Monti ID

[luther1200]

Hi, I just got this and the guy told me it was a monti sp. Can anybody tell me what they think it is.

[luther1200]

And while on on the subject. This piece is doing good except for thr middle because my flame angle (now deceased) used to pick at it. I have noticed polyps emerging out of the middle, you can see them at the top left of the original frag, do you think it will come back? Or should I try to chip it off and hope it grows inward. That might be really stupid to try as the rest of it is O.K.

[mitchmac]

lol looks like the macro in my tank !!!!

[Hop]

Looks more like a montipora digitata or a Montipora hirisuta to me, but it really is hard at times to ID a coral through a pic

[luther1200]

I will try to get some better pic tomorrow.

[aquawolf]

I would leave the second one alone and see what it is going to do. They are pretty resilient corals and it may start growing very well again now that it is no longer being picked on.

[Fat Tony]

Montipora hirisuta is my best guess from the pic... I'd be fairly confident in calling it that. I also have what I suspect is hirisuta in my tank.. well, I did until the frag to a fall today down in a crevice...and I can't get to it.

[crvz]

Agreed with the M. hirsuta based on visual inspection, but that kind of ID always has a level of uncertainty to it. I've also heard that this species was put on the endangered species list, but that's unsubstantiated (even after a quick google search I couldnt come up with anything). Common name, elkhorn.

[luther1200]

Thanks, I looked it up and it does look like M. Hirisuta. I had never seen it before, and liked the way it grew. Does it grow fast like other montis? I have it just below halfway in the tank(its 22.5" tall) with 2-150 HQI 20k lamps. Is that good or should I try to move it? I have had it there for 5 days and it seems to be doing fine.

[kyrie_eleison]

definitely digitata.

[YLChik]

you can just leave it there, as long as it doing fine don't mess with it

When I first opened the thread I would ID it as an elkhorn too.

[luther1200]

I thought it would be neet to look at the growth so here is a recent pic of the branching monti. And this is after breaking 3 big branches off by mistake 1 day, Its a very delicate piece. I love the way its grown out, I don't have anything with this type of growth form.

[luther1200]

Now I need to get rid of those shrooms in the bottom, they are starting to sting it in 1 spot. Any good suggestions?

[chrisd]

WOW that monti got big in just 6 months good job
not sure about the shrooms are they on the same rock?

[luther1200]

Thank you. Yes they are on the same rock. But I can take that rock out easily. But I would rather not if I didn't have to. I was looking at that piece from the top today and it looks so cool. I will try to get a top down shot, but I have never tried that. And my light bar is pretty close to the water. Any tips? I could remove the lights and use the flash but the colors would be way off.


I tried Aptasia X on the shrooms before and that didn't work. Does anybody know anything like that that will?