Montipora digitata - why no respect?

blasterman · Aug 2, 2019

Was googling some threads on German blue digis lately and was surprised to see all the hate. I don't get it. Blues and Greens are some of the toughest SPS corals you can get with blues in my experience tolerating water conditions that will kill mushrooms

I Use blue digis as my litmus for lighting and basic nutrients. Once the polyps start turning metallic blue I know I've hit the upper light level for SPS. If the coral skin is bleached out I'm probably low on nutrients. If it's growing real thin and looks like a birdsnest I need more flow. Maybe I just like fuzzy corals.

I've had the most trouble with flames. Unlike blues and greens I've found flames to be very fussy and inconsistent growers. German blues get complaints about growing too fast, but greens do laps around blues in that dept. I've had 3" green digi frags grow to 7" in a matter of months.

Green digi grow like:

AiKkz · Aug 2, 2019

Bubblegum, lemon lime, and German blues are some of my favorites of any corals!!!

Coastie Reefer · Aug 2, 2019

I personally love digis and how the grow. Wish they came in more colors, I'd probably do a digi dominate tank LOL

Potatohead · Aug 2, 2019

Basically the only reason they get any hate is because they aren't acropora.

MTBake · Aug 2, 2019

They grow fast and kill acros when they touch them. I like digis but need to remove a forest fire digi from my tank as it's spreading like a forest fire.

jda · Aug 2, 2019

They grow fast, take over and there is no challenge for me to keep them. I do like me a OG German Blue Polyp Digi and also some Leng Sy (of the cap variety), but the others just don't hold my interest and I get sick of killing them... I can give them away for a while, but when everybody near me is stocked up, then I feel bad just pulling them out and letting them die. It kinda breaks my heart a bit.

A really nice Purple Digi can be awesome too.

ritter6788 · Aug 2, 2019

I never could grow em. Tank full of fast growing acros and monti caps but digis would grow for a bit then die off. Never could figure out why.

LilElroyJetson · Aug 2, 2019

My Tubs Stellata and Forest Fire Digis are my fastest growing and maybe most interesting growth pattern corals in my tank. Love em.

Coastie Reefer · Aug 2, 2019

ritter6788 said:
I never could grow em. Tank full of fast growing acros and monti caps but digis would grow for a bit then die off. Never could figure out why.

Sounds like me and birdsnest

Waters · Aug 3, 2019

As stated, because they are generally easier to keep and grow like weeds. I consider my plating montis to be invasive I have so many of them spreading.

Graffiti Spot · Aug 3, 2019

If I had a picture of my friends 300 gallon you would understand. His 300 gallon was covered in German blue. It looked cool but it grows and gets knocked apart by fish and spreads through the tank killing stuff next to it. If you are meticulous with your tank it probably won’t become a problem though but many don’t like going in their tanks all the time to keep things at bay. The best way to grow good colony’s of digi is to mount a lot of frags on a rock so they grow together sooner than later to support itself.

The best digit ever was that strain that Adam at bc sold for a while and I think he called it metal polyp monti or something. Grey branch color with white and grey polyps that were morphed all over some half white half grey with a solid line defining the two.
I tried to grow this for about 5 years in a large tank and the new growth would constantly get snapped off and lost and I kept having issues back then so never got a good picture of anything decent, It stayed a frag basically. From what I know this is the slowest growing digi. Adam told me he had a large colony for a bit of time but lost it I think. I would love to see pics of this one.

Coastie Reefer · Aug 3, 2019

Pedoconfuego said:
The best digit ever was that strain that Adam at bc sold for a while and I think he called it metal polyp monti or something. Grey branch color with white and grey polyps that were morphed all over some half white half grey with a solid line defining the two.
I tried to grow this for about 5 years in a large tank and the new growth would constantly get snapped off and lost and I kept having issues back then so never got a good picture of anything decent, It stayed a frag basically. From what I know this is the slowest growing digi. Adam told me he had a large colony for a bit of time but lost it I think. I would love to see pics of this one.

Man I wanna see a pic of that if anyone has it. Sounds awesome.

blasterman · Aug 3, 2019

Potatohead said:
Basically the only reason they get any hate is because they aren't acropora.

Hemmdog · Aug 3, 2019

jda said:
They grow fast, take over and there is no challenge for me to keep them. I do like me a OG German Blue Polyp Digi and also some Leng Sy (of the cap variety), but the others just don't hold my interest and I get sick of killing them... I can give them away for a while, but when everybody near me is stocked up, then I feel bad just pulling them out and letting them die. It kinda breaks my heart a bit.

A really nice Purple Digi can be awesome too.

+1 not challenging and take up valuable acro real estate on my rocks.

Coastie Reefer · Aug 3, 2019

Hemmdog said:
+1 not challenging and take up valuable acro real estate on my rocks.

Excuse for more tanks

Jettareefer223 · Aug 3, 2019

blasterman said:
Was googling some threads on German blue digis lately and was surprised to see all the hate. I don't get it. Blues and Greens are some of the toughest SPS corals you can get with blues in my experience tolerating water conditions that will kill mushrooms

I Use blue digis as my litmus for lighting and basic nutrients. Once the polyps start turning metallic blue I know I've hit the upper light level for SPS. If the coral skin is bleached out I'm probably low on nutrients. If it's growing real thin and looks like a birdsnest I need more flow. Maybe I just like fuzzy corals.

I've had the most trouble with flames. Unlike blues and greens I've found flames to be very fussy and inconsistent growers. German blues get complaints about growing too fast, but greens do laps around blues in that dept. I've had 3" green digi frags grow to 7" in a matter of months.

Green digi grow like:

In Texas digi’s are lit AF. I grow digi’s because I’ve had mine going on 15 years and they sell. There’s nothing wrong with them at all still holding a classic’s spot. I keep mine in coral QT holding tank that houses other bread and butter with limited real estate in my 50 gallon DT but I do have colony on frag rack though. A person who’s been around and in it a minute appreciates a good digi/cap. It’s just turn over market has switched up left digi’s behind the new guys don’t care about nostalgia since today it’s all about the next acro release. I would would definitely go for a OG SUPERMAN DIGI!

Rick.45cal · Aug 3, 2019

Monti’s get a little crazy

Jettareefer223 · Aug 3, 2019

Rick.45cal said:
Monti’s get a little crazy

Haha that’s legit!! Epically sized for the right occasion.

Graffiti Spot · Aug 4, 2019

Coastie Reefer said:
Man I wanna see a pic of that if anyone has it. Sounds awesome.

Yea it’s extreemly rare now. I am really sad I couldn’t get mine to take off. Adam said his did the same until it became a certain size then it took off. I haven’t seen another one in person and really never seen many pics of it though I bet google has a few old ones. If anyone still has this I would suggest trying to spread it around.