Five Acropora sp. frags were attached to one rock with the idea that they would eventually merge and form one colony.

Six months later the results can be seen on the right.

The A. formosa frag in the middle of the left picture came from a small colony in my other tank which was dying back. Like so many other animals it thrived in the main tank as can be seen on the right.

During that time a large piece was broken off and mounted behind the original two frags and another "accident" was mounted below.

Although these Acroporas do not look the same the one in the left picture is in fact the mother of the one above in the right picture. The tip of a Montepora capricornis can be seen in both pictures.

These frags help to show the colour variability in this species. Unlike their parents above they are showing blue.

Although the blue is quite prominent it is in fact only on the lips of the corallites.

This dark brown species now seems to be submerged between other corals 14 months later. In fact it is doing well and has started to encrust the Millepora behind it.

The small green colony bottom left took 46 months to reach the size on the right.

For a couple of years it repeatedly grew a little and regressed a little until it finally settled and grew strongly.

Unfortunately the green Hynophora seen above it in the right picture is also growing and has now killed a branch of the Acropora which had grown above it. I am hoping that the now dead branch will protect the animal from further attacks as I do not want to interfere too much.

The original frag of this animal died but this frag of it, shown in January 2000, survived long enough for me to take numerous other frags which are now populating this tank, my small tank and many other tanks around the country.

I have tentatively identified it as A. bali

(Both pictures by Lisa Page)

The left picture shows three frags well grown and encrusted to the back glass of the main tank and the right picture shows a now large colony attached to a rock.

(Right picture by Lisa Page)

Atop the left hand pinnacle in the left picture is mounted a small green frag given to me by a friend. It stayed this way for about two years before starting to grow.

It can be seen in the right picture between the green Acropora on the back glass and the Millepora and it now has blue tips.

It just goes to show that you should never give up on frags!

(Right picture by Lisa Page)

Not as quick growing as the other Acroporas this purple tipped species took 17 months to achieve the size on the right.

This small table type Acropora is also slow growing. Although this may be partly due to its position on the substrate, it was a frag from a dying colony in the other tank where it was higher in the water column and still slow growing.