Safest Way to Bleach a Coral

[Caleb Kruse]

I know this sounds weird, but I'm starting my science fair project soon. It's going to be on coral color, and its relationship with the coral's zooxanthellae. For my experiment I'm going to need to get rid of the corals zooxanthellae, and then reintroduce zooxanthellae from another species. If anybody is really interested in the whole project I can send you the lab write-up. My question is how can I bleach the coral without it dying. Raising temperature, shock it with intense light, or something else? Also, what type of coral would be best?

[dc_909]

I would say light would be a good place to start. Maybe setup a tank that gets direct sunlight???

[A.T.T.R]

wouldent starving it of light be better ( with heavy feeding possiably)

[Caleb Kruse]

I need to almost completely eliminate the zooxanthellae, would starving it of light work?

[LockeOak]

For the best chance of success, might I recommend using Aiptasia anemones? Don't laugh, they're used a lot in experiments because they're easily bleached and usually survive it. I believe some lab mates of mine do it via high temperature exposure followed by leaving them in the dark to make sure any surviving zooxanthellae can't reproduce, but I'd need to ask to find out exactly. PM me, I'd be interested in seeing your writeup.

[pledosophy]

How are you going to harvest it from anaother species and introduce?

[Flint&Eric]

korallen zucht's spur2 will do the trick.

[Caleb Kruse]

LockeOak, that's great thinking about using aptaisia for bleaching, I've never thought about bleaching those. The only problem is I need to have another coral/anemone that is the same species, but different colors. I've pm'd you LockeOak.

pledosophy, I'm going to have to grind up a small part of another coral and place it in the water. Kind of like clam farmers.

Flint&Eric, what is korallen zucht's spur2?