Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in February 2000 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

Obtained February 12th, 2000.

This is a frag of Acropora tortuosa just after being mounted. It is a bluish to purple color. The frag was given to me by Rich Knecht (aka RichK).

In the background you can see a few bumble bee snails. 

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in April 2000 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

Pictured left is the frag just under two months later. It has fully encrusted its base and filled in the area below it and has started to branch out. You can see that it also has excellent polyp extension.

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in October 2000 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

This staghorn has shown some excellent growth. This picture is just 6 months of growth since the last picture.

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in September 2001 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

This picture was taken about a year later. However, the coral had several frags removed the month before, and it had been fraged several times over the past year.

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in September 2001 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

Had to zoom in a little to have the blue from Linkia seastar bring out the blue colors of this acropora.

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in September 2001 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

Most of my fish wanted to get into this picture. They must be feeling left out. You should have heard them all say "Cheese".

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in March 2002 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

This picture is 6 months after the last picture. It has had several frags removed from it since the last picture. By frags I mean 8 to 10 inch long branches. Most of them are from the fish or my careless hands. Gets hard to do anything in that part of the tank without knocking down a branch or two. The upper tips of the coral have about 2 inches left before they start hitting the water surface.

I've been considering removing the entire coral and letting it grow back.

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in June 2002 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

Wow, in the past two months this coral has shown some amazing growth. What happened a little over two months ago? I switched to HQI lighting. As you can see in the picture the coral has colored up a lot, the tank looks brighter and the coral shows excellent growth. Five of the growth tips have already reached the surface of the water.

Acropora tortuosa
Picture was taken in July 2002 with a Nikon CoolPix 950 Digital Camera, No Flash

And so the circle of life continues. The coral just got to big for my tank. I snapped it off at the base and it was a tight squeeze getting it inside a 5 gallon bucket. I brought it to Reef Splendor for store credit.

Within a week after snapping it off the base coral had healed it self and sealed off the area with a new skin.