LPS gurus... can these touch at all?
 

I have these 3 corals I'd like to grow close together. If they touch do they just get irritated? can any of them completely nuke the others? if there are just thin dead areas between them i'm ok with that. if i'm going to lose them i'll seperare them.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/93/transfer1.jpg

Thx!

The acan on the left or background will nuke the favia On the right.maybe both acans will be fine as they seem of the same strain.

none of them are acans btw.

i think they are all favia?

At a closer look you maybe right except possibly the far one looks like acan.
From my experience favia should be fine placed together as a matter fact a had few different types fused together neat looking:biggrin:.

bump. thx for the help eli... for the record i'm positive none of these are acans though =)

i am laying out my corals today tho so anymore feedback would be greatly appreciated. i'm assuming all of these encrust or grow downwards to eventually encrust as well...

Those are definitely all Favia sp. Ime, some Favia can touch eachother, and some can't. The ones that can't will create a very large patch of dead tissue because Favia can produce very long sweepers. I've seen sweepers about 8" long. Those pieces are small enough that if any of those got mad it could kill the whole frag.

With LPS, you have to experiment. It really varies, and you can't just go by genus or species even. Place them close enough that the flesh is actually touching. Watch them very closely for the next hour. Ime, they will usually start trying to kill eachother within 5 or 10 minutes if they are touching.

Thanks for the advice mindy. The rock is big enough that I may just give each piece equal spacing on the sides and let them grow. then down the road if they fight i'll have something to save since they're bigger.

i'm a bit scared to just place them together but maybe tonight when I have time to sit in front of the tank. Although the two pieces on the left already are touching (within 1mm) so maybe that test has already been passed lol.

You're welcome. I think they are all sitting close enough that they have passed the test, but yeah just do the touch test. They will react quite fast, but it does take them some time to do damage, so don't worry about it too much.

I think the middle one might be a gonastrea. I think there are a couple different species that get identified as favia. I have had luck with them growing fairly close though you cant really trust it.

Yeah, you're probably right about the Goni. Technically, they are all Faviidae. :D