Smell of the reef

[asylumdown]

Anyone who's had an sps tank long enough probably knows what I'm talking about: acropora corals stink. Like, Guatemalan garbage dump on a hot day, stink. I've had to throw out some coral in the last year (sadly), and acropora specifically can't go in the garbage bin in my garage. If I do, I'm practically gagging by the time my car makes it down the driveway the next morning.

Has anyone ever wondered what a reef smells like to a fish? Or better yet, what purpose all those incredibly intense aromatics serve for a coral?

 

[1MP3R1AL]

Great reference!

I know that smell... My old LFS that shut its doors around 2 years ago smelled like that when they were taking down their tanks. I'm pretty sure the Subway in the same shopping center lost a ton of Buisness.

Last year I broke down my 20L and left the sand in a 5 gallon bucket for a few months in the basement. There were a few dead sps and other assorted rocks. I started to smell something rotting one day, totally forgot about the bucket. I'd estimate a split second after I opened it I swear I puked all over the place. It happened so fast as i was running away I somehow puked all the way upstairs, outside, and out on the middle of the street where my neighbors were pulling into their driveway. They looked at me, looked at the puke and he said "look, she made that pie not me." Funny guy.

 

[vette.tech]

Weird because I was literally thinking abou this yesterday as I trimmed up a large birdsbest that started to stn and it has that acro smell as well. And I thought to myself I wonder if the fish smell this stink and it helps them find the reefs, or for commensals to find them....

 

[MondoBongo]

i remember someone mentioning this a while back, before i kept sps. they liked the smell, and i thought that was a bit odd, but now i get it.

i love the smell of acros. that kind of musty, dusty, funk. can't get enough.

 

[asylumdown]

I don't mind the smell of an acropora frag fresh out of the bag about to go in my tank. It's strong, but triggers all sorts of excited memories from when i first set up a tank.

5 pounds of the stuff after spending a night in a radiantly heated garage, however, is too much of a good thing.

but it makes you think - a healthy reef with wall to wall coral cover must be olfactory chaos to things with noses that can smell underwater. Makes me wonder about the kinds of signals that must be sent via smell that we're totally oblivious to. Corals in particular rely on chemistry for so much of their communication, defence, reproduction, etc., I bet the way an Acro smells or the makeup of that smell probably communicates all sorts of information to reef life that we're just not privy to.

 

[outssider]

maybe it only stinks when exposed to the air, otherwise wouldn't our tanks stink ?