Fragging coral to keep them healthy

[user 26995]

I read someone wrote that they frag their coral just to keep them healthy. Sounds reasonable. I do the samething with my bushes and plants in the yard.
Anyway, question is, some of my acans tend to start growing under them selves and I have a couple that the heads on top have died. Can they crowd them selves out? They are attached to a frag plug or small rock and sitting in the sand on the floor of the tank. Do they need to be placed on a more solide surface, larger rock to spread out and not be so crowded. Will they grow out onto the sand? Should I be fragging these to keep them from crowding? I am unfamiliar with the way these grow. I was assuming they would spread out, but a couple are actually growing around the underside.
Here are a couple of the colonies I am wondering about.

 

[TJL]

Good questions Lorrie, I believe that most dome shaped corals grow up and out to allow room for additional polyps as well as the peripheral budding. I don’t see why you couldn't occasionally frag some of these outside polyps that eventually get shaded out anyway. Most SPS I believe take 3 to 6 years to mature from frag cuttings so would not unnecessarily frag them until you had a overgrowth on an adult colony. I'm looking forward to the days when the Acro's spawn in my aquarium. My largest Favia has spawned a few times, pretty impressive event plus the fish get a real treat.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Aquanaut]

To grow vs trim for health...

I read someone wrote that they frag their coral just to keep them healthy. Sounds reasonable. I do the samething with my bushes and plants in the yard.
Anyway, question is, some of my acans tend to start growing under them selves and I have a couple that the heads on top have died. Can they crowd them selves out? They are attached to a frag plug or small rock and sitting in the sand on the floor of the tank. Do they need to be placed on a more solide surface, larger rock to spread out and not be so crowded. Will they grow out onto the sand? Should I be fragging these to keep them from crowding? I am unfamiliar with the way these grow. I was assuming they would spread out, but a couple are actually growing around the underside.

I suppose I am one whom have coined the phrase...
These fleshy varieties "non acro", I say let'm grow...Yes, you can have heads die from ailment/disease/recession from chemistry gone wrong. Sometimes you can carfully trim down the dead head to the fused point.
Just solve and treat to allow the heads till they begin to grow and heal over the sites. Check out my Lobophillia monster looks like Acan but grows on fused stems. Started '05, I think from three 2" heads and was divided in half only when it was grapefruit size. Currently 5lb and takes two hands to handle size/ can't put in a 5g bucket w/o harm. The habit of these is they have a 2" kill zone from the stingers they send at night...literally "disolve" and overtake anything around them within reach! It worked through my Hydnopora --a faster growing SPS that burns/harms all else it touches. I currently have it on a elevated acrylic support posts in a drilled acrylic platform that I can move scoot about. I hope this will prevent stagnating center necrosis by allowing flow below and surrounding the coral as in nature where they grow in out-crops and islands.