Favia Growth

[gogregerson]

As my favia grows do I have to elevate it to allow the coral to grow downward around the edges or will it raise itself off the substrate? or if I just leave it lying flat will it just spread out?

[Redwinger]

IME they will encrust either up or down.

[David Grigor]

There are some encrusting types and also some dome shaped kind that don't really encrust.

I recently ( 6-8 months ago ) sliced open a dome shaped favia I had for 8 years because the bottom half had die off from lack of light being cramped in a 58g for some time plus bottom portion partially submerged in the subtrate. Anyways, when you slice it open horizontally you can see that it is building upon itself outward in all directions to create the mass. I believe I still have the skeleton and can bring to a meeting sometime so you can see, it is quite cool actually much like slicing a tree trunk to see the rings.

So that type no you don't need to put it on anything for the growth but it is a good idea to place it on something to help elevate at or slightly above the substrate to help prevent die off from getting submerged as substrate shifts etc. Mine are all on barebottom now so it's a non issue.

[Irenicus]

I'd love to see the skeleton.

[gogregerson]

Seeing that skeleton would be great. I think the idea of keeping it above shifting substrate is what I need to do. I seems to grow around the edges and those edges push down into the sand. Thanks DG.