All joking aside. OP, an LPS dominant tank can be very beautiful, with lots of movement and interesting forms. Acans are great. Blastos are great, especially with lower light. Also don't discard some of the sand-dwellers. Fungia plates, scolys, trachys and even acanthos and cynarinas (although looks like you have an Evo, which might be space-limiting for the larger meat corals).
Pardon the dirty glass:
"Tiffany Ring" acan
Purple/teal blastomussa wellsi (bad angle)
Space invader pectinia (give it extra space!)
Orange fungia plate
Regular hammer
Don't toss out the idea of Rock Flower Anemones--they mix well with most LPS (ignore the torch, he's not happy this AM):
Trachy
Also you might consider some cloves as alternatives to zoas. Also pretty and no palytoxin (ignore the RTN'd acro--it was a hail mary frag and didn't make it):
Lots of options!
Thank you so much! Yeah, no elegance or toadstool corals for me due to my small Evo but I really appreciate all if these suggestions. Absolutely going to go over this list and do more research but blastos, acans, hammers, frogspawn, photosynthetic gorgonians (a soft I know) and cloves are definitely on my 'approved' list!
I don't actually have ANY coral yet let alone zoas. I didn't mention it in my OP but I'm also just underwhelmed by them having seen them in person several times now. Seeing Keplar stick his paw in the back filter compartment was simply the last straw and my last internal shred of desire for keeping zoas crumbled under my need to keep him safe. He's only two years old: I would like to have him by my side for at least eighteen more years. If I knew that there were varieties of zoa that were proven safe then I might consider them but both me and my cat are kinda dumb. I know the risk is minimal but I love my cats dearly so I am just not going to bother with it at all.
When you're a lonely awkward pet guardian like me you protect your pets with tooth and nail.
Okay so my veterinary training makes me need to address the Toxoplasmosis elephant in the room:
- You are
far more likely to contract
Toxoplasmosis from improperly washing and cooking veggies and meat (and also gardening) than you are to get it from cleaning a litterbox.
- It is
extremely easy to avoid contracting
Toxoplasmosis: simply wash your hands after cleaning the litterbox. Wow. So hard.
- If you
do contract
Toxoplasmosis you probably won't even notice that you have it unless your immune system is severely compromise. It's mostly only a risk to human
fetuses, not fully developed humans.
- If you do contract it you - and your cat if they get it - are literally only infectious for two weeks of your/their
entire life.
- A cat's risk for contracting
Toxoplasmosis goes down significantly when they are kept indoors (as they arguably always should be as they live far, far longer when kept indoors plus an indoor cat cannot predate upon endangered species or contribute to making species - including other species of cat - endangered.) Guess where I keep my cats - that's right, indoors.
- If a woman is worried about
Toxoplasmosis and pregnancy she should have her blood tested for it. If she has already had
Toxo then she doesn't need to worry about it; if she has already had it than her fetus will be in zero danger from it. If she hasn't had
Toxo before? She can simply wear gloves and wash her hands after doing stuff outside/in the litterbox/during meal prep to avoid the risk. Easy. (Or the person who got her pregnant or another family member can do these things instead.) I have had my blood tested for
Toxoplasmosis: I haven't had it so if I did ever become a biological mother I would take these easy precautions.
Basically: wash your food before eating it and wash your hands before putting your hands near your mouth =
Toxoplasmosis becomes barely a risk.
Any other LPS suggestions?
www.mayoclinic.org
