Corals Vs Algea

[Simply__J]

I can't be the only one who's seen corals sting, burn or otherwise destroy other corals to death if they are too close and are competing for territory. What we've all come to know as "coral warfare". But yet most corals are sensitive to or stesseted by surrounding algae growth.

Why is that corals can't just sting away encroaching algae the same way they do other corals?

 

[lilgrounchuck]

Algae doesn’t know it’s being stung, so it just keeps growing. It’s like attacking air pollution with a gun.

 

[Simply__J]

Algae don’t know it’s being stung, so it just keeps growing. It’s like attacking air pollution with a gun.

So what makes other corals more vulnerable than algea is the fact that it knows it's being stung? Deer don't know they're being shot and still die.

 

[Phildago]

I think what he was trying to say is that it does but keeps coming.. Where as a coral retreats

 

[lilgrounchuck]

The algae doesn’t have anything to react with the coral stinging it. The coral sting may rupture the cell walls of the algae at the contact site but it doesn’t care. There’s no touch sensitivity with the algae. It just sits there sucking up light and nutrients. If it dies off at the contact point it’ll just grow right back to it. If it cares about ripped apart and bothered keeping tanks clear of it would be much easier. Fish and inverts chomp it, we scrub, scrape, and blast it with chemicals that in even the tiniest concentrations wipe out entire coral colonies, but the algae just keeps growing. It’s crazy resilient.

 

[Simply__J]

The algae doesn’t have anything to react with the coral stinging it. The coral sting may rupture the cell walls of the algae at the contact site but it doesn’t care. There’s no touch sensitivity with the algae. It just sits there sucking up light and nutrients. If it dies off at the contact point it’ll just grow right back to it. If it cares about ripped apart and bothered keeping tanks clear of it would be much easier. Fish and inverts chomp it, we scrub, scrape, and blast it with chemicals that in even the tiniest concentrations wipe out entire coral colonies, but the algae just keeps growing. It’s crazy resilient.

I appreciate you @lilgrounchuck for indulging my crazy questions.