What is the max age of coral reef in aquarium?

[rosysmith4]

I have one fish Aquarium.. where i have many types of small fishes, seahorses, sea shells in it. but i just want to put reef in it... so tell me what is the max age of that reef?

 

[melosu58]

I dont know the maximum age of corals in the reef. I do know that I have several corals that are 12 yrs old. Many more that are at least 10 yrs old. It`s very hard to say how long corals live. They wont live as long as corals in the wild and water parameters will play a big part.

 

[cmor1701d]

Unknown is the only answer you are going to get. Coral colonies can live long enough to outgrow a tank given proper water conditions. They should be fragged long before that.

On the other hand, anemones have an unknown lifespan in the wild (30+ years?), but seldom longer than a couple of years in a home aquarium,

 

[pat8you]

Coral are actaully a colony of individual polyps. Each polyp is an animal in itself that contributes to the colony. So you can have polyps that die or even sections of a colony that die with out destroying the entire coral. As long as the environmental conditions are acceptable for growth of the polyps i would think a coral colony can live indefinetly. There are SPS corals in the wild that measure better then 10 feet across. As cmor said the coral will outgrow your tank and will need to be trimmed back as it continutes to grow.

 

[meegosh]

Just read an article on deep-water black coral. It is the oldest living skeletal marine organism. It is more than 4,000 years old. Probably not what you were looking for but..