When corals fall on other corals

[nickyblase]

It seems that the survival rate when corals sting other corals is all over the map, and I'm curious as to why.

I'm not talking about the obvious torch coral taking out a birdsnest, but some of the other ones - SPS touching other SPS, etc.

In my own experience, I have had a coral touch another coral and a small burn spot recovered completely within a couple weeks with new tissue growth. I have also had situations where a coral (again, mainly SPS touching other SPS), where within a day or two one of the corals is completely dead (fragging dead spot or not fragging dead spot, I've tried both).

I guess my question is this - why would one stung coral heal, and another one die?

For the sake of discussion, let's assume both corals are equally healthy before stinging each other.

 

[Leroy]

Why would one stung coral heal, and another one die? Possibly due to it's chemistry make-up that either allows the coral to be strong enough to absorb the sting from another where as a weak more fragile coral doesn't have the ability to withstand the sting and will deteriorate in a much faster pace. Even the chances of a coral taken from the wild and are to survive in our tanks we found are possible in a closed system and others won't or as much as we try and when they do they are rare. Possibly much like any life form that has a strong ability to survive an adapt will out live the weak. Always had the question as to why some zoas will melt away and other don't for no known reason. Unfortunately it's always the most rare and expensive ones.

 

[lori]

my duncan fell into my grape coral total loss ouch!!!!

 

[JPags]

This will not answer your question but may be interesting to add to the mix.

I had a green cap monti frag that had a Blue milli fall on it. The Green cap got a white spot but once I reset the mill, the white spot healed and after a while the green came completely back.

A while later I had the same milli fall on the same green cap frag and this time after I moved the milli back, the green cap turned completely white one day later.

Not sure if it was the amount of time they were together or different tank parameters at the time of collision but something obviously was different between the two events to cause the total loss.

I also had a problem with an orange cap recently that no matter what I did, and how small I fragged it, all the pieces died off. My initial opinion is that it may have to do with some tank parameters that result in the coral not being able to recover after a trauma but I am not sure which ones.

John

 

[fanaglethebagle]

Some coral are more venomous, some have more tolerance to other's venom. Time spent on each other can also have to do with a lot.

 

[jbishop]

I would say the general hardiness of different coral.