Frogspawn vs. Plate Coral??

[Nadia0201]

I've pretty much decided against getting an anemone - but I would still like to get a coral that has a lot of movement and could be a host for a clownfish. Lighting and water movement can be changed and there are no other corals in the tank at the moment.

So - which would you pick a frogspawn or a long tentacle plate coral?

Thanks!

 

[Nadia0201]

Oh - and I forgot to ask - which type of clownfish seems to host best and have the most lively personality? (obviously an opinion, but since I think they are all cute it will help me decide)

 

[mikeguerrero]

My brother Dragon79 tried a long tentacle plate coral in his 6 gallon with bad results. It doubled in size and stung everything. You might want to consider a short tentacle plate.

The frogspawn is more beautiful in my opinion but it has a more deadlier sting. I have owned both under a 12 gallon cube with mixed thoughts. But overall would go with the frogspawn.

Check out some of my past threads with tons of pics on both corals.

Mike

 

[incysor]

I'd go with Frogspawn. Most long tentacle plates I've seen are pretty large, which makes aquascaping for them a pain in a nano.

I've owned black, and orange occellaris, clowns, and true percs.

Of the three types all of them hosted stuff eventually. The true percs seemed to take to it quicker though. The occellaris seemed to pick stranger things to host.

I've stayed away from maroon, flame, tomato and cinnamon clowns because they tend to be very aggressive, even for clowns.

I've heard that pink skunks will host nearly anything.

It really comes down to what YOU want to try though.

Good luck,

B

 

[Nadia0201]

Thanks for the info.

I originally planned on just keeping an anemone and 2 clownfish in my tank - so the stinging would not be a problem since either the frogspawn or the plate coral would really be the only coral in the tank.

If the plate coral grows really large can't you frag it since it's coral? I found information about fraging frogspawn but I couldn't find anything doing a search on plate coral.

I'm placing the tank next to my parrot's birdcage so he can watch the fish/coral too. That's why I prefer the long tentacle corals - so my parrot can really see the movement from a distance.

 

[incysor]

There maybe some folks that have managed to frag plate corals, but in my experience they're pretty fragile, and I wouldn't try it. My last one died because my jawfish covered 1/3 of it up with sand while we were out of town for the weekend. When we got home I removed the sand, but with just 2 days of being under the sand, the tissue had already started to die off, and it only took a couple days for the rest of it to go.

B

 

[Nadia0201]

Well that answers why my search for fragging plate coral came up fruitless :thanks

I think it's going to be frogspawn then . . . cause I need to be able to frag it or the coral will outgrow a 5 gallon tank too soon.