How fast is fast in growth for SPS?

[marie]

Originally Posted by don.ald

can coral growth be helped along by pinching the tips or trimming?

Maybe...my 3 angels keep my corals pinched back

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

My "Purple Plasma" which is my most brightly coloured sps has grown several new nubs about 1cm in length from a once smooth surface since Thanksgiving. It was smooth in that part of the coral when I came back from Powell River, Oct. 11th & there are now 39-40 new stubbies sticking out of that part & several of the longest stubbies are 1cm plus in length already. I have fragged several pieces off that in October, so there may be some truth to the snip & grow theory.

I use Kalk (dosed from a 2L juice jug) and some Mg & Ca, along with the occasional drops of Lugol's solution.

I'm extremely pleased with this development since usually its the less colourful stuff that grows well & the really colourful ones that seem to take forever.

I believe its a form of A. valida. Purple with green polyps.



This was taken 2 weeks ago by Franklin (fkshiu) after the stubbies started popping up.

Anthony

[kien]

I'm not so sure there is such a thing as "normal" :-) I have frags that have grown into colonies pretty "quick" (1-4 months), and I have frags that have done nothing in 4 months!

Here's a tri-colour I ordered online back in June of this year. It was a 1 branch 1" frag.



Today it is a nice little mini colony.


Here's a 1.5" christmas millepora frag I got back in August 2009. This picture was taken August 29th.


Today (just 8 weeks (ish) ), it is a nice colony.



All of my bird's nest frags tend to be quick growers like this too but I also have a few frags I got back in late spring (june ish) that haven't grown a millimeter :-)