How to prevent Montipora from encroaching

[jkapit]

Hi,

I guess I have a good problem. Have had my monti about a year and it has grown 10x in size. i’d Like to keep it about the size it is now. Any recommendation how how ****** it’s growth or trim it would be appreciated.

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

That's what monti caps do ;Hilarious

Break off pieces and give them to your LFS for store credit :)

 

[Kyl]

My red monticap was a 1" triangle frag in November 2016. It has survived a few tank events, lost most of it's colour, had a bunch of tissue loss, has been broken in half, has had other 1-2" chunks broken off, has had a good 3" pruning from the middle at the start of the year and right now it's almost 12" wide again. Monticaps will grow like a weed, and as you're probably finding out as yours gets larger, it's exponential.

Break it and take it to the LFS as Nathaniel has noted.

 

[jkapit]

Yep. Sounds like I have to start pruning.

 

[cloak]

You can always smother the growth with epoxy. I do this all the time to Montiporas, Leptastreas, BCP etc.

 

[29bonsaireef]

Monti cap is one of the weakest corals when it comes to battling another coral IME. I always just place them low or out of the way and let them do their thing. I use to frag mine as well but there's a surplus of Capricornis at my LFSs, and I don't like the uneven scroll look. What I do now is just grow them out and when they get to big, chip off a piece restart, and trade the whole colony in.