TUG Aqua Cultured Nuclear Fusion Grafted Montipora (3/4″ – 1″)

Description

TUG Aqua Cultured Nuclear Fusion Grafted Montipora (3/4″ – 1″) is offered under the retail name shown in the product title.

This is a Montipora coral. Color and morph names in the title are aquarium-trade descriptors, not a verified species identification unless a scientific name is explicitly included. Growth form, color, and polyp extension can change with light, flow, nutrients, and available space.

Care Guide

• Lighting: Medium-to-high — PAR 150–300 Acclimate gradually and avoid moving a newly received frag directly into peak intensity.
• Flow: Medium-to-high. Keep water moving across the surface without directing a damaging jet at fresh tissue.
• Placement: Middle-to-upper rockwork on a stable encrusting base. Leave room for the coral’s plating, branching, or encrusting growth form.
• Feeding: Direct feeding is optional. Stable nutrients and appropriately sized suspended foods are more useful than heavy target feeding.

Keep alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, salinity, and temperature stable. Watch the living growth edge and polyp extension after a move; change one variable at a time.

Shipping: Ships UPS Next Day Air from Key West. Current eligibility and delivery timing are shown at checkout.

What to expect when it arrives

Montipora ships with polyps retracted and the color often looking flatter than the listing photograph. Both recover. Float the sealed bag 15 minutes, drip acclimate 30 to 45 minutes, and dip the frag before it enters the display.

The dip matters here specifically because of Montipora-eating nudibranchs. They are white, a few millimeters long, and they match the coral so well that most keepers find them only after bleached patches appear. Inspect the underside of the plug and the base of the frag under bright light.

Light acclimation, which is where most frags are lost

Do not place a new Montipora frag directly under your highest-intensity light. Start it low on the rockwork or on the sand for the first week and move it up in stages over three to four weeks. Bleaching from a sudden light increase does not show for several days, and by the time the tissue pales the damage is already done.

Once settled, Montipora colors track light closely. A piece that looks brown at 150 PAR will often develop its full color at 250. Give each position two to three weeks before judging.

Growth and fragging

Montipora is fast by SPS standards. A branching frag visibly lengthens within about two months, and a plating frag begins laying down new margin in roughly the same time. Both encrust onto the plug quickly, which is the first sign the frag has accepted its spot.

Fragging is straightforward: branching forms snap with bone cutters and glue directly to a plug, plating forms cut cleanly. Cut in the morning so the coral has the full photoperiod to begin healing.

Compatibility

Montipora is not aggressive and will not sting neighbors, which makes it easy to place but also vulnerable. Keep it clear of Euphyllia sweepers and chalice tentacles. Plating forms need forward planning — a capricornis will shade everything beneath it within a year, so give it a position where that shadow does not matter.