Growth of SPS??

[phiberop840]

Why do only some tips have growth? Why would all not have some growth on them, rather than just a few tips?

[skey44]

i don't know but will throw out some unrelated info that is too much of a jump but makes sense to me. I have a minor in horticulture that is a little more than a minor ( i started in another major that was very horticulture heavy but changed and kept hort as the minor bc i was done with it )

Only the terminal buds of plants determine the growth rate of the rest of the branches (the tip of the tallest branch) and actually having one control it over multiples fighting for control causes the fastest growth. without getting technical i think we haven't really gotten into this with the growth of corals as much as we have with plants, but a lot of the mechanisms of trees and their growth rates and patterns can be closely metaphorical to the growth of sps corals and i think you may even be able to use the term convergent evolution.???

****scientific help needed lol i am just throwing out kooky ideas

[Fat Tony]

i think you are right scott... from my Horticutural days, i remember this as well. i think you see the same type of behavior when you frag a coral and typical cutting on a fruit tree. growth always happens at the roots first (or encrusting as we reefers call it) before the growth can happen on top. for this reason is simply why most people say always buy a frag that is already encrusted on the base... primarily because it shows that the frag is healthy, and second that you will see coral growth rather than encrusting growth.. just my $.02

[crvz]

There may be some parallels, but a coral is a colony of animals, whereas a plant is, well, a plant. Growth can be affected by many different things, lighting, flow, water chemistry, just to name a few. I've also noticed that not all branches grow when I get a new frag.