Also known as a velvet coral. Mainly because it's polyps are so small, that you can't really see them that well. But they do appear to give the coral an overall fuzzy look (like velvel).
I really wanted to get into the stony corals (Acropora, Montipora, etc), for several reasons. First is, they are the most demanding corals. They require pristine water conditions because they are quire sensitive. They also should only be kept in a well established tank because they feed mostly on microscopic phytoplankton. For enough phytoplankton to be present to sustain them, the tank has to have been up and running for a while.
With mouths (polyps) this small, it's no wonder they only eat microscopic organisms.
(extreme close-up)
The other reason I wanted to get into stonies is their appearance. I hope some day to have mastered my reef husbandry technique's enough to be able to keep Acropora's, which can have bright beautiful colors (blues, greens, reds, pinks, etc).
But you have to learn how to crawl before you can walk. And the montipora is a fairly easy species of stony coral. While still sensitive to water conditions and tank maturity, they are more tolerant than most other stony corals.
Either I'm doing something right, or I've just been lucky, as this guy is growing rather rapidly (as far as corals go).
(Check back for updated growth shots!)
While the other corals I have shown you so far are pretty, they are all softer corals. They form more rubbery mats for their polyps to grow out of. Stony corals actually form a hard boney skeleton. They then grow over that. Even though in much the same way (they form a mat, and new polyps grow out of that).
While not much to look at for long periods of time, I find the stony corals to be very interesting creatures, not to mention wonderful additions to the aquascape!
Apperantly, I'm not the only one who likes the montipora.
Barney perches from one of it's branches.
And we just recently found this beauty when we went to the big MACNA reef convention in Sept '05. Can't wait to see what this one looks like as it grows up! (make sure you check back to see!)
