Maybe a major blunder on my part..

[tdubs]

I am still newish to this hobby, but may have made a major miscalculation in my aquascape. My understanding was that the peaceful type of encrusters (Cyphastrea, psammocora, Monti, etc) in a crowded tank that when they touch, they typically just form a border war, where a white line would become a dead zone and the coral would resume growing in other directions for real estate. I always knew the guys with stingers needed room and have planned accordingly for those.


The problem is that I have a lot of "peaceful" encrusters of varying type, that have now started encrusting. I was told by another reefer that they can never touch, and that if they do, one coral will likely kill the entire other encruster.


I was hoping to allow them to all grow naturally into each other, not a full on nuclear war... So, what's the expert consensus here- total wipeout of colonies or just border wars?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

That white line you are talking about, it doesn't stay still, it moves in one direction, and as it moves the coral behind grows. In the end it will be only one coral.