new frag horizontal vs vertical experiment

bubbaque · Mar 23, 2018

This is not scientific what so ever, as you can see. I figured I would try it though as I had a rock fall in my display and broke off to tiny pieces of the JKR rainbow.

The bottom two nubs is the ones I am going to try and see what happens. I want to see which grows branches faster.

Both nubs were glued the same day and seemed to be about the same size. So far it seems the vertical one is basing out faster.

I will update this thread every so often. If you have any pics showing vertical vs horizontal growth, please post them.

JKR rainbow Mar 23

saltyfilmfolks · Mar 23, 2018

You are going to like the results.

Graffiti Spot · Mar 23, 2018

I bet the horizontal one will look better in the end. The new coralites branch out everywhere from the plug as opposed to a vertical one which may only branch from the few (or now a days 1) tips on the fragment. Of course all corals are different and some shouldn't really be layed down and glued but I find most corals that are saturating the market will do well like this.
Looking forward to the results!

CoralWealth · Apr 10, 2018

any update on this? I know it hasnt been too long but figured I would check in

CNDReef · Apr 10, 2018

Definitely following

bubbaque · Apr 10, 2018

codydemmel4 said:
any update on this? I know it hasnt been too long but figured I would check in

I went and took a pic just for you, Cody, lol. It looks like the vertical one is encrusting faster. I think the original frag is going to interfere though, so I don't know how long this is going to last.

I had a fish knock off a branch of the BC spainbow. I will probably try the experiment over where there can't be any interference. I just got to get the frag off the sand and glue it down on another tile.

Here is the results so far.

CoralWealth · Apr 10, 2018

Thanks for the update. The bigger frag has some really nice colors btw!

bubbaque · Apr 10, 2018

codydemmel4 said:
Thanks for the update. The bigger frag has some really nice colors btw!

I think the bigger frag has better color than the colony it broke off of. They are connected to the same system but I think this frag is receiving less light.

TexasTodd · Apr 10, 2018

Looks like the vertical frag had more mass to start. Palletta did several experiments like this about a decade ago and the horizontal did better.

bubbaque · Apr 10, 2018

TexasTodd said:
Looks like the vertical frag had more mass to start. Palletta did several experiments like this about a decade ago and the horizontal did better.

The frags were really close to the same size to start. The first pic wasn’t day 1 and the vertical frag was starting to base out already at that point. In reality the horizontal frag I thought would be growing faster as more of it is touching the tile.

I’ll restart this with different, bigger frags and see what happens.

Scorpius · Apr 10, 2018

I've noticed that acropora frags in my system don't do very well mount vertically. As soon as I mount them back on the rock work vertically, within a month I see growth I never did while mounted vertically. Odd, I know.

bubbaque · Apr 10, 2018

Scorpius said:
I've noticed that acropora frags in my system don't do very well mount vertically. As soon as I mount them back on the rock work vertically, within a month I see growth I never did while mounted vertically. Odd, I know.

You confused me, lol. I think somewhere in there you meant horizontally.

Scorpius · Apr 10, 2018

bubbaque said:
You confused me, lol. I think somewhere in there you meant horizontally.

Yeah, I'm tired.

xiaoxiy · Apr 11, 2018

TexasTodd said:
Looks like the vertical frag had more mass to start. Palletta did several experiments like this about a decade ago and the horizontal did better.

If I remember right, there are at least a couple peer-reviewed studies that have shown that horizontal frags do better than vertical frags as well.

bubbaque said:
The frags were really close to the same size to start. The first pic wasn’t day 1 and the vertical frag was starting to base out already at that point. In reality the horizontal frag I thought would be growing faster as more of it is touching the tile.

I’ll restart this with different, bigger frags and see what happens.

I ran a similar comparison with one of my teniuses out of curiosity and saw something similar to what Babbaque experienced, as opposed to what is published in the literature. My 3 vertical nubbins encrusted much earlier than my 3 horizontal nubbins. Unfortunately I placed them all to close together, and now it's impossible to compare their growth rates because they're all encrusted together now

.

Whenever I get a chance, I'll have to do the same thing again, but glue them further apart and regularly photo document as well. I didn't think too much of setting an actual experiment up previously. I basically got bored while fragging, and glued some pieces vertical and other pieces horizontal onto the same frag tile.

TexasTodd · Apr 11, 2018

When you glue down horizontal, make sure you only glue it at the broken end.....not all along under the frag.

Kinggeorge818 · Apr 11, 2018

A lot of times I’ll glue my frag at a 45 degree angle because a lot of times branches currently growing will grow out from the colony at that angle! Maybe best of both worlds.

jda · Apr 11, 2018

I have done this before. I always have had the best results by mounting the frag the way that it was in the tank... which is vertical for nearly everything but A. Efflo which does OK mounted horizontally. Even after a year with red planet the one that I laid down was like Golf Ball sized and the other one was tabling with a baseball sized top.

The main argument that I heard is that wild frags that break off do not mount themselves vertically. True, but those also get buried in the sediment and do not usually live... corals in the wild grow by sexual spawning and not fragmentation as much. Just imagine how many more reefs we would have in the world if the Little Mermaid, that Flounder Fish and the music composing crab would go around and upright all of the frags in the wild.