Advise on placing of softies (next to each other)

[ssunthar]

Hi Experts,

Taking into consideration the verities of soft coral species available out there.. I am struggling with the right placement of these corals together or next to each other (given their ability to sting other corals nearby, don't want them to accidentally hurt or kill each other). Wanted to know if there are any guidelines or charts available on the right ways (dos vs don'ts) when placing different types/species of these corals close to each other? Thanks in advance for any suggestions and recommendations.

Note: As I am struggling with the placement of LPS' & SPS' too.. will be opening a similar discussions in those discussion forums too.

 

[MaxTremors]

Most soft corals will tolerate each other, I’ve got mushrooms, zoanthids, leathers, Xenia, and clove polyps all touching each other/growing all together. Mushrooms can sting other corals, but they usually don’t care about other softies. But, if you notice certain corals remaining closed or not growing, and they’re touching all other coral, you can try separating them to see if they improve. LPS are, in general, much more aggressive. Most won’t tolerate other species touching them, and some won’t even tolerate the same species touching them. That said, some can be fairly close to and occasionally touch other morphs and/or members of the same genus without issue, for example acans/micromussa (have to be same species, don’t put a lord next to a bowerbanki or enchinata), blastomussa (merletti and wellsi can touch), Frimbriaphyllia (hammers and frogspawn - some people have no issue with Torches/Euphyllia touching hammers/frogspawn, but I’d recommend against it). I’m not the most knowledgeable when it comes to SPS, I really can’t tell you much, I’ve been feeding for over 20 years and have only kept a handful of SPS (actually kind of just getting into them now). What specific corals do you have?