How fast do your SPS corals grow?

[wombat1]

I just got some awesome frags from Monkeyboy about a month ago, and I've noticed good growth in all the pieces. The easiest place to spot it is at the base, where it spreads out to encrust the epoxy. The fastest growth is in the Montipora digitata, a thickness of about 3 polyp (or about 1/8th inch?) radius has grown in a month. The acropora is a little less. So I was wondering, how does this compare with other folks' growth rates?

 

[94MR2]

heres a couple pics of my m. digitata. it started out as a 2" frag in oct. 2001.

 

[wombat1]

WOW! At first I thought you wrote Oct 2002, but it's still very impressive! About how tall do you estimate that colony to be? It's always hard to estimate...

 

[Minh Nguyen]

The absolute fastest SPS in my tank is my thin branch Seriatopora hystrix. My colony growth at a rate of about 1 cm per month (that is one centimeter). I kid you not.
Minh Nguyen

 

[94MR2]

the digitata is probably around a foot tall. its about 1/3rd of the way up in a 180 with a DSB and its only an inch or so from hitting the water surface. heres some other montipora pics (before i end my gratuitous picture posting )

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
I must frag my SPS coral every night, because if I don't, they will knock off the light hood the next morning! :wink: :lol:

Braging/kidding aside, the more dense the skeleton, the slower the coral grow. I have some birdnest that also grow at several millimeter per month, but my Porites that have several Xmas worms on it does not seem to grow much at all, althought it changed color many times in last 3 years.

 

[O P Ing]

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Of all the coral that I have, this got the absolut fastest growth rate. I got to get a digital cameral and document my bird nest growth rate then I wn't have the nose from O P Ing.
Minh Nguyen

 

[O P Ing]

hi.
Minh, why so sad? The nose is from saying the "knocking off hood." The birdnest growth rate is realistic.

 

[Minh Nguyen]

hi.
Minh, why so sad? The nose is from saying the "knocking off hood." The birdnest growth rate is realistic.

OK, that make me feel better. Thanks
Minh

 

[64Ivy]

Well, since you asked...These are the growth pics of my Blue Tipped Stag, most likely A. microphthalma. Dates precede image.

3/01. Approx the size of a baby's fist.

6/01

9/01

1/02

6/02

9/02

12/02.

Colony is now approx 15" tall, over TWO FEET in circumference.

 

[Anonymous]

Beautiful pics guys. Keep up the good work.

 

[wombat1]

Stonehaven, great pics! It looks like the zoanthids at the base are growing just as fast as the acropora . Minh, any pics?

 

[Minh Nguyen]

Stonehaven, great pics! It looks like the zoanthids at the base are growing just as fast as the acropora . Minh, any pics?

I am waiting to get an SLR digital camera when it get down to less than 1000.00. I spend 1200.00 and got a Kodak DS210 5 years ago. It was a piece of junk.
To answer your question, no picture yet.
Minh

 

[Anonymous]

94MR2,
I live in N.VA/DC area. I'd absolutey to get my hands on some frags. Cash no problem, pm with contact info please!!!!

I especially like all the m. capricornis and purp digitata

The purp rim green is also very nice!!!

Thanks,
Snapper

 

[kevinpo]

Great pictures! Great corals

Here are a few of mine.
orange cap 10-01
and 1 year later

Regards,
Kevin

 

[kevinpo]

My A. microphthalma

Kevin

 

[kevinpo]

One more A. millepora
5-02
and
9-02

Kevin

 

[wombat1]

I just looked up in Aquarium Corals by Borneman that the fastest growth was 18.5 cm per year in an Acropora species (1.5 cm per month) He goes on to say that the same species shows growth rates as small as .37 cm per year, in healthy wild populations. Apparently the growth rate is highly variable based on local conditions and not necessarily an indicator of a healthy coral. Thanks for the great pics!

 

[SpicyBalls]

for those who have seriatopora, what kind of lighting do you use? i just picked up my first sps frag... been keeping all lps, softies, and others up until this point. main reasin is lighting. i have compact flourescents, roughly 5 watts per gallon over my tank. i picked the seriatopora because of it's relatvies "ease"... if this goes well, i may pick up a pocilliopora... but jsut wondering how others have done under CF..