Branching Montiporas

[sula]

So I was looking at my Montis today and realizing how much these frags have grown, I only got them a few months ago. I am almost thinking I need to frag them a little to change the growth pattern, I feel like I'm going to have a "tree" with one skinny little "trunk" . If I snapped a few tips off and re-glued them on the same rock, would that help these grow into a nice shaped colony?
Any advice is appreciated
Here is group shot from July
The frag on the left is a M. Samarensis, on the right is a M. Digitata (Middle/upper is a spongodes I believe)

 

[sula]

Now here is a shot from this morning...the samarensis is now mounted on a rock and is in the back, the digi is in the front

 

[sula]

Closer shot of the Digi - it has encrusted onto the big rock to its left - if I take it out of the water I will have to break that...that makes me tempted to leave it alone

 

[sula]

Here is the Samarensis - this is the one I am most pondering the need to frag - it just looks very "top heavy" to me.......anyone have advice on this? Is it too soon to frag these pieces?

 

[spanko]

Personally I like the way they are growing and will probably be very nice colonies in the future. If you want to frag IMO the frag pcs. should be layed down when you attach them. This exposes more corallites to upward growth and there will be more trunks that gow upwards from a frag laying down. Same with acro's.

 

[sula]

Spanko, thank you for your comments. I have come to appreciate the difference the "position" of the frag can make....I had a frag of a very beautiful lavendar colored digi, got it last January at a frag swap. I had enormous tank troubles in the Spring and nearly killed it off. A few months ago, I found it on the sand bed, the branch part was completely dead and only a tiny piece of coral encrusted onto the frag plug was still alive. I placed the plug up high in the tank to see if it would recover. It has never got its glorious color back, but check out the crazy growth pattern!
Here is a before and after pic: