By Ronald L. Shimek, Ph.D.
Ecology is the science of how organisms interact with each other and their environment. All of this — animals, plants, environment — is known as an ecosystem. As aquarists have become better able to maintain more animals of various types, we have left the simple “fish tank” concept behind. Although we don’t often tend to think of our aquariums in such terms, a successful coral reef aquarium is a fully functional ecosystem. It’s not a natural system by any means, but it is a rather good copy of a simplified reef habitat. As such, a reef aquarium includes producers (algae, plants, cyanobacteria), consumers (fish, corals, worms, clams), decomposers (bacteria, fungi) and scavengers (organisms of several types that break down and utilize food as an intermediate between consumers and decomposers).
Many of these scavengers are also the natural prey of the consumers, such as corals; and over the last few years, mostly by trial and error, aquarists have come to realize that maintaining good populations of these small organisms is doubly beneficial. First, they help utilize and break down excess foods. Second, they are a live food present in the tank helping to prevent dangerous periods of prolonged starvation that may occur between regular feedings.
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