Blue tipped staghorn question

Delphinus · #1 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.

)

spikehs · #2 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 · #3 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 · #4 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!