Quote:
Originally Posted by sail33
did someone say "Tank of the month " ??
I've NEVER seen corals placed so close together. I didn't think it could be done....chemical warfare anat...
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Well, I am still not sure it can be done.
Actually, there all all kinds of responses to competition for space and light. The acros either sting (chemo tactic warfare) or they encrust over the other in a race to shade out the competitor My red planet is both stinging and encrusting over the palmers blue Millie that it is next to. Montiporas come right up to acros and either try to encrust over the acro or if the Monti is stung(via chemo tactic warfare), it obviously dies back but then re-encrusts over its dead skeleton, repeating this pattern over and over again until it completely grows over and/or shades out the competing acro
But most just race for light and rock to encrust. I had envisioned a gazillion corals of all shapes and sizes growing next to each other. I still think I may be able to accomplish this if I aggressively trim my garden. I am pretty sure without consistent trimming (and maybe even with it), there will be winners and losers in the race. Perhaps the most likely long term outcome will be a handful of very large colonies.
And I have discovered, coral are difficult to trim-- something breaks accidentally, either the main branch breaks off or you break an adjacent colony. They are most definitely not like plants, no give in them, they don't bend, they just break
In my defense, all the original frags were so small and there was so much space. And there is always one more acro that I have never seen before, and how much space it could really take up. I am sure I am not the only person addicted to coral