Chemical warfare

[florida reef]

Has anyone ever heard of soft corals, specifically zoas and leathers, releasing chemicals to combat other corals? Is this a possible cause of LPS death? The owner of my LFS told me that is why my LPS has been dying and suggested I begin running carbon via reactor.
I am not trying to trouble shoot my tank right now, I am just wondering if anyone has ever experienced something like this.
Thanks

 

[divewsharks]

Yes leathers and other softies are known to use chemical warfare to battle for territory in the wild and in or tanks. Running carbon should definitely help.
Having said that I have never had any problems with leathers in any of my tanks (with sps or lps) and I don't normally run carbon.
Do your leathers look stressed? How its your water quality and flow?

 

[skinz78]

+1, Leathers are pretty notorious for doing this. I run carbon 24/7.

 

[Sasquatch]

Allopathy: The stunting of growth or inhibition of growth of aquatic animals by means of chemical warfare. This occurs in aquariums between competing animals of the same or different species.its a war in there lol

 

[las]

are mushrooms also noxious? I run carbon 24/7 also

 

[Chong]

I've heard the same thing from my lfs owner. Running carbon in a reactor should help.

 

[Sasquatch]

are mushrooms also noxious? I run carbon 24/7 also

mushrooms are anemones so its the old stinger thing with them

 

[florida reef]

update for anyone interested: My frogspawn that I have had for almost two years has lost two of its heads. I can only assume this is from the softies toxins. I have since began running carbon in a makeshift reactor until I can buy a more efficient one. Thanks for the help and advice!

 

[DrTrey]

What are you feeding said aforementioned withering frogspawn?

 

[florida reef]

Mysis and whatever else I feed the tank.

 

[gar732]

I have a mixed reef with two good sized leathers, zoas, many diff lps, and sps. I don't run carbon nearly as often as I should and I haven't had problems like you are describing. I deffinetly think it's a good idea to run carbon but I also think you should start looking for other problems you might have. Post a few details about your setup and your parameters and maybe we can figure it out.

 

[nixer]

yes it can happen. there is many other things that could lead to your lps issues also.

 

[Murfman]

Too much direct flow can cause Frogspawn and Hammer heads to die off too.