Splicing Montiport

AllSignsPointToFish · Apr 14, 2016

I have a couple of plating Montipora frags, one red and one green, that I would like to meld together into a bicolor colony. Each frag is mounted on a plug. Does anyone have an idea (short of just pulling the plugs off and gluing the frags to the live rock) of how I can mount the two on some sort of substrate in close proximity so that they grow together?

JFrar · Apr 15, 2016

supposedly its harder than just glueing a couple frags together and they grow out. Also people say they need to be same species i believe(which would make you believe there are multiple species available of the "red plating montipora" and "green plating montipora").

BUT the good news...if you allready have a green and red plating montipora, they probably grow like crazy. So just try it and see what happens. Thats what i was doing several months ago but i made a dumby mistake not checking on a new doser and i offed a lot of my montipora from a period of high alk levels. But that stuff is so available in the hobby i'll try again soon

JFrar · Apr 15, 2016

I just read they are frags you have. Let them grow out for a little while so you have some wiggle room for any failure. If your tank levels are good they should grow fast once they settle in

AllSignsPointToFish · Apr 15, 2016

JFrar said:
I just read they are frags you have. Let them grow out for a little while so you have some wiggle room for any failure. If your tank levels are good they should grow fast once they settle in

It took them a little while to settle in, but they are growing like weeds right now.

How high was your "high" alkalinity?

happyhourhero · Apr 15, 2016

I have a red and a green cap that is growing into eachother. It appears they will just whirl around eachother rather than graft.

Wilsoni · Apr 15, 2016

Reefbuilders has an awesome article on "GFP infection" which just dropped today

AllSignsPointToFish · Apr 15, 2016

Wilsoni said:
Reefbuilders has an awesome article on "GFP infection" which just dropped today

After reading that article, I'm not sure I want to splice the two together

I kind of like my red Monti!

Wilsoni · Apr 15, 2016

I have an awesome Montipora Palawanensis that appears to have taken on a grafting. I love how consistent the coloration is and how it mimics a rainbow encrusting monti in the sense that the mature section is green and the new growth is red/orange. It's definitely one of a kind and very uncommon for this species...

I need to get a macro shot to display the insane polyp coloration. The green section has bright blue polyps and the polyps are half blue, half green on the orange rim

Salty1962 · Apr 15, 2016

Wilsoni said:
I have an awesome Montipora Palawanensis that appears to have taken on a grafting. I love how consistent the coloration is and how it mimics a rainbow encrusting monti in the sense that the mature section is green and the new growth is red/orange. It's definitely one of a kind and very uncommon for this species...

I need to get a macro shot to display the insane polyp coloration. The green section has bright blue polyps and the polyps are half blue, half green on the orange rim

Awesome Piece! Did it do it on it's own or did you help it along

Wilsoni · Apr 18, 2016

Salty1962 said:
Awesome Piece! Did it do it on it's own or did you help it along

I actually picked it up with a slight hint of orange around the rim and as it's grown it's gained more orange with hits of green and red around the outer rim. It's pretty insane!

Wilsoni · Apr 18, 2016

Here's a better pic of it

dwebb1031 · Apr 18, 2016

Once these guys grow out a bit, break a price off each and glue them to the same plug break side touching. One of three things will happen. Either the graft, swirl, or one kills the other and grows over it. This way no matter the out come there's no risk to the og colony. I'll upload a pic of one i tried that started a swirl later