Montipora v. Acropora

[A_Lee]

I have an encrusting /plating montipora growing towards my A. tenius colony. There is another Montipora very similar to the last that is growing towards my pink Millepora colony. Will these Montipora colonies end up just growing around the Acropora colonies, or will it try to kill them?
Likewise with SPS, I assume as the branches approach one another, instead of meeting one another, they will just grow "around" one another?

 

[sfsuphysics]

well the plating montipora most likely won't physically kill/attack the acropora, however they do have this nasty habit of being able to grow faster than acroporas as a result they'll grow as close as possible they surround the coral or shade parts of it.

Now your mileage might vary depending upon the actual corals in question amongst other things, but I've learned to keep my plating montis trimmed back if I care where they're going. I've not had terribly many problems with encrusting montis though, usually they'll simply die where the acropora touches them.

 

[iani]

I think it depends on the acro. I have a rainbow monti that wins over a purple monster.

 

[A_Lee]

Mike, you have tons of experience in the coral fighting department don't ya?
Well the encrusting action of the Montipora is on the same level as the base of both the Acropora colonies (tenius & millepora). So, over shading should not be a terrible issue here. I was just curious about what I might expect to observe, so I don't flip out too much if something does happen
FWIW, the Montipora encrusts over rock, but begins to plate where the rock drops off. Heack, it is even beginning to grow upwards toward the light too -first it pillars upwards, and then forms a plate.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well I wouldn't say I have a ton of experience, there are so many variables you could enter into here that, for instance Ian's rainbow squashing his purple monster.

So what I've seen that may be of use, orange cap got physically killed where it touched a millepora, however it simply grew vertically and started to shade (before I snipped it), same cap vs some other acro (unknown) it didn't skeleton near the acro but it some how knew and literally grew around it (need to snip that one too ) as if it knew it was there. idaho grape (another plating) again damaged near the millepora, but near a tenius (guessing) it simply did the same thing where it grew up and over completely missing it.

Encrusting superman (indo) is physically damaged by some ora coral (unknown acro) and the acro is actually growing on top of the skeleton of the monti, and yes it does "plate" out where it goes vertical rather than hugging the rock all the way down.

So YMMV depending upon the corals, it's almost a sure bet the millepora will squash whatever monti gets near by, but safe bet is to simply keep the monti trimmed back with some bone shears or kill it with some superglue.