Seriatopora Planulation

AcroNem · Dec 24, 2015

I've had many of my seriatopora (birdsnest) colonies for a couple years now and there's probably fifteen or so small colonies that have been scattered about over that time. One of which is several inches across now behind my rock work. Tonight I managed to catch something out of my water column I'm wanting to see what it is. It's the same color as the parent colony i usually see young from and is about 1mm wide. I'd like input from others on what it could be. Is this what this species sends out when Planulating?

Here's a few pictures of the offspring i took this morning under 15k, starting with the biggest one, hard to see behind my rock but it's grown quickly. The others have settled at random as well. One is growing right in the middle of my zoa garden but hasn't seemed to cause problems so I'm okay with it. Let me now what you think about the ltitle thing I found floating around tonight. Maybe someone more educated than me can tell me what it was. Although any input is appreciated.

Sabellafella · Dec 24, 2015

Wow thats awesome

GlassMunky · Dec 24, 2015

no, that is NOT birdsnest..... that is pocilipora. They are well known for whats called "polyp bailout" which is a form of asexual reproduction where a single polyp bails out of the main coral, settles down and starts growing a new colony.
this is why most SPS keepers consider pocilipora a weed. I myself ripped every part of this coral i could reach out of my SPS tank, and yet still a year later i still find random new colonies growing in places like the seems of my glass or on my overflow or even in the sump...... this stuff doesn't die lol.

AcroNem · Dec 24, 2015

You're definitely the first person I've heard call an sps coral a weed, so I'd hesitate to use the word "most" when describing your experience. Anyway, I think it's pretty amazing that something like that can happen in my tank after I've been doing this for so long. Thought I would have seen it all by now. I'm just fine with them growing in there I was just trying to find out if the little thing I managed to pull was one of the young that it sends out I think it's fascinating.

Triggreef · Dec 24, 2015

I don't know if most call it a weed but many do. I still keep some I just pop out the ones that grow too close to other corals. I consider my monti caps weeds more so than pocci because I can't control the caps.

Either way I'd say that probably is one but looks a little larger than I would imagine. Could it be a zoa polyp that let go and is just floating away?

AcroNem · Dec 24, 2015

I was considering that it could be a small zoa or paly but this was just too small. The writing on the container I had it in for the picture is 2mm tall so that thing is tiny. Now that I've put it back in I realized I should have tried to put it on a tray or something to let it settle so I could keep track of growth that would have been cool.

ritter6788 · Dec 24, 2015

GlassMunky said:
no, that is NOT birdsnest..... that is pocilipora. They are well known for whats called "polyp bailout" which is a form of asexual reproduction where a single polyp bails out of the main coral, settles down and starts growing a new colony.
this is why most SPS keepers consider pocilipora a weed. I myself ripped every part of this coral i could reach out of my SPS tank, and yet still a year later i still find random new colonies growing in places like the seems of my glass or on my overflow or even in the sump...... this stuff doesn't die lol.

Agreed. Mine isn't to the point of breaking the tank down or anything but I have small colonies of this stuff all over. Some are stinging my Acros.