Begginer Corals?

sorry to hear that Phenix,
Ive got some cool growth pics but having some trouble resizing them, will keep trying.

 

Baxter is sure right about toadstools. Mine stayed pretty small for the longest time after fragging it from its mother which was overgrowing tank.

Then one day it decided to take off.

Here is pic back in June last year...about 4 times the size when I first cut from parent, year or so earlier.

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This is it a couple of weeks ago...and it is not even fully expaned in pic!

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Won't be long before this one is going to have to come out...

Will cut of a couple of pieces and just start cycle all over again.;D

 

Xenia is a great begginer coral that will alert you to parameter issues. Just keep it on an isolated island so it doesnt spread to adjacent rocks and attach. Just prune and frag it when it grows a little larger than desired.

 

You xenia keepers have obviously never seen what I call "polyp hopping" where the coral will throw a polyp or more "into the wind" to colonize other areas of the tank. To quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park...."Nature Finds a Way"

 

I have a stupid question, Can you just the xenia off the rock that it is on and frag it onto another piece of rock in order to move it or will that kill it?

 

yes but if you cut it the stump will grow back,even if its just a spec.i prefer to rip it off with a pair of hemostats so most of the time it don't grow back.the xenia will attach to anything it touches more than a couple days.

 

Just move another rock against the one the xenia is sitting on. It will quickly hop over to, and you will two xenia rocks...:-/

 

or put them on the back of a crab

 

That is what happened to mine. I now have a second colony on the other end of the tank and growing fast. I think the first colony is getting ready to hop another peice. It looks great but sure is hard to keep on the med. size.