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Delphinus
04-23-2003, 04:36 PM
I have a blue-tipped staghorn acropora that is growing amazingly nicely, in fact, I'd say a 1/4" per week (or more) as of recently, but the problem is it's growing horizontally. It's a wee frag still, but at the rate this is going, if it doesn't start to turn "upwards" soon, I'm going to have a serious real estate issue shortly down the road since it's looking to take up a lot of "footprint" area.

Is this normal for this coral? BTW, I'm not sure of the exact ID. I can try to snap a picture of it later. There is this one branch that is making a beeline for a neighbouring M.cap coral... it appears intent upon piercing its neighbour like some kind of arrow shot from a bow. I've already fragged the cap once to give me an extra 1" or so of space, but that's clearly a bandaid solution at best. I have to either re-arrange this coral, or find the reason why it doesn't want to "grow tall" ... or worst-case, trade it away. It has such a nice blue colour I don't really want to lose it, but, I'm noticing I've put way too much stuff into my 75 and I need to give things some more elbow room. Sigh ... I promised myself I would never let myself do that (i.e., overstock), and here I am, realizing, it was an empty promise after all. (Shoot. :redface: )

spikehs
04-23-2003, 04:39 PM
i heard flow can change the growth patterns of some corals quite a bit, maybe try changing the direction of the flow around it?

Aquattro
04-23-2003, 04:39 PM
Tony, I have a brown stag with baby blue tips that did the same thing. It covered about a 7" dameter area and would only then start to curl up. It ended up inthe sump in about 8 large superfrags. Which, for any locals reading this, are free for the taking!!

Delphinus
04-23-2003, 04:50 PM
Brad, it sounds like the same coral as yours. I have two different kinds that match this description, but one is a bit larger, quite a bit meatier in it's branches, and, for the moment, appears content to be growing its base out, and branches reasonably upwards. This one, it's just absurd. It grew out it base for a while, and then recently has created a few branches. The original tip doesn't grow at all. But the new branch, and all of that branches subsequent branches, are all horizontal.

What about snipping off the branches that get too far, and the reattaching those near the original base? Bad idea? Does kind of feel like a stop-gap measure though, doesn't it.

Argh!

Aquattro
04-23-2003, 04:53 PM
Tony, I gave up on mine and cut it up. I can't allocate that much space as I have an "overstocking" problem myself. Stupid acros won't stop growing!!

StirCrazy
04-23-2003, 06:13 PM
I have an "overstocking" problem

I could solve that :eggface:

Steve

Aquattro
04-23-2003, 06:23 PM
I have an "overstocking" problem

I could solve that

Steve

I already offered you stuff. You didn't want the brown corals....and the only free stuff I have is brown....

Tau2301
04-24-2003, 03:25 AM
Tony could it just be growing towards the light. Is it directly under your MH or is it off to one side?

Canadian Man
04-24-2003, 03:39 AM
Order a 230 like I did Tony :mrgreen:

Quinn
04-24-2003, 03:44 AM
i thought staghorns were supposed to grow horizontally - they end up looking like moose antlers, large horizontal portion with vertical shoots.

Aquattro
04-24-2003, 05:06 AM
you mean vertical, right?

Tony, here is a pic of mine......does yours do this?

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/stag.jpg

Delphinus
04-24-2003, 04:07 PM
Moose antlers, yes ... but I've seen several good examples of staghorns that were nice big vertical branches. I guess what I was wondering if, in those cases, did they grow like that or did they have be pruned a lot (I'm kind of thinking like how a little tree is "trained" to become a bonsai).

What it could be, is that this is one of those fast growing staghorns that grow really fast, then break off, and make and become a veritable forest of antlers that is an awesome habitat for other fish and stuff. The only problem is, as cool as that looks, one would probably need a dedicated tank to replicate that in captivity ... putting a frag of that coral and hoping it will stay put in it's little 6" circle is probably not going to work out...

Jonathan, yeah, sure, would love to, there's an easy solution!!!! Sigh .... need a bigger house ... need a bigger paycheque .... need a bigger tank!!! :mrgreen:

I think what could be a factor is that this one errant branch, started growing when the coral was in the bottom center front of the tank, where the current is somewhat laminar (even after the addition of the wavemaker). The branch had grown with the current. Now that it's repositioned, I was hoping the branch would again follow the predominant currents, but it seems to have elected to buck the trend, and just keep growing straight (straight into my M. cap).

(Big corals, little tank -> problem!!!)