Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Marine Systems and Husbandry – by Anthony Calfo / Chemical Warfare / Latest Posts

RE: Chemical Warfare

Anthony Calfo — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:00:58 GMT

thank you for your very kind words my friend It is a labor of love for me, truly.

Chuck makes some good points about what is commonly believed by many people. The "truth" is that we just don't know enough about these organisms. While I think on the reef much of what is said above is (largely) true... I am personally certain that unnaturally high concentartions of even Acropora in captivity will fail in the relative short term in most tanks (2-5 years). We see it tank after tank as the years go by. To the extent that it may (IMO) partially explain the common and devastating recurring incidences of RTN-like/stress induced mortalities and morbidities. (prolonged stress and expense of dear biological energies) Its inconceivable to me that these cnidarians would not use any significant means of chemical defense when so many other kin do and would/will outcompete them on the reef (and in aquaria worse) for it.

RE: Chemical Warfare

clownfish4 — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:20:06 GMT

Thanks Anthony, you are certainly the most helpful person I have come across in this hobby. Can you verify any of what Chuck said? Not trying to dismiss you Chuck, just looking for other opinions, thanks for your input.

RE: Chemical Warfare

Anthony Calfo — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 10:20:33 GMT

its a poorly undertood area of aquatic and aquarium science alike. We know it exists... we know its real bad in some cases... but little has been defined beyond plants, algae and soft corals. I have not written any articles on it, but I collect a good bit of my data and information in it from http://scholar.google.com searches (that URL is in the "Fav links..." )

not surprisingly, too... when I just (now) did a general search for "coral allelopathy" on the http://science.howstuffworks.com/ website (also in my (Fav links..." ) I see a hit come up for our dear friend Eric Borneman (who has often lectured on allelopathy):

http://www.coral.noaa.gov/bib/borneman2.html

Some very interesting references there.

Which also reminds me to remind you/my friends about the bibliography of any good book. It is the best part of most good references. I gleaned a lot of insight on allelopathy by exploring the citations in one of Eric's books.

Anth-

RE: Chemical Warfare

charlesr1958 — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 23:33:34 GMT

I myself would like to see more information about that subject, if any is available. But concerning acropora species, I believe they rely on speed of growth to compete for space. Just by being able to quickly overshadow an area, they make it unsuitable for other species to want to settle or grow into their space. They can also out compete by just their ability to be fragged so often by wave / storms, giving them extra colonizing opportunitys as well. While unsure, I have never had an acropora species do each other harm when placed very close, again, I feel the "winner" would be determined by who can grow faster and over shadow the other.

Chuck

Chemical Warfare

clownfish4 — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 21:18:35 GMT

Anthony, do you have any good articles on chemical warfare? I didn't see any in your "fav links" and apologize for my ignorance if I just missed it. Basically I was wondering if there is and fighting within families and species. For example, will a blue acro sp. fight with a purple or green acro sp.? And will 2 different colonies of blue acro sp. fight? If you start with a single colony and it grows very large, will it fight with itself?

Thanks so much to all who reply.