why no white corals?

[reef tank 2.0]

with all the coral colors that are out there, and different types. why is there no white coral?
and when I say white, I'm talking healthy coral that is meant to be white.
you can find every color of the rainbow, but that one.

unless there is white coral out there, but I've never seen any

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Because alot of times people are looking for bright and colorful corals. White just isn't a coral color we look for in the hobby, so its not worth it to sell. I am sure you can find a white coral, they're just not at all common.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

There are some acros not bone white of course. They do have other colors. Also there are some pulsing Xenia as white as the snow.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

we do like bright and colorful corals, but there are also those reefers that like brown mushrooms
I like white!

 

[reef tank 2.0]

I do see the white xenia.....too bad it grows like a weed

 

[crazyfishmom]

There are some albino acros in the trade that are quite beautiful. They have colorful polyps so the contrast is quite striking. I will try to find pictures I’ve seen online.

 

[TokenReefer]

you can find every color of the rainbow, but that one.

To be fair, white is not in the rainbow

 

[Reefing102]

Just do like they did in the 80’s. Buy bleached coral skeletons and once algae starts growing on them, take them out and re-bleach them

 

[Reefer Matt]

Actually most coral are white. That’s what you see when they bleach. The zooxanthellae are what give them their color.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

although not coral, I do see the condy nem, that's white.

 

[KrisReef]

Where are the white coral at?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

with all the coral colors that are out there, and different types. why is there no white coral?
and when I say white, I'm talking healthy coral that is meant to be white.
you can find every color of the rainbow, but that one.

unless there is white coral out there, but I've never seen any

In addition to the white softies and acros, there are actually some "bone white" corals - but they're NPS (often deepwater, and sometimes troglobitic).

As was mentioned, the zooxanthellae give the corals much of their color, so the NPS corals (which don't have zooxanthellae) don't always have the coloration.

For examples of true corals that are white, you can look at Lophelia (Edit: Ah, slight correction to myself here, Lophelia are now accepted as Desmophyllum) species and Leptoseris troglodyta. Additionally, some hydrocorals (such as some Stylaster species) are also white.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

although not coral, I do see the condy nem, that's white.

Bleached ones are white. Healthy/wild ones are lighter shades of brown, sometimes a bit greenish.

 

[Reef Puncher]

Where are the white coral at?

that store is amazing

 

[Timfish]

To correct some misundertandings, zooxanthallae are brown. It's the host corals that makes the myriad fluorescing and chromo protiens to manipulate the lighting conditions for thier simbionts in less than ideal conditions. There are white corals that are healthy but they will not grow as fast missing the energy provided by their simbionts.

White but not bleached: photophysiological evidence from white Montastraea cavernosa reveals potential overestimation of coral bleaching

Climate change and other types of environmental stress are known to increase corals’ vulnerability to bleaching, a process whereby colonies lose their colour either due to the loss of photosynthetic symbionts or their pigments. Although bleaching

www.academia.edu

For more on color see my post here:

QUESTION OF THE DAY - Do colorful corals mean you have stressed corals?

I don' think so. If they were so stressed out they wouldn't grow well so I think that when we have good color and good growth, they are probably thriving. I think our lights don't actually mimic sunlight and that we now provide the right spectrum to support colorful corals, but not full...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Alexraptor]

A few known varieties of very pale to white acroporas:

Acropora echinata, Ice Fire
Acropora nasuta, Blueberry
Acropora sp, White Walker

 

[Reef Wizard]

There are some in the deep ocean that grow very slow.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Just to address the obvious problem with white: to be photosynthetic one needs to absorb light.

To be pure white you cannot absorb light. Hence lack of white plants and other photosynthetic organisms.

Some may be quite pale and have a lot less ability to photosynthesize than others, but still need to be off white.

There certainly are colorless and white NPS (nonphotosynthetic) corals. I had some come in on my live rock.

 

[kiwikoxo]

I brought a white rock flower thinking it was beautiful but it was actually bleached and turning orange again after a while.

Then it got so healthy it decided to move around and overnight got stuck into my powerhead and tried to save him. Didn't get shredded but idk how long it was stuck and it died that night (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ

 

[encrustingacro]

There are actually some naturally pale/white corals that are zooxanthellate--Cycloseris, Pleuractis granulosa, and Sinuorota hexagonalis being a few of them.
Cycloseris sp.; Guam | Credit: Marisa Agarwal

Pleuractis granulosa; Egypt | Credit: Ingo Rogalla

cf Sinuorota hexagonalis; Kwajalein Atoll | Credit: Scott & Jeanette Johnson