Why do we keep Euphyllia and Hydnophora?
 

Between my Hammer, Torch and Green Hydnophora I can't count how many corals I've lost to them. Fish bumps coral; coral tips over; lands on one of these three terrorists; dead coral. Grrrrr!
Aside from maybe a big Bubble Coral, Euphyllia sp. and Hydnophora sp. have to pack the most potent sting. I don't know how many times I've threatened to make reactor food out of them.

War
 

Had a hydnophora get "bumped" into my large torch, torch won.

I had a hammer win in a sweep tentacle fight versus my hand. My hand was a blistered mess for 2 weeks. I think both the hammer and I were surprised as all hell.

My Torch is probably 10" to 11" across. An Acro colony toppled and landed upside down in it. At the most it was there for a couple of hours. Lost 90% of the coral. Potent buggers.

LOL, I learned about hydnophora a long time ago. Brad gave me a piece and I swear he was cackling the moment I left. Damned thing stung anything within 8" of it. I ended up either turfing it or passing it on to the next unlucky customer. Never had much problem with euphyllia though, mind you I haven't kept them in years, I never have enough room in the big tank but I have a frogspawn in my nano.

I should assume you don't want the frag I mounted today?? It's purdy!!

I can't say much about Hydnophora (maybe some day) but I haven't ever had much problem with my wall hammer. It's a really nice coral too (and pretty easy :P). It is fairly isolated though. I have a feeling my little Favia is worse when it comes to aggression.

I've never lost an entire colony to my hydnophora or euphyllia... the trick is to not jamb pack every square inch of your tank with coral and leave a little room for them to grow. Some of the tanks I see online make me scratch my head. I recall a 20 gal nano with more specimens in it than I have in my 120gal!

Galaxea and Platygyra are the two problematic ones in my book.

I had a torch that could put out a 12" sweeper (that's 12" more then the normal length of the tentacles) and take out everything in it's path....including me. If I had kept it, I wouldn't be able to put anything else on the one side of my 175g tank :lol:

Man out smarts coral by gluing it down.

To a certain degree. I've glued down frags that are for all intents solid but have a crab who makes a hobby out of ripping glues frags off rocks. That being said, don't go stuffing corals too closely together, crabs/snails or not.

This reminds me: I need to get some epoxy... lol

Oh, just you wait until one of your fish learns how to smash frags and colonies right off the rockwork like my clownfish has. Glue changes nothin' in that game. Saves me from having to ever frag anything... or ever have nice big colonies...

We keep them because they're pretty, not because they make our lives easier. Back in the day I had a nice SPS tank (were those days real? Or am I imagining them? I can't tell anymore) I had a really nice electric green hydrophora, grew in a shelf growth pattern. Man that thing was electric. But yeah had to keep things well back from it.

Euphyllia .. same story it's purdy! Just frag that sucker and start over. Part of the fun is watching little corals turn into big corals. Watching big corals kill other corals .. turns out it's not as fun. Weird.

I"ll have to take pictures tonight of my chalice vs. hammer showdown going on in my tank. It's crazy because they are both frag size, and are 4-5" apart. They can sting eachother's bases no problem, i can't believe the chalice has that much reach! Anyways, they look good, and both have been growing great as competition? I'll be moving them apart a bit soon, worried about everything else around them after this though.

I anchor my coral with either crazy glue gel or expoxy putty.


never lost a coral from bumping or toutching to others. Once a sps had fallen on another one and bleached a good one inch at the base that was toutching but it grew back in no time now it's even incrusting on the liverock.

Seriously???? I have never even had a rash from anything in my tank... let alone a Frogspawn or hammer. Blistered??? Any pics of this unfortunate event. Not saying I would love to see pics.... but to see what someone with an obvious allergy is subject to would be interesting.


I have never had an issue with my Euphyllias, outside of a couple zoa polyps receding.

I love them in my tank and have a frogspawn I have had for about 4 years I would never part with.