Reef Discussion

Dr. Schell

The Fuckin' Doc
Jul 12, 2011
1,972
1,228
Brisbane
Coral/Anemone Bleaching - experiences
Hi Guys/Gals,
Just interested to see what the occurance of coral/anemone bleaching is within captive systems.
I will get the ball rolling with my experience with my toughest anemone clone (now have multiple indivdules derived from the single specimen).

I used to keep this anemone in a relatively small tank without a chiller (and still do in my Premnans tank). The anemone thrived throughout Autumn, Winter and Spring, but Come summer in Brisbane, multiple days of tank temperature in excess of 30 degrees C.

I noticed that this anemone could handle these temperature for a period of up to 4 days, without bleaching (expelling its zooxanthellae - a single-celled algae that lives within the tissue of the anemone/coral/clam). However come the 5th day, and shazam, I would wake up to a white anemone (was deep brown the previous day). With this clone, bleaching has occured every year to at least 1 individual within a non-chilled tank.
Following bleaching, the anemone is completly dependant on digesting food. My experience is that I feed daily, the anemone will completly recover within 3 months. An interesting aside to this is that prior to bleaching, the tenticles are generally long and slender. Upon bleaching, the anemone "bubbles-up" for several months until it fully colours up.

To put the phenomen of bleaching into context, it is an adaptive process. It is caused by an inability of the zooxanthellae to effectively photosynthesis (i.e. high temperature). The zooxanthellae begin to produce toxins, and in response the anemones/corals expel the zooxanthellae. When conditions improve, the anemones/corals have the ability to once again obtain zooxanthellae from the water colum.

Thoughts/experiences?