Article from the NYT on coral coloration

[iambenfields]

Hey y’all,

not sure if this has been posted here but I wondered if it had been discussed. Are we stressing our corals into these majestic displays?

When Coral’s Colorful Show Is a Sign That It’s Sick (Published 2020)

Under stress, certain coral species put on displays to try to re-attract symbiotic algae they need to survive.

www.google.com

 

[andrewey]

Nice find! This was actually posted a little while ago (The CBS article describing the same study). You can check out the discussion here:

According to CBS all the nicest tanks are on the brink of death

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/dying-coral-reefs-colorful-bleaching-survival-effort-climate-change/

www.reef2reef.com

 

[iambenfields]

Ah, thanks @andrewey i figured this had been batted around... I’ll start offering my SPS some light yoga classes

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

That sounds like the basis of some aspects of the zeovit method to me.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Interesting brown corals are healthy corals and colourful corals are stressed corals. No wonder u can’t get them to colour up

 

[blasterman]

Some corals also toss their symbiotic algae to adapt a lower or higher metabolic algae or clade group if environmental conditions dictate it.

Heres a pic of a common german blue digi in one of my tanks. This coral was stark white after a zinc penny fell in the tank a few months ago, but has recovered. Under medium light this coral can be a dull green or brown and not very remarkable. Smash them with light though and stable water conditions and they turn an indigo color with metallic white polyps. I wouldn't call the coral stressed, but the color response is obviously sunscreen.