Pocclipora Popping Up Everywhere

[EMeyer]

Cool! Do you know if they reproduced sexually or by selfing? And if they released the larvae from selfing at that time too(after full moon)?

Setting up an experiment at work with natural variations for light, temp and moon cycles. Trying to get our “old” tank corals to get into spawning cycles, so I put three Pocilloporas in there. Never had them to settle before what I’ve seen. Or spawn. Will be interesting to see if we can get some predicable results.

Our Seriatopora caliendrium have reproduced asexually. Popping up small colonies here and there in our regular tanks. Absolutely not a problem :)

Ours were asexually reproducing, I did snp testing to confirm.

So cool you've seen this in seriatopora! I've read this asexual planulation occurs in a few other members of pocilloporidae, but in the hobby I only hear reports in pocillopora itself.

 

[Ben Pedersen]

LOL there is nowhere for them to spread in this pic!

Maybe that is why they don't. ;)

 

[Ben Pedersen]

Someone bought that Poci I posted the link to. :( If it was anyone in this forum.. I want a frag :). That thing was amazing!

https://www.corals.com/product/big-pocillopora-australia/
If anyone has larger bodied pocis.. Let me know, I would like to buy a frag!

 

[PapaDragon]

Someone bought that Poci I posted the link to. :( If it was anyone in this forum.. I want a frag :). That thing was amazing!

https://www.corals.com/product/big-pocillopora-australia/
If anyone has larger bodied pocis.. Let me know, I would like to buy a frag!

Dang that’s a nice poci.

 

[blasterman]

Pocillopora is one of the most diverse and most prevelant corals in the ocean. Sometimes compromising 50% of the mass of a large reef.

Not all are spawners. Most reef keepers have weeded out the ones that spawn, but some reef shops are still pulling in wild varities from whole salers, and this seems to be where the spawners come from. I got mine from a local reef shop that has half a dozen softball size and never exhibited any bad habits.

The pink variety used to be the most common, but is becoming more rare and displaced commercially by the rainbow. Note many green Pocillopora are just rainbows under lower light. Smack them with enough photons and you get the purple tips with green to teal polyps. Very hardy coral and eats as much light as you can blast it with.

Some varities grow more branching upwards in form and have a die off underneath. Not sure if I care for those. I have a purple one that is growing like that and I don't like it. Plus, it's more brown than purple.

This one in my tank grew from a fingernail size frag to 3" across in a matter of months.

 

[nick0206]

I have 2 species of pocyllophora, one pink, the other greenish with purple polyps. I don’t know for sure which of them, but I suspect that pink, suddenly began to multiply throughout the tank. I can count 7 or 8 new growing branches. They did not bother me and continued to grow in their places. I did not like this dominance and I gave the pink mother colony to a friend. Reproduction stopped after that, although I still had a second, purple-green. Of all the new shoots, only one grows normally, the rest grow poorly, apparently they are not in the most favorable place for themselves.