Todd's Torch Aggression

[blanden.adam]

Alright Todd's Torch (And other euphyllia) keepers of URS. One of my favorite parts of my tank is the euphyllia garden. As of yesterday, it had at least one of every species of euphyllia with the exception of E. glabrencens and E. yaeyamaensis separated by a couple of inches growing along merrily (note, all of the euphyllia present are relatively short tentacled). Today, I got a frag of E. glabrencens in the form of a Todd's Torch (thank you Lang!), and need to know, is this coral compatible with other euphyllia and should be added to the garden, or should it be placed apart from the rest of the euphyllia, and what are the experiences with placing euphyllia next to each other in general? I'm particularly concerned because the euphyllia it is most likely to sting if it's incompatible is my cyan walling hammer, which I would be very upset to lose.

As of right now, it is in the garden about 2-3 inches away from it's closest neighbors and about an inch higher on the rock. It's tentacles are relatively short now, but I know they get crazy long, and was wondering if I should move it sooner rather than later, or just let it stay.

 

[tmz]

My experience is that some of them bite each other and are better off with their own space. Hard to answer generally as some will do fine together. It depends on how close the nematocysts are to the coral on the receiving end . If they're very similar the coral on the receiving end will just grab them up for it's own use. If not, they'll harm it. Torches , seem to be th most potentially damaging to other euphyllia but it's a specimen specific thing . I had ancora that was a killer.
Good luck with it.

 

[TheRealRuk]

Maybe a result of the TT's elevated ego... Adam, Do you have any pictures of your euphyllia garden??

 

[blanden.adam]

The TT certainly does have an ego, so much so that I decided to not risk my hammer and just move the torch. Now he has his own little spot up above the rest of the euphyllia in the corner of the tank. It's a bit higher flow than I would have picked ideally, but it's alternating and the tentacles are getting blown around in every direction, so I guess we will see.

I don't have any good pics of the garden yet... it's not quite ready I'm still missing 1 species (and a few growth-pattern variants, but we'll get there), but hopefully in a couple of months when the yellow-fluorescent tipped cristata has a new head or two and the cyan hammer have deepened in color (turns out, a bit of nitrate and phosphate in the water can be a good thing ). The yellow cristata is just starting to get over the time when I accidentally smashed him into a rock changing his position, lost all his tips but somehow pulled through. Still a single head, and he still looks a little ragged to say the least