Pocillopora damicornis. Good or bad idea?

[chirocato]

Seen a few threads on Pocillopora damicornis and it's seemingly problematic reproductive habits. I have a baseball size colony in my tank that is thriving but hasn't yet repro'd. Should I pull it out before it's too late? Just how much of a nuisance are they? Thanks.

[StrategicReef]

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought you need 2 different damicornis for it to reproduce? So maybe just having 1 colony is ok.

[Jefe12234]

In all the examples I've heard of it's been the green colonies that were problematic. I haven't yet heard of a pink colony doing this.

[StrategicReef]

Can you link to these threads..

If it's spawning, you will know, you will see it growing else where, it shouldn't be too late though, at that time you may choose to remove the colony and treat the little guys with kalk paste.. The only problem is that they can almost grow without direct light, and kalk paste doesn't stick on vertical or surfaces..

[Oldude]

Just pull them out as they pop up.

[jamesdawson]

My fluorescent green pocci is one of the nicest corals in my tank. Invariably, its the first coral newcomers want to talk about because it literally glows under blue/actinic. Mine has spawned/spread twice and all I did was break off the new offspring and give to other reefers. Well worth keeping IME.

James

[MrPike]

I like them as well, their spawns end up as little corals on the walls. And really, they don't seem to bother other corals when they are close, my acro's and just about everything else beat them down when it becomes a stinging contest.

[tangdiver]

Not hard to break them off and sell the frags...but only need one...called polyp bail-out....mostly green version....but again not hard to break and sell the frags.


Grant

[StrategicReef]

Do they break off cleanly or it grows from the same spot in the rock again? In my experience with them they win over monti and birdsnest, not sure about acros though.

[Angel101]

I have experienced polyp bail out with my pink Damicornis. Never hade any trouble though because they always settled on the glass.

[sfsuphysics]

I have had a pocci for close to 3 years and never had anything resembling any "pods" popping off and sprouting new ones. Within the past couple years I've added a couple more different colonies, a super bright fluorescent green/yellow one as James mentioned above (and yeah that thing ROCKS), but with 3 different species, two of which grew right next to one another, not a single sprout. However I have seen someone's tank on RDO where they did get them sprouting.

But the end result is I poccis don't sting as far as I can tell, and they're quite brittle so breaking off one that's in a place you don't like it, shouldn't be an issue. So I say go for it.

[supervdl]

My green variety has been spreading throughout the tank. I don't mind it so far and appreciate it as "life" inmy tank.

[supervdl]

My green variety has been spreading throughout the tank. I don't mind it so far and appreciate it as "life" in my tank.

[trueblackpercula]

I have the pink version and yes it has spreed in 8 different spots. But thats what keeping SPs is all about. I like the idea that they are every were and filling in all the little gaps in the thank. Also what A sight that will be when you have like 5 or 6 basball size colonies in your tank WOW.


Michael

[StrategicReef]

During the last month I cleaned up about 40+ units with kalk paste, just found 6 other over last night under blue moon light .. does this sound fun to you guys? I had yellow and pink and only yellow reproduce, so I just keep the pink now and see (if I can completely genocide all the small yellows)

[silvers]

I love Pocillopora for this reason, it makes for the most natural looking tank when growing eaverywhere my insperation tank is the tank at the shed aquarium in Chicago that has pocillopora growing eavery where

[chirocato]

Alright then, the colony stays. Lots of good points made. Thanks everyone.

[Robert Patterso]

Yep I've got one that appears a peach color. There's about a dozen little guys all settled on the rock. Pretty cool actually. So far my pink and green ones haven't reproduced (polyp bailout) yet. Pretty easy way of fragging don't you think

[chirocato]

Originally posted by Robert Patterso
Pretty easy way of fragging don't you think

Agreed!

[armagedon48]

sweet, i just bought a 5$ frag of pocillopora and now im excited for it to reproduce!

[MCsaxmaster]

Ha, I'm not sure I can fathom how a coral reproducing in my tank could be a bad thing

Generally speaking there need to be at least 2 reproductive colonies to get fertilization. There is some evidence they can self-fertilize, but probably not very successfully. There couldn't be a much easier coral to get sexual reproduction from though. If you have two adult colonies that are in good condition, you are essentially guaranteed that they will produce sexual planulae. Very few of the planulae will successfully settle and grow into colonies without any sort of special effort, but there will be enough to end up with a number of new colonies. By simply putting a plankton collector over the colonies (or something to the effect) a person could easily collect, settle and raise thousands of babies in a year from a couple of decent sized colonies.