Interesting Pavona Behavior

[Schism]

I have a pavona coral that is most likely the same as the pavona pictured in the attachment. That picture is from garf.org. This coral has been growing incredibly well and very very fast in the last few months. It has been growing some interesting growths however. About 1 month ago I noticed the coral fragged itself. I had never seen before, I was excited to see it do that. When I say it fragged itself it basically grew an arm about 1/4" long. It grew from a point and it kept only a tiny base that was still attached to the rest of the mother coral. Then when it fragged it just simply fell off. In the place on the mother coral where it fragged it grew a bubble. The bubble had some polyps on it and the grew to about a diameter of 3/16". After one week the bubble popped and was reabsorbed by the coral. I do not know what was released when it popped. It has since grown in that area about 1/4" of new coral. Today I noticed 3 new bubbles on the mother coral. They look just like the former bubble but there was no self-fragging that occured.
Are these bubbles reproductive? Are they a disease or sign of parasite? I assume they are nothing to worry about because of the growth I have been getting from this coral, but is this a correct assumption?
Any insights will be appriciated.
BTW it is about 8" below a 10K ushio 175watt halide

[Randy V]

Schism, you never got a reply to your post so I'll tell you what I know from my pavona. Yes, they do this. I have asked the same thing and nobody seems to know specifically what the bubbles are. Though most replies I received said they did not appear to be damaging to the coral. If you ever find out anything more please post it to the board.

Although they don't seem to be very popular I really like these corals. Easiest sps in the world to keep and many interesting growth patterns depending on water movement.

[Schism]

I agree with you Randy. I love this coral, one of my favorites for sure. I think I'll look into it a little more and see what I can find out. I have never seen any other type of coral do this so I would assume it is for a reason that pavonas do this. Maybe, maybe not I guess.
I will definitely post what I find out, if anything