mouths turned white

[TomZogas]

Hi. This is my first post on reef central, although I have been enjoying these great forums for many months.

I have 2 rocks of palys, 2 rocks of zoas, and about 2 weeks after they were put into the tank (ordered from zoafrag.com) their mouths turned white. My other corals seem fine, but they do require less light than the zoos (sun polyps and ricordeas). The owner at my lfs explained that if corals do not receive enough light, they may release their zooxanthellae, as they do not need it's protection from the light. He attributes this to the loss of color, but also specified that it will not be harmful to the coral.

The same day I had this conversation i bought a rock of green star polyps, whose mouths have also turned white.

I have a 65 watt pc (50/50), and the tank holds 15 gallons, 24x12x12, is this not enough light? (the lfs is having a big sale soon, I was planning on upgrading the light then).

I will try to get pictures and the levels of the tank up later tonight (the sg is 1.024, but that is with a hydrometer.)

 

[cook]

Mine do this under halides from too much light. Palys though not zoos. Do you have a pic.

 

[styndall]

Your fish shop lied to you.

First, zooxanthella doesn't protect corals from light, but rather is an endosymbiote that uses the light corals receive to produce food for the coral in which it resides. Corals don't release their zooxanthella voluntarily, since doing so would remove their primary source of nourishment.

Wikipedia offers a possible explanation:

"Hermatypic (reef-building) corals have zooxanthellae and are largely dependent on them, limiting their growth to the photic zone. The symbiotic relationship is probably responsible for the phenomenal success of corals as reef-building organisms in tropical waters. However, when corals are subjected to high environmental stress, they can lose their zooxanthellae by either expulsion or digestion and die. The process known as coral bleaching occurs when the zooxanthellae densities within the coral tissue become low or the concentration of photosynthetic pigments within each zooxanthella decline. Color loss is also attributed to the loss or lowering of concentrations of Green Fluorescent Proteins (GFP) from the cellular pigments of the cnidarian itself. The result is a ghostly white calcareous skeleton, absent of zooxanthellae, with the inevitable death of the coral unless conditions improve, allowing for the zooxanthellae to return."

I don't know what's causing your white mouth syndrome. You might also want to talk to your fish shop employee - let him know he's wrong before he misinforms other people.

 

[TomZogas]

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[TomZogas]

having a bad cyano problem. I had the lights off all day today, thinking that it might make it a bit better, but when i got home it was the worst ive ever seen it.

The very middle polyp on the right colonie looks like it has a white spot on it other than the mouth, it's just something floating by. all of the other minor fades in color are on the polyps.

 

[george albert]

those are the rainbows right? from zoafrag my centers look white also its just the polyp i have 2 4oowatts and 2 96watt act. over a 110 tall

 

[TomZogas]

i ordered azure blues or something. i dont think they gave me the right order, as the other zoos i got did not seem to be what i ordered. until about 2 days ago they didnt really have any color, they're just starting to get it.