Frag Question???

[Patroklos]

So,

When I look at the tank showcase forums at the beautiful pictures of some of our member's developed reef setups I notice large full corals, some with great patters like brains and favias, usually consisting of a large bulbous/round colony.

THEN I go look at the various online vendors selling frags and when you can get a WYSIWYG section it looks like they have just hacked these intricate paternd corals into 1"x1" squares? Am I to assume that given time these squares will repair and propogate the patern or will they just grow all gnarly and haphazardly?

Also, do these colonies produce their own central mass, or are they coating a piece of live rock like mushrooms/zoas?

 

[Ziggy953]

Yes they will grow/repair and continue on as the parent colony grew. These are encrusting corals that build a skeleton as they grow.

 

[Patroklos]

When you say encrusting do you mean they grow around a rock? I am confused because you said they grow a skeleton as well, is that the central mass of the colony vice a rock?

 

[Ziggy953]

No it doesn't grow around a rock. It can and will grow right on the sand bed and develop a skeleton. Most people attach them to rocks so they can grow that way. I have some Fava Sp. that I put on a rock just because I wanted off the sand bed. I believe they are classed in the LPS category so they are similar to frog spawn, bubble coral, hammer coral, torch coral and many others that grow their own skeleton. When I said encrust I didn't mean it in the litteral sense I guess I should have chosen a different word to describe their growth. They are not dependant upon a rock "core" to grow.

Make more sense?

 

[Patroklos]

Sure does, thanks!