Two corals fight

non sense

 

The hyndophora common name is a green horn I think. It does not have sweepers that I am aware of but as soon as another coral's sweeper touches it or a coral falls on it, the hydno ejects strings of white "stinger/poison". It actually smothers the entire coral with the poison and no corals I've had touch it have survived. I had a monti cap fall onto it and the hydno completely covered the entire cap with white mucus and the monti cap died. Thats whats interesting about this hydno is if something touches it, it will eject mucous strings continuosly until the other coral stops ejecting mucous strings (usually when the other coral is completely covered with hydno mucus). Generally the mucous starts coming out when you accidentally brush the coral with your hand or when another coral touches it. I've had my hydnophora eject mucouse pretty rapidly when my tank fills with bubbles because I let my return chamber of my sump run dry and the return pump starts shooting bubbles into the display tank too.

Pic of my hydnophora colony after a few hours of bubbles spraying into my tank. All other corals don't ever seem to be affected, but I think the bubbles stick to the hydno's skin and irritate it. Sorry bout small pic, it was from my phone....


Chalices have sweeper tentacles. Most chalices don't look like they pack a punch but they do. During the day, no tentacles are visible, but at night, some look like entirely different species swaying massively long sweeper tentacles and zapping anything they touch. Generally they don't take out entire colonies of other corals and some corals seem to be unaffected but I had chalices sting the crap out of monti caps and digitas, both SPS. Contact is generally initiated at night, when the chalice feeder tentacles come out and start swaying. Most people under estimate how much room a large chalice actually needs.

Some corals from the same family can touch. Some cannot. Most chalices can touch eachother same with acans. I have seen some montis that grow together and merge into a hybrid montipora cap. I've also experienced montis touching eachother and one killing the other. I have a green slimer frag that always falls on my acropora colony, but neither seem to bother eachother...no mucous and polyps litteraly touch each other without problems. I have a lobophylia that grows in the middle of a mushroom patch and the mushrooms don't bother it at all. But the frogspawn vs the lobophylia, frogspawn wins.

 

I know that got a little off topic, I hope people don't mind.

That was super fascinating and I greatly appreciate the detailed response. Exactly what I was hoping for.

While it is amazingly cool, quite frankly the Hydno scares the crap out of me! haha.

 

I used Hydno's to keep my Blue Cespitularia from running rampant.

 

From my tank