Personal Rankings?

[Sangogo]

I know this hobby differs for everyone, even country to country. I have been reading many sites on hard corals and Japanese websites like to list how difficult a coral is. I notice though that every site has dramatically different ratings for each. Some listed the oobana (Trachyphyllia geoffroyl - I have seen these called candy canes, I think.) as being extremely easy, some say extremely hard. Some sites list sun corals as pretty easy, some pretty hard. Etc., etc.

I was wondering what you guys' own personal lists are in terms of the difficulty of the LPS you have owned. What would you rank as the easiest you have raised? The most difficult? It would be interesting to note the differences in opinion.

The only LPS I have tried so far is the sun coral and while it's a pain to feed, it seems to grow pretty steadily without being too difficult.

 

[Marco Madeira]

I think that Favites, Favia, Acan, Trachipylia, Lobophylyas and Euphylyas are the most easy to kept, but you must keep them away from algae and other corals and feed them from time to time... Goniopora are dificult and need special care. Heliofungia and Catalaphylias are almost impossibel, very dificult to keep.

The most difficult for me and a still don't have a clue why, it’s Caulastrea Forcata. I never kept one more than a year even with feedings. I never had Tubastrea (Sun polyps) but i know some people that have that coral for years. But you are going to have diferent opinions for sure...

 

[Sk8r]

I'd say the cloves, flowerpots, goniopora are the hardest for me. The galaxia is one of the hardest because of its space requirement, and the elegance used to be easier than it is now, thanks to a disease that gets almost all of them in captivity. And I've fought a personal battle with fox coral, of all things, but have finally gotten my poor battered frag [now in 2 pieces] to perk up and puff up. For me, candycane grows like a weed.

The conditions of my tank---scandalously dirty for an acro tank; I feed phyto, run a mandarin, have sponges all over, and a 4 inch crocea. There's always crap in the water and the sandbed is not the cleanest. An urchin keeps up with the algae.

I've observed that fungia is not tolerant of high alk---I had a topoff accident that damaged my plate coral, but with water correction, it is repairing itself and coming back.

 

[Bcollins111900]

Goni's (Green Type), Elegance, Blasto Wellsi to me seem to be problem children. I have had and currently have the following LPS with no problems, echinopora, echinophylia, trachys, acans, micros, brains, torch, blasto merl., hammers, frog spawns, candy canes, and I am sure the list goes on.

 

[fishboyy]

all of my lps grow extremely fast and are very hardy the include
blasto MERLETTI
branching hammer
open brain
favites
candy cane
lobophilia(sp?)
i have had NO luck with blasto WELSIES