What do open brains (& other LPS) do when they grow?

[chrisstie]

I'm really relatively new to LPS and right now I have that euphoric enthusiastic feeling like I just discovered the coolest coral in the world ;p

But my experience is mostly in softies like zoos\shrooms\leathers...

So I'm curious what these guys with skeletons look like and what they do to grow - I have seen pics of them with all kinds of polyps looking like they are built on one another its very neat! But I was wondering about the process itself.

Sometimes the softies can just like split (they also bud off others when they are happy and not stressed) .. what do the LPS guys do?

 

[cmondo]

Well LPS and SPS are both stony corals as you probably know, and they form a skeleton as they grow. As the polyp grows bigger so does the base, and the smaller portion dies off and becomes rock. As far as new polyps go, smaller ones will "bud" off of the base of the larger polyp and grow off to the side. If you have a single polyp on a frag disk it will form a dome shape as smaller polyps form. Hope this helped a bit, post if you have anymore questions.

Chris

 

[Pinksteel]

It should be added that this process is much more intensive on your cal and alk levels so once you've added lots of lps/sps dosing is a great idea.

 

[chrisstie]

Since i now have a trumpet, frogspawn and a brain i am watching them much more closely and have noticed a difference even with weekly water chances. Since i have a nano im going to try to up the w\c and see if it makes a difference as well.. I'm a bit new to it all so i have to find that combination of doing things "just right" to make everyone happy.

The brain is the one i posted about with the acclimation issue. not looking so hot -=\