Coral Placement

Brazospat

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I know this might be a dumb question, but how do you know which corals you can put beside each other? For example can I put my GSP close to mushrooms, Kenya trees? Can I put my hammer close to my frogspawn? Can I put hammers or frogspawn close to mushrooms or kenya trees? Will an anemone kill any and all corals that are in it's proximity?
I am sure there are books or articles out there. But all I ever see is articles talking about light, flow and height.
 
@Brazospat wrote:
I know this might be a dumb question said:
I would isolate the GSP on a rock you can remove and not let it grow all over.. youll end up wanting ot remove them at some point, well most people do. They will sting the Kenya Trees and over run your mushrooms. Mushrooms will grow all over and will sting other corals as well so keep those isolated as well.

Hammers and Frogspawn will be okay next to each other, same family of coral. You will not want ot put a torch near them though. Just give them enough room to grow but if they happen to touch it wont be a problem in my experience. I had a ton of hammers and frogspawns all together without issues.
 
for the most part, like corals with like is generally fine - euphilia with euphilia, zoas with zoas, etc. when it comes to mixing, and different types of corals touching, its more exceptions than rules - for example most mushrooms mix in with most zoas ok, but you might have shading/crowding issues; Anthialia and xenia seldom have enough aggressiveness to hurt other corals, but other corals can hurt them. then you have the really aggressive corals, generally of the large polyped stony variety, that can reach out inches or feet to attack and kill neighbors - and you have to take them on a case by case basis.
so to address your examples:
GSP/mushrooms/Kenya trees - GSP and kenya will probably get along with minimal agitation as neither is very aggressive, mushrooms might add in fine depending on the variety, but would be more likely to cause some agitation. since they are all different, its better not to plan on them touching, but since none of them are that aggressive you should have plenty of time to adjust them if you see them irritating each other before any permanent damage is done. as dave said, they may out-compete each other - like weeds in a garden - but they wont generally outright kill each other quickly.
- hammer and frogspawn get along fine, they are the same family - like with like - crowd them together with no issues.
- the euphilia family (hammer/frogspawn/torch/octospawn) are pretty aggressive, and will likely burn the crap out of a GSP/mushrooms/Kenya trees/most any coral if they touch. they may even reach out several inches to do so.
- anemones pretty much sting everything they touch. its more a question of "will it kill it or just irritate it ?". best to keep you coral out of its way if possible.
 
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