Acan lord aggression

halperin · Dec 6, 2014

Im trying to play some new acans in my tank. i know they like lowmed light and flow. but my question is how aggressive are they with other corals. can being within an inch or 2 of a duncan or another lps coral be okay? ive read that the acan echinatas are very aggression. but what about the acan lords. specially the aussie ones.

Tab28 · Dec 6, 2014

Lords have a fraction of aggression compared to other acans. But i would still leave at least 2". Enchanata requires at least twice that space. As for light. Acans are low light and low flow. No medium or you will loose their colors. Duncans are medium light and medium flow. Duncans and acans should not be in same lighting and flow areas.

saltyphish · Dec 6, 2014

I read that they are aggressive and will sting other corals. One article even went on to say if the other coral was close enough the Lord will invert it's stomach onto the other coral and digest it. Wow! That would be neat to see. Probably not on the coral you have next to it I assume. Also they do not do well in a tank with a lot of softies. Easy to care for.

Tab28 · Dec 7, 2014

Many LPS will do that. Even a hydnophora which is a SPS will spit out a spider web of death on things. I had a lobo that did it to a neighboring lobo. Most every coral will fight with their neighbors of a different species or sub-species. One thing we share with corals it seems. The degree of the war weapons are different.

Shep · Dec 7, 2014

Acans lords can sting other corals but their sweeper arms so are short that a coral would have to be very close for there to be any chance of damage.

Tab28 · Dec 7, 2014

Shep said:
Acans lords can sting other corals but their sweeper arms so are short that a coral would have to be very close for there to be any chance of damage.

This is true. In the case where a LPS has no sweeper tentacles, just feeder tentacles. They can spit out their insides that look like a spider web. I had an acan echinata where i saw this spider web thing actually slowly creep across the sand bed toward another coral.