What causes bleaching?

hey guys what causes bleaching and stuff in like annenomies and sps corals

 

I have never had it happen but I was told too much or to little lighting can cause it. I am sure there are other things too.

 

bleaching is caused by a range of things including high fluctuations in temperature, pH, poor water quality anything out of the ordinary. as for the lighting if there isnt enough or is too much lighting that can cause them to bleach.

bleaching is the process of the coral expelling the photosynthetic pigment 'zooxanthellae' which gives the coral its energy.

as for anemones some dont need much light and some need alot but anemones are carnivivorus and are capable of eating animals etc whole. so for an anemone to bleach it would be from lack of food and poor water quality.

hope this helps

 

Not entirely true- if there is too much lighting, the anemone will also expel it's zooxanthellae, just like if there's a little bit less than adequate, you will often seen the color of the anemone darken due to an increase in zooxanthellae. Many cnidaria will alter their amount to best suit their surroundings, and is not always an indicator of poor water quality.

To make things even more interesting, many anthozoa after being completely bleached out, can pick up different zooxanthellae from different cnidaria and use it in their own tissue to once again begin producing the nutrition necessary to survive and flourish. This explains the different color variations of many same genus' of coral. For example: the many color variations of frogspawns and hammers.

 

anemones usually don't bleach from lack of food. Most of the time, if they aren't getting food, they will split but will maintain their color as long as lighting is adequate. They split as a survival mechanism. If there's no food in the area and they aren't eating enough, when split a smaller anemone can live on less food. Does this make sense??

 

i did say that "some dont need much light and some need alot but anemones are carnivivorus and are capable of eating animal."

hence saying that the lack or excess of light can cause bleaching. i was just stating both ways depending on what type of anemone is was and where it came from