WTB: Monti Caps-

[Mitch Sabat]

I'm new to keeping SPS corals. I looking for Monti caps that grow upward and look like saucers spiraling up. I'm sorry that I do not know the correct genus for this coral.
I would prefer red, orange, purple, green with purple rim and any other interesting colors anyone has to sell.
I would like to purchase pieces that are 4/5 inches & bigger.
Also any LPS that may have these -please let me know.
Thanks
Mitch

[Racenrich]

Mitch,
you may want to try to get small frags, 1" and 2" size and see if you have the setup to maintain sps or lps corals.
A 4 to 5 inch Coral can take quite abit of time to develope and grow. I started with small frags ones and have watched them grow into 3 and 4 inch colonies, and as expected, i did 1 or 2 along the way.
Save you cash for a good skimmer.


Cheers and Good luck! :)

[Racenrich]

Mitch,
you may want to try to get small frags, 1" and 2" size and see if you have the setup to maintain sps or lps corals.
A 4 to 5 inch Coral can take quite abit of time to develope and grow. I started with small frags and have watched them grow into 3 and 4 inch colonies, and as expected, i did lose 1 or 2 along the way.
Save you cash for a good skimmer.


Cheers and Good luck! :)

[makoshark]

FWIW - I bought a frag of a red Montipora Capricornis that was the size of a nickel less than a year ago and now it is 5" across. Plus, since I have it in a corner it's conforming its shape to that corner which would be impossible with a full colony. Good luck!

[MiddletonMark]

Agreed on the frags ... they will grow into nicer corals IMO if you start with something small and let it swirl in your tank. Stability makes great growth.

Plus, they're mighty fragile. Hard to get in large pieces - though not impossible.

If you ever come up to Madison ... I can help you out with a couple. [bet if you meet enough CMAS people, you'll have no problem finding frags] But 4-5" would mean selling my Green/Purple rim colony, not a frag ... so I would predict prices would be much much higher. Then again, if you want to pay for it ... come up to Madison :lol:

But flow is quite important in my opinion for getting the nice swirling shape ... the most impressive colonies I've seen started pretty small and grew to fit the space/tank.

Anyway, good luck ... they're a beautiful coral and a pretty good SPS to start with.

[sandman60126]

There were some nice size caps at Deep Sea Aquatics in Downer Grove. Don't know what their color would be

Too bad there bali sps were brown. And doo doo brown at that.

[mhurley]

Mitch,

I'm not sure where you're from but I have two different monti caps in my tank, one is red the other orange that I'd be happy to sell you a couple frags of either/both. PM me if interested.

[Mitch Sabat]

Thanks for all the replys and the feedback.
I'll take everyone's feedback into consideration.
My setup is a 125 Clarity Plus reef ready with a CPR sump with a built in protein skimmer. Gen X pump provides the return to the tank and I have two additional powerheads for circulation. The sump is plumbed through a 30 watt UV sterilizer. I currently have 90 lbs of established live rock. I have 2 - 250watts 20k HQI Aqua Medic pendants for lighting. Right now I would like to have 3-4 different colors of Monti 's along with some leather corals & colorful mushrooms. I would like to keep it plain & simple. I reside in Medinah, so I may follow up with some of you on your offer on frags. I love the reds & orange monti's. I would be willing to pay between $100 & 150 for the right colored colony. Any feedback-- if the above amount would be in line for what I'm looking for?
Thanks again.
Mitch

[mhurley]

Got bored...snapped some photos...Couldn't find the good camera, so these are just so-so. It was actually an interesting exercise to see the growth progression.

Original caps (date stamps on photos), for perspective sake, the 2 caps were originally about 2-3" across.

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/capsmall.jpg


http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/oldorangecap.jpg


Photos taken today

Probably 6" across now.

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/redmonti.jpg

This guy is huge, about 8" across but looks smaller because he's in the back of the tank.

http://home.comcast.net/~michael.hurley/orangemonti.jpg

[makoshark]

Originally posted by mhurley
Got bored...snapped some photos...

Well if you've got nothing better to do. How about updating your web page.:) I haven't seen how well your tank has been doing in quite some time now. :)

[mhurley]

jerk


:D

[makoshark]

:D

[Mitch Sabat]

Mike,
very nice.
Thanks for posting some pictures of your monti.

I did take everyone's advise & picked up 3 different Monti frags along with some orange polyps from Reef Dweller.

Thanks again for your feedback.