Monti grafting - 3 species in 1 piece

[Acrotrdco]

First the photos:

Now I'm a little puzzled, because on the first and second photo, you can clearly see that the green monti (upper top right corner in the first photo) never really touched the orange monti, but the green pigment somehow showed up on the orange monti. Perhaps it's the zooxanthellae algae somehow got migrated over. /shrugs.

The third photo shows that it's a 3rd species (green monti with purple polyps) that's getting grafted with the orange monti. At first I thought they won't graft because they looks like two different species.

The last monti (purple) also shown in the photos (middle section, first photo), grows too fast but doesn't graft into the orange monti, instead it tries to grow over it, that's why I've to keep trimming it off every now and then.

 

[leporinus]

wow..nice!!

 

[OneReef]

Nice. Here are a few pics that I have seen in the past on the subject

 

[Reef Bass]

Neat experiment. FYI, they are all the same species (Montipora capricornus). Also, zooxanthellae are brown and as such don't impact the bright colors you are interested in. The explusion of zooxanthallae by one coral and absorption by another will not impact the color of the colors, except possibly to make the expeller slightly less brown and the absorber slightly more brown, and oh so slightly.

A bleached color lacks substantial quantities of zooxanthallae in its tissues which is why it is pale to white. Typically bleached colors first need to build up their zooxanthellae and turn brown before they can have enough energy to start producing bright pigments and assume their "usual" coloration.

 

[kevlow]

Neat experiment. FYI, they are all the same species (Montipora capricornus). Also, zooxanthellae are brown and as such don't impact the bright colors you are interested in. The explusion of zooxanthallae by one coral and absorption by another will not impact the color of the colors, except possibly to make the expeller slightly less brown and the absorber slightly more brown, and oh so slightly.

A bleached color lacks substantial quantities of zooxanthallae in its tissues which is why it is pale to white. Typically bleached colors first need to build up their zooxanthellae and turn brown before they can have enough energy to start producing bright pigments and assume their "usual" coloration.

Very informative post. Thank you. This helps me understand the recovery process of two acros I am trying to revive.

On the subject of the Monti Caps, what would cause one to attack and "slime" the other. I tried to do a graft by mounting an orange cap and grape cap frags together on one plug like as seen in these photos. for a week all was good. then one morning the grape was completely slimed by the orange and the next day was brown jelly. I would love to try a gaft like this thread shows but do not want my same bad results.

Acrotrdco how did you get this started?

kevin

 

[cjtice]

They slime cause they are fighting for territory. Just cause they are the same species does not mean they get along.

Very nice montis!

 

[A.Rodriguez]

i didn't know this technique, beautiful montis

 

[Acrotrdco]

Neat experiment. FYI, they are all the same species (Montipora capricornus). Also, zooxanthellae are brown and as such don't impact the bright colors you are interested in. The explusion of zooxanthallae by one coral and absorption by another will not impact the color of the colors, except possibly to make the expeller slightly less brown and the absorber slightly more brown, and oh so slightly.

A bleached color lacks substantial quantities of zooxanthallae in its tissues which is why it is pale to white. Typically bleached colors first need to build up their zooxanthellae and turn brown before they can have enough energy to start producing bright pigments and assume their "usual" coloration.

Thanks for the info! :wave:

 

[neoalchemist74]

Very cool! You should deffinately post some progression pics later down the road so we can see more. I've been wanting to try this with some Acans.

 

[lolgranny]

Thats quite cool! Keep us updated i would like to see how it ends up!