# Has anyone ever had Corals spawn in their tank?



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

So mushrooms spawn, zoas, leathers and lots of other corals will get larger, split, or just grow big.
Has anyone ever had random tiny corals show up in your tank?
I'm not sure what's going on, but I think maybe I have torch babies? Except I don't have a torch.
In the photo, just below middle centre, there is something that looks like green tentacles. It's not an anemone (don't have any of those either) and I'm fairly certain it's a tiny little torch because there are 4 different babies in different parts of the tank and one of them is big enough to positively identify except it's way down in behind a large rock and hard to get a photo of.
Has this happened to anyone?
Is it even possible? Do torches spawn? Could it have been carried in on a rock or something?
Or is there another explanation.....








Here's a close up


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## mmatt (Feb 12, 2012)

That's interesting. If it was anyone else asking the question I would say magano anemone. But the colouring looks like a hammer or torch. I've never seen or heard of them spawning but who knows. I know thang has had sps spawn but I've never heard or seen euphilliya do that. But I would guess they have to some how in the wild.


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*spawn*

deff look like that I have not read or heard of that like matt said I remember thang posting a pic of his sps spawning or expelling a milky cloud into his tank


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## kem (Oct 19, 2015)

I happens with softies and sps. For LPS, there is scientific evidence that they can expell small heads from the skeleton when very stressed, and these heads will then be carried by the currents and eventually settle down and build a new skeleton.

There is also evidence that dead lps (mostly of the brain families) can regrow from a single cell. Sps and soft corals can do that too: as long as a cell did survive it can restart the colony. I had seemingly several months dead montiporas suddenly grow back in a former tank.

It is very possible that you are observing a similar survival mechanism.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

I have seen several corals in my system where I have had established frags die, but didn’t remove them, and like KEM said, they start to regrow. This has happened with cyphastrea and some other encrusting corals. As much as I hate looking at dead corals it makes me want to keep them all just in case.
A couple years ago, a green poccilipora that is healthy and growing well in my nano tank and was not dead or dying must have done something similar, because I had a green poccilipora appear in my large tank (same sump and water as the nano tank) that I had not put there. It’s still growing in the same place and after two years it’s no bigger than a loonie (very slowing growing coral). The mother colony is doing well still, too.
But with this torch, I’m sure it’s not majano because of the colour. I’ve been watching these torch babies for six months now because at first I thought it was only one. Since then I’ve found at least three more.
Since our move, I have not had a torch in that tank. I had two elegance, but they are no longer there (a future discussion of coral specific diseases cause I lost both elegance within weeks of each other and they both melted the same way)

What’s even more unusual is that I’ve never had a torch that is green with peach (or white) tips ever. So if it did spawn, the spores must have come into our system on something else, and survived coral dip.


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## Sea MunnKey (Oct 2, 2014)

I've had a common bright green tipped Torch spawned and produced at least 12 baby Torches with majority having different colour ID. At least 2 baby Torch resembles the parent colours whereas the rest have "golden" vertical stripes with neon green base.

They've grown all over one rockscape where the parent colony was before. Parent colony didn't make it.


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## Rookie2013 (Jan 17, 2013)

Isnt thts how mushrooms multiply as well...i have a colony of purple with yellow tips ricordea that grew from a single frag into a colony..Now i find small babies sometimes on the other side of the tank...


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Sea MunnKey said:


> I've had a common bright green tipped Torch spawned and produced at least 12 baby Torches with majority having different colour ID. At least 2 baby Torch resembles the parent colours whereas the rest have "golden" vertical stripes with neon green base.
> 
> They've grown all over one rockscape where the parent colony was before. Parent colony didn't make it.


Oh yeah! That's what I wanted to hear!
And it also answers another question........why aren't they the same colour?
I moved some rocks around to get a better peek at some of the others and some of them are gold w white tips and the little ones are green with white or peach tips.
Two are well over the size of a toonie now.


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## mmatt (Feb 12, 2012)

Wish I had that kind of luck with euphilliya. That's pretty sweet.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

mmatt said:


> Wish I had that kind of luck with euphilliya. That's pretty sweet.


Haha!

The funniest part of this story is that I have not had any luck with torches for over 3 years. Am getting to learn the sweet spot for nitrate levels with the corals we keep and the fact that we have torch babies makes me hopeful we are on the right path.


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## Sea MunnKey (Oct 2, 2014)

I'll try to snap some pictures of the 2 off springs growing side by side and they look totally different. They're in the corner and under a very large Toadstool leather ...

In fact I've got another one that popped off from the rock and the base looks like a upside down acorn.


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