Spurring new sps growth

[MMAX]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

That first one definately has the rounded stunted growth look. No growth tips.....a trim of the very tip will help.

Second one looks like it has a growth tip...its a stag so it might get pretty long before it branches....

Just snip with cutters at the tip?

[spawn]

Seriously... how long have you had those? Maybe just give'm a little bit of time to settle into your tank before you start snipping, snapping or trimming. What are your parameters? Your tank "It looka kinda new." But if you really wanna cut em, go ahead & then sit back for a day & watch them take off, it happens really really fast!

[Myka]

Originally Posted by MMAX

Any ideas on how to get these guys to branch out?

I would snip them off the plugs and re-glue them horizontally. I find frags grow much quicker when mounted on their sides, especially "spike" frags with no branching. Those spiky ones can be tough to get going when mounted vertically.

[MMAX]

Originally Posted by spawn

Seriously... how long have you had those? Maybe just give'm a little bit of time to settle into your tank before you start snipping, snapping or trimming. What are your parameters? Your tank "It looka kinda new." But if you really wanna cut em, go ahead & then sit back for a day & watch them take off, it happens really really fast!

I've had those in the tank for 5 months and the tank is well over a year old.

[spawn]

Originally Posted by MMAX

I've had those in the tank for 5 months and the tank is well over a year old.

hmmm. What are you parameters? Mine just turned 1 year old on Monday, & I've got some in mine that have grown more in the last 2 weeks w/o trimming. Just saying. I'll post another 2 month growth shot in the FTS thread tomorrow. None of mine started to grow well until I got virtually ULNS. Try mounting them sideways then, I've done that too & got good growth as well.

[ScubaSteve]

[quote=spawn;612197]

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

(Did you just trim a radial coralite? If so, how did you do this?)


Yes, with bone cutters & now it's started the new growth of an Incipient Radial coralite

Cool! I like. I have a supposed red planet that is en rusting to be more of a brown blob so I might give this a go to see if it'll create a growth tip.

[ScubaSteve]

Originally Posted by Myka

I would snip them off the plugs and re-glue them horizontally. I find frags grow much quicker when mounted on their sides, especially "spike" frags with no branching. Those spiky ones can be tough to get going when mounted vertically.

These are wise words. It's important to have an idea of what kind of coral you are dealing with and mounting it accordingly. Many corals, especially across, will tend to grow slow and not necessarily true to form until they have encrusted and formed a good base from which to grow. There are all sorts of tricks that hint at which way frags should be mounted. Most of the time when you get a frag on a plug it is mounted vertically as it looks cooler but this isn't the way it should be. I'd recommend remounting those frags on their sides? Any idea on the species ID?

Sorry to deviate from the original topic.

[bignose]

Originally Posted by Myka

I would snip them off the plugs and re-glue them horizontally. I find frags grow much quicker when mounted on their sides, especially "spike" frags with no branching. Those spiky ones can be tough to get going when mounted vertically.

I do this with most of my frags and it works.

[chris121277]

Great topic guys.....I'm just tagin along here

[lastlight]

All 4 corals I snipped have new growth at those tips. I went ahead and went postal on 6 more corals today.