Quote:
Originally Posted by EMeyer
Those are interesting ongoing projects, none of which has anything to do with the claim that aquacultured corals in the hobby are "selected" or "evolved". As was correctly pointed out, all propagation in the hobby is by asexual means. Every coral in a hobbyist tank is genetically identical to a coral that was pulled out of the ocean sometime within the last few decades.
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I have no idea if you are correct about coral evolution but the claim that every propagated coral is the same genetically to what it was taken from doesn't ring true.
Each coral consists of hundreds (thousands?) of polyps. Different types of polyp animals reproduce differently but many are sexual. It is possible that the frags of frags of great, great grandfather frags are generically different to the original due to reproduction after fragging.
Of course it's just as likely that the corals adapt. The textbooks say than two members of one species on the same reef can look like entirely different species due environmental factors like water turbidity, flow, competition etc.
Great topic
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