Charlie the Reefer
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone,
Disclaimer: I'm a noob.
Whenever I see reef/aquarium pictures I'm blown away by, something they nearly always have in common are shelf/plating monti caps and chalices. To me, these structures give reefs an "established" / "reefy" look to them... If that makes any sense. I always thought it was only Monti Caps that give that structure. However, I learned that actually chalices can provide a very similar look, with some really interesting color variations. In addition, sometimes these corals develop a "cup-shaped" structure (like in some of the images below), and begin to grow upwards towards the top of the aquarium. To me, this is the coolest structure (don't ask me why).
The only issue is, these corals also come in variations that are encrusting or columnar. Thus, my question is when you're buying a small monti frag, how do you know what kind of growth pattern it will pursue? Especially when online... Or some vendors/LFS that have scant labeling/descriptions... The most annoying thing to me would be to buy an awesome color variation of a chalice/monti, only to have it do some growth pattern that I thought looked bad...
Further, is there a way to "encourage" the above growth patterns via special coral placement? Or some other way...?
And finally, if you have any cool monti caps/plating chalice pictures, please post
Thank you everyone for your time and information.
Disclaimer: I'm a noob.
Whenever I see reef/aquarium pictures I'm blown away by, something they nearly always have in common are shelf/plating monti caps and chalices. To me, these structures give reefs an "established" / "reefy" look to them... If that makes any sense. I always thought it was only Monti Caps that give that structure. However, I learned that actually chalices can provide a very similar look, with some really interesting color variations. In addition, sometimes these corals develop a "cup-shaped" structure (like in some of the images below), and begin to grow upwards towards the top of the aquarium. To me, this is the coolest structure (don't ask me why).
The only issue is, these corals also come in variations that are encrusting or columnar. Thus, my question is when you're buying a small monti frag, how do you know what kind of growth pattern it will pursue? Especially when online... Or some vendors/LFS that have scant labeling/descriptions... The most annoying thing to me would be to buy an awesome color variation of a chalice/monti, only to have it do some growth pattern that I thought looked bad...
Further, is there a way to "encourage" the above growth patterns via special coral placement? Or some other way...?
And finally, if you have any cool monti caps/plating chalice pictures, please post
Thank you everyone for your time and information.
