在讨论珊瑚礁水族馆的珊瑚位置时，诸如菌落之间的间距，距光源，水流水平，清扫触角和coral chemical warfare(allelopathy) often predominate. But there are special considerations beyond these that one must take into account when determining the best placement for certain soft corals and polyps. Here are just a few examples:
主要组织扩张和收缩
With many of the SPS corals, the difference in the size of a colony between its expanded and contracted state tends to be fairly negligible. On the other hand, with certain soft corals, such asSinularia,Lobophytum， 和Sarcophytonleather corals, this difference can be quite dramatic, with colonies in their fully expanded state easily doubling or tripling their size when contracted. The degree of a colony’s expansion can varynot just based on daytime/nighttime，以及系统的照明，水流，水质和其他因素。
If you don’t take this into consideration when placing a new colony in your system, a neighboring colony that has plenty of “elbow room” (corals have elbows, right?) today might be overshadowed tomorrow.
级联效应
Some soft corals have a nice compact tree-like growth habit when they’re relatively small, but as they grow, they tend to become more loose and top-heavy and then ultimately lie over, oftentimes cascading down the rockwork (depending on where they’re situated, of course). This can pose a problem for colonies situated downhill from them.Capnellaspp. corals—commonly called Kenya tree corals—come to mind here.
Colony wanderlust
You may want that colony of pulsingXeniato stay right where you put it, but it likely has other ideas. When I introduced this species to my 75-gallon reef tank (no longer in operation), I bought a rock with four or five polyps on it and placed it in an open space in the rockwork toward the back of my tank. It was the perfect placement from the standpoint of visual appeal. But apparently pulse corals don’t share my aesthetic sensibilities because the polyps soon abandoned the rock altogether and worked their way up the back pane of the aquarium, where they reproduced to an obscene level.
当然，如果我知道那时我知道的话 - 脉搏珊瑚可以很快地转移到具有更有利条件的区域，并且似乎更喜欢在垂直方向上生长，那么这不会让我感到惊讶。
Compulsive encrustation
我经常写有关某些软珊瑚和息肉的趋势包裹每个可用的表面, but it bears repeating here. The biggest offenders are species that spread rapidly via mats or runners of tissue, such as green star polyps and colonialzoanthids.
To prevent these prolific polyps from getting out of hand, it’s best to situate the rock/plug/rubble they’re attached to away from any other rockwork or surfaces you don’t want them to grow on and/or to prune away any growth that is extending where it’s not welcome. Just be advised that relying on the latter measure is risky because encrusting colonies can get away from you pretty quickly.
