Pipe organ coral propagation

[Mikey Donuts]

Does anyone know how these corals propagate? I thought it was by slowly forming a stony "mat" of tubes over live rock. I've had one for a couple of weeks and I just noticed a single polyp several inches away from the mother colony. The polyp appears to be forming a stony tube and has attached itself to a piece of live rock.
Could this be an example of polyp bailout? The mother colony seems happy and has shown good expansion and coloration since I've had it.
Any info appreciated.
Mike

 

[coralnut99]

The "tubes" are really quite fragile. Most probably, when you purchase it, and acclimated it, what appeared to be a loose piece of the tubing structure contained a live polyp. In some cases pipe organ owners have been somewhat frustrated by the ease with which small frags will take hold seemingly everywhere after moving a larger piece.
I would doubt a case of polyp bale out, or some other form of sexual reproduction, but anything's possible I guess.

 

[Mikey Donuts]

Coralnut, come to think of it there were a few loose tubes around the edges of the coral. I won't complain if this coral spreads throughout the tank as it's fairly innocuous and a slow grower.

So can I frag this coral by breaking off a few small pieces of tubing and placing them in the rockwork?

 

[coralnut99]

The only tricky part about fragging them is that the tubes are really fragile. In my experience the best way to frag them was to use a utility knife and slice downward through the tube structure. If you start at an edge you can cut at a right angle to where your second cut should be and you'll get a square cutout a little over an inch. This sounds easier than it is to actually accomplish simply beacuse it's so fragile. You really have to hold it with a very gentle hand and cut with an equally gentle approach. Expect to lose some of the bottom of the tube structure simply due to handling it.

 

[Mikey Donuts]

Thanks for the info! When I move the coral to my larger tank I may try to frag a couple of small pieces and see how they do. Thanks!

 

[coralnut99]

They should do just fine. It's a pretty resilient coral. If you can get it in the path of an oscilating wave (SCWD, OM, Waysea, etc.), I think you'll see much better growth.