TheDragonsReef
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You hear it pretty often in tanks with lots of colonies, "how do you get them to grow so close without killing each other?" And the answer is well sometimes they do.
Eventually even if you do prune and frag your corals back, in a healthy environment they will eventually collide. Its amazing that animals that grow so slowly and are unable to move on their own still manage to fight to the death. Whether through chemical warfare or simply overgrowing their opponents lets see those fights. Post your coral battles and who won the fight!
I have a massive 14in bubble coral, here it is annihilating some mushrooms and palys that started growing too close
Acropora vs birdsnest. The acro has been taking out any tip of the birdsnest that gets too close. Here you can actually see the acros mesenterial filaments attacking the birdsnest in the center of the picture
This is actually a 4 way fight, the encrusting monti, a cyphestrea, zoanthids and a birdsnest all fighting for this territory. The Aoi zoas are the losers here but everything else is holding its own. Where the cyphestrea contacts the monti and birdnest it does kill small sections, but both of them seem to just be willing to grow over the cyphestrea.
This poor acro frag is being suffocated by the zoas and colt coral. Ill be cutting them back soon
A wave of zoas has begun to surround the base of this anacropora. Ive cut them back once previously. Im monitoring them closely but i feel without intervention they will kill it
Green staghorn vs montipora. Once the monti touched the stag it was instant regret. This staghorn seems to kill any sps it touches, but hammers in the tank have done some pieces of it in with ease.
Monti vs favia
Heres a case of if you cant beat them, grow over them. The favia stung some pieces of the monti originally, then the monti started growing over it. I have to regularly cut the monti or it wouldve completely encased the favia.
May not look like it but this is a battlefield. I put the pandoras here only cause they had no where to spread.
On the right that green monti cap grows at plague proportions and grows over everything. I have to cut 3-5in of growth monthly.
To the left is a hammer, south is a duncan, and to the north is a digitata and acropora. The pandoras have started climbing the acro but theyre easy enough to cut off of it.
the duncan beats the pandoras, green cap gorws over everything, pandoras beat the acros.
Further up the same green monti cap is seen here growing over branches in the back of this acro and digitata to the left
Montipora digitata growing peacefully alongside the montipora stellata. The base of the digi does seem to be trying to grow over the base of the stellata on the left.
This hammer and duncan dont seem to bother each other but the montipora growing down the center gets the wrath of both.
Hard to see in this picture but what i belive is a psammocora(?) Took out the nearest branch of the acropora.
Acro vs montipora digitata
It was the touch of death, as soon as the acro made contact the digi took a nice blow
Monti. Stellata vs monti. Digitata
They seem deal equal damage on contact but continue to grow into each other
Wall hammer vs mushroom. This hammer tries to sting the mushrooms but rarely makes contact. After some more growth from the hammer the shrooms will fall for sure.
Eventually even if you do prune and frag your corals back, in a healthy environment they will eventually collide. Its amazing that animals that grow so slowly and are unable to move on their own still manage to fight to the death. Whether through chemical warfare or simply overgrowing their opponents lets see those fights. Post your coral battles and who won the fight!
I have a massive 14in bubble coral, here it is annihilating some mushrooms and palys that started growing too close
Acropora vs birdsnest. The acro has been taking out any tip of the birdsnest that gets too close. Here you can actually see the acros mesenterial filaments attacking the birdsnest in the center of the picture
This is actually a 4 way fight, the encrusting monti, a cyphestrea, zoanthids and a birdsnest all fighting for this territory. The Aoi zoas are the losers here but everything else is holding its own. Where the cyphestrea contacts the monti and birdnest it does kill small sections, but both of them seem to just be willing to grow over the cyphestrea.
This poor acro frag is being suffocated by the zoas and colt coral. Ill be cutting them back soon
A wave of zoas has begun to surround the base of this anacropora. Ive cut them back once previously. Im monitoring them closely but i feel without intervention they will kill it
Green staghorn vs montipora. Once the monti touched the stag it was instant regret. This staghorn seems to kill any sps it touches, but hammers in the tank have done some pieces of it in with ease.
Monti vs favia
Heres a case of if you cant beat them, grow over them. The favia stung some pieces of the monti originally, then the monti started growing over it. I have to regularly cut the monti or it wouldve completely encased the favia.
May not look like it but this is a battlefield. I put the pandoras here only cause they had no where to spread.
On the right that green monti cap grows at plague proportions and grows over everything. I have to cut 3-5in of growth monthly.
To the left is a hammer, south is a duncan, and to the north is a digitata and acropora. The pandoras have started climbing the acro but theyre easy enough to cut off of it.
the duncan beats the pandoras, green cap gorws over everything, pandoras beat the acros.
Further up the same green monti cap is seen here growing over branches in the back of this acro and digitata to the left
Montipora digitata growing peacefully alongside the montipora stellata. The base of the digi does seem to be trying to grow over the base of the stellata on the left.
This hammer and duncan dont seem to bother each other but the montipora growing down the center gets the wrath of both.
Hard to see in this picture but what i belive is a psammocora(?) Took out the nearest branch of the acropora.
Acro vs montipora digitata
It was the touch of death, as soon as the acro made contact the digi took a nice blow
Monti. Stellata vs monti. Digitata
They seem deal equal damage on contact but continue to grow into each other
Wall hammer vs mushroom. This hammer tries to sting the mushrooms but rarely makes contact. After some more growth from the hammer the shrooms will fall for sure.
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