How does trumpet coral grow?

I have a piece of trumpet coral in my tank that has 10 heads on it. Some of them look like they are getting wider, almost like they might split because there seems to be two "mouths" now. Is this what they normally do to reproduce and grow?

 

yeppy. youre right. they get two mouths then they branch away from each other. that or new buds start on the sides of the "stalk".

 

Cool. I've had it for about 3 weeks and this is the first I've seen. Do these things have a pretty good growth rate and will they get more compact?

 

It will depend on the species. IME they seem pretty slow, maybe 2 to 3 months for the whole process. But it will seem faster the more heads you get. I think it will get denser looking.

 

i personnally do not have one, though they are on my wish list.

i think they grow relatively slow, they are an LPS so you can also feed them mysis, or brine shrimp to make it grow faster. just put some by them when they have feeder tentacles out.

i think they branch out like yours is doing right now.

 

They'll grow apart at a slow rate like 2in10 said. As they do, they'll fill out a dome-type shape, and keep growing outwards.

 

I like the way these guys look, but they are a bit stagnant....don't seem to do too much. I think it'll look a lot better as it grows and clumps together a bit. I've seen some that are neon yellow that'd I'd like to add to my tank, but the price tag on those guys can get pretty steep.

 

what kind of lighting do you have for that? just curious. i have the EXACT same coral that i picked up the other day but it seems bleached. they had it under 250W MH near the top i put mine midway down to see if it'll bounce back.

 

i have T5s running in my tank. 4x39W. They are 36 inch.

 

they should be kept in the middle to bottom of the tank, medium light. When the heads open up at night I feed mine Mysis which help them grow.
This is one that I had in my tank, the first one is a couple of days after I got it, the second is about 9 months later