iwishtofish
Active member
Is this poop, or zooxanthellae? No matter what it is, it seemed to come from all heads, and this is the first I've ever seen it happen. It was quite a bit of matter.
What is my torch doing??
- Thread starter iwishtofish
- Start date
iwishtofish
Active member
Good. Hope so!
CoralReeferGal
New member
It might be too close to the clam; how long have they been placed there? Some corals defend themselves through chemical warfare if they feel threatened
iwishtofish
Active member
It's been there over a month. Do you think the gunk it put out was some kind of weapon? I always thought torches put out sweeper tentacles. Hmmm...
CoralReeferGal
New member
I"ll ask my fiance as soon as he gets home... I'm no expert, but he mentioned what I said above ^^ he had torch corals several years ago, and the only reason we don't have another one now is because they can be semi aggressive, and we have no where to place one right now without being too close to something else... I'm not sure of the time frame though, is they were to "defend", how soon they would do it.
emeraude1484
New member
It's expelling zooantellae. My torches and bubbles do that every once in awhile.
iwishtofish
Active member
Ok, thanks
Two for poop.
Wow, if so, that's a LOT of zooxanthellae!
CoralReeferGal
New member
OK, I did a little research of my own... I'll still double check with what my other half thinks, but so far from what I'm reading, I wouldn't be worried. It does sound like zooxanthellae. How long have you had the torch? Just a month? If it's fairly new in your system (and where did you get it from? Was it recently shipped maybe?) This is what I found: "All photosynthetic corals are constantly regulating the population of zooxanthellae within their tissues. This is a process that starts very early in life and doesn't stop until the coral dies. When a coral is kept in a low light environment, like they may have been in naturally, or shipping containers, and many holding facilities, they will allow the population of zooxanthellae to increase. The amount of energy/carbohydrates any one zooxanthellae can produce is governed by the amount of light it's exposed to. In a low light environment, the coral needs a large population of zooxanthellae to produce enough energy to sustain them. When we take such a coral and place it in our tanks, under 250W MH's, this large population of zooxanthellae, not only begins to produce large quantities of energy, but they also produce large quantities of oxidants. These oxidants are damaging to the cellular architecture of the coral, so the coral must discharge a portion of their zooxanthellae, or die. Zooxanthellae are different shades of brown. So, when a coral discharges a large portion of their zooxanthellae, we see it as a brown substance being released from the mouth. We don't want to force a newly introduced coral to deal with excessive levels of oxidants within its tissues. When we see this in a new coral, that is exposed to bright lights, its a very good indication that we need to reduce the amount of light it's exposed to." And the picture in reference looks pretty darn close to yours. HTH!!
iwishtofish
Active member
Sarah, that's a great quote, and I appreciate your taking the time to research that for me! I do have the coral near the beam of the PAR38 LED that is shining directly on the clam, but from what I've read, the PAR of the beam drops dramatically just inches from the center of the beam. Clearly it might be significantly more light than the coral was exposed to long-term in my other tank (maybe 5 weeks ago), so I have to debate now whether or not to move it.
CoralReeferGal
New member
No problem! I'm one of those people who get interested in a topic, and if I'm not sure, I do my best to find out. it satisfied my curiosity, on top of helping you out! Glad I could help!
it satisfied my curiosity, on top of helping you out! Glad I could help!
iwishtofish
Active member
No problem! I'm one of those people who get interested in a topic, and if I'm not sure, I do my best to find out.
The torch seems ok, maybe even open as much as it has yet been in this tank. I did move the LED beam a bit farther away.
