montipora capricornus

[noeldokken]

All right I got some sps corals and one of them is a montipora capricornus. However, it is glued to a plug and its base has encrusted almost the entire plug. I want to glue the cap to a rock. How can I do this? It is about an inch.

[Jive Turkey]

You can easily glue items in your reef with cyanoacrylate glue, which is whta MOST Super Glues are made of. Just dry it, lay the glue, hold in place for 10 seconds, and then hold it underwater for a minute to make sure its secure. Don't worry about the Cap drying out if you're swift.
BTW, what color is it? M. Caps are one of my favorites, and I'm just beginning my collection. We could trade small pieces, and I live nearby.

Joe

[noeldokken]

I am using Ross super glue gel. Anyway, the cap is on a plug and is encrusting almost the entire thing. I want to remove it off of that, then glue it on the rock. Can I just break it off the plug?

[noeldokken]

oh the cap is brown.

[Jive Turkey]

If it were me, I'd snap it off the plug if it were healthy and glue it to a show rock, then sell the plug and let some other clown deal with it.
How much do you want for it? LOL

Joe

[noeldokken]

It's healthy all right. The polyps in the base of it are open too. Let me do some playing around.

[David Grigor]

Snap if if. Don't worry if it breaks in several pieces. You can also glue them back together like you would a broken vase. Providing you don't use too much super glue you won't even notice. After a few weeks you for sure won't notice......

Alternative, if you have broken pieces. Glue them on a rock touching each other and orient them in different directions. When it heals and begins growing you'll be multiple swirls faster than just a solid piece frag would.

[noeldokken]

I snapped if off the plug, and both are doing well. Now I have two. Jive turkey, I'll see how the base of the cap is doing (the one that is one the plug). I see the polyps out, so it seem like it is doing great

[Jive Turkey]

What Grigor said is interesting, how you can manipulate the swirling shape by mounting frags in that manner.

What would happen if two Caps were glued together that were a different color?

Joe

[David Grigor]

Always glue pieces of the same coral together. Never different corals. I am sure one would win and the other loose. Doubtful they would live peacfully.


I do that not only with caps but all my acropora and other sps. Staghorns are another great example. Ever been given a single branch and takes forever for it to do anything but look like a stick. Well, don't take just one tip. Take 3 or 4 and mount them together in a cluster. In no time will look more like a small colony than a frag.

Most of the time, I will take several tips and mount them in the same basic orientation as the mother colony.......

[noeldokken]

Kinda cool how you can manipulate nature... I just got a blue tip staghorn, it is one of my favorite. Is it a fast grower? I have been dosing calcium lately, and I swear the thing just got a tad bit bigger! I love SPS corals, I thought they were hard to take care of.

[otolith]

Originally posted by noeldokken
...I love SPS corals, I thought they were hard to take care of.

They are...just when you think you've gotten it down, something will come along and cause a blip in the system that is sometimes impossible to figure out. Right now some of my SPS are bleaching, and I have no idea why...and am not quite sure what changes I'm going to make to correct it. This, of course, right around the time I decided to do regular water changes.

[David Grigor]

Staghorn in general are pretty hardy and grow pretty fast. Although it all depends on the exact one you have as there are always exceptions. Smaller they are usually the slower it grows until it reaches a certain size. Once they get to be 5-6" it will seem it grows really fast. Mostly because all branches are growing in all directions so give illusion it is growing faster.

When I do the manipulation in general I try to put it back together in the same general shape. Definately an art to it, much like prunning a bonzai tree ( If that's how you spell it ).

Also, it you want to get it to grow branches faster, snip off the tips. Good chance when it grows back it will branch.

[TBRUZZ]

I'm going through the same stage, kinda of scared I installed the 400 mh last night 2 radium and 2 ushio's. I hope this does not bleach the corals..I'm at work and this is what I am worrying about..otolith are you going to the meeting thurs.?

[David Grigor]

Tracy, I don't recall what lights you have before but best way to acclimate is to increase the height vs. shorten the photoperiod. If its a canopy it's a little tricker then just a hanging style lightbox/pendant. You can temporarily put 2x4s between the canopy and top of tank for the canopy to rest on. This will get you the additional height.

Also keep close eye on temperature as to not let the lights stay on too long and cause high temps until you know how much hotter the tank will run with the 400W. Tank getting to hot can be as fatal as lights being to bright.


Using height to acclimate is not only easier on the corals than a shorter photo period but gives you more of an idea how much hotter then tank will get with the new lights as you lower them over time.