Do Corals Age?

[OzKat]

Does anybody know if coral has an age limit like most other animals.
eg. Humans live to 100 give or take. :)
Or is it that a coral dies ONLY if something is wrong?

[crsaz]

not sure if they have a "life expectancy" but they do rech sexual maturity so I would think so, I have heard some sponges have a life span of 30-50 years, then die and can regenerate from a small fragment.

[whatcaneyedo]

I recall reading in a book somewhere that anemones live indefinitely until something kills them. I believe its the same for all coral in general but I'm curious to know what the experts say.

[gobbly]

In a marine bio class my prof stated that most corals do not have a limiting age. If I remember correctly this is related to the hayflick limit, and has to do with how many times the DNA in a cell can be replicated (take this with a grain of salt, I changed majors to computer science :D). I don't know if she knew of corals which did have a limiting factor, or just wasn't sure and was covering her bases with the word 'most'.

[Mr. Right]

From a video that was on Anthony Calfo, he said something to the effect that corals do not age, the very well could live forever, and time doesn’t age their tissue like other humans.

Could you imagine? If all is well (unlikely) keeping a coral for 50 plus years?

[Zappo]

You guys made me curious, so I did some digging and found this:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090324091209.htm

One of the corals studied was 4,270 years old! So yeah, if nothing kills them, corals can live a LONG time.

[OzKat]

Interesting arcticle Zappo, Thanks!
So what it says is that the coral skeleton continues to grow, but the live polyps grow, spawn, die, new ones continue to grow, spawn and die etc.Like most life forms then. Sounds fair.

[StrongMN]

very cool article, thank you for posting it.

I have some corals that are 3 months old in my tank :)

-Justin

[Threelittlefish]

OK.... nothing lives forever. NOTHING.

[crsaz]

OK.... nothing lives forever. NOTHING.

thats not necessarily true, you fogot about the immortal jellyfish:lolspin:
http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_bloggers/26/the-world-s-only-immortal-animal.html

[listen2bob]

For most of our corals each individual polyp is its own individual organism living in a communal relationship hence the term Coral Colonies. The individuals age, reproduce, die and are replaced, however the commune continues to grow and live. Thats why there are 1000 yr old coral colonies, determined through analysis of the skeleton, with relatively young individual polyps.

[fisho125]

This is an interesting thread, if we take this to another level, is the same to be said about living cells. when a cell of a particular age splits the does the daughter cell then take on that same age or does the origional cell halve it age?

[Limerboy]

who has the oldest coral in their tank?

[Shotgunlew]

Tagging Along

[IrishStock]

I have a Fox coral that was one of my first corals 13 years ago.

[Allmost]

something to consider is that we have been watching corals for only so long, corals existed before us, and will do after us as well !

that mean they change and adapt

anemones dont die

sponges break apart, but dont die, they just break apart into different frags, like an anemone would split if stressed.

[Limerboy]

anyone with a coral older than 13 years?

[Monkeyfish]

Aren't starfish supposed to be "immortal" too?

[Jason S]

I am pretty sure Duncan's are immortal... Hasn't anyone else ever watched Highlander?

ok, bad joke... :)

I am not sure that they are actually immortal, but the colony seems to be as close as it gets.

[GhostCon1]

Think of it this way. Human cities are coral colonies, each human in there is a polyp. While the individual humans (polyps) die off, they keep building onto, and thus, expanding the city (coral colony). So, the structure lives forever, while the individuals that construct it do not.

[Spazdad]

I am pretty sure Duncan's are immortal... Hasn't anyone else ever watched Highlander?

ok, bad joke... :)

I am not sure that they are actually immortal, but the colony seems to be as close as it gets.


I laughed !

[fisho125]

that may not be the best description
what happened to the aztecs they got bleached

[whatcaneyedo]

something to consider is that we have been watching corals for only so long, corals existed before us, and will do after us as well !



Thats a comforting thought but I worry that we're going to kill them all off long before we kill ourselves off.

[bleedfire]

I was watching discover channel a few months back, and they stated something cant remember on top of my head, but the deep sea corals, farthest away from any polution or human discrepancies, somewhere in hawaii where researchers found types of brain coral and gardradia(forgot what its called) coral that aged to 5000Years.

but then again we know more about the moon than our ocean...
there might be LOTS of different living organicism dating back millions of years might even be... humaniods, Atlantisss oOoOoOoOoOo.
sorry... thinking way to muchhh

[noobtothereef]

yep, theres a brain coral on youtube thats the size of a van and is expected to be over 5000 years old

heres a large one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewARvhWxx64

[Scooter902]

Think of it this way. Human cities are coral colonies, each human in there is a polyp. While the individual humans (polyps) die off, they keep building onto, and thus, expanding the city (coral colony). So, the structure lives forever, while the individuals that construct it do not.

Well said...