While reading through a similar thread regarding the life expectancy of fish in our aquariums I started wondering what the expectancy of corals can be?
Will a coral eventually die of old age? And since frags (and frags of grown out frags, etc..) are essentially the same age as the original colony, Will they inevitably die around the same time as well?
Take the Oregon Tort for example. It has been grown out in captivity for many, many years and given its unique and distinct coloration I think it's somewhat safe to say that the majority of "true" (all blue) Oregon Torts likely have all been grown out from the same parent colony. Will there come a time where this coral actually becomes less hardy in general and eventually fade out of the hobby due to old age?
Also, please post your oldest coral. Although I basically started fresh with corals after a recent move, my previous oldest coral was a Yellow Porites that I had for about 12 years or so. I bought the frag from someone who had a VERY mature system that was featured as TOTM on rc back sometime around '06-'07. His colony was massive so I'm assuming he had the coral for at least few years as well.
Will a coral eventually die of old age? And since frags (and frags of grown out frags, etc..) are essentially the same age as the original colony, Will they inevitably die around the same time as well?
Take the Oregon Tort for example. It has been grown out in captivity for many, many years and given its unique and distinct coloration I think it's somewhat safe to say that the majority of "true" (all blue) Oregon Torts likely have all been grown out from the same parent colony. Will there come a time where this coral actually becomes less hardy in general and eventually fade out of the hobby due to old age?
Also, please post your oldest coral. Although I basically started fresh with corals after a recent move, my previous oldest coral was a Yellow Porites that I had for about 12 years or so. I bought the frag from someone who had a VERY mature system that was featured as TOTM on rc back sometime around '06-'07. His colony was massive so I'm assuming he had the coral for at least few years as well.