Are corals really strictly carnivorous?

Yep, definately not a marine biologists, definatley just
reading as he goes along.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Jaime R-S wrote on 2/27/2006 8:44 PM:
Well Croosh, good try but no cigar dude!
1. The only instance that a relationship is parasitic if it is negative to
the host... There are plenty of examples of symbionts that only one side
benefits. Don't confuse symbiosis with mutualism. All mutualisms are
symbiotic but not all symbionsis are mutualisms...
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=symbiosis
2. Corals don't have skeleton? For God's sake dude read a little more
please!
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=coral
3. In your world, how and where plants store glucose? Do plants expell
glucose out in, lets see, some type of sweat?
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/...BioBookPS.html
(this link doesn't only aply to macrophytes, the process is universal to all
plants)
4. So, acording to you anemones will die in the dark!
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14920152.400.html
Do I have to say anything else?

Ignorance is daring!

Well, methinks you are one of Wayne's clients, so knowledgeable and well
informed that I have to bow and yield!

jrs

"Croosh" wrote in message
oups.com...

Jaime,
Unless a coral can benefit from its algae, it would be called
parasite/host relationship, not symbiosis, and many photosynthetic
corals don't have skeleton to benefit from calcium carbonates...
There is also a thing called carbohydrate (glucose for example) that
coral would benefit from directly, i.e. algae consume CO2 and some
byproducts of coral's metabolism and photosynthesize oxygen and
glucose, which in turn benefits coral.
Anemone is even more carnivore than an Acropora colony for example, but
try keeping one in complete darkness and just feed solid food. It
won't live till Christmas I bet...
(Actually, don't do that since you'll slay a perfectly good animal)

Regards
Yuriy