Which corals will sting their own kind? Or: breeding LPS?

[ichthyogeek]

I'm tossing around the idea of a species-only tank for single-polyp LPS (hereby listed as SPLPS). Corals like Scolymia/Homophyllia, elegance corals, Trachyphyllias, and other corals that are hard to propagate asexually. Micromussas and the like, while appreciated, need not apply. The ideal goal of the tank is to source all the corals from one area of the globe, and match temperature/lighting as closely as possible to that area in order to attempt to procure spawning attempts. Corals would hopefully be fed heavily with high lipid foods like squid and mysis, in addition to pellets, in order to accelerate gamete formation, and protocols would be derived from both SPS spawning attempts as well as rock flower anemone spawning attempts.

The ideal candidate would be cheap (sorry scolys!), small-ish upon maturity (sorry elegances!), and not willing to sting the heck out of others of its own kind. The only other SPLPS that I can think of, are Trachyphyllias. If there are others, I'd love to know, especially if they fit the criteria! But, that leaves me with the question of how aggressive trachys are. Do corals generally sting their own kind? Or are sweeper tentacles and the like reserved mostly for other genera?

Edit: found this thread on Trachys from 2015, but I'm still interested in if LPS will sting their kin (elegances stinging elegances, etc).: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/open-brain-coral-question.187720/

 

[BlennyTime]

Fungia plate corals are another option, we bought a piece of the skeleton of a huge one a few years ago and it keeps growing babies. Probably 15 so far and another 3-4 growing on it at a time.

There aren’t any LPS that will sting their own kind that I’m aware of, but they can crowd each other out if not given enough space.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Oh that's interesting! I'm interested in spawning events, as opposed to asexual reproduction, but maybe purposefully scoring Fungia might prove to be a viable aquaculture technique?

I'm glad to know that LPS won't sting their own kind! I'm thinking of giving at least half an inch of space between Trachys/SPLPS individuals, which will hopefully maximize space while minimizing overcrowding issues...

 

[Doctorgori]

more hobbyist need to attempt this. Fragging is basically cloning, whereas actual spawning should yield better genetic variability.
Kudos ...
OP Let us know more tank specs & equipment. I’m looking into using natural daylight spectrums and “Solunar” programming

 

[ichthyogeek]

I'm just playing around with the idea, since I'm still currently in a weird covid-19 transitory phase of "where are the jobs", which is limiting my ability to move into an apartment, which ultimately limits when I can start this...

I'm thinking maybe a standard 10 gallon with LEDs under "cool white" settings? That could easily accommodate 6-10 Trachys. Assuming corals follow the whole "XX/XY" sex patterning, and aren't like mushrooms (which have like, 36000 sexes), I can assure myself that I will at least have one individual that will produce sperm, and one individual that will produce eggs. Ideally, it would be one male to (# of trachys - 1) females. And this is assuming that they don't end up being hermaphrodites....