Optimizing candy cane coral growth

[rivernox]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the growth rate of candy cane/trumpet corals. I know they multiply by elongating, forming a figure-8, and then closing off to create two heads. What's considered a healthy rate of growth, though - is it every three months, seven months, or even a year for a head to split? And what about the time it takes for a head to elongate and close off - is it a quick one-week process or a slower one-month process?

I'm curious because I've just added my first candy cane/trumpet to my tank and I want to know what to expect. If growth is slow, I'll know to consider relocating it to a happier spot.

[speedster]

Congrats on the new candycane. Mine's been a slow starter, took ages to settle in. Almost 5 months in, still no new heads, but it's definitely getting plumper by the day. The existing heads just keep expanding. Guess that's just the way it goes with reefing, right? Good luck with yours, hope it does better than mine!

[brookleaf]

Mine's really taken off - went from six heads in October to over twenty now.

[rivernox]

Thanks for the info, guys. I've got a better idea now. I've got a frag with two heads, had it for about six weeks. One of the heads has elongated, but it's still not closed off. It looks healthy, though - puffs up during the day and opens up its tentacles at night.

[treetoad]

I've had my candy cane under various lighting setups, and I've noticed a significant difference. Initially, it was under CF lighting, and to be honest, growth was pretty slow. I was feeding it regularly, had good water flow, and maintained optimal calcium and magnesium levels. It took around 18 months for it to go from 2 heads to 7 or 8. However, since switching to T5 lighting at the beginning of March, it's been thriving. Almost every head now has 2 mouths, and a couple even have 3. What's more, I had given a 7 head frag to my LFS just 3 weeks ago, and the piece in my display has almost 20 heads now.

[Falcon9]

I've had a seven head colony that's exploded into over a hundred heads in about a year and a half. Medium flow, 6x96w CF fixture. Had one massive colony, but it got broken up into five smaller ones during a tank upgrade. Different tanks, different results - can't expect the same outcomes, right?

[rivernox]

Whoa, 100 heads in 18 months, Falcon9? You must be doing something right. I'm curious, what's your secret? I've been running a bit low on calcium, 330 ppm, so I just picked up some Seachem Reef Complete to bump it up to 400 ppm. Maybe that'll give my little guy the boost it needs. I'm thinking of leaving it in the same spot, bottom to medium flow under the CFLs, to see if the calcium supplement makes a difference.

[Falcon9]

I keep my water pretty simple - just B-Ionic two part, but at about half the recommended dose. Weekly water changes are 10% and that's about it.

[davionix]

I picked up a 4 head frag back in September '08. It was under T5s for a while, but I switched to HQI. The heads have definitely spread out and puffed up quite a bit. I toss in some mysis every now and then. I've seen new mouths form, but no actual splitting or new heads. It looks really healthy and responds well, but I just haven't seen any real growth. It's a bit disheartening, to be honest.

[Falcon9]

I think we're overlooking a key factor here - the color of our corals. I've got another colony that hasn't split nearly as fast as the ones that exploded to over 100 heads in 18 months. The super-successful ones are this whitish-green color, whereas I've also got a brownish-red with green centers colony that's only gone from 4 to maybe 20 heads in two years. I'm not sure if it's the color or something else, but these two colonies were in the same general area of the tank, so it's possible they had slightly different flow or lighting.