Fraggin Pagoda

[SaltBlock]

I got this guy the other day, apparantly, he was almost lost to a bad hair algae outbreak. I'm trying to decide if I should frag him or keep him whole and see if he will grow back eventually.

I've heard that a fragged colony of only a couple pagoda polyps will grow to be a couple inches across in a year. Anybody had similar or dissimilar experience?

Thanks,

AEB

[Geoff]

that looks pretty bad, but it does not have any places that fragging would do you any good. those polyps are spread all over the surface. i would just put it in a bunch of light and see how well it does.

i lost close to 99% of my colony two Christmases ago, heater got unplugged. all that was left were two tiny batches of polyps one had 4 polyps the other had 6. i broke them off and they are not doing great in the 125. in the past year they may have grown a 1/4", and gained a couple of polyps each! i am in no way getting near that growth on mine. they are one of the slowest growing corals i have.

G~

[icebear]

do they grow that slowly in *the wild* too...? ( its hard for me to imagine a "wild" coral...images of feral corals prowling the reef, howling (bubbling) at the moon...... )

[SaltBlock]

Originally posted by Geoff
but it does not have any places that fragging would do you any good.

Sorry, but could you explain more?

I thought they primarily grew at the edges. It may not be clear in the pic, but the left side rim is mostly covered in small polyps, this was the area I was considering breaking off. Another Idea I had was to break it into many very small colonies (2-4 polyps each) and place them around the tank.

Thanks,

AEB

[Geoff]

since the living polyps are located all over the colony i would think it would do better just left alone. the individual polyps could start spreading out again and cover the entire colony again.

you could break it into a billion little polyp frags, but at the rate that coral grows it will be next to forever before you get them big enough to do anything with.

you are right about it growing from the edges. if you want to frag it just to frag it then that is where i would start. that gives you the biggest piece of living tissue.

G~

[SaltBlock]

OK, I see what you mean. I think I will keep it whole for now and see what kind of growth I can get out of it.

Thanks again,

AEB