown stuff everyone is afraid of is boring and no one wants it at frag swaps. The bright colored stuff is nice but usually very expensive and slow growing. As far as money and space go, Monti or Acro seems to be better.

 

[AC1211]

i like how quickly it grows and how attractive it looks as a healthy colony. But one bad day, a few polyps bail, and theres a new colony growing 2 feet away on your overflow box.

I have debated having a hybrid/fowlr system with it Lol. There are few sps corals that can approach how quickly it grows in captivity. So have wondered on the ability of large system given a few years of growth if it could handle the feed needs of a single coralivore butterfly that normally we wouldnt be able to keep in a hobbyist level tank.

Some with multiple reef tanks keep a fowler that they feed frags to corallivore butterflies in.

 

[damselindistress]

I happen to like pocillopora but hey, I also love fried spam sandwiches so I clearly don't have overly discriminating tastes .

 

[AC1211]

I should get them as I am struggling to grow duncans, torches, frogspawn, candy canes, and an encrusting montipora, although my flower anemone looks bigger. My tank is over a year old low nitrate problems due to hair algae coming back every time I pull it and some aiptasia in one corner. Fish are doing great however. Once the corals start to finally grow I feel as though the competition will help me beat algae.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Learn something new everyday. For such a beautiful coral, I would have never guessed it would grow so readily. Anyone in WI have a green invasive one? Would love to see it up close.

 

[W1ngz]

It's done. I no longer have I am no longer aware of having it in my tank.
I'll either chuck it, or move it to my poor neglected office nano so my co-workers can ask me about the new 'plant' I got.

 

[Mark Novack]

Ah yes, the horrors of good growth.

 

[kswan]

The green poci was the first SPS I added to my tank. It has since spread all over including my sump. This is the worst thing in my tank. I like Xenia and GSP as it is easily managed. This stuff does not die and is aggressive! It pops up all over and thrives in places that cannot be reached with kalk or other control methods. I prefer aptasia to green poci...

 

[W1ngz]

Ah yes, the horrors of good invasive growth.

You misspelled invasive.

 

[Mark Novack]

Sorry, did I sound obtuse? Not intentional. I'm not suffering from any current growth whatsoever except an explosion of vermitids.
I once had an Acropora Millipora with the same problem. Once a year I ripped out a few cabbage sized pieces and gave them to my local store. I blamed it on my Calcium reactor. It's not easy to get SPS growth that surprises us. Now I'm here praying to see one lousy brown discosoma divide while having the formentioned explosion of vermitids in my current tank.

I love pocillipora. When diving the Maldives it was the most striking colored of the natural reef SPS in pinks and purples and almost blues. It was also the first to repolulate the shallow reefs stripped clean by the 2004 tsunami. Turtle reef in South Ari atoll will probably be pocillipora dominant. It's a very shallow higher flow ultra clean plateau.

This is my old tank that burned out after 7 years. The tabling coral on the left went wild. Was the burnout maybe because a lack of trimming? Dead spaces and unreachable accumulations of filth? I watched it do almost nothing for 18 months and then one day put in some Mg and this happened. If I ever do another SPS I'm going to do it really open and spacious.

 

[W1ngz]

Sorry, did I sound obtuse?

Nah not obtuse at all, just that explosive growth where you placed a coral is one thing. Having it pop up randomly all over the tank thereafter is a whole other scenario.

Beautiful tank btw.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I’ve had colonies of green poci spring up from uncured live rock....that was in a box for over a month.

I kinda like it’s heart.

 

[AC1211]

I’ve had colonies of green poci spring up from uncured live rock....that was in a box for over a month.

I kinda like it’s heart.

I really should pick some up then if everyone grows it so easily.

 

[BurgerFish]

Neon green Birdnest is pocillopora?

 

[W1ngz]

Neon green Birdnest is pocillopora?

No, birdsnest typically have pointy branches and their polyps are a little larger.

 

[BurgerFish]

No, birdsnest typically have pointy branches and their polyps are a little larger.

So, birdnests are safe?

 

[W1ngz]

Yes

 

[McPuff]

Well that sucks. I really like the metallic green coloration. I'll pull it while I still can it seems.

If you like it, then keep it. It's an SPS so it's not that hard to control it if it does spread. If it was encrusting pavona, I'd tell you to kill it with fire. :0)

 

[Magellan]

To add to this thread: I did find some growing on a zoa frag once, but I think it’s very possible that it wasn’t from my colony. (The zoas were fragged on a piece of LR). The spot in question was stubbornly covered in algae for months. When it finally died off, it revealed a tiny pocillapora baby! (Can not believe that anything could have been alive under there...) I went in with Kalk paste and sniped it. Even with the close proximity to the zoas, it was easy to kill the Pocillapora and not harm the zoas. The little white spot in the picture was where I treated.

application: (I thought I might have killed some zoas)

After: (zoas are tough!)

 

[Marc2952]

I’ve got a nice colony that I’ve had for about a year. It’s grown tremendously, but the only other place it has grown was from a physical piece of it getting broken off by a snail and transported by my urchin, something that could have happened with any sps.

I really like it tbh. And as others have said, easily managed. I’ve also done a good job of keeping it isolated, as you can see it’s tried to spread but shades itself out and has nowhere to go.

I guess i can only do softies in my tank for now because i added one of those green pocillipora to see if i can do sps and it died in a month lol