Combining corals

[jdiver]

Does anyone know of, or can anyone perhaps put together, a list of corals that can safely be combined on the same rock? A friend of mine bought a rock with GSP and Pulsing Xenia, and the GSP has now choked out most of the Xenia. I have some Zoanthids, mushrooms, Xenia, and GSP that I have either fragged or am going to be fragging soon, and I'm just wondering what can be placed together. Thanks.

[tinyreef]

i don't think any corals or zoanthids can coexist indefinitely. just as in the real reef a dominant & aggressive lifeform wins out eventually buuuut...

 

if you want to try anyways you may want to try splicing different colored zoanthids onto the same rock. they may be able to coexist and thereby give you varying colors and diversity on the same rock.

 

i have one piece spliced with four different colored zoanthids but they are just now encroaching on each other. i'll see how they handle the cramped quarters over the next few months. in the past when i had multiple similar zoanthids in the same area. they stopped next to each other and instead jumped rock (at the other end of the colonies) to continue their growth. yellow polyps though tend to be most aggressive and just plow over the next colony.

 

gsp are army ants. they can't be stopped. they usually spread quick but eventually lose to neighbors who have stingers.

 

shrooms and the various stoloniferans seem to coexist. the small area requirements of the stolons don't seem to interfere with the shrooms that much but they (stolons) also seem suspectible to stingers like the gsp while also possessing fast growth properties.

[Crakeur]

someone gave me a beautiful little acro with a small xenia polyp on it but they both ended up above the water level when my top off system failed last weekend. Thus, they died.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

I have the Book of Coral Propogation by Calfo and it says that xenia and sarcophytons seem to grow better when grown together.

Tasha

[tinyreef]

i'm not sure if you should have sarcos and xenia (or anything else actually) on the same rock. the shedding from sarcos are esp. poisonous. plus the sarcos will shade any photosynthetic corals below it. ehrengi (sp?) is better in that sense but is more sensitive and encrusting though.

 

having them in the same tank environment is fine as the xenia and yellow sarco have similar requirements of strong light and good water.

[jdiver]

Thanks for the info and tips!