Reefer577
New member
Well I thought I would put a little piece up about propagating clove polyps. I consider clove polyps to be one of the more challenging corals to grow, since some strains grow great and others have a tendency to just whither away. The really large neon green palm tree type tend to be more sensitive than the silver or creamy types.
If they remain healthy, they still don't usually grow very fast on the rock they come in on. I have the found the best way to get them to sprout new shoots is to separate the polyps from the rock and leave them on an area of aragonite in medium flow. Something about doing this seems to trigger much faster growth, probably because the coral wants to be attached to something. So within a week all kinds of new shoots will come out from the coral.
Growth after about a week.
Once they have a bunch of new growth I will glue them to the frag plug. They will continue to grow quickly and put out babies. In the past I have tried gluing single polyps directly to frag tiles without giving them time to sprout and it doesn't work nearly as well.
With the hardier types of clove polyps, I will break off small bunches instead of single polyps and let them sprout for a week or two on aragonite and then glue them to frag tiles. I have these mini green cloves that grow super fast, they usually are attached to the aragonite within a few weeks.
Bunch of cloves frag
I keep most of my clove polyp colonies under T5 lighting. They can handle higher lighting but they don't really need it and they grow very well under my T5's. They all seem happy with good flow.
It should be noted that clove polyps should be dipped in Trop Marin Procoral Cure or other anti-pest dip as they have a tendency to come in with nudibranchs. These nudibranchs are tan and look just like the closed clove polyps. They will eat the clove polyps and make them whither very quickly. They are also very hardy, I have had only one or two spread between my colonies but they can do a lot of damage and reproduce even after you think you have gotten rid of them.
If they remain healthy, they still don't usually grow very fast on the rock they come in on. I have the found the best way to get them to sprout new shoots is to separate the polyps from the rock and leave them on an area of aragonite in medium flow. Something about doing this seems to trigger much faster growth, probably because the coral wants to be attached to something. So within a week all kinds of new shoots will come out from the coral.
Growth after about a week.
Once they have a bunch of new growth I will glue them to the frag plug. They will continue to grow quickly and put out babies. In the past I have tried gluing single polyps directly to frag tiles without giving them time to sprout and it doesn't work nearly as well.
With the hardier types of clove polyps, I will break off small bunches instead of single polyps and let them sprout for a week or two on aragonite and then glue them to frag tiles. I have these mini green cloves that grow super fast, they usually are attached to the aragonite within a few weeks.
Bunch of cloves frag
I keep most of my clove polyp colonies under T5 lighting. They can handle higher lighting but they don't really need it and they grow very well under my T5's. They all seem happy with good flow.
It should be noted that clove polyps should be dipped in Trop Marin Procoral Cure or other anti-pest dip as they have a tendency to come in with nudibranchs. These nudibranchs are tan and look just like the closed clove polyps. They will eat the clove polyps and make them whither very quickly. They are also very hardy, I have had only one or two spread between my colonies but they can do a lot of damage and reproduce even after you think you have gotten rid of them.
