Pocillopora Propagation

You know, I have been wondering what a few patches of fuzzy things on my live rock were...until I talked to Doug today and he was telling me about his pocillopora spreading all over.  After looking at the fuzzy patches a little closer, I realized that's what it was.  I never knew pocillopora did that.  Anyone else have that happen?
--AJ

 

Nope. Never heard of it either AJ. Hmmm....

 

Yep I have pink ones everywhere. Some of them are getting fairly good size.

 

i have green ones all over .. lol.

 

I think XRoads had them spawn in his home DT as well. You guys must be be something right on order to have coral spawn in your tanks!

 

JJ had them all over his tank. He sort of saw them as a pest, but I thought they looked great.

 

I don't mind them as every time they meet up with another coral they seem to loose the war so far. I am thinking about harvesting some of mine and puting them on plugs to sell.

 

yep bill thats what i do, there great starter corals for people and cheap.

 

P. damicornis, I assume? They, and a couple other pocillopora species are brooding corals. They internally fertilize an egg, either from themselves (they're hermaphrodites) or a neighboring colony, and then release the larvae when it's developed enough. P. damicornis actually planulates every night, and follows a lunar cycle (more larvae towards full moons, less/few after), whether it has been in the wild or not - F4 generations have been kept in captivity, and they still follow the lunar cycle. They can get out of control pretty quickly, though.

 

My greens are spreading like that was well...

 

Yeah, but around here, we try to keep it simple and keep the scientific names out when we can    Thanks for the info Jason!
--AJ

 

Unfortunately, that was the simple way to be put for explaining the corals larval cycle plus Pocilliopora doesn't have a common name I'm aware of. Jason is right about it becoming a pest under the right conditions, mostly due in part to the larvae settling into places initially unseen until they pop up in say... a dead spot of your acro's base. Theres actually a number of brooding corals that we keep in our home tanks, just need the right conditions and poof, make with the babies!

 

Yeah, I know, no one likes latin names /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/laugh.gif.  No problem.