Why don't purple clove polyps take over all of the oceans?

[Ohioreefer7]

I am just curious as to why purple clove polyps don't take over all of the oceans of the world. What eats or kills them in the wild? Why don't they grow over everything like they do in aquariums? Why haven't they made it into the Caribbean by attaching to ships and boats? In short why haven't they taken over the world like they do in aquariums?

 

[Ohioreefer7]

I'm guessing your favorite Coral?

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I am just amazed how quickly it grows and takes over everything in a tank. I just wonder what controls it in the wild.

 

[reret10]

It's probably partly because it has a limited space to grow. Reefs today are so filled with organisms that it's difficult to find a little spot to root down and start taking over where there aren't already existing organisms. At least to some extent. But now with massive bleaching events and space freeing up, who knows? It very well may take over. That's of course very speculative and soft corals often do have predators in the wild.

 

[FishNDip]

Lol that's a funny title, I was thinking well, a Christian would say because God skillfully made the ocean, and a Atheist would say Evolution at it's prime.

 

[JZinCO]

Lol that's a funny title, I was thinking well, a Christian would say because God skillfully made the ocean, and a Atheist would say Evolution at it's prime.

Replace why with how to remove the connotation of purpose or reason

In a simple example,
If we had, barnacles and mussels in a tank, we would always ask, why do mussels overtake everything and we can't keep barnacles. A little research and we would find out we need Pisaster starfish. Then we would ask, why do pisaster take over and devastate our mussels. Then, we would say, oh we need otters to keep starfish in check such that a competitive balance allowing coexistence of mussels and barnacles can be achieved.

More generally, there are alot of organisms that can overtake aquaria. They don't have the same environmental conditions nor community assemblages as in the wild. For example, do you have nudibranchs (some of which do specialize on clove polyps)? Let's just say, the ability for clove polyp to dominate depends on competition for space, light and other resources (which therefore depends on the traits of its competitors), the ability for clove polyps' predators to effectively forage whilst competing against other predators whom have similar prey, the same for the predators of the predators, and their relationship to other members of the community. In other words, it is complex and the outcome of who wins and losers in the aquaria vs the wild depends on some background conditions which may not be similar.

 

[reefwiser]

In the ocean there are other animals that will eat the clove polyps.

 

[Ohioreefer7]

In the ocean there are other animals that will eat the clove polyps.

What animals? That was what I was curious about. Thanks.

 

[JZinCO]

 

[ca1ore]

In the ocean there are other animals that will eat the clove polyps.

I was about to make the same comment. Butterflyfish for starters. Nature abhors a vacuum - if clove polyps started to run rampant, new predators would appear (well, in all good evolutionary time, that is).

 

[Tripod1404]

Because you keep them with "reef safe" tank mates. Put a SPS, a LPS and a clove polyp together with a generalist coral eating fish, clove will be the first to be killed since it doesn't have a hard skeleton to hide.

 

[Ohioreefer7]

I think I know why purple clove polyps have not spread into the Caribbean like orange cup coral. I think because purple clove polyps need sunlight for their zooxantheli they can not attach to the bottom of ships like orange cup coral did due to it not needing sun to survive. Plus it would likely just get eaten by fish and nudibranchs and never become dominant like it does in the aquarium.