New Montipora Frag - Question

[nmprisons]

A very generous RC member just gave me an awesome montipora cap frag (purple rimmed). The piece he gave me is very large and I am trying to figure out where to place it in my tank. I have two questions fro you guys and gals:

1. The pice is about 4" winde and about 6.5" long and came off one of the outer rims of his large colony. Because of this, the bottom part is white from lack of light. If this part is getting direct light in my tank, will it color back up, or should I not worry about it and just have that part shaded in my tank as well?

2. I kow they are pretty passive corals and so I have a large spot for it to grow out that is free from aggressive corals. There are some zoanthinds around, however. Should I move them or will they be ok for a while?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Sk8r]

It may well re-color. Put it into the rockwork sideways, like a shelf, [green/white putty can be useful to stabilize it] and try to keep it upwind of the zoos. Plain buttons probably won't bother it, but some of the other types may.

 

[Mike O'Brien]

White tissue, or skeleton. Regardless it will regrow those areas providing it's need's are met. These coral's can usually grow fast enough to shade out competing coral's, but just keep you're eye's on thing's and remove offending coral's as nessicary.

 

[nmprisons]

I don't really know how to tell the difference ... I am looking closely at it now. It appears to be skeleton near the bottom (no visible polyps), but there are some polyps on the upper part of the white (before it gets into it's true brown/purple tip area).

I don't think that there is white tissue (when I touched that part of the coral I didn't feel any tissue, but I didn't touch the colored up part, so I can't be sure that it felt differant than the clearly tissue-covered part of the coral.)

 

[Mike O'Brien]

It could just be a combination of both from the colony shading itself. It shouldn't be a problem. Like said just mount the frag by that dead portion. It will encrust fast. These are very fast growing coral's.

 

[AnAnemone]

The bottom side of these corals will remain white. Don't worry about it.
If you choose, you may also break that frag into smaller pieces.
HTH
TimO

 

[nmprisons]

I am sorry for the lack of clarity. By bottom, I didn't mean underside, but rather the lower portion of the frag.

Thanks again for all of your suggestions.