Non-photosynthetic corals that contain zooxanthellae?

[uhuru]

http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/con...onen-lab-finds-symbiodinium-many-black-corals

Some quotes from the article for the lazy:

"Knowing that most Hawaiian black corals contain the same symbionts as shallow‐water reef building corals brings all sorts of questions: How many other azooxanthellate corals contain Symbiodinium? Why are the symbionts there? What is the nature of the relationship between the host and their symbionts? How do they survive, and what is the physiological function of these symbionts in such low light environments? The list goes on and on....

...How the zooxanthellae survive in dimly lit regions is just one of many questions that need to be answered. The team in Hawai'i says: "This is a new and important discovery for coral biology, representing the deepest record of Symbiodinium to-date. This research also implies that some members of these algae have extremely diverse habitat preferences and broad environmental ranges." As one long-time reef observer said today: "It's time to rethink and rewrite much of what we thought we knew and much of what has been written about so-called "azooxanthellate" corals."

I wanted to make a new thread for this because:

1) I would REALLY love to get my hands on a branching black coral similar to what is shown in those photos.

2) I think this is a really important discovery and maybe some of the corals we think are "azooxanthellae" actually are not, but they may still be non-photosynthetic. Obviously many of these black corals live in darkness and don't contain enough zooxanthellae to support themselves, so are they just vestigial (evolutionary remnants) and what about other corals that seem to be able to REACT to light even though they may not benefit from it? Could they be using zooxanthellae in some way, or have the zooxanthellae adapted to become parasitic to the coral? Very interesting stuff and just goes to show how little we really know about "non-photosynthetic" corals.

 

[coltrref]

thanks for opening the topic and, interesting the discovery, from what I believe that some corals azooxanthellae it should not to import the light for them as it is the case of the gorgonias.

also in some others as the sun corals, dendro's, or can sclero's. be a part of an evolution?

interesting question

what if this one or other corals contain zooxanthellae?

it would break with the whole well-known scheme, but: will it be difficult to accept it?

or have the zooxanthellae adapted to become parasitic to the coral?

or is it necessary to a bacterium that allows them to survive and to feed as it usually happens in some abysmal beings?

 

[uhuru]

Does this also mean that black corals and possibly other non-photosynthetic corals evolved from their photosynthetic relatives? They found that the Symbiodinium species were the same ones found in the photosynthetic stony corals like Montipora spp.

 

[slapshot]

That might explain our (aquarists) success with the spiral corals. Interesting, now we just need to know to what extent these corals can survive on nutrition from their Zoox. If its better than half we should be able to keep them in a dark environment.

 

[Aquabacs]

Mike dug this thread up because I going to be soon adding few additional corals to the list of "so called" azooxanthellate corals that contain zooxanthellae.

Mike