Duncan coral (Branching type vs bunching type)

[ml708]

I noticed duncan coral comes in two types, the branching and bunching type.

My question is how do you maintain a branching type as it is? because it grows heads out of each of the mother heads. Does it eventually become a bunching type as well?

 

[coral_addict]

Not an expert, but I believe the branching kind tends to grow more skeleton in between splitting heads than does the bunching kind, although I think flow can actually change the type of growth it has.

 

[kurt_n]

...
My question is how do you maintain a branching type as it is? because it grows heads out of each of the mother heads. Does it eventually become a bunching type as well?

Also not an expert, but I think you're right - there really isn't a "type", it's just a matter of how it's pruned/fragged and the luck of the draw of how new heads grow.

When I bought my Duncan, I'd consider it a "branching" type. After one or two pruning cycles, it was still "branching". But because of the way I pruned (fragged) it, the new heads all kind of grew into each other and I ended up with a large "clump" of heads all at the top. This bunch of heads at the top obviously shaded the lower branches below, eventually killing them. (Yes, I was too lazy to trim them off.) I ended up with a large clump (or bunch) of heads all in one layer at the top.

I just recently trimmed and pruned it up again, and luckily was able to selectively trim some branches out to make it look "branching" again. "Luckily" is a key word here - I really didn't expect things to cut apart as nice as they did. Everything looked fused together, but in reality they weren't.

I think with patience and a little forethought, you can give a Duncan any shape you want. It's kind of like a bonsai tree... it just might take a few years.

 

[MechEng99]

All of the wild colonies I've seen come in were branching. They get fragged, and then they bunch. I'm guessing the coral tries to create a solid foundation before it branches so that it doesn't fall over.

I got my Duncan when they first came to the US, and it was a branching one. It took until my single polyp was about 50 polyps before it started to branch on its own. Even so, the branches aren't nearly as long as the mother colony (likely due to different flow/light).

As previously mentioned, you can frag to make it look how you want it to, but they're not the easiest to frag.