I purchased a red milli from WWC in January. I puttied it down where I wanted it and let it be. In roughly 6.5 months it has not grown up at all, but has encrusted roughly a 3" radius around the base of the frag. Any ideas? What info will help you figure this out? Do i have a "special" milli?
Strange Milli Growth
- Thread starter xmetalfan99
- Start date
- Tagged users None
RalphsReef
Well-Known Member
Most of the time, they will encrust "out" before they go "up." That way they have a solid base to grow from. Some grow quicker than others.
Alot of millipora will put out a encrusting base to keep them stable and from not moving...if you have alot of flow in your tank,and the millipora was moving a tiny bit,the coral will put out a larger base to resist falling...
+1
You could relate acropora growth to trees, kinda. A tree needs roots to stay balanced and anchored to the ground or it would fall over. So a wider base on the acropora acts like the roots of a tree in the balance-sense.
I figured they would grow up a little bit. It looks like a giant pepperoni with a lump in the middle on my rock. I am just confused. All of my other SPS encrust a little then grow up. I am just confused.
I have seen some shoots starting to form growing from the encrusting part of the milli. Still nothing from the initial frag though.
Troylee
all about the diy!!!!!
Agreed the bigger the base it lays the bigger and better it will shoot up.... Give it time, my red planet encrusted for a year before it sprouted....
secretreefer
**MAD PHANTOM SCIENTIST**
same here my RP had a large base with a tiny nub. but i just discovered it got caught in my alk swing.....now it's just a tiny nub with no base again.
Nuocmam
Valuable Member
My theory is that with a larger base it has a larger surface area with which it can obtain light. With a larger surface area it can feed itself via photosynthesis and eventually grow upwards. Be patient. I've had some sticks sit there and puddle for a year and then all of a sudden start growing. Its part of the fun to watch it do this.
thank you for the info everyone. I am no longer worried about it and cannot wait for it to start growing up super fast.
RalphsReef
Well-Known Member
Yeah, once they hit that "upward growth phase", you better watch out!
When I first got my RP frag it was three 1- 1 1/2" pieces on some live rock rubble. It encrusted quite a bit then grew like wild fire. It however never grew from the three original pieces, just formed new sprouts and grew from there.
I just noticed a large amount of upward growth on the frag. I guess I should have waited another week.
Similar threads
