Montipora and Birdsnest touching

[ViktorVaughn]

I purchased a couple of small frags of a Reddish Montipora Cap and a small pink, green-tipped Birdsnest coral back around November or December of last year. I thought that I mounted them with a sufficient amount of room to ensure no overlapping and touching but, it appears the time has come where they will be competing for room. Not sure if I should try and frag off a portion of the Birdsnest where it has grown over and into the Montipora or try and move the Montipora elsewhere. It will be complicated a bit by the Montipora having grown off of its frag plug and onto the rock surrounding it (underneath the main Cap portion). I am kind of limited to real estate but could probably figure something out.

If I were to try and frag off the portion of the birdsnest that is touching the Montipora where it attaches at the base, will it grow back from there or just focus growth elsewhere? Also if I were to just let it be, would there be any wholesale die off of either piece or would it just be localized to the spot where they are touching. Not sure if the die off, if there will be any, would stop at the spot or spread up from the contact point and kill off the rest of the colony. Thanks for any help!

Pics of crowding

 

[dattong]

You can frag the BN or you can let them grow into each other. The stronger one will sting and kill the weaker but only where they touch. They will eventually fuse into each other once they are able to tolerate the sting of the other.

 

[ViktorVaughn]

Awesome, Thanks! I was kind of hoping that was the case and there wouldn't be wholesale die off of the weaker species. At least SPS is way more tolerant than some of the LPS I have where if crowding and touching occurred there would most definitely be some dead colonies within a week.

 

[dattong]

Btw what I suggested is only true if you have colonies like yours. Frags will end up getting killed.