Pink Lemonade Growth

[CastAway]

I bought this 1" frag from JF at a swap (MTRC) just over one year ago.

I mounted it high, in the most prime real estate I had. My hippo broke it off months ago, but I remounted it close by and its encrusted into a single mass.

Yet, I've had no vertical growth.
Is this odd? Normal?

 

[Joshky]

I haven't been keeping SPS long enough to answer why yours isn't growing vertically, but I've pretty much had the exact opposite happen from you.

This is when I got mine last year

this is what it looks like now, probably about a year old as well.

I wish mine would encrust more, that epoxy is getting old to look at.... it's taking away from the actual beauty of this acro. :( I'm also scared that it's going to grow so large that the epoxy won't hold it any longer, and the dumb acro doesn't know that it could rip off at any moment lol.

 

[1MJG1]

I haven't been keeping SPS long enough to answer why yours isn't growing vertically, but I've pretty much had the exact opposite happen from you.

This is when I got mine last year

this is what it looks like now, probably about a year old as well.

I wish mine would encrust more, that epoxy is getting old to look at.... it's taking away from the actual beauty of this acro. :( I'm also scared that it's going to grow so large that the epoxy won't hold it any longer, and the dumb acro doesn't know that it could rip off at any moment lol.

 

[CastAway]

Very nice @Joshky! Dang!

 

[FL_Reefer]

I have a frag that is doing the same thing. I've also noticed in a couple of other tanks that it will lay out a Huge footprint before starting vertical growth. I guess it's claming its own space first, lol

 

[Joshky]

Very nice @Joshky! Dang!

I think we're both looking for the right balance of encrusting and branching, if only our acros would listen to us... haha

Good luck to you, and thanks. :D

 

[choff]

Mine has done the exact same thing. Massive encrusting and now and shooting up multiple branches. I always assumed it was because it as near the rear of the tank in a low light spot. Interesting seeing others behaving the same way.

 

[hybridazn]

Sps always did that for me too, I found that I was giving them too much flow. I turned the flow down a good bit and they took off towards the sky like no tomorrow

 

[CastAway]

Sps always did that for me too, I found that I was giving them too much flow. I turned the flow down a good bit and they took off towards the sky like no tomorrow

Hmmm. Going to ponder this. It is in a high flow area.

 

[Tegridy Reef]

I have a lil theory on light I notice what sometimes lighting grows it differnt what loghting our the two examples grown under noticed that led kind of ball it out and t5 halides grow it wider and higher also flow has huge but I heard acros in crust to start the verticals grown to have a good base first

 

[Wolff92]

I have mine under Led for almost 6 months now and it encrusts but doesn't grow verticle. It's healthy so I am not worried just wish it would start looking like an Acro colony and not a monti

 

[CastAway]

Mine too is under LED's, Orphek Atlantik's ramping to 100% on all channels, peaked out for five hours a day.

 

[Mr. Microscope]

Some acros do this more than others. Bonsai is my bane due to that. You can somewhat force them to branch out by mounting them on a small rock with big overhangs all around. Then, it can only encrust so much before it has nowhere to go but branch. Though, you still might experience excessive encrusting with this method too. Sometimes they will just drape growth over the ends.

 

[rovster]

I've posted this before. Started with just a base....











This spans about 14 months, with a full tank crash 3 months in and 6 months of alk hell. It took a long time to wake up, but now it grows like a weed so much that I can't get the full colony in the view of the same macro I used to take the initial pics. Its a little bigger than a large fist now. I always wondered if it wants more light becuase it grows kind of funky in my tank, like its reaching for more light. Lately I've had my lights turned down because of all my alk issues and its not as yellow as it was, but I'm working on increasing my intensity now so we'll see how it responds.

 

[zoomonster]

Had a couple do that. Strawberry shortcake for the longest time just wanted to encrust and would not grow up. Eventually when I peeled back some of the massive encrusting (easy still on plexi frag rack) and mounted chunks to plugs they started growing upward branches. Bali shortcake similar in that the original fragged piece did not grow much. But it did encrust out a lot and eventually got lots of fringe vertical growth from the encrusting. Like someone else mentioned my Garf Bonsai is a lot like that.

Pink lemonade remains to be seen. Got a nice frag but I got it right when I had a kh issue. It survived but went dormant for a while and mostly went green. Seems to just be waking up and starting to grow a bit both encrusting and vertical.

 

[CastAway]

My shortcake, bought at the same time as the lemonade, encrusted for almost a year as well, but has really come on recently. It was my comparison to the shortcake that prompted my post.

It gets less flow than the lemonade, which I'm coming to learn influences vertical growth.

 

[shornik]

Mine is pretty much also just encrusting and I always wondered about so thanks for posting this question. I do see some signs of vertical growth so hopefully it will start shooting up one day :cool: You can see how I tried @Mr. Microscope approach with the plug glued to the edge of a rock, and the darn thing just encrusted the other direction. Next time I'll hang it from the ceiling :-)

 

[rovster]

What I have learned is that every acro is different, and every tank is different. My red planet encrusted for what seemed like forever, but once it started shooting branches it felt like it was growing daily. Same with my pink lemonade and Bonsai. Some of my other corals have branched since day 1, go figure. As long as its healthy and encrusting just be patient. Once that first little nub shows up, watch out! I have to frag my pink lemonade regularly now because it blocks the view to some nice corals behind it!

 

[CastAway]

Great responses! Thanks everyone. [emoji6]

 

[bubbaque]

I was very close to buying a frag at RAP but someone there told me most colonies are dying of the pink lemonade. I wish I would of bought a frag, I love the look.