Polyps through the skeleton?!?

[Invictus]

Two days ago I accidentally fragged a green slimmer. The white you see below is newly exposed skeleton…. with poyps sticking through! Maybe this is more common that I realize but I’ve never heard of it happening before. I’ve always assumed the flesh needed to grow first.

 

[tribbitt]

Glad your coral is so healthy.

When you cut the skeleton and expose the base of a polyp, it can grow a new polyp through that hole in the skeleton! People have propagated H. australis scolys this way too.

It does also look like there may already be some flesh covering the skeleton, because I can see some faint green that looks like tissue starting to creep around (clear because no algal symbiont yet). I agree that the polyps probably did not come from that new tissue though, and grew through the skeleton instead.

 

[FooFtr]

Wow! That’s quick growth. What’s your secret?