LPS Frag Mounting Questions

[LadyReefNeck]

My first situation...

This coral came along with my tank when I purchased the complete running setup a year ago. I thought it was possibly a Caulastrea Furcata (spelling?). (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on ID or spelling. )


About a month ago the coral took on a growth spurt and there are about 5 or 6 new polyps. At the same time, one of the large polyps "pinched off" this small section and it eventually dropped to the sand bottom.




I actually just let it sit on the sandbed all this time as I figured it would wither and die on me. It has proven me wrong. It has survived and is actually starting to look better and better each day. It also seems to be developing a skeletal back/bottom to it.



My questions are ....

Should I leave it alone and see it develops more of a skeleton or branch, or should I mount it on a frag plug or piece of live rock rubble?

If I mount it onto something, will this stunt it from developing it's skeletal base?

[LadyReefNeck]

Situation #2

Green Goniopora Coral dropped a pencil eraser sized piece of it's skeleton. This small piece of skeleton has developed 4 - 6 little polyps.


I don't want to lose it in the 120g tank (we have several "sand movers"), but if I mount it to a frag plug, will it stunt the way it's skeleton develops?

[Twitterbait]

I say leave them both alone. let them develope where you can see they are already happy! Congrats by the way, i have not seen that happen like that before!

[LadyReefNeck]

Thanks Twitter.

I'm not so worried about leaving the first one alone as it's pretty easy to find by it's size. It's the baby goni that I'm worried will get buried by the Engineer Goby, the Dragon Goby or the pistol shrimp. Even the female GSM with her "tail-swishing" the sand by her anemone. Maybe I'll try to move it to a lower flow area by the base of the overflow and hope the Engineer doesn't bother it there.

[skeety]

no real advice...other than to agree with Ryan.

But thanks for the pics! Fascinating!!!

[Twitterbait]

another option is to corral the goni. cut the top off a washed water bottle and place it over the goni frag with the lid off. it will then be safe from the gobies.

[Elegance Coral]

You can check out Goniopora.org. There are pics of how he deals with this problem. Lots of good info there. I would not try to mount the frags at this point. They are still very fragile.

[LadyReefNeck]

Thanks Elegance for the link. I'll take a look at it.

Since I originally posted this thread, the engineer goby or the pistol shrimp buried or took off with the Goni frag but another one appeared the other day, so I have it corralled off in an area neither will get at.

At this point I'm a little more worried about the mother coral. It seems to have bleached out and we can't figure out why. It hasn't been moved, lighting and flow are the same, still feeding it and tank parameters are always consistant.

I will read through that site for some info and suggestions that will help it.

As for the Caulastrea frag, I lost it too. We had an issue with the Alk dropping too low in that tank and it just sort of dissolved overnight. We've got the tank specs back up to par again and everything is doing well again.

[LadyReefNeck]

Caulastrea colony as of yesterday

[LadyReefNeck]

And the Goni as of yesterday

[Elegance Coral]

If anyone can help you with your goniopora it will be John Kelly. He truly knows his stuff about this coral.

[cartoonbear]

Its a real bummer ta hear about the loss of the Caulastrea frag. I have never seen an LPS do something like that before, very cool.