corals giving out dark brown string like thing

[Lucifer]

Hi all.....i have notice dat my moon n bubble coral give out something like dark brown silky strings frm their mouths frm time to time..anybody noe why is dis happening???

My water parameters are as follow:

Salinity:1.021

Tempt:28-29

Nitrate:10ppm

PH:8.2

KH:10

Calcium:300ppm

[Lucifer]

anyone????

[shoelevy]

i believe that's the zooxanthalae algae the coral is expelling due to stress

although i don't think your Ca is the cause but do boost your Ca to 400ppm

have you done anything strange recently?

my corals do that once in awhile when i stress them from let's say major water change, or accidental overdose of not so lethal chemicals

i read somewhere that holding zooxanthallae is a stressful thing for the corals so in order to reduce stress, they may expel the algae (correct me if i'm wrong about this part)

you should only be worried if its a continuous process...otherwise i think its alright because for my corals, when they expel the algae,they close up, do it for awhile (few mins) then they stop and recover once everything is stable

[Lucifer]

ok..thanx bro.. anymore reasons ppl???

[chucky]

I agree with bro shoelovy. mine oso like tht. n the colour faded.. maybe can try 10% change of water twice a week so that the coral will not be so steress

[alexgan]

Dark brown thing is not waste release by coral after taking food meh?

[Gouldian]

Actually besides looking into reducing your NO3 to 0.03ppm and increasing your salinity to 1.025.

You may want to check on your temperature of your tank as well. Cuz there have been studies that showed fluctuation and increase of temperature are major contributing factors to coral bleaching both in captive systems and in the wild.

Thats is why, marine biologist are constamtly the ones that sounds the alarm on global warming.

Dr Timothy A. Hovanec, Ph. D have done an experiment regarding this issue, here's an excerpt of his works:

"In any case, for aquarist this study suggests elevated water temperatures can cause bleaching. If you’re corals are experiencing bleaching and there seems to be no cause perhaps setting up a constant measuring thermometer in your tank might be a good idea. Monitoring water temperature, especially during the summer, may be a cheap way to prevent bleaching in your corals. There are some which can be relatively easily hooked up to a personal computer. Measure the water temperature every few minutes for several days and note any bleaching/unhealthy corals. Then plot the data and see if there is any correlation. Also are there periods of time when the house or apartment is always closed up? Make sure to measure at those times. If there are periods when the temperature increases above normal by 3 to 5 deg C, this may be an indication that you need better temperature control. If your ambient water temperature is above 28 deg C, chances are that your water temperature is chronically high and you need a chiller."

And here;s the Link just in case you need more information.

Hope this helps.

[Anemone]

thats bleaching? i tot was poop. lol

my zoos do that sometimes.

[Gouldian]

thats bleaching? i tot was poop. lol

my zoos do that sometimes.

Actually it depends, the dark strings are actually zooxanthalles, they are symbiotic algae hosted by corals.

Thus as mentioned in the articles corals may choose to expel them due to several reasons and one of the reasons is stress.

And when all zooxanthalle are expelled corals will loose its pigments and thus commonly called "Bleached".

[alexgan]

Hi all,

Was reading this artical due to my coral all bleach. Wondering can the

zooxanthalle growth back after expelle from coral?

[AquaRa]

ah... yes. of course.

[Travy]

I also know that corals expel 'excess' zooxanthalle from their bodies. Naturally due to the fact that they need to control the algae saturation in their tissue... Got this piece of info from a documentary... Hee

[damienkee]

but if the zoo button expel something like cockroach poop, and my clown fish is waiting there and eat all of it. any1 kno wat is that?