Setosa thread

[Velodog2]

So I picked up a pretty nice frag of this yesterday. It's been on my list, although not high on it. Still it's a nice piece and the color is more beautiful than I'd imagined and the smooth skin is sexy.

This is an unusual montipora that a lot of pple have but my search turned up little more than photos. What does it like and not like? It has an unusual and highly variable growth form. Does anyone have any experiences to share bout how to influence the form that it takes, or the color? What makes it encrust or branch? What makes it more irregular?

 

[backpack]

I have a niugini that's slick. Got it out of a friends overflow when he broke his tank down. If it's anything like that they love flow.

 

[Velodog2]

Ain't never heard of a niugini.

 

[Trevor40]

Mine is in a lower flow at the bottom corner of a 93 Cube with an 8 bulb T5 Powermodule and the setosa seems to be more branchy that what I typically see in others tanks.

 

[trido]

I'm a hardcore SPS keeper and believe in a lot of light and a lot of flow. IME the setosa likes Low to Med light and Med to High flow.

 

[DSP]

I have my setosa about 10 inches under a 150 watt halide and its starting to encrust onto my rock now and has a little vertical growth but not much yet.Its in really high flow

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[RKLion]

Its pretty hardy can go anywhere almost...I like it a bit lower because it provides colour to the lower part of your tank and thrives

 

[Velodog2]

Thanks everyone. No clear consensus yet on how to make them branchy vs encrusty. It might seem logical that a lower flow would encourage branching as Trevor40 gets, but who knows.

I found reference to montipora niugini on the Reef Farmers write up on the Setosa where they indicate that it's a toss up as to which species the one everyone refers to as Setosa really is. There are some pics of a supposed niugini on the interweb if you google it that are pretty crazy - they show a fairly regular ball-shape but made up of knobby irregular branches. Would be awesome to achieve that! Either way I am digging the rich red-orange color and hope I can keep it. I have a JF Orange and Violet that faded when it was up too high so I'm going to go mid-tank initially with this just in case. I want it near my Hawkins as the two colors together would make Martha Stewart gasp in awe.

 

[niftyjosh]

This was mine after about 9 months growth. Started receding from the center out so I broke it off the rock into about 20 pieces to find a 6" bristle worm that was dragging food under and letting it rot.


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[Velodog2]

That I like! What were the conditions it was grown under?

 

[niftyjosh]

10 inches under gen 1 radions, 8 inches away from a mp10

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[Velodog2]

Thanks. I would probably call that high light and high flow. It looks mostly encrusted with short branches from that perspective. Nice and regular tho. I love the texture.

 

[jservedio]

Under very high light it'll be much, much more pink than red. Only spot I had available was about 6" under a Radion Pro (though off to the side) and fairly close to an MP10. This definitely slows growth down so don't overdo it on the light if you can - if it were 5-6" deeper down the growth would probably be double what I am getting.

 

[spspirate]

Heres a quick link. Montipora setosa. Corals of the World - Photos, maps and information about corals and reefs Mine is under bright light with moderate to strong flow. This is one of my favorites montiporas and the most unique. One of the faster growers in my reef.

 

[tfp]

when they get large and begin to plate...they make nice shelves
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/96757491@N02/10812926973/" title="oregon by Tim Plaza, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2817/10812926973_fd9d8d7bcf_o.jpg" width="1200" height="800" alt="oregon"></a>

 

[tfp]

i'm useless...

 

[ReeferItis]

Heres my TYREE Setosa I just picked up last week...its a small frag but I have it high in the tank under leds and high flow...ill let you know how it goes

 

[Jimbo]

Mine has started plating out. Located about midway in the tank in the shade of my Cali Tort.

 

[spspirate]

Great looking colony!

 

[Velodog2]

That is slick Jimbo! Perhaps due to it being shaded. It looks like a plating acro.