Revision17
Fish Fanatic
I've done some searching on google and can't seem to find out why vertebrates are much more tolerant of copper than invertebrates. It seems almost arbitrary that in addition to getting a super sweet backbone, vertebrates get a super cool immunity to copper. Is there something inherent in the vertebrate body plan which makes them copper tolerant?
The whole invertebrate copper intolerance.. it seems like it would make more sense to me if only a single group (like arthropods) or a few groups happened to be copper intolerant. Or if only animals which used hemocyanin were intolerant. But from what I've seen everything from shrimp, to snails, to xenia (reefkeeping did an article on "reef safe" ich cures awhile back, and they added copper sulfate to a tank with a xenia in it.. which died quickly) are coper intolerant.
Anyone more biology oriented than me want to help shed some life on this?
The whole invertebrate copper intolerance.. it seems like it would make more sense to me if only a single group (like arthropods) or a few groups happened to be copper intolerant. Or if only animals which used hemocyanin were intolerant. But from what I've seen everything from shrimp, to snails, to xenia (reefkeeping did an article on "reef safe" ich cures awhile back, and they added copper sulfate to a tank with a xenia in it.. which died quickly) are coper intolerant.
Anyone more biology oriented than me want to help shed some life on this?