Coral Compatibility Question

[fishlovr]

My 58 gallon reef has been up and running since May. Some of my frags are starting to grow close to each other. I am concerned that some of them should they actually touch each other, will do some kind of damage. Can a colt hurt an anthelia or pulsing zenia? How about zenia touching a frogspawn? TIA for the help......
Janey

 

[mlm]

You will probably have trouble with the Xenia and the Frogspawn. Not too sure about the others.

 

[quazi]

My anthelia and mushrooms are like noxious weeds. They sting and crowd out my brain coral, SPS, and others. I have to exterminate them like vermon (or aptasia!) with Kalk paste, cutting and scrubbing. I cannot grow Xenia (even though my understanding of anthelia is that it is a kind if Xenia), so I cannot speak of its issues. I believe it would also sting/crowd other corals.
I would not worry about the colt hurting th anthelia. I would worry about the anthelia hurting the colt!!!!

 

[fishlovr]

Thanks for the replies......I guess I'll just keep an eye on things and do some cutting back and moving around if necessary. Sure is fun to see things grow, but I don't want them getting out of hand either

 

[rsd]

I have weeds... I mean xenia. They tried to crowd my frogspawn but I noticed that after they touched the frogspawn the xenia would close up and shrivel for a few minutes. Now my xenia grows in a nice semi circle around the spawn!
If you want to control xenia... buy a long spine urchin. My urchin was eating a full stalk every other night till I got him out. Really did a nice job keeping the xenia trimmed back though... If only I could train him to eat the ones that are "in the way" or "in a bad spot". Oh well.
**** although keep in mind that the urchin may eat other corals as well... only joking about buying the urchin to control xenia... kinda joking anyways.

 

[fishlovr]

Thanks for the info on frogspawn and zenia I just got through chopping the heck out of my zenia. Got 6 frags started for the LFS. I also cut back 2 places on my anthelia and started them for the LFS and a friend. Glad the frogspawn doesn't suffer when touching the zenia.....it's one of my favorite