What corals can touch one another?

[jensthemom]

I look at many of the gallery pix and many of the corals look as if they are all running together or touching and look quite beautiful. However, everything I seem to read says to keep this from touching that etc. Are all zoas safe to clump together? Hammers and frogspawns? Leathers? Mushrooms? Kenya Trees, Favia, Acropora? These are all items I have and have tried very carefully to keep them all far away from one another. Do I need to????

Jen

 

[BigAl07]

I look at many of the gallery pix and many of the corals look as if they are all running together or touching and look quite beautiful. However, everything I seem to read says to keep this from touching that etc. Are all zoas safe to clump together? Hammers and frogspawns? Leathers? Mushrooms? Kenya Trees, Favia, Acropora? These are all items I have and have tried very carefully to keep them all far away from one another. Do I need to????

Jen

Jen that's a TOUGH questions! I'll give it a whirl..

Usually "Like" corals are happy around each other.

Hammers and frogspawns Yes they are in the same family and I have those plus Torch all together in my tanks

Zoas usually do well together as well.

Mushrooms will get along well with their own kind.

anything else you just learn from LOTS of reading and some trial & error. Many corals practice "Chemical Warefare" against other corals. That's why you keep them apart. Especially like Hammer and FrogSpawn! They will send out "Sweeper" tentacles that can sting and kill other corals MUCH further than you would think.

Hope this helps

 

[Techno-Vicki]

Nicely said Allen. What he said

 

[jensthemom]

Thanks - I do have my frogspawn near a monti and above a finger leather. Should I move the frogspawn away from these?

 

[santarem85]

so im finding out that xenia can touch anything - mines climing alll over and touching both open brain and favia corals without harm

the frogspawn makes it shrink a little, but its doing little to stop its incessant growth and spread

 

[funkpolice]

I would keep the lps away from the leathers for sure. My leather go stung by a bubble coral, and it looked terrible for over a month. Also, leather release poisons into the water in defense, so you don't want that. I have Xenia touching zoas, and they both seem ok, I also have a lobo and some mushrooms in contact, these ones kind of worry me, but as of now they both look good. A lot of times I think a deeper tank gives the illusion of everything touching one another.
bill

 

[BigAl07]

A lot of times I think a deeper tank gives the illusion of everything touching one another.
bill

I think this is often the case. Without the depth aspect it looks like a LOT of things are touching when in reality they are "layered" through out the tank.

As noted above some corals don't "Sting" directly but release toxins into the water. This may be because one type of coral can "sense" the other is close and will release the toxins into the water column as self defense. This can cause havoc in a closed loop system like our tanks are. Xenia gives off a NASTY smelling junk that will stink up your house and your hands. I've seen (with my own eyes here) how when I touch/bother Xenia that within a few seconds other corals in the tank will close up. Shortly there after the SMELL will knock your socks off. This is a CLASSIC example of what we're talking about. They do this in nature but there is so much water volume it's usually not confined and concentrated.

As for FrogSpawn touching another coral... I lost an AMAZING closed brain coral due to this. The FrogSpawn was at least 6" from the brain at it's closest spot and they seemed happy for a long time. Then one day I noticed a black "spot" on the side of my brain AWAY from the FrogSpawn... after looking closer it was literally riddled with these black specs all over it. Shortly there after it lost the fight even though I moved it well beyond the reach of the FrogSpawn it had already done it's damage.

It all boils down to this... "Don't underestimate the power of the coral to defend itself and it's territory. These corals have fought for centuries and are able to hold their own for the most part..."

Play it safe and give them some room

 

[jensthemom]

Thanks! I keep having problems with them falling all the time too. I don't want to epoxy anything in case I need to move it, but I had my frogspawn fall on my tongue coral and it wasn't pretty!!!

 

[plahka]

Don't worry about the epoxy. From my own experiance it doesn't take much to separate it. The bond isn't too strong and I have always just popped it loose with tweezers I use for spot feeding.

 

[plahka]

Just pry it apart like you would the lid to a paint can.

 

[funkpolice]

you can use wire ties to hold things in place, after a while they get encrusted in corraline, and you can't even see them. You can also drill holes and dowel rocks together, I have done this, but it's kind of a hassle. Usually I spend a bit of time making sure everything is locked together nicely. Use small rocks to shim things, and try to fit everything together like a puzzle.
bill

 

[lcstorc]

Run carbon to help with the chemical warfare. As a rule, like corals can go totether but be very wary of the sweeper tentacles sent out by most LPS. They can really really stretch and attack.

 

[jensthemom]

Thanks!

Do you leave carbon filters in all the time. I heard you should only keep them in a month or so and out a month or so?????

Jen

 

[Frankie]

I was watching a Blue Planet the other day and they documented some cool stuff happening on the reef at night. Some of the soft corals were turning inside out and using there guts to kill encroaching sps. It was very strange to watch.

 

[BigAl07]

I used to have that one recorded and the DVR crashed and I lost it!

That was amazing to watch. It was the one that was "time-lapsed" right? Man that one coral totally HOSED the other one with just it's "innards".

Just goes to show how advanced they really are.

 

[Frankie]

Yeah that's the one Al! I loved the time lapse of the stag, wish mine would grow like that!