Strawberry Shortcake polyp extension?

[Jeffcb]

I have had this coral for 20 months. It has grown from a very small #WWC frag to a nice size colony. Its the very first frag on that rack 20 months ago.......

It use to have polyp extension. All my other SPS have polyp extension

It has really grown but no polyp extension as you see here. .

All the rest of my SPS have great polyp extesion. I wonder why?

How can I get more polyp extension?

 

[Jeffcb]

Tank is almost 2 yrs old.
Parameters are ....

Temp 80
Salt 35
Dkh 7.8
Ca 450
Mg 1450
N03 <2
p04 .1

Thanks in advance for advise.

 

[njreefkeeper]

Tank is almost 2 yrs old.
Parameters are ....

Temp 80
Salt 35
Dkh 7.8
Ca 450
Mg 1450
N03 <2
p04 .1

Thanks in advance for advise.

If it’s healthy and growing I’d just leave it be. Most of these shortcakes come from the southern tip of the GBR with extremely pristine waters and incredible surge zones...like crazy amounts of flow facing the open ocean on the outer reef crest. Many Millepora and other shortcakes (which I believe are acropora microclados) in this zone receive huge upwelling tides and lots of available food washing over them from the open ocean. That’s pretty much why those and the Millepora that are found near them are hard to color up and grow into large colonies. My guess would be to increase the flow before attempting to play with nutrients, lighting, etc.

 

[RedoubtReef]

maybe it's a grower and not a show-er??

 

[njreefkeeper]

This may give you a better idea of its’ natural environement:

You Won’t Believe Where Strawberry Shortcake Acros Live | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

Recently in Australia, together with Nic from Ultra Coral Australia we had the luck to go and observe Acropora microclados, aka the Strawberry Shortcake (SCC), in its natural environment.

reefbuilders.com

 

[tautog83]

I had the same issue ,it got to a certain size and no more polyps but was still growing . It used to have some nice long flowy polyps then it put down a huge base and that was that lol

 

[Jeffcb]

Thanks everyone for advise. I will try cleaning, my ReefWave 25s for more flow. Probably overdue.

 

[ScottB]

I get no PE on mine either. Relative to others around here, my PE is rather limited across the board. Solid growth though.