green bali slimmer growth

[Italian Stallion]

i have had a green bali slimmer for about 3 months now and it has grown alot in heigth but still only has the original 2 branches i bought it with is this normal how tall do they have to be to start sprowing branches he just started to encrust on the rock about a month ago

also how quickly does this acro grow generally

and off topic but is stylaphora pistalata a good grower

[RichK]

I have found that when I frag my green slimer, that the frags do better when mounted horizontally. It does take a little while longer to encrust, but after it does, watch out. It frows like a weed. Stylophora doesn't really grow all that fast IMO.

[ReeferMac]

Most corals will take a little time to acclimate to new conditions.. a couple of months is not out of the ordinary. If you're getting growth at all, take it that things are going well. Corals typically encrust a base or footing first, to anchor themselves to the structure, and then begin growing up and outwards. You'll see new branches start sprouting in a few more months probably. The Slimer corals however, do generally grow in large trunks, more so than branchy forms, however.
Stylophora's grow a little on the slow side. They tend to put out mounding and more massive shapes, so it takes them longer to put on appreciable skeleton.

- Mac

[Roll221]

Here is a growth pic of mine. Frag will be a year old in Jan 05




Original Frag

[grim]

My green slimer grows in spurts, and when I say spurts I mean something on the order of 3/4-1 inch a month.

jb

[bobherbertperry]

my slimer has shown great growth since i got it, it is mounted horizontally,

[Italian Stallion]

if you mount them horizontaly isnt there a shaded reigon that doesnt get any light and then bleaches

[Julio]

just give some tiem it will take off before you know it. I went through the same thing with my frag, where it hardly grew then out of nowhere it just trippled in a month.

[Jive Turkey]

Is the frag encrusted? Maybe it's doing that, and will be for a little while. Maybe a few months before upward growth, unlikely but possible.

The Stylophora pistillata is probably the most heartly SPS IME, but unfortunatly it grows really, really slow. Pick it up, you'll see why. Its heavy as a rock, because the skeleton is dense. Thats why is grows so slow.

[calciumbuf]

Just be careful once they grow they get a little out of hand.

[bogg]

If you really want it to grow break it at two ends and mount it upside down.

[arinick]

They do grow like weeds, thankfully. This is about 30 months, I would guess, from about a 2" frag.

[Narkon]

arinick - wow, you really let yours go huh? Most people don't guess it gets noticed from across the room.

[deansreef]

i never had any lick with the green slimmer

[Ereefic]

I started with a frag and it grew up in a branching form, like arinick and calciumbuf's. I broke the rock it was on and the main colony broke off leaving the encrusted part behind with just little nubs coming off.

Here is the encrusted part after breaking the main branching structure off.



And here is what it looks like today. All branches are coming off of the encrusted part and are just now starting to branch off from there.

[Narkon]

Really nice.

[Ereefic]

Thanks, there is only one drawback to it growing this way, and that is that it takes up alot more room growing this way compared to 'up and out'.

[Narkon]

Well sounds you just need a bigger tank, lets say one that is 12 foot long.

[arinick]

Narkon- if only I could get my blue tort to grow like that thing, I'd be writing this post from Hawaii.

[Narkon]

arinick - if only I had a blue tort.

But soon, soon I will have one.

[reefkeeper1]

I've read and experienced that staghorn corals like a green slimer can grow up to 6 inches a year:



Sad to say, rtn wiped out the entire colony earlier this year

[zenya]

I would have to agree that mounted horizontally it grows a lot more branches than when it is mounted vertically.
Here's a frag, for example, that I recieved sometimes earlier this summer.I'd say roughly 2" or so


and here it is in a bin while I was redoing right side of my tank yesterday


and this is a pic of another slimer, mounted vertically that never really grew much. Granted, it was surrounded a bit but still...I had it for about a year and a half before I got another frag and that second frag outgrew it in a heartbeat.

Here's a picture of it when it came out of the tank, I guess that Monti was kicking its butt pretty good

[tony13]

Hey Gene,
It's about time you got the nerve up to clean house. LOL . I know it 's hard but in the long run it's worth it. I still own those really large snips if you need a hand.
Tony

[zenya]

Originally posted by tony13
Hey Gene,
It's about time you got the nerve up to clean house. LOL . I know it 's hard but in the long run it's worth it. I still own those really large snips if you need a hand.
Tony

Hi Tony,

Now you tell me But yes, I finally did it and I think it is for the best. You should've seen my Monti shelf when it came out, at least 22" long
Don't want to highjack this thread but check out this monster that was living in my tiny 75g tank


I'll be cleaning out left side next, maybe I can take you up on your offer then

[Narkon]

nice pics.

Well I have one vertical mounted, and one horizontial.

I have to see how they do.