What makes a coral a Softy?

[ched03]

Okay, I'm a little confused here.  I know that LPS are large polyp stoney corals and SPS are small polyp stoney corals.  But what are Softies?  Are those just the flowy LPS like Hammers, Frog Spawns and Troches?  I thought I saw someone say that they recommended Softies because you don't have to test as much as you do with LPS and SPS.  But if the previously mentioned corals are LPS then they aren't what people refer to as Softies are they?  Thank you in advance for the clarification.  Y'all are awesome!

[Clown79]

Here is a full explanation of the difference.

 

http://seaa.rwsentosablog.com/hard-corals-soft-corals/

[Tamberav]

4 hours ago, ched03 said:

Okay, I'm a little confused here.  I know that LPS are large polyp stoney corals and SPS are small polyp stoney corals.  But what are Softies?  Are those just the flowy LPS like Hammers, Frog Spawns and Troches?  I thought I saw someone say that they recommended Softies because you don't have to test as much as you do with LPS and SPS.  But if the previously mentioned corals are LPS then they aren't what people refer to as Softies are they?  Thank you in advance for the clarification.  Y'all are awesome!

 

Softies are not LPS.

 

LPS = Large Polyp Stony Coral

SPS = Small Polyp Stony Coral

and Soft Corals

 

The "stony" part is why you need to test and dose, they use calcium/minerals to make skeletons which they pull out of the water.

 

Hammers are LPS, they have a stony skeleton. Something like Xenia is a softy, no skeleton. At least most soft corals don't have much of one in the way LPS/SPS do. 

 

and just to throw a wrench in it there is also NPS, non-photosynthetic corals 🙂 That use filtering/food for energy and not photosynthesis. They are also a type of LPS or soft coral too. 

[OPtasia]

Soft corals are simply corallimorphs that have no stony skeleton. 

[Oldsalt01]

Just to confuse it more, some “softies” incorporate calcium as spicules in their bodies or stalks for ridgidity. 🤪

[StinkyBunny]

On 12/30/2018 at 11:35 AM, ched03 said:

Okay, I'm a little confused here.  I know that LPS are large polyp stoney corals and SPS are small polyp stoney corals.  But what are Softies?  Are those just the flowy LPS like Hammers, Frog Spawns and Troches?  I thought I saw someone say that they recommended Softies because you don't have to test as much as you do with LPS and SPS.  But if the previously mentioned corals are LPS then they aren't what people refer to as Softies are they?  Thank you in advance for the clarification.  Y'all are awesome!

Soft corals, in general, are ones without a calcium skeleton. Leather corals, zoanthids, mushrooms and Xenia are different types of soft corals. Some corals, suck as leathers and Dendronephea incorporate calcium spicules into their form.

21 hours ago, OPtasia said:

Soft corals are simply corallimorphs that have no stony skeleton. 

Not all soft corals are morphs.

[mcarroll]

LPS and SPS are meaningless terms (literally) for a few types of stony corals (Scleractinian).

 

But "SPS/LPS" does nothing to describe whole groups of stony corals though, so it's always better to use different terminology or the corals name when possible. 

 

"Stony coral" is all you're really saying with "SPS" or "LPS" anyway....so that may be the best generic term.

 

Leather corals are usually considered "soft" but are more of a borderline case -- they build stony elements (sclerites) into their tissue which they can use to stiffen up their body, deter predation, and....

Quote

...recent findings suggest that colonies of the leather-coral genus Sinularia are able to cement sclerites and consolidate them at their base into alcyonarian spiculite,^[2] thus making them reef builders.

(from Alcyonacea)

 

Soft corals do not make any kind of calcium mineral.   (Coralimorph = mushroom...a softie.)

 

Check out the entry on Wikipedia for Hexacorallia.  Almost everything we think of as a coral is part of that family. 

 

Most of the rest of our "coral-ish" critters are in Octocorallia.   

 

Those are the two main classifications of Anthozoa class.

 

Anthozoa looks like this:

Anthozoa	Hexacorallia    Actiniaria      Antipatharia      Corallimorpharia      Scleractinia      Zoantharia       Octocorallia    Alcyonacea      Helioporacea      Pennatulacea       Ceriantharia    Penicillaria      Spirularia