Can zoa's and birdsnets corals touch?

[BanZI29]

I have a rock with all different types of zoa's on it and I just picked up a fat and tall birdnest stick. Can they both share a rock and possibly touch?

 

[Tired]

Either the birdsnest will try to sting them back, or the zoas will try to overgrow it. It's best not to have corals of different species touching, particularly if some of them aren't soft corals. If all are soft corals, you only have overgrowing to deal with. If some are stony, you have stinging to worry about.

In short: probably don't.

 

[BanZI29]

Aww man! That what I thought but wasn't sure. That would have looked awesome though. Oh well. Thank you thou.

 

[Tired]

Do you have any frag putty/aquarium putty? If you made kind of a tower/extension so that the birdsnest was at least an inch away from the rock, if not more, you could put it on that. Then the birdsnest would get decently big before it spread down to where the zoas were. A decent-sized birdsnest frag on a zoa rock would probably do okay fending the zoas off, so it could be worth a try.

Alternately, you could put it in one of those bare areas, and put a ring of frag putty around it. Then, whenever zoas grow onto that ring, just cut them free of the colony, remove the ring, and put a new ring.