Echinata vs scoly

Blue Meg · Sep 14, 2017

any thoughts on how far an acan echinata should be placed from a scoly? I've got mine about 3.5 inches apart, but I keep hearing stories of aggression.

Also, I've got some real estate near my open brain. I'm thinking about another open brain or a favia. How do those react?

ChiCity · Sep 14, 2017

Blue Meg said:
any thoughts on how far an acan echinata should be placed from a scoly? I've got mine about 3.5 inches apart, but I keep hearing stories of aggression.

Also, I've got some real estate near my open brain. I'm thinking about another open brain or a favia. How do those react?

Place it further, and down flow from the scoly...
Echinatas are mean af

UCedumacasion · Sep 14, 2017

ChiCity said:
Place it further, and down flow from the scoly...
Echinatas are mean af

I've seen tentacles over 6" long from A. echinata. Don't risk it with another coral, especially a scoly. 100%^

Blue Meg · Sep 14, 2017

ChiCity said:
Place it further, and down flow from the scoly...
Echinatas are mean af

I have a gyre system, but ok.

jd371 · Sep 15, 2017

I believe my Enchinata was aggressive towards my Cyphastrea. I noticed yesterday that my Cyphastrea that was near ( 2") to the Enchinata had a slimy film over the side that was closest to the Enchinata. I took it out and removed the slime from the Cyphastrea and it was bleached underneath the slime. I moved the Cyphastrea to the other side of the tank next to some Zoas. I hope the Cyphastrea will bounce back, half of it looks great and the other is bleached.

UCedumacasion · Sep 15, 2017

in my experience, A. echinatas send out tendrils that try to move other colonies to them. If your cyphastrea was secured it would just try to kill it.

Just watch your flow patterns and decide where the area upstream is (and put the scolymia there). If you can't really tell, turkey baste (blow off) your rocks in order to find this. Every pump system has a dead spot, even if you have 100x time over. If it were me I wouldn't take a risk.

jd371 · Sep 15, 2017

Here's a shot of my Cyphastrea. The section that is bleached was covered in a slime and it was the side facing the Enchinata. I moved to the other side of the tank next to some Zoas.

UCedumacasion · Sep 15, 2017

jd371 said:
Here's a shot of my Cyphastrea. The section that is bleached was covered in a slime and it was the side facing the Enchinata. I moved to the other side of the tank next to some Zoas.

Glad you caught that. It'll recover, might take some tiem but you'll get it there.

jd371 · Sep 15, 2017

Thanks, so it's safe to assume that the feelers from the Enchinata caused the Cyphastrea to slime up and bleach?

PedroYoung · Sep 15, 2017

This isn't my pic, but shows how nasty these buggers can be.

AcanEchinata by Peter Young, on Flickr

DSC reef · Sep 15, 2017

Keep the echinata as far away from other corals as possible. As cool as the orange crush echinata looks, I'll never keep another echinata in the tank.