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
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RalphsReef
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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