Pruning for growth

[jose7878]

I was told that if I were to Prune my SPS corals that it will excellerate growth and form more branches? Is their any truth to this?

 

[mnat]

Seems to be more ancedotal than hard science. I have also heard that (along with plenty others).

 

[TanksNStuff]

Although they look like plants, corals are not plants. In fact, they are animals so I wouldn't expect them to behave like a plant would when being pruned.

That said, I have never tested this theory to say if it's true or not.

I do know that when my hammer coral (which is an LPS, not SPS) gets to the max size I want it to be, I'll cut off a few branches to thin it out. When I do that, the "baby" branches that were lower on the main stalks tend to get more light and are exposed to more flow to feed from. So, whenever I trim it down, the newer heads do start growing faster and the soccer ball shape comes back pretty fast.

I suppose pruning this way would promote growth (by giving other parts of the coral better conditions to thrive in that may have been blocked by the trimmed parts). But I don't see how trimming a tip of an sps would give any benefit to the rest of the colony unless it was blocking light or something. I could be wrong, but that's just how I see it.

 

[jose7878]

Yeah George I'm not understanding the theory about this either. That's why I'm asking. I've never heard of this either.

 

[ZoaNut]

I've seen threads where guys snip their acros, then slice the frag clear in half with a diamond saw. They lay the flat piece (like a half a banana) on a plug. The polyps then grow upwards off that flat piece, creating multiple branches. It's pretty neat to see it grow that way.

 

[dan_k]

I've seen threads where guys snip their acros, then slice the frag clear in half with a diamond saw. They lay the flat piece (like a half a banana) on a plug. The polyps then grow upwards off that flat piece, creating multiple branches. It's pretty neat to see it grow that way.

I think im going to give that a try

 

[jose7878]

I've seen threads where guys snip their acros, then slice the frag clear in half with a diamond saw. They lay the flat piece (like a half a banana) on a plug. The polyps then grow upwards off that flat piece, creating multiple branches. It's pretty neat to see it grow that way.

Zoa if that's true that would be awesome.
I'm gonna try it once my corals get a little bigger.

 

[SHLUZER]

You don't have to use the part 'cut it along with diamond saw', just glue it to plug horizontally (to expose larger surface to light). This was shown on last year's swap.

 

[jgraz]

just glue it to plug horizontally (to expose larger surface to light). This was shown on last year's swap.

That's exactly what I did with my red planet. It now has multiple branches growing out of each end.

 

[sjfishguy]

I do this all the time to get my acros to start growing again or get them to branch at a certain point. Have been doing it for years and it definitely works. Seems to work on acros more than other corals.