General Coral Question

Discussion in 'Coral' started by JOER0178, Mar 19, 2004.

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  1. JOER0178

    JOER0178 Peppermint Shrimp

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    i dont have any corals yet but ive been researching for the future. i see that it is advised to give most types of coral some space. But when i look at alot of tank pics i see that the corals are really close together and they seem to be doing fine. i wanted to know if I was missing something
    thanks
    joe
     
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  3. Matt Rogers

    Matt Rogers Kingfish

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    That's a good question Joe.

    I know many people go overboard and recently I posted a pic on a great tank that was definitely packed and I made the comment that he must be fragging like crazy.

    Craig has mentioned that in such scenarios some toxic warfare can break out resulting in corals 'downwind' of others getting stressed. Carbon helps keep this to a mininum.

    Personally I have a lot of room for my corals. On my last tank, I enjoyed watching them fill out over time. My old hammer coral started out the size of a mouse and grew to be football size after a few years. It was cool.

    So if you fill every nook and cranny with corals, some will probably get stressed and need to be moved around, or you will eventually be fragging a lot.

    My 2 cents.
     
  4. JOER0178

    JOER0178 Peppermint Shrimp

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    so i guess when they say it need room they mean to grow and the pics maybe of tanks that initially had room and then the corals just grew
     
  5. verbal

    verbal Astrea Snail

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    Yeah, growth is one aspect of it. Some corals can grow and shade out others below them (eg Sarcophytons do this commonly). Also, there really can be territorial battles for space. Some corals have stinging tentacles that come out and attack (eg bubble coral); others release growth inhibitors and chemicals around themselves. The bottom line is that packed tanks look impressive, but may not necessarily be the healthiest tanks. That said, there are plenty of combinations of corals that seem to do well together.
     
  6. hottielover14

    hottielover14 Torch Coral

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    how about brain coral, how much space do they need. can u put some xenia,bubble coral,brain coral, and hammer coral all together in the same tank.