Place Encrusting on bleached Branching sps?

[Rakie]

Was just thinking about this. Some of the really cool Monti out there are encrusting, and I always thought they would look wonderful branching.. Made me think.

What if you placed an Encrusting SPS frag on a Dead branching colony? It should not only survive, but in theory grow on the bleached/dry SPS, right?

Is there a reason this wouldn't work? (New, sorry if this has been discussed)

 

[tripdad]

Sounds funky and fun, I say go for it.

 

[Rakie]

Interesting.. So it *could* work? There's nothing silly about coral husbandry / encrusting monti's that I'm missing here? (Again, I'm new).

This came about because I really love the Superman Montipora, but I thought it would be much more visually stunning if it were to branch. An LFS near me has a bucket of dead SPS colonies that were DOA -- I was thinking it would be cool to put a Superman frag on it and let it cover it, giving it a branching look.

 

[nmotz]

Go for it, just remember that corals grow where they want to grow so if for some reason it chooses not to encrust all over the dead coral then don't be too disappointed. Really clever idea though. I might have to try it out in my tank....

 

[reefmutt]

Yeah. Go for it.. Although I suspect that encrusting corals still sort of want to maximize their surface area towards the sun...
I think it will encrust and at the same time push off plates that are perpendicular to the old coral branches..
Would be very interesting to see!

 

[Mark426]

I think it might work, seen it done with zoa/plays. If I remember it correctly the thread was called "the tree of life". Turned out really nice.

 

[79chopperdr]

It works, I've done it. In fact occasionally if a colony doesn't make it or it just gets super large I'll plant new frags right on top. I can think anymore natural way of reef building :dance: the growth patterns are fun to watch.

Borrowed this idea from one of our locals greats.

 

[Rakie]

Awesome, you have any examples 79chopperdr