lps torch v sps montipora; which wins?

[Sk8r]

Surprise. The montipora.
Had a creeping contact between the torch and the montipora digitata, which had gone on for days...separated them.
The montipora looks fine, a little scarred about one tip but all growth tissue, no recession, and part of a torch tentacle stuck to its growth end, which is doing fine.
The torch---ok, too, but missing a tentacle tip. Happier to be away from that brutal montipora.

This particular montipora reacted to a common purple discosoma mushroom by recession. Couldn't take that contact. But the torch couldn't really damage it.

Just one of those little tidbits of info on the great superhighway.

 

[cloak]

Given time, torch.

 

[InsaneClownFish]

That's weird. I was all ready to respond Torch. I saw the handle and said...nah Sk8r isn't really asking this...he knows the Torch will win

I do have a theory. Is it possible that in the contact the Torch tentacle broke off which damaged the Torch more than the actual contact did...so in essence, what cloak has just said, "given time, torch."

 

[Sk8r]

I think "given time" is probably correct: sps are persistent critters, and can (so I've heard) actually concentrate nematocysts on a side where there's conflict.
But what floored me was the fragility of this coral up against a common mushroom, which most of us consider pretty bland---and its ability to hold out against a coral that can sting US, not to mention its neighbors.

The torch is about 15-20 heads so it's going to take no real damage.

But I do wonder what the deal is---and what the mechanism is. Possibly the torch damages other poofy lps by harpooning them with nematocysts; but that weapon won't work well on a flat-skinned, non-inflated sps; while shrooms exude more of a general nasty chemical from pores on their surface. Just a point of evolutionary curiosity.

 

[cloak]

The only thing that montipora can offer is shade. A torch needs light...

Different levels.