Acan and favia questions

Saltysteele · Oct 20, 2008

okay, so i've got a double mouthed lobo polyps (that i love), an acan lord on the "peanut butter cup," and two single-polyp'd frags of acan lords; plus a 5" x 2.5" frag of green favia.

the lord on the cup, has baby polyps growing down the side of the plug. I'd like to take a dremel and section them off to start some frags growing. the two single-polyp frags that i got from the Trop, are no longer single polyps

the other night while feeding them, i noticed small (1/8") heads all around where the lobe attaches to the skeleton (because the fleshy parts swell up, out and over the sides of the skeletal tissue).

now- what is the best placement of these guys? I've been trying to find info on the net about how they grow, their skeletons, etc. If I leave my frags where they are, will they grow into the ball that you sometimes see, growing more skeleton? will they grow horizontally? should i use the dremel and cut the polyps off the skeleton and attach them to a nicely shaped rock? if so, where is it NOT okay to slice into? which this is where my peanut-butter-cup colony comes into this question. in cutting the small polyps growing down the side of the plug, is there a certain distance i want to stay away from the polyp? i don't want to damage some type of nutritional network they they've interwoven into their substrate, if there is such a thing.

for the favia, what is the best placement of it? should i attach it to a rock? will it grow more skeleton and grow horizontally?

as far as the lobo, what is the best placement for it? i've read they get irritated by sand, and my OD goby definitely stirs some of that up

. It is on a piece of skeleton, as well.

any help or guidance to a source of information would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

Thanks!
Bret

Echidna09 · Oct 20, 2008

The acans are going to become the shape of whatever rock they are on. They can't plate/branch/etc., so if you put them on a 3x2 inch rock they are eventually going to encrust over the sides and be somewhat of a ball. If you don't want a ball, put them on a long, flat, rectangular rock and let them grow over that. No need to frag in order to get the growth you want. Fragging will just make it so that the coral has to produce new polyps where you took the old ones.

If you want to frag them get the dremel out and cut between polyps. Cutting halves and quarters of polyps gives more opportunity for infection but if the coral and aquarium is healthy you should have no problem doing that if you want to. Any flesh that is not a full polyp will grow into one. There is no nutrition that the coral gets from the substrate, it will just use the surface it is on in order to grow. All of the nutrition the coral needs it will get from its zooxanthellae and from trace elements in your water.

If your corals are happy and you are getting the color you want out of them don't move them. Acans generally do best in less than intense lighting conditions, flow should be enough that they get circulation as long as the flesh isn't getting smashed into the skeleton they will be fine. Your favia should do fine just about anywhere. Play with different placements until you get the color you want out of it. Typically higher in the tank will encourage faster growth but sometimes it will make the color wash or brown out. Your lobo will get irritated if it constantly has sand on it - anything would. Put it wherever you want. Lighting isn't a concern with lobos so if you like where you put it it will be fine.

Saltysteele · Oct 22, 2008

cool

i hear people talking about their acans growing into golf balls. how do i prevent this? how does it happen?

AquaWorldPSC · Oct 22, 2008

Set the acan on a rock or something flat where it can grow on. I had this happen with a micro. I don't know how to explain this but i will try my best.
Let's say you decide to glue a acan to a frag plug and the acan is larger than the frag plug. The whole thing looks like a oversized golf tee... The acan will grow under itself because it doesn't have anything to grown out to. Instead it will grow under eventually start growing down the pole of the golf tee.
I hope this helps...