LPS vs SPS, where's the cutoff?

[Betta132]

Do coral polyps only come in two sizes, large and small, or is there a wide range of sizes? If there's a wide range of sizes, where's the cutoff? Could I go out and find a medium-polyped stony coral?

 

[OrQidz]

I think a reef magazine recently talked about this, but I can't remember which one. There is a range of sizes, from things like acropora to bubble corals, or those big open brains, or duncans, etc. I'm not sure that anything has been deemed "medium" as yet. Are you concerned with setup and parameters for SPS vs LPS? Or more which you just like better?

I find SPS a little boring and like things that look like neat, squishy animals. But that is heresy to some

 

[Azedenkae]

There isn't, really. It's rather arbitrary. And more so, biologically, it has little significance, and can lend to misunderstandings of the requirements of certain species of corals.

 

[Moort82]

As above it is only a hobby term and not scientific. If your worried in terms of care then the simple sps are harder to keep isn't always true so just research the individual species you like and take it from there.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I've heard some disagreement about turbinaria (cup coral) being SPS or LPS. +1 to the above comments though. It doens't realy matter as far as care, though it is used to generalize coral into catagories.