Do corals get old and die?

[fishgeek01]

Maybe a stupid question, but I have had a green montipora plating coral for about 2 years now. Recently within the last week it has started to suffer from what I beleive is rtn. Unfortunetly there is no way for me to do anything for this coral as it is bigger than any dinner plate I have in my house and I can't remove it from the reef without breaking it apart. It measures almost 18 inches across (started as a 2x2 inch peice). Nothing in my tank has changed in the three years it has been set up. All of my parameters test at 0, calcium is at 450. PH is at 8.2. Temp held steady at 79.8 no new livestock has been added in over a year with the exception of some zoos. and birdsnest corals. The lights I have are about 3 months old, 2-150 watt 14k and 2-130 PC dual actinic.
No other corals are suffering from any recession, and all continue to have excellent growth. I have seen at least a 1 inch increase in the size of this montipora in the last 2 months alone. Extremely fast growing. But in the last 3 days this recession has started.
Any thoughts would help.

 

[fishgeek01]

oh yeah weekly water changes, reef crystals, new bucket opened about 4 water changes ago. 75 gallon tank

 

[reckler]

I would assume since it is a living organism it would live and die as anything else. I do know that when a stony coral dies it will start to bleash out to white. I have a green digi in my nano and the color turned brown and it looked like it was dieing. The polyps didn't come out aymore. one day I saw it was in full blossom. When I got my nano I had a piece of acro in it that was bleached white and dead. I noticed the other dat it had a few polyps on it.
I'm not good with sps's so I'm not really sure how they live and die.

 

[ninjamini]

No corals can live long, long lives in the ocean. While parts of them might die they regrow. Remember there not one animal but a colony of animals living together. So while the members in a colony die they are replaced by new members and the colony goes on.
The only reason that the colony would die is because it does not get what it needs...light, food... Or it gets attacked by another coral or something eats it.

 

[bang guy]

Corals don't get old. They are immortal as far as age goes.

 

[reefreak29]

in a perfect envierment they can live forever

 

[reckler]

Originally Posted by Bang Guy
Corals don't get old. They are immortal as far as age goes.
You said that the wrong way Bang Guy. It was supposed to say,
"Bang Guy don't get old. He is immortal as far as age." :hilarious

JK, I could resist, It was the perfect set up. no offence

 

[bang guy]

 

[jessica47421]

fishgeek, im sorry to jump in, in the middle of a post but i was wanting to get in contact with you regarding cardinals someone on here said your are a breeder of them and i was wanting to talk to u about that and ur close to me too......i tryed to send a email but couldnt i started a post regarding ban carndnals and would like ur input. once again sorry for jumping in

 

[maxalmon]

If it wasn't for dead corals, we wouldn't have some types of beach sand.

 

[ninjamini]

Originally Posted by maxalmon
If it wasn't for dead corals, we wouldn't have some types of beach sand.
Think about that next time you are at the beach and get sand in your bum. EEEeeeeeewwwwwww...dead corals.

 

[mudplayerx]

They die in our tanks due to much shortened lifespans as a result of captivity. In the ocean, they live much much longer than humans.
However, our hobby educates people on the wonder of the reef and helps to preserve it by allowing people to gain an appreciation for it. We are also moving a little closer everyday towards aquaculturing our critters.