Does any one let thier sps grow into eachother?

[spankey]

I was wondering, when I see so many mature SPS tanks it looks like the corals are all eventualy or are about to grow into one another? Do people do this? Is this safe? I was under the impresion that you never want any corals whether its SPS or LPS to touch one another. I know SPS and LPS is a no no for touching, but can you have SPS like say acro's growing into one another???

Thanks

 

[Sparkss]

it really all depends on the SPS themselves. I have seen where some get close and all out war breaks out, where one or both end up dying. I have also seen two different species grow into each other where I could see no discernable impact/damage, other than right where they touched the corals almost appeared to be trying to avoid touching each other . And I have seen many shades inbetween those 2 extremes. But mostly I have seen where the corals have die off in the immediate vicinity of the contact, and that is all. Mostly does not mean all, nor is it any sort of a guarantee that you will have similar experiences.

 

[melev]

I've tried to give them space, but they do like to intertwine and grow anyway. I'm actually surprised that they don't duke it out as we are told.

That doesn't mean they won't or aren't, but I've seen a few in my tank just act like they are lovers.

 

[Ti]

I lett them run free.

 

[64Ivy]

I've let some of mine do it a few times. It seems to depend on the species: Montis growing into acros appear to get along all right with the monti sometimes actually growing around the acro. Then I've had two different acros create a demilitarized zone of dead area between them an coexist fine that way. Ime, the worst arco 'combo' is when one of them is a slimer because that's what it'll constantly do. This slime then will land on other corals and possibly irritate them as much as the two combatants, resulting in an all out 'rtn' event. Like I said, I'll let some of mine do it. But if I see ANY problems, I immediately intervene.

 

[spankey]

Thanks for the replies guys.
Spank

 

[Kip]

worse thing that happens when my corals grow together is the trading of pigments. i had a brown/purple prostrata's base grow into a perfectly colored bright blue, red polyped superman monti.... didnt kill the monti... but the dulled brownish purple color of the prostrata took over the superman monti.

also had a german blue monti (dark base with light blue polyps) grow into a white base orange digitata. Over time... the the orange digitata has adopted the dark base of the german blue digi.

 

[DitchPlains2]

heres my idea

heres my idea

Just like the song says, "young hearts run free!"

david:lol: