keep corals apart?

[HawkeyeDJ]

I see lots of advice all over saying that corals must be kept sufficient distance from others to avoid something called coral warfare. And yet, the most beautiful reef aquariums I see online have the tanks packed with corals all over the place.

What am I missing?

 

[Reefinmike]

If you look at natural reefs, a single coral often dominates hundreds of square feet of real estate.

If left alone, our artificial reefs will also only have one or two dominant species. People spending $500 on a single head of designer torch coral have a weird motivation to micromanage a bonsai reef environment that’s completely unnatural. I enjoy watching constant coral warfare as it’s “reef building” at it’s core. I let things play out naturally aside from periodic pruning of over zealous monti caps that I just snap off and push back in the rockwork.

Some people like national forests. Others enjoy “gardens”.

 

[Waters]

Those tanks that you see packed with multiple different types are constantly being fragged to keep everything in control.

 

[Dburr1014]

Those tanks that you see packed with multiple different types are constantly being fragged to keep everything in control.

100% this^^^^

Also, what you don't see is depth perception. What I mean by that is some corals may look close but it could be that it's in the background more, giving the look like it's right next to the other.

 

[bushdoc]

"Coral Warfare" has many weapons, chemical, mesenteric filaments, nematocysts. On enclosed pictures you see SPS dominant systems. Worst coral battles are raged betwen some LPS corals with mesenterial filaments, extending to kill others or leather corals, which are using chemical warfare. SPS don't have those, so basicaly can kill each other by direct contact only.