[Harryjsinger]

I have seen some pictures of different types of Montipora growing together, and am wondering if only specific types will grow in harmony or all will.

Attached is a bunch of pictures from Google!

My tentative Idea is to get a bunch of small ($9.99) frags of common types of montipora (Red, Green, Purple, etc) and either glue them next to each other or glue them together on a small frag plugs

Has anyone done this?

 

[Harryjsinger]

Or should I just get a piece of PVC and glue small frags of different types on it? That might work as well!

Experiment will happen this weekend

 

[criscat777]

both ways look good this is my setup.

 

[Harryjsinger]

both ways look good this is my setup.

How did you do it? Put them side by side, on different levels, what?

 

[criscat777]

How did you do it? Put them side by side, on different levels, what?

yes ,all i did was get three different frags and epoxy them at different levels of the rock work. 6 months later you have that.

 

[Harryjsinger]

Beautiful! You don't suppose that over time the shadowed pieces will develop Necrosis?

I am not sure if my only piece of Montipora is growing as fast as those of other reefers, I need to look up the average growth rate. Im figuring I'm getting at most 1/2 inch a month, and even that is optimistic!

Colors are great, polyp extension is great, but not growing quickly.

Could it just be the type I have?

Original (day I bought it)

Now (about a month later)

I know the picture is bad for comparison, but will take another top-down photo to compare as soon as I can!

 

[Oxylebius]

I'm not sure what your trying to do with those three corals you have inn those two pictures. In the first pic it looks like an encrusting monti (possible sunset monti), and what looks like a purple turbinaria coral. The last picture looks like a chalice (Echinophyllia).

If you want to mix corals like your first post, you need to make sure it is all of the same type. The first post are all montipora capicornis. These will grow into one another. I've done it. I've also had my blue, green and orange-red monti digis grow into one another, but in there case one grows over the others, they don't merge.

It the corals aren't of the same type, then the corals will either sting one another or one will grow over the other, in both cases the corals can kill the other corals.

It you keep that sunset monti next to either of the other corals, the other two corals you have there will sting it and/or over grow it. I have all three of those corals in my tank and that is the behavior I've observed.

 

[Harryjsinger]

WHAT! I thought they both are montipora!

I saw the stingers on the "Chalice" for the first time last night after a bug ol feeding- interesting! Lol I feel like such an idiot....

Anyway it's a pretty chalice, no? (Lol making the best of it)

Im going to go to the LFS sometime this week and get some small, 2"x2", frags of the red, green, and purple montipora. I plan on mounting them in levels, like CrisCat777 did.
__________________

 

[Oxylebius]

Very pretty chalice. And easy to care for. Feed it mysids every few weeks and it will grow faster. You will want to make sure that the fish or other critters in your tank (like shrimp) don't take the mysids away from it, the chalice eats very slowly.

This time make sure you are picking up monti caps.

Here is my wall of monti caps. I did similar to criscat. The first photo is before I harvested back the very top of it. The second photo is showing the cap harvested and more green monti caps placed on top, attached to the tank wall. I did that about a month ago.

 

[scotkenny]

I've tried this with bad results. Whenever they touched they would start to die off in the areas that were touching. I'm sure they would "grow around" each other but actually fuse......no. As I have read it the actual reason they get to looking like the first pic in the first post is a bacterial infection. I hope I'm wrong but after much digging that was the final answer I came up with.:bawling:

 

[Harryjsinger]

I've tried this with bad results. Whenever they touched they would start to die off in the areas that were touching. I'm sure they would "grow around" each other but actually fuse......no. As I have read it the actual reason they get to looking like the first pic in the first post is a bacterial infection. I hope I'm wrong but after much digging that was the final answer I came up with.

Aww really? Where did you read that?

So they "gave" it a bacterial infection and then placed a different type on top? Its almost like grafting!

(Cutting a branch of one plant and attaching that of a similar one- the fruit of the attached branch will grow)

 

[steallife]

Hey Harry, that chalice looks like hollywood stunner chalice. if that's the case just want to warn you they have a powerful sting so be careful what you put it next to.

 

[igvm]

I tried mixing them. One outgrew the other and the other eventually disappeared.

 

[Andy718]

Attached is a bunch of pictures from Google!

you told me that this was in your tank when we met.....???

 

[Harryjsinger]

Steallife- too late!

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/f178/learn-from-my-mistake-stunner-chalice-229605.html

Andy718- I said this was my goal- remember I bought montipora frags that day

 

[ros_sco]

Mounting them on the rockwork next to and at different levels to each other works for me. As they grow, after a while it just takes up too much room, and the insides do fade out so I trim this group back and re-start it once a year or so.

Here is an older set of pictures I took.

 

[Harryjsinger]

Wow that looks incredible! Where the different colors contact, is there any "fighting" or do they just continue?

 

[ros_sco]

Wow that looks incredible! Where the different colors contact, is there any "fighting" or do they just continue?

It depends on the kind of montipora. The Idaho Grape (the purple one) and Seasons Greetings (not in this picture) will make contact and then grow over most other kinds. The Starburst (Orange with yellow polyps) and Flower Petal (green with blue polyps) and Montipora Aequituberculata (Neon green) will start scrolling around each other, a lot of times never really touching. Usually if they actually make contact, a fight will happen and one will overtake the other.

 

[GotReef]

The effect achieved in the pictures from the first post is probably only possible if you get species of the same genera and mix them. You cant simply mix any two montiporas and expect them to coexist in the same colony. I would recommend starting with ORA varieties since you really know what you're getting. I've tried this in the past and was not able to make it work apparently it's possible