LIFE Span of corals?

[wa_lanz]

as above. anyone knows how to tell how old a coral is? or their lifespan in captivity?

have a few cynarinas and pratas with small tentacles but one particular cynarina with super long tentacles that is always showing... i assume this fella is a older one bah..

any comments?

[decentkid]

in nature...corals are immortals....but in capativity...their fate lies in your hands

[wa_lanz]

serious?? immortals in nature?? wat about captivity? assuming good water parameters and etc..

[moxa]

In captivity I think should be couple of years the most.

I do remember a reefer in US have a tank for 15yrs if he can tells us more of this coral life span that's will be great.

Or maybe send an e-mail to Sentosa underwater sea world they could enlighten us.

cheers

Moxa

[decentkid]

if u can keep the water quailty same as in the wild...they are also immortal

[boxfish]

no animal on earth is immortal

[decentkid]

no animal on earth is immortal

okok....not exactly immortal...but practically immortal...they can die...but they can also live for thousands of years

[eques]

thousands of years i'm not sure but one thing for sure is that hards corals easily out lived most living things . to wat i feel may be few hundreds years

[ryz]

if no external detrimental factors, they shouldn't die. Think I agree that they wun die of old age. thats how some corals can grow to the size of a car in the wild.

[RAV-65]

Yeah, some of the coral reefs runs for kilometres!!! imagine the time taken for it to grow!!

[piglet]

[wa_lanz]

ok... but still no answer as to how to identify their age..

trees can identify by the no. or rings in the trunk... hmmm... anyone??

[decentkid]

from what i know...lps takes a very long time to build their skeleton....so those large lps we buy...no one knows their actual age...they may even be older then us

[Reefbum]

Yup there is a way to tell the age of corals juz like how they determine age of fossils.Way out of our budget to know.

[patrick123]

from what i know...lps takes a very long time to build their skeleton....so those large lps we buy...no one knows their actual age...they may even be older then us

So meaning that LPS cannot grow in our tank then?

[ryz]

not much growth