organ pipe

[idonteatfish]

i recieved a small piece of this but there was only several little polyps on there and the rest empty tubes. the whole thing is about the size of a half dollar. my question is , will they ever grow back or fill the tubes again? any good websites to where i can find more info on them?

 

[elpescado]

As long as you have the pipeorgan (Tubipora sp.) in an ideal location and ideal conditions it will more than likely grow new "pipes" over the top of the old empty ones. I have never seen one "repopulate" empty tubes, but that isn't to say that they can't. I don't know of any research having been done on Tubipora colony regeneration of an injured colony. As for general information on them you can try looking in Veron's "Corals of The World", and "Corals of Australia and The IndoPacific", Delbeek and Sprung's "The Reef Aquarium" volume 1. Try the Smithsonian Institute's website under thier research website to see if anyone is working on, or has worked with pipeorgan corals.

 

[XXX]

I agree that it will probably just encrust over the old tubes. My white organ pipe went through a 70% die off for some reason twice in the first year that I had it. It re-grew both times and has been fine since then. As elspecado (good name BTW ) stated they have to have placement and conditions that really suits them since they seem to fade and die easily. I had a decent size piece of green OP that I fragged and stuck in a hole in the LR. It encrusted to the rock and has grown many time faster than it ever did as a solitary colony.

http://www.ezshots.com/members/fishpage ... sm-198.jpg
http://www.ezshots.com/members/fishpage ... sm-161.jpg

 

[idonteatfish]

thanks , nice pics