LPS and territory

[labnjab]

This is something I've been curious about for a while and thought I'd ask. Will 2 coral of the same species fight each other? Like will a blue candy cane and kryptonite candy cane fight if they come in contact with each other? We have our kryptonite and blue candy cane really close and I'm wondering if I should increase the distance between them, or if its ok to leave them together. They never extend sweeper tentacles so I'm thinking their ok but I wanted to ask since these are some of our prize coral. I'm looking more so with people who've had 1st hand experience. Thank you

[kaybee]

I keep three different types of calaustrea (candy cane/trumpet) coral in the same tank and one of the types will sting the others.

Of the one's I have the one that will extend sweepers has polyp-center which is of a different color than the fleshy surrounding part of the polyp.

The other two types are uniformally colored and I have never seen them extend sweepers in the time that I have had them (since 2006).

In one part of my tank the two different uniform-colored calaustrea are within an inch of each other, with no territoriality noted. The one of two different colors has zapped and even killed some heads of the other type which were several inches away.

[labnjab]

Thank you kaybee. They're less then an inch apart and arn't showing any aggression. I'll keep an eye on them for a few weeks and see what happens but so far it looks like its working