The Secret to Acropora Sprouting New Branches - Discovered!

tutmatt3 · Jan 21, 2018

Okay, maybe I won't go THAT far, but it was pretty eye-opening when I noticed this discovery last night, and it really can affect how we place our encrusting acros in our tanks.

I recently purchased a few frags from a local seller, and even though all his frags were 'flat' on the rack, the corals were sprouting new branches/trunks RIGHT where the frag plug turned a corner. I started to look into my tank, and behold - the most amount of new branches I see sprouting are right when my rock turns, or hits a ledge.

Interesting discovery - and for me, I will place coral either close to a ledge, or sideways (which I've also read many success stories on this encouraging them sprout new branches.)

It can even change the industry of frag plugs - with manufactures possibly coming up with a new frag plug design that has more form to it rather than flat.

Looking forward to hearing your guys thoughts, and if you notice the same phenomenon with your corals!

*Note, this is how this red planet frag came, and those branches were already there before being mounted sideways like it is in my tank*

saltyhog · Jan 21, 2018

I think sideways encourages new branches because it exposes the shaft of the frag to light directly instead of at an angle of 90 degrees. Good observation!

One thing I've observed is many species of SPS don't start growing branches until they have encrusted a large area around their base. Kind of like they are getting a solid anchor before sprouting branches. My green slimer came as a 2" single branch. It encrusted an area about 2.5-3" in diameter and then started growing branches from the periphery of the encrusted part. The original 3" branch has not grown at all and has no branches. The rest of the colony is approx 10" tall with about 20 branches.

tutmatt3 · Jan 21, 2018

saltyhog said:
I think sideways encourages new branches because it exposes the shaft of the frag to light directly instead of at an angle of 90 degrees. Good observation!

One thing I've observed is many species of SPS don't start growing branches until they have encrusted a large area around their base. Kind of like they are getting a solid anchor before sprouting branches. My green slimer came as a 2" single branch. It encrusted an area about 2.5-3" in diameter and then started growing branches from the periphery of the encrusted part. The original 3" branch has not grown at all and has no branches. The rest of the colony is approx 10" tall with about 20 branches.

Yeah I've heard the same thing as well - and see many people trying to 'clip' the original branch, and that also caused their corals to begin to sprout newbies.

I also think the 'ledge' idea is due to both "there's no where left to encrust, so time to go up", but also "if I can make it to the end of a rock, I have the highest chances of not being shaded for as long as possible"

E: & good observation on the sideways thing. I know people do that with hammer coral as well and the same thing happens

saltyhog · Jan 21, 2018

Here's a picture of the Slimer. The fat short branch on the left is the original frag.

Centerline · Jan 21, 2018

tutmatt3 said:
Okay, maybe I won't go THAT far, but it was pretty eye-opening when I noticed this discovery last night, and it really can affect how we place our encrusting acros in our tanks.

I recently purchased a few frags from a local seller, and even though all his frags were 'flat' on the rack, the corals were sprouting new branches/trunks RIGHT where the frag plug turned a corner. I started to look into my tank, and behold - the most amount of new branches I see sprouting are right when my rock turns, or hits a ledge.

Interesting discovery - and for me, I will place coral either close to a ledge, or sideways (which I've also read many success stories on this encouraging them sprout new branches.)

It can even change the industry of frag plugs - with manufactures possibly coming up with a new frag plug design that has more form to it rather than flat.

Looking forward to hearing your guys thoughts, and if you notice the same phenomenon with your corals!

*Note, this is how this red planet frag came, and those branches were already there before being mounted sideways like it is in my tank*

Yup, noticed this myself over the years. ORA plugs are designed to leverage this - as the coral starts to grow over the edge of the plug the body of the coral starts to produce limbs. It maybe the reason some venders such as @WWC use the ball of epoxy method as well though I'm not sure of that.

tutmatt3 · Jan 21, 2018

How interesting! What a great slimmer, and real interesting up find that out about wwc!

Thanks for sharing

Centerline · Jan 21, 2018

tutmatt3 said:
How interesting! What a great slimmer, and real interesting up find that out about wwc!

Thanks for sharing

As I said - it MAY be why they use the epoxy ball method. I'm not at all sure about that.

bubbaque · Jan 22, 2018

I never really paid attention to when new branches are sprouted but after reading this thread and looking at my frag tank, I noticed new branches do seem to sprout around the edges. Here is an example of one of my frags.