| Difficulty | Very easy |
| Time Required | 10 minutes |
| Healing Time | About 1 week |
| Best Method | Cut and peel a strip of mat |
| Coral Type | Encrusting soft coral (purple mat) |
Overview
GSP grows as a purple rubber mat that carpets anything in its path, which makes fragging trivially easy: cut the mat, peel a strip, glue it down. The real skill with GSP is containment — most reefers eventually frag it to stop it. Grown on an isolated island rock or the back wall it is spectacular; loose in your rockwork it is a green lawn you will be mowing forever.
What You’ll Need
- Scalpel or sharp scissors
- Frag plugs, discs or an isolated rock
- Gel super glue
Step-by-Step
- Find a mat edge (or lift one by sliding the scalpel underneath) and cut a strip roughly an inch long.
- Peel the strip off the rock — the purple mat comes away cleanly like sticker vinyl.
- Dab the underside dry and glue it flat to the plug. Edges down; it re-adheres fast.
- Return both to moderate light and flow. Done — this is the whole job.
Aftercare & Healing
Polyps reopen within a day or two, and the mat edge starts creeping within a week — GSP can double in months. Trim the parent’s advancing edge whenever it approaches something you care about; those trimmings are free frags for the swap box.
What Can Go Wrong
Polyps closed for days: GSP sulks after handling but almost always reopens; check for algae smothering the mat. It is taking over the tank: the classic GSP problem — keep it on an island, and peel invading mat off rocks completely (any purple left behind regrows).