How Do Coral Colors Come About?

[Forsaken77]

How do certain crazy colored corals come to be? Can they be bred to make a gene line? Can you frag two of the same corals with different colors and have them bond? Can they be bio-engineered to have certain colors? Or is it just the luck of the draw when the coral is forming?

What determines the colors a coral will have?

 

[tdileo]

I believe genetics take part, but coral breeding and even spawning is almost unheard of in captivity. Certain corals (montipora comes to mine) can be fragged and placed together and if you get lucky they will grow together rather than fighting, and a multicolored montipora can be made. The amount of zooxanthelae and light spectrum also can affect how it appears and will change it. However that is all I know on the subject.

 

[Forsaken77]

Like a Rainbow or a Walt Disney? How did these come to be? Was this a wild coral that was just fragged over & over?

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Like a Rainbow or a Walt Disney? How did these come to be? Was this a wild coral that was just fragged over & over?

I'm thinking most corals with crazy colors come in with that DNA already. It's just a matter of aquaculturing them so that they are "tried and true" in a captive environment. I don't think there's anything that anyone is really doing to make them look that way. It's a matter of finding best conditions for their growth.

 

[jda]

There are some grafted corals - most do not do anything, but some do. The new colors from from sexual reproduction in the ocean... this is oversimplified, but a blue/green coral that gets with a red one will be different than either of the parents.

 

[tdileo]

Like a Rainbow or a Walt Disney? How did these come to be? Was this a wild coral that was just fragged over & over?

Something like a WD came in as a maricultured piece and somebody saw potential, and with some nice blue lighting and a fancy name added, it became one of the most well known named corals around.

 

[jda]

It was probably wild, not Mari. Most Mari stuff is already well-known in the hobby to be hardy and effective. Wild is where the best stuff comes from. However, I have no idea... it could be mari.

 

[mtraylor]

How do certain crazy colored corals come to be? Can they be bred to make a gene line? Can you frag two of the same corals with different colors and have them bond? Can they be bio-engineered to have certain colors? Or is it just the luck of the draw when the coral is forming?

What determines the colors a coral will have?

Mother Nature in the wild. Then putting them under some nice 20k lighting.

 

[chefjpaul]

Mother Nature in the wild. Then putting them under some nice 20k lighting.

[emoji106]

 

[Forsaken77]

Mother Nature in the wild. Then putting them under some nice 20k lighting.

So Mother Nature is responsible for some crazy colored chalices and whatnot? Does the coral have to be in certain conditions in the wild to get crazy coloring?

How do new corals begin in the ocean? Are they polinated like plants and a seedling falls on a rock? How does one become to be? What do they just form out of? And is there certain particles or different algae species that go into what colors a coral has?

 

[chefjpaul]

So Mother Nature is responsible for some crazy colored chalices and whatnot? Does the coral have to be in certain conditions in the wild to get crazy coloring?

How do new corals begin in the ocean? Are they polinated like plants and a seedling falls on a rock? How does one become to be? What do they just form out of? And is there certain particles or different algae species that go into what colors a coral has?

Most coral polyps have clear bodies. Their skeletons are white, like human bones. Generally, their brilliant color comes from the zooxanthellae (tiny algae) living inside their tissues. Several million zooxanthellae live and produce pigments in just one square inch of coral. These pigments are visible through the clear body of the polyp and are what gives coral its beautiful color.