Heliopora(blue ridge coral) Bleaching

[akm]

If a heliopora has a blue skeleton it must have color pigments. So is the coral able to expell the pigments when say, it undergoes bleaching. So does the skeleton of a blue ridge coral bleach along with the tissue?

[GaryP]

The skeleton is white (calcium carbonate). The pigments come from the coral polyps and the zooanthellae in them.

[Reef69]

..Ive never heard of a skeleton being blue. Most, if not all, hard corals have a Ca. based skeleton, and therefore is white, so like Gary said, the coral's tissue comes from the zooxanthellae. The tissue doesnt bleach, it just gets expelled.

[Shark_Bait]

I think blue ridge is the exception. I'll have to look around for the reference. But like pipe organ coral's skelton is red, it does not fade to white when it dies or even if it is left out in the sun. I believe blue ridge is blue even when it dies. This comes from some research I did when I first setup my tank and put fake corals in there :blush :sick . These were the 2 that were not dyed from dead coral