SPS asexual budding pics

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albert

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Joined
Sep 25, 2004
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Location
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I never heard that about Acropora and Pavona species, but the pics below are good evidence they use polype balls for reproduction. ;)

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Thanks all! :)
Yes, the pictures are from my tank. Camera is Sony DSC-F828. Today I found yet another bud on the Pavona. I'll take a shot tomorrow, it's about midnight here now.;)
 
Well, I took a shot with the flash right now. It's rather difficult to see the bud itself, but it extends to the lower edge of the marking ellips. Let's see what form it will take tomorrow. :rolleyes:

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A little play with remote flash and I got it! :lol: As you can see at ten-o'clock direction, there is another bud forming and ready to drop off soon. :razz: I'm not sure would this be a good or bad sign. The coral looks very healthy and no signs of any stress.

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The pavona I would believe but the acro It would be hard to imagine the tip breaking itself off and doing that. I would tink something would have to break the tip off first. Or it would drop tissue and then create the skeleton.
 
I'm not sure would this be a good or bad sign. The coral looks very healthy and no signs of any stress.
It is likely quite healthy :) Many of the large polyp corals exhibit this behavior. IME some corals only do this when mounted a certain way. Like when mounted more horizontal than vertical. I believe it is just another option for the coral to reproduce.

I have never seen or heard of Acropora doing this (which certainly doesn't mean it can't happen :) ). I have bumped (or my fish have) the soft new tips and seen them attached by a thread like in your picture. They eventually fall off and can form new colonies where they land (even on the substrate).

You might drop a note in Anthony's forum to have him take a look here and comment.

Regards,
Kevin
 
agreed... the acro simply was dinged by a fish, hand or some other mechanical action.

The tissue dripping on stonies too at large is most often (most always really) a stress induced response. Make no mistake that water quality alone in tanks that are averaging the likes of more than one coral per ten gallons(!) are stressful. You would never see that kind of diversity on the reef suceeding for years if even months. You simply will not find 50, 30 or even 20 corals in a square meter... and that with massive dilution on the reef (quite unlike your pervasively degrading water quality in aquaria, weak water change schedule, et cetera). And if you did find 50 corals in a 100 gallon volumetric space on the eef... you would not find the same ones happily together 6, 12 and 24 months later. It just is unnatural and prohibitively competitive/non-conducive to natural settlement.

Planulation (asexual and sexual) instead is a conditioned reproductive event that occurs in time.

Bailout and tissue drips however are imperative reproductive strategies that are executed when the luxury of time (conditoning/seasonal influences/prepping) is not on their side.

That doesn't mean the colony will die by any means... but lets not entertain the illusion either that this coral is not embattled or stressed like the rest of our colonies in the noxious soup we call reef aquaria.

There is a reason why you do not have all the corals that you started with after 2 or 3 years ;)

And we see the fruits of low species diversity tanks in the old European tanks. Really quite magnificent specimens in large displays that start with one fifth the number of corals that American, English/UK and Chinese aquarists typically use (too many, too fast, and too early in tank setups)

Sorry to be a buzzkill if so... but it is what it is. Polyp drips and bailouts are the (comparatively) fast and dirty reproductive strategies. Form follows function most always.
 

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