Does this sound right?

rcpalmer1 · May 18, 2017

I have a mixed tank. I have about 60 different corals in it. Everything has been doing great. I have a birds nest and Monti that were apart. They both have been growing like crazy. They were getting close to each other. I have been watching them close. Tuesday night the Monti looked perfect and where they were starting to touch the BN has 2 branches that had turned white. Wednesday my wife calls me at work saying the Monti was covered in slime. When I got home the BN had a couple inches starting at point of contact that was white. The Monti had a couple inches that had turned white and you could see the fleash melting away. That was 24 hours. I moved them apart. I am at work. My wife called she says that now both are almost completely dead. It has been less that 48 hours. All other corals are doing fine. When I got the Monti I had gotten two pieces. The other piece that is inches away shows no signs of distress. Does this sound normal or do I need to be looking for something else?

CodyRVA · May 18, 2017

Sounds to me like they stung each other. I have a few congested areas and have to constantly make sure the colonies don't touch; almost all will sting each other in one way shape or form.

rcpalmer1 · May 18, 2017

I was figuring it would sting each other and maybe kill back I little area. Didn't think it would kill the whole coral.

CodyRVA · May 19, 2017

rcpalmer1 said:
I was figuring it would sting each other and maybe kill back I little area. Didn't think it would kill the whole coral.

Honestly from my experience it depends on the corals and how long they were making contact. I had a very small piece of green star polyps touch the base of a 5 inch sunset monti frag and by the end of the day the monti was toast. Conversely, my green birds nest recently made contact with an acro and only the branches that made contact died off... hard to say. I'm always cautious to try and not let my colonies make contact unless I know they're the same type: purple & green stylo.