[Coral-List] do some corals eat at all?

[shashank Keshavmurthy]

Dear Listers!!!

Wow...it has been a long one month since the
debate started on the nutrients/algae/coral
complex and it was really informative...

Anyway..I dont know if this has already been
asked/discussed in the coral list....

But I am asking it again...do some coral species
eat at all?

When I ask this question..I mean..how many coral
species can live just like that (even wthout the
nutrient uptake form the surrounding water)

Is the coral-zooxanthellae complex
self-suffecient to an extent that there is no
need of external nutrient or food source...

How many coral species out  there can act as a
self-sustained perpetual machines?

I mean zooxanthellae producing energy by
photosynthesis, coral feeding exclusively on
old/dead and some zooxanthellae and then
transferring the endproduct to
zooxanthellae...and so on...

Is this process a viable option? if yes, then to
what extent?

Thanks for taking time and reading this and may
be correct me and give some comments....

Shashank

"the role of infinitely small in nature is infinitely large"-Louis Pasteur                

Keshavmurthy Shashank
phD candidate
Kochi University, Graduate School of Kuroshio Science
Laboratory of Environmental Conservation
Otsu 200, Monobe, Nankoku-shi
783-8502, Kochi, Japan
alt. id: shashank at cc.kochi-u.ac.jp
phone: 81 080 3925 3889
My WebPage: http://web.mac.com/coralresearch/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com