Snip all of the tips?

[Logzor]

A month ago I broke a tip off of my green milli. Since then a new branch has come out.

The thing is that this branch is 2x as thick and is growth more than 2x as fast as the rest of the colony!

Should I cut all of the tips off and glue them near the base of the original coral to develop a large colony faster?

 

[soundsurfer]

on some of my stags and my hyacinth or tables, where growth has stopped for a month or two, i will cut just the tip, or even razor shave just a bit off. 90percent of the time, this will start the corals growth again......I also have a powder blue that nips just the tips and he is helping me out by doing it as well.

 

[Logzor]

Interesting. I wonder if people who aquaculture corals normally do this?

I think I might chop off a 1/2 or 1/4" piece of each tip and glue it slightly out from the base and see what happens.

I will post a picture soon. It looks REALLY unnatural where this new branch has grown out because it is so much thicker.

 

[IFbettas]

That's a really good question. If it does work, I'll definately start snipping the tips on mine.

 

[spleify]

Whenever I have have stunted growth on a coral, I snip the tip and viola new, bigger, better growth.

I don't know why this works, I just know it does.

I hope someone will chime in and explain this phenomenon.

 

[Logzor]

From what I understand it is a defense / survival mechanism. The results are clear and we know this works. I wonder if there is way to unleash this growth without chopping the coral up.

 

[broke1]

I usually do this while cleaning the tank. It's not on purpose, I'm just clumbsy. It has in fact 90% of the time initiated new growth. I also has a whole lot of encrusted plugs in my frag tank from these tips.

 

[nextlevelreef]

this actulay works when growing illegal plants snip the top to get biggger fuller busheier plants coral ive always wonderd

 

[yellowslayer13]

it works I take 1/4'' pieces off of different corals when the growth slows

 

[IFbettas]

I'm gonna go snip the tips off of a couple of my acros that haven't grown for a while, and see if they take off. That would be great if it works.

 

[Logzor]

Take some before and after pictures. Of the frags you cut and the main colony. Then post again in a month or two.

When I get a chance I will try this with my green milli.

 

[IFbettas]

Sure, I'll take some pics before and after, and see if this works. I have a few acros that have barely grown at all in the past couple months that I wan't to see new growth on. I guess I'll have some new small frags to grow out too.

 

[sjfishguy]

I have done this on several corals in the past and it seems to work about 50% of the time for me. Where I have nipped the tips I shoots in a couple directions, but always the same size as the rest of the colony; guess I am lucky it looks natural.

 

[60Cubed]

I am going to try this on an acro that, while still growing, has stopped on a few tips. Wanna see if this will start the growth on those particular tips. This might be sweet if it works!

 

[Racenrich]

It's mother nature at its finest! sorta like gardening underwater....

you can do this to any SPS you like......you will be quite surprised at the results, been doing it for over 3yrs now, with exceptional growth!

 

[91yota]

of all things to go dormant on em and not grow, i had a micropthalma do that (supposed to be a fast grower- did NOTHING for 3+ months) i snipped it and have 1/4" of growth in a little under 2 weeks for whatever reason, they just go dormant sometimes and you have to beat them up a little to wake them up... after those results on the micropthalma, several other corals that were doing so-so got the same treatment and within days showed new growth as well

 

[IFbettas]

Does it also work when you take off good sized frags or only snip the tips? Most of the frags I took off for this experiment yesterday were between 1/4 and 1/2 inches long, but a few were well bigger than an inch.

 

[mrpenguin]

This is really interesting, I am going to try this as well

 

[aaron1987]

I've noticed this with my SPS as well and have also seen the behavior with zoa's as well -- if I frag of trim back a colony the growth explodes shortly thereafter.

 

[kaserpick]

I find that many of mine will actually grow 2 or 3 tips from that one cut supplying more branches.