Do corals die from old age?

[fodsod]

Great topic. Really makes one think. Good post OP.

 

[hexcolor reef]

One has to think about carpet anemones,

 

[Alexraptor]

I got two corals that i've had for nearly 19 years. A protopaly colony and a favia. Pretty sure there are original polyps still alive and kicking. At that size they are polyps you wouldn't easily miss if they got old, shriveled and died outright or were supplanted.

Is it even reasonable to assume that polyps even have a finite lifespan, seeing as how they can clone themselves seemling indefinitely? The biology doesn't really add up, the clone doesn't just magically get younger.

Hell for some corals you could even argue that they aren't even clones in the traditional sense, since they don't actually grow a new individual, but literally split themselves in half. A single individual becoming two.

 

[hexcolor reef]

I got two corals that i've had for nearly 19 years. A protopaly colony and a favia. Pretty sure there are original polyps still alive and kicking. At that size they are polyps you wouldn't easily miss if they got old, shriveled and died outright or were supplanted.

Is it even reasonable to assume that polyps even have a finite lifespan, seeing as how they can clone themselves seemling indefinitely? The biology doesn't really add up, the clone doesn't just magically get younger.

Hell for some corals you could even argue that they aren't even clones in the traditional sense, since they don't actually grow a new individual, but literally split themselves in half. A single individual becoming two.

Like bacteria and fungi, which act as a parasite. To stay alive the coral needs to thrive

 

[djf91]

Maybe a look at coral telomeres?

 

[nuke 208]

Haha that's the reason I always give when mine dies but no

 

[nuxx Verified Sponsor]

Never thought about this before lol

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

I've heard their potential lifespan is unknown, with it being suggested that they are biologically immortal, meaning that they cannot die to age related causes, only damage, disease, bad water quality, starvation, ect

 

[StartingATank]

I know this thread is old, but I would like to mention this to help give some more info. Corals are very closely related to jellyfish, and there are some types of jellyfish that are theoretically immortal, because once they reach a certain size, they clone themselves, and then those jellyfish clone themselves, and so on and so on. So, I believe the same is with corals. Once they reach a certain age and size, they just split and replicate themselves, and those new polyps grow and continue the life cycle. It is quite fascinating.