Coral growth photos

[kaybee]

Here are some growth photos of one of my small polyp stony (SPS) corals, (a green stylophora) over a span of four months.

I purchased it in Feb 08. Here's how it looked when I first got it:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/stylophora.jpg

Apr 08:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/stylo18apr08a.jpg

Jun 08:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/14jun08stylo2.jpg

It'll be interesting to see how it will look after a year.

[Halelorf]

You can definately see the growth, good job! What lighting system are you running and do you dose anything?

[jimpierce]

I'm watching mine similar to that too. It is amazing watching these things grow!!

[ladyoutlaw50]

very cool pictures!! You can see the growth in all 3!!

[sandy_n]

Really nice pics. That's a lot of growth in that short period of time. Congratulations. :c3:

[Dave66]

Very nice progression, Kaybee. Always amazing that the corals, which are animals, grow just like plants.

Dave

[kaybee]

Halelorf, my tank is illuminated by T5s (five 39watt bulbs).

The additives I use are Seachem's Reef Complete for calcium and (believe it or not) Arm & Hammer baking soda (though I plan to transition to Seachem's Reef Carbonate once my supply of baking soda runs out). My target levels are 420-440ppm and 3.21-3.92 meq/l, respectively.

jimpierce, yes it is amazing watching/having these corals grow.

Here are some more growth pics of one of my large polyp stony (LPS) corals, a caulastrea (candy cane/trumpet coral).

Initially positioned on some live rock, comprised of 15-20 heads:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/DSCN9343.jpg

18 months later it has easily doubled in size:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/t2.jpg

Eventually I had to place it on the sand bed, because several polyps were being deprived of light by other polyps of the mother colony as it grew in size. Even in this pic there's at least one polyp that is obsured by the polyps above it as growth continues.

In addition to growth of the mother colony, this coral has also dropped a few 'daughters' as well. It apparently creates a calcium based skeleton that's not connected to the main skeleton. In time (as it gets bigger) the polyp drops off and becomes an independent coral colony

The mother colony has dropped three or four 'daughters' so far. The first one it dropped already has 8 or more heads.

[spudbuds]

Great growth and nice pics!

I'm curious why you are switching from baking soda to the Seachem carbonate suppliment. I use baking soda as well for my alkalinity dosing. It's cheap and effective, so why the switch?

- Bill

[kaybee]

I'm switching just to get first hand experience with various products with the goal of finding which one(s) ultimately work best for me. I've tried several so far. I'm taking things slow (I still have about 2lbs of baking soda yet, so it will be a quite while before I even open up that container of Reef Carbonate which I've had in a cabinet for months). It's very possible that after my trials baking soda may prove to be the best way to go.

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Great looking pictures. I love the LPS shots. LPS are my favorite corals. Everyone seems to go wild about the SPS, and they are nice, but I love LPS. All those shots look great. My Candy Canes are both doing very well also, I have one that started out as a 6 head frag that in just 2 months has already shot up to 10.

[angelcakes]

nice pictures:19: :19: :19:

[kaybee]

ILuvMyGoldBarb,

LPS are also my favorite category of corals as well. My reef tank is LPS-dominated; I must have at least a dozen different types of LPS in it.

[Tigerbarb]

Nice!!! Stony corals take a very long time to get huge, so that'd be great if you could keep us updated on the coral growth.

[kaybee]

Here's some 'unconventional' soft coral growth.

One of the first corals to be introduced into my tank was a small colony of blue mushrooms. Initially I placed the small rock which they were attached to in the center of the tank, bu then I thought they'd be better off on the far left.

Now when mushrooms are disturbed they often expel their mesenterial filaments (white stringy internal parts used to digest food) as some sort of defense mechanism. When the disturbance clears they retract them. However perhaps as some sort of survival mechanism they can also completely release their mensenteries.

That's probably what happened in my case because after moving the mushrooms from the center of the tank to the far left, I later discovered these two newly-attached mushroom mesenterial filaments on the far right of the tank (perhaps carried there by the water flow):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/DSCN8307a.jpg

10 days later they transformed into this (still tiny and hard to see, but the filaments had been incorporated into the internal structure of the mushroom 'frag'):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/DSCN8501a.jpg

A week later they began to to take shape:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/DSCN8555.jpg

Finally, two weeks after that they had indeed become tiny mushrooms, and after this photo was taken have become blue in color like the original mushroom group on the opposite side of the tank:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/DSCN8750.jpg

[Dave66]

Life finding a way, huh? Nice shots of the progress, Kaybee :)

Dave

[spudbuds]

That is a great series of shots and good explanation. Thanks for sharing.

- Bill

[kaybee]

Here are some growth pics of another coral, common red Blastomussa wellsi ('swollen brain' coral), a type of LPS:

Jan 2007
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/blastojan07.jpg

Jun 2008
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/blastwjun08.jpg

[Tigerbarb]

Now it's really hard to believe that the average coral reef grows about three feet per thousand years!

[kaybee]

I think it depends on what type of coral and what type of growth. Some of the really huge and massive boulder-type corals may indeed take decades to perhaps a century to grow 3ft of additial diameter. Branching and encrusting growth is typically faster (again depending on coral type and other factors).

My next set of pics document coral recovery and growth.

In May 2007 I purchased a very tiny single head of frogspawn (the diameter of the skeleton being about the size of a dime). Here's how it looked in June 2007:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/frogjun07.jpg

From June-July 2007, the tiny frogspawn developed more tentacles and the coral skeleton diameter was now comparable with that of a penny. However, in August the well-being of the frogspawn took a significant turn for the worse (and I couldn't figure out why). Growth ceased and the tentacles would no longer expand or inflate as previously.

A sand colored portion of it (which I assumed to be its skeleton) become more and more prominent as the health deteriorated even more. When it looked like the coral was about to die, I decided to do a closer physical examination. To my surprise, what I thought was the skeleton was in fact some sort of casing or tough grit-incorporating membrane. When I pierced it a bubble of air escaped from it!

I removed it from the water and as the soft parts of the frogspawn retracted I could get a clearer view of 'this thing'. Whatever it was, it was not coral tissue (soft or otherwise). It looked like some sort of cocoon and had micro-grit incorporated into it. It was soft yet tough and covered a large portion of the frogspawn, including its mouth. It looked more like something that was constructed by something else than rather being some sort of parasitic organism. I never did get a good photo of what it was, but here's what it looked like when it was smaller:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/frogaug07sick2.jpg

Using tweezers I removed the unknown membrane, and it was fairly tough (like soft plastic instead of delicate coral membrane). I took extreme care not to damage the coral itself. The portion devoid of any tentacles in the photo below (center to 3 o'clock position) was completely incased or covered by the membrane/casing. After removal I still thought I'd lose it:

Aug 2007
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/frogaug07removed.jpg

To my joy, the coral began to recover immediately and within a week resembled how it looked back in June. In the following 10 months it grew in size, creating additional heads by both fission (one head becoming two heads), and budding (additional heads growing from the skeletal base). Currently it has at least a half-dozen of each and has a 'volume' larger than an egg (significantly larger than the diameter of a penny from just a year ago):

June 2008
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/frogjun08.jpg

[spudbuds]

Very cool. I'm curious what the "growth" was. I've never heard of anything like that. Congrats on the recovery.

- Bill

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Kaybee, do you feed your LPS anything? Do you target feed or do you let them filter feed?

[kaybee]

Bill, to this day I have no idea what it was. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

ILuvMyGoldBarb, I target feed my LPS corals mysis shrimp about once a week.

[squirt_12]

Very nice coral you got there. Amazing photos aswell! Very well done!

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

How well does your Frogspawn take the Mysis? Mine seems to hold it in it's tentacles forever before finally taking it in to it's mouths. Sometimes it holds it so long the food gets pushed out. Do you target feed with forceps or a syringe/medicine dropper?

[kaybee]

My frogspawn has a good feeding response and will quickly seize the mysis. I use a set of tweezers and feed the polyps one by one as a bird would feed chicks.

On infrequent occasions (once or twice a month) I squirt some cyclopeeze at a couple of corals that can't eat mysis, using a medicine dropper. The frogspawn will take those as well but can't eat it efficiently due to the small size of the cyclopeeze.

I have a related coral (euphyllia cristata) which behaves similarly to your frogspawn in regards to food. It seems to recluctantly grab food and slowly eat it, and quite often it will lose its grip of it (even though I turn off all circulation when I feed corals).

[kaybee]

The next couple of pics are of another hard coral, a hydnophora exesa ('encrusting hydnophora', a type of SPS coral).

Purchased in Nov 07 as a frag epoxied to a frag plug, I glued the plug to a empty turbo snail shell, then glued the snail shell & plug to some live rock:

As positioned in Feb 2008
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/hydnofeb08.jpg

Months later the coral completely encrusted the frag plug and has spread onto the live rock. I think the surface area of this coral has about tripled since during the 7 months I've had it:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/hydnojun08.jpg

This is perhaps the coral that I have to be most cautious with in terms of placement and how it interacts with other corals in its proximity (I found that out the hard way when it killed a mushroom the same day it, the hydnophora, was added to the tank). Up until then I thought mushrooms to be undestructable. The mushroom in the pic is actually in a danger zone (it creeped to its current position from a different location over time).

[jimpierce]

those are some beautiful shots.

[Dave66]

Very cool. I'm curious what the "growth" was. I've never heard of anything like that. Congrats on the recovery.

- Bill

It was bubble algae, Bill. Lots of different kinds.

Dave

[kaybee]

I'm not sure if it was bubble algae or not, I've only seen the shiny globe-shaped green kind; but if it was it some sort of algae itwas very unusual: it released a bubble of air when pierced underwater, was not translucent, was sand colored and very gritty, was flexible, grew on the soft tissue of frogspawn (and actually would have killed it if I didn't remove it).

I wish I had taken better photos of it at the time.

[Dave66]

I'm not sure if it was bubble algae or not, I've only seen the shiny globe-shaped green kind; but if it was it some sort of algae itwas very unusual: it released a bubble of air when pierced underwater, was not translucent, was sand colored and very gritty, was flexible, grew on the soft tissue of frogspawn (and actually would have killed it if I didn't remove it).

I wish I had taken better photos of it at the time.

You might find your fellow here (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-02/hcj/feature/index.php).
There are many, many kinds and forms of bubble algae. Yours was uncommon, but not unheard of in home reef tanks.
Your description instantly said bubble algae to me, especially the 'air' bubble when you pierced it.

Dave

[zackish]

I love bird's nest. I think they are one of the faster growing SPS.

[kaybee]

Thanks for posting. I think what was afflicting my frogspawn may indeed have been Dictyosphaeria cavernosa or Dictyosphaeria versluysii, thanks for the reference! :thumb:

[kaybee]

Here are some more soft coral growth photos:

This is a Sarcothelia edmondsoni ('blue snowflake polyps') 'colony frag' when I first got it last november. Not very clear due to the small diameter of the polyps and the capabilities of my camera, but presents an idea of how much of coverage was on the small live rock rubble:

Nov 07
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/bluenov07.jpg

A month later, it complete covered the rubble. I glued the frag to a larger sea shell...

Dec 07
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/bluedec07.jpg

...and positioned that on the top of some live rock (also Dec 07):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/bluedec07b.jpg

Here's how it looks now (the sea shell is completely covered and the polyps have spread to the adjacent live rock):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/bluejun08.jpg

[kaybee]

Here are some more coral growth pics from my tank.

Two-headed brown torch coral frag

Dec 07
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/btorchdec07.jpg

A couple of months later I purchased a green torch frag. The brown one (in the background) has already gotten larger:

Feb 08
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/gtorchfeb08.jpg

The nematocysts (stinging cells) of torch corals and other euphyllia species are quite powerful compared to that of other corals; they'll usually come out as winners in any 'stinging competition', being able to out-sting most other nematocyst-laden corals.

I initially placed these frags on the substrate, however to avoid them from harming other LPS's (note the proximity of the trachyphyllia and calaustrea in the above pic) I placed them higher up in my tank.

Since initially purchased it seems each torch has doubled the number of heads they've started out with. Here they are (under mostly actinic lighting) being used as a natural barrier to curb rampant xenia growth on the live rock. No xenia has been able to get past them (thus far):

Jun 08
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/torchjun08a.jpg

Here are the torch corals again, keeping the pulsating xenia's at bay. Note the extended sweeper tentacles. The xenia's tend to slowly creep away from the torches and aren't harmed much by the sweepers (these particular soft corals seem to be able withstand the stings at least long enough to move away from them):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/torchjun08b.jpg

[spudbuds]

Very nice. I like how you've placed them together so they blend a bit. You don't see that too much. Also a unique idea using them to keep your xenia from attaining weed status.

- Bill

[kaybee]

Fox coral growth:

Small frag:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/fox1.jpg

About two and a half months later:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/fox2.jpg

[kaybee]

...creating additional heads by both fission (one head becoming two heads), and budding (additional heads growing from the skeletal base)....

I repositioned the frogspawn the other day and was able to get a shot of a number of the tiny frogspawn 'buds' at the base:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/frogspawnbuds.jpg

[TowBoater]

Very nice! I want some of that fox coral! I have wanted one like forever!

[squirt_12]

Nice pics! The coral are growing very nice!! thumbs2:

[kaybee]

Here's an update to the green stylophora which I started this thread with.

As a recap, here's how it looked the day I got it in Feb 08 as a small frag:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/stylophora.jpg

And here it is Sep 08 as a small colony:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/stylosep08.jpg

Intermediate growth stages of this coral can be seen on page 1 of this thread. Growth has been excellent and steady. I wonder how it will look at the 1 year mark.

The coral has also slowly encrusted the coral plug it's attached to (black unencrusted portions of the plug can be seen in the first pic). The encrustment has been slow because the main coral body appears to be blocking the light. Hopefully it will encrust down to the rock and encrust the live rock as well. We'll see!

[labnjab]

Very nice photos

[kaybee]

Here's an illustration of how my leptastrea has grown since I acquired it.

Here's how it looked the day that I got it:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/lept07.jpg

Here's how it looks now (different angle):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/lept2008.jpg

The bare purple-coralline portion at the center top of the rock (as well as bare sections at the bottom perimeter closest to the sand bed) in the first pic has been completely encrusted over in the second photo. Also, the polyps are extended 24hrs a day (giving it a 'fuzzy' appearance) instead of extending only at night as they had initially.

Interestingly, for an LPS (large polyp, stony) coral, it has relatively small polyps (perhaps 3mm in diameter if that, smaller than zoathids, which are soft corals).

A very hardy coral, lepastrea grows by encrusting the object it's on. It does so at a fairly steady rate (the common name for this coral is 'crust coral'). The colony eats particulates and consumes fish 'waste' which happens to land on it. It actually eats a lot of that.

Lacking sting sweeper tentacles the leptastrea apparently competes with adjacent corals by encrusting over them. It didn't take long for the leptastrea to completely encrust over the 'hitch-hiker' red-brown faviidae seen at the left in the below photo, eventually completely burying it under an encrusting skeleton (and, unfortunately, killing it).

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/hitchfavia.jpg

Those 'projections' in the 2nd pic originally were the homes of live stationary vermetid snails, but they too have become encased by the crust coral. When I get the time I'm going to snap a few of those protusions off (ad hoc 'frags') and glue them to some live rock rubble. Until then, this coral is isolated on the rock it's on.

[kaybee]

In March '07, I acquired a single-head of neon green calaustrea (candy cane/trumpet coral) from a $5 frag tank, it was about the size of a lima bean back then (sorry, no pic of it as it was back then). Over time it grew in size and developed an additional heads, here are some pics:

July '07:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/jul07.jpg

Nov '07:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/nov07.jpg

Apr '08:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/apr08.jpg

Nov '08, over a dozen heads now. (somehow a detached yellow polyp has become attached to it, its tentacle can partially be seen):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/nov08.jpg

As you can see, this coral gets moved around a lot in my tank, haven't found a permanent spot for it.

[kaybee]

This particular acan frag was unusual (at least to me) in that the entire frag was comprised of live coral (meaning it wasn't not attached to live rock or a frag plug at time of purchase). I wonder how this particular frag formed.

There was a tiny sliver of bare skeleton between two polyps and I applied glue to that and attached it to a small piece of live rock, it was the only way I could attach it without polyps being in direct contact with the rock and completely deprived of light and dying.

Oct 07
(a year later all of the rock seen in this photo would be encrusted over)
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/acanoct07a.jpg

Jan 08
As it gained some size it became 'top heavy', so I glued the rubble to a fist-sized piece of live rock:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/acanjan08.jpg

Nov 08
It has since encrusted over the rubble it was attached to and has spread onto the live rock:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/acannov08.jpg

[kaybee]

On page 2 of this thread I posted some comparative growth photos of a colony of 'common red' blastomussa wellsi. The next set of pics reveals growth of a single head of the 'super red' variety.

A single polyp (or nearly so, from the looks of it, as it doesn't look quite complete)

Dec 2007
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/blastodec07.jpg

Growth with this small frag didn't take off right away. It didn't begin forming additional heads at all until 6 months after I got it. After which multiple head began to develop at about one per month. It has about 7 heads now (excuse the coralline algae on the glass).

Nov 2008
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/Saltwater/blastnov08.jpg