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reefraf

question on sps coral shapes

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reefraf
, 07-15-2010 at 09:33 PM (2861 Views)
I am building out my SPS dominated reef. My question is when most people refer to a colony, are they just refering to an sps piece fully grown out?

The second part of that is do all frags grow into colonies? For example i have a nice birds nest that is the exact shape as a half circle and 5 inches in diameter - i assume this is a colony. My staghorn acrapora is nice, but it grows up and sprouts a few branches - but does not look like it will ever become that half circle colony, it is more of a tree.

What types of sps corals will grow into those colonies?

thanks

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  1. Alaska_Phil's Avatar
    A colony refers to a single coral specimen, as they're actually conposed of minillions of tiny animals. To say "fully gown out" is some what subjective as most will continue to grow as long as conditions are favorable. For example, a single tabling Acro in the wild can be 12 feet or more across.

    Stony corals will take different shapes depending on their species, and the conditions. Two frags from the same parent colony can look totally different in a few months in both shape and color, all depending on the light and currents they're growing in. Waiting to see how they grow out is part o the fun.

    Not a stony, but a prime example is a finger leather frag I gave a friend last year. In my tank they're short stout stubby looking with tiny polys, in his it gew tall and slender with big wide polyps. The only difference is that he's running more actinic light than I am.