./Reproduction/Coral/spawning
Contents:
- reef breeding article
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (8 May 92)
- [M] More on MH lighting
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (22 Apr 92)
- [M] More on MH lighting
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (23 Apr 92)
- [M] Octocoral (soft coral) Spawning Journal Info
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (29 Apr 92)
- [M] 3 Month plan to Mass Broadcast Coral Spawning
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (28 Apr 92)
- (M) Want to feel like a bad guy?
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (19 Mar 92)
- (M) Want to feel like a bad guy?
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (24 Mar 92)
- (M) Want to feel like a bad guy?
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (25 Mar 92)
- (M) (Now Coral Spawning)
by kvk/questor.sw.stratus.com (Ken Koellner) (25 Mar 92)
- (M) (Now Coral Spawning)
by frazier/oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Greg Frazier) (Fri, 27 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (26 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (29 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by jamieo/gbrmpa.gov.au (Jamie Oliver) (Sun, 29 Mar 92)
- (No Title)
by ()
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (30 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (31 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (1 Apr 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (5 Apr 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by jamieo/gbrmpa.gov.au (Jamie Oliver) (5 Apr 92)
- (No Title)
by ()
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (6 Apr 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (7 Apr 92)
- (M)Spawning of Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (8 Apr 92)
- (M) "Reef Breeding - Techniques and Practices"
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (30 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Elegance coral
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (30 Mar 92)
- (M)Spawning of Elegance coral
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (31 Mar 92)
- coral spawning
by tse/ra.nrl.navy.mil (Anthony Tse) (30 Mar 92)
- Reef Breeding Techniques and Practices
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (1 Apr 92)
- It must be that time of year-Anemone spawning?
by fssmith/venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith) (13 Apr 1992)
- It must be that time of year-Anemone spawning?
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (13 Apr 92)
- It must be that time of year-Anemone spawning?
by glee/athena.mit.edu (Gilbert Huppert) (Mon, 13 Apr 1992)
- [M] Hard coral spawning continued...
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (13 Apr 92)
- [M] Hard coral spawning continued...
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (13 Apr 92)
- [M] Hard coral spawning continued...
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (16 Apr 92)
- [M] Hard coral spawning continued...
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (16 Apr 92)
- [M] Reef Breeding Update
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (19 Apr 92)
- [M] Reef Breeding Update
by PLai/cup.portal.com (Patrick L Faith) (Sun, 19 Apr 92)
- [M] Reef Breeding Update
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (20 Apr 92)
- [M] Reef Breeding Update
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (21 Apr 92)
- [M] Identification of juvenile Trachophyllia Geoffroyi ?
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (27 Apr 92)
- [M][R] My open brain coral spawned
by krogers/javelin.sim.es.com (K. Rogers) (Wed, 29 Apr 1992)
- [M][R] My open brain coral spawned
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (30 Apr 92)
- [M][R] My open brain coral spawned
by krogers/javelin.sim.es.com (K. Rogers) (30 Apr 92)
- [M] Coral spawn, followup info
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) (4 May 92)
- reef breeding article
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (9 May 92)
- reef breeding article
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (12 May 92)
- [M] Coral Planulae Larvae Release in Marine Reef Aquaria
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (8 Jun 92)
- [M] Coral Planulae Larvae Release in Marine Reef Aquaria
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (9 Jun 92)
- [M] Coral Planulae Larvae Release in Marine Reef Aquaria
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (10 Jun 92)
- [M] Coral Planulae Larvae Release in Marine Reef Aquaria
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (15 Jun 92)
- [M] Raising Soft Mushroom Coral Planulae/Spat Larvae
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (11 Jun 92)
- Cerianthus anemone reproduction
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (26 Jun 92)
- Cerianthus anemone reproduction
by cowan/aqua.ocunix.on.ca (D. Cowan (Postmaster)) (Sun, 28 Jun 92)
- Cerianthus anemone reproduction
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (29 Jun 92)
- Cerianthus anemone reproduction
by krogers/javelin.sim.es.com (K. Rogers) (Mon, 29 Jun 1992)
- Cerianthus anemone reproduction
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (30 Jun 92)
- [M] Spawning of Euphyllia ancora
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (9 Jul 92)
- [M] Spawning of Euphyllia ancora
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (10 Jul 92)
- [M] Spawning of Euphyllia ancora
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (13 Jul 92)
- [M][R] Strange behavior of elegance corals.
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (20 Jul 92)
- [M][R] Secondary Coral Spawning (was Re:[M] Threespot Damsel Spa..)
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (22 Jul 92)
- [M][R] Secondary Coral Spawning (was Re:[M] Threespot Damsel Spa..)
by krogers/javelin.sim.es.com (K. Rogers) (Thu, 23 Jul 1992)
- [M][R] Secondary Coral Spawning (was Re:[M] Threespot Damsel Spa..)
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (23 Jul 92)
- [M][R] Secondary Coral Spawning
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (24 Jul 92)
- (M)(REEF) Gorgonian Spawning Again
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (26 Oct 92)
- (M)(REEF) Gorgonian Spawning Again
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (27 Oct 92)
- (M)(REEF) Gorgonian Spawning Again
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (29 Oct 92)
- [M] Calling all Reef Breeders...
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (18 Feb 93)
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer)
Date: 8 May 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
In article <1532-at-celia.UUCP> celia!steve-at-usc.edu (Steve Tyree) writes:
>In article <3185-at-dove.nist.gov> rosentha-at-bldrdoc.gov (Peter Rosenthal 303-497-5844) writes:
>>"How do Planktonic Larvae Know Where to Settle?"
>>Author: Aileen N.C. Morse
>>American Scientist
>>Vol. 79 No. 2 Mar-Apr 1991
>>Page 154
>>
>>The article describes some research demonstrating and identifying the
>>chemical specificity of various larvae of Abalone, worms and corals
>>when they choose substrates. Apparently, red coralline algae are
>>absolutely required for the larvae to stick and transform into
>>the sessile forms. Some planktonic larvae are specific to
>>only one species of red coralline algae.
>>
>>The article has a fairly large bibliography.
>>
>>Getting a specific coral to reproduce sexually in captivity may
>>be very difficult if they require a certain substrate with
>>particular biochemical markers. On the other hand, if you
>>know what the required substrate is, and you have it on
>>hand, then you might be able to raise buttloads of polyps. sorry :-)
>>
> Peter, I have included a bibliography of scientific journal articles that
>deal with settling of planulae. Hope these help. This coralline algae disc-
>overy is new and I havent found references to it anywhere. Very interesting.
>In the future I was planning on farming coralline algaes to (distant future)
>If we can grow these quickly, we could quite literally create coral reefs
>from scratch.
>
> Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
Steve, I asume you mean encrusting coraline algae? You should have no
problem growing this if you have a sufficient source of it on live rock.
It apparently also spreads sexually since I find it on my tank walls
PCV piping and power heads which are several inches to several feet from
the nearest live rock containing it. It seems to like the moderate
light areas at the ends of the tank and not in the center where the
4 175w halides are very intense. (not that it doesn't grow here on
the live rock) Just the density of growth on the glass is far higher
at the tank ends. It loves high calcium levels.
Scott Schaeffer
scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com
PS keep the breeding data coming its great!!!
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 22 Apr 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
In article <22APR199211341115-at-venus.lerc.nasa.gov> fssmith-at-venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith) writes:
> I have had both bubble coral and elegans coral produce asexually. They produce
>a piece of tissue which hangs from the main stem for several months and
>continually grows. While it is hanging it forms a calcarous base and becomes
>heavier. It eventually breaks off and forms a new coral. So far I have one
>baby bubble coral and two baby elegans.
One of my flower pot corals may be doing this to. Seems like these coral
species have more then one way to reproduce. This is probably why they are
still exisiting on the planet. I have recently starting investigating any
small white object seen hung up in microalgae. Under a 100x microscope a
lot of them appear very like planulae. Also, the surface of my tank is
covered with small crustaceans, bristle worms etc. every night. I have a
real large plankton population in my tank to. I dont use micron sized
mechanical filters of any kind. This may allow your reef to be just like
a natural one, with a large plankton population. In a good running reef
getting reef species to spawn may not be as hard as some might lead you
to believe. Getting stony corals to mass spawn is still a tough one. Re-
leasing eggs and sperm at the same time has to be done with perfect timing
and conditioning. The ultimate reef breeding trick would be to get mutiple
egg spawns to occur at the same time. The real tough one is to have a male
and female coral release eggs and sperm in harmony, and have them fertilized
by the tank current moving them together. It is not impossible :>
Ps - I have found BLUE crystal like structures growing in the bottom of some
of the containers I had the coral egg hatchings in. This color is very
rare in a natural coral. Could be due to the unnatural flourescent light
I am using. These are very heavy objects. Growing by budding. Did not
look at them for very long. Only found three so far. Believe that white
growths are turning dark and then possibly blue. Will keep you updated
on progress of open brain coral egg developing.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 23 Apr 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
In article <1500-at-celia.UUCP> celia!steve-at-usc.edu (Steve Tyree) writes:
>
> Ps - I have found BLUE crystal like structures growing in the bottom of some
> of the containers I had the coral egg hatchings in. This color is very
> rare in a natural coral. Could be due to the unnatural flourescent light
> I am using. These are very heavy objects. Growing by budding. Did not
> look at them for very long. Only found three so far. Believe that white
> growths are turning dark and then possibly blue. Will keep you updated
> on progress of open brain coral egg developing.
>
I have investigated these some more and it turns out they are small chips
that have fallen from blue airstone..... What an emotional roller coaster.
The coral has spawned, I have planulae no I have protozoan. Look a blue coral,
no its just a chip of blue airstone.. Still havent given up hope. Will keep
looking...
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 29 Apr 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
This information bulletin tries to relay data found in an scientific journal.
This article deals with Octocorals of the Great Barrier Reef. These are known
to us as soft corals. They can release eggs just like the stony corals can. I
will try to put the info in a common format.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scientific Journal - Bulletin of Marine Science. Issue #45 volume #3
pages 697-707 1989
Article Title - Observations of the Synchronized Mass Spawning and Postsettle-
ment activity of Octocorals on the Great Barrier Reef, Aust-
ralia: Biological Aspects.
Authors - Porfirio M. Alino, John C. Coll
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will try to enter the data found in Table #1. Titled - Summary of observa-
tions on the spawning activity of some octocorals from the central region of
the Great Barrier Reef. Here are some terms used in the table.
broadcast - refers to a method of spawning. Eggs and sperm are released or
broadcast away from the coral and fertilized externally by the
water current.
brooder - eggs are fertilized inside coral polyp and a planulae is brood-
ed and slowly released when mature. This planulae will settle
on substarte and transform into a juvenile coral or (spat).
external surface brooder - eggs are fertilzed and held on the exterior or
surface of the coral. Then a planulae is formed
and later released.
egg size - In microns. Accuracy +- 50 microns.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Listing of scientific family trees along with common names which I could find
last night. If anyone can fill in the question marks, go ahead.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Corals belong to the Order Alcyonaccea
Corals belonging to Family Alcyoniidae
Genus Lobophytum (Common = ??)
Genus Sinularia (Common = Colt or Tree)
Genus Sarcophyton (Common = Leather)
Genus Alcyonium (Common = ??)
Corals belonging to Family Xeniidae (Common = Pulse)
Species heteroxenia
Species xenia
Species efflatounaria
Corals belong to the Order Stolonifera
Corals belonging to Family Clavulariidae (Common = starburst)
Species Pachyclavularia violacea
Species Clavularia inflata
Corals belong to the Order Gorgonacea (Common = Goronians or Sea Fans)
Corals belonging to Family Briareidae
Species Briareum stechei
----------------------|---------|------|----|-----------|---------------------
Scientific |Days from|Time |Egg | Egg | Spawning Type
Species Name |Full Moon|of Day|Size| Color | or Method
----------------------|---------|------|----|-----------|---------------------
Genus Lobophytum
L. compactum 4,5 ~2200 650 Purple/Pink broadcast
L. crassum 2,3,4 ~1745 650 Pink/Purple broadcast
L. planum 4,5 21-06 600 Green broadcast
L. pauciflorum 4,5 ~1900 600 Green broadcast
L. microlobulatum 4,5 ---- 600 White broadcast
L. hirsutum 4 ---- --- ------- broadcast
Genus Sinularia
S. rigida 3,4 2030 800 Grey/Brown broadcast
S. deformis 4 ---- --- -------- broadcast
S. polydactyla 4,5 1800 --- -------- broadcast
S. conferta 3,4 2030 825 Grey/Brown broadcast
S. lochmodes --- ---- 800 Cream/Brown broadcast
S. cruciata 4 ---- 790 Grey/Brown broadcast
Genus Sarcophyton
Sarcophyton sp. 4 1812 600 Purple broadcast
S. glaucum 4,5 2100 600 Purple broadcast
S. (cf.) ehrenbergi 4,5 ---- 710 Green/Grey broadcast
Genus Alcyonium
A. aspiculatum 4 ---- --- -------- -------
A. molle 5+ 2030 700 Cream broadcast
Cladiella (cf.)
prattae 5+ 2030 700 Cream/Biege broadcast
Family Xeniidae
Heteroxenia sp. 2,3,4 1230+ 1050 Brown/Orange internal
Planulae brooder
Xenia sp. 1 -1 AM 950 White internal
Planulae brooder
Xenia sp. 2 -1 AM 950 White internal
Planulae brooder
Efflatounaria sp. -4 AM 1000 White external surface
Planulae brooder
Family Clavulariidae
Pachyclavularia
violacea 11,12,13+ 1000+ 1000 Reddish/Brown external surface
Planulae brooder
Clavularia inflata 22,23,24+ 0900+ 1050 White external surface
Planulae brooder
Family Briareidae
Briareum stechei 11,12,13+ 1000+ 725 Reddish/Brown external surface
Planulae brooder
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone has more acurate descriptions for common of the above mentioned
species, please post them.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 28 Apr 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
Starting May 1st I am going to put my reef tank into a 6 month
yearly rhythm. This rhythm will start at mid winter and I am going
to try to predict when corals will spawn in my reef tank. This is
meant to be an experiment to see if duplicated Great Barrier Reef
conditions on a 1/2 time scale can be used to induce and predict
coral spawning nights. I will also watch to see if an Trachophyllia
geoffroyi will be able to respawn in my reef. The first 3 months
of this shifted year are critical to inducing spawning which should
occur during month #3. My primary observations will be for broadcast
mass spawning but I will also watch for brooding planulae releases.
As a point of reference I will list events that are going to occur
in my tank and reference them to real time. I also have some questions
maybe some experts can answer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Full Moons During the First 3 Months
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Reef Day #0 Real Time Day April 30th
Reef Day #15 Real Time Day May 15th
Reef Day #30 Real Time Day May 30th
Reef Day #45 Real Time Day June 14th
Reef Day #60 Real Time Day June 29th
Reef Day #75 Real Time Day July 14th
Reef Day #90 Real Time Day July 29th
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Note - New moons occur between full moons. Their are 184 days in my
current reef year.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Temperature Gradients for entire Reef year (in degrees F)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Reef Day #5 Temp = 75.0 Reef Day #96 Temp = 80.0
Reef Day #12 Temp = 75.0 Reef Day #103 Temp = 80.0
Reef Day #19 Temp = 75.0 Reef Day #110 Temp = 80.0
Reef Day #26 Temp = 75.5 Reef Day #117 Temp = 80.0
Reef Day #33 Temp = 76.0 Reef Day #124 Temp = 79.5
Reef Day #40 Temp = 76.5 Reef Day #131 Temp = 79.0
Reef Day #47 Temp = 77.0 Reef Day #138 Temp = 78.5
Reef Day #54 Temp = 77.5 Reef Day #145 Temp = 78.0
Reef Day #61 Temp = 78.0 Reef Day #152 Temp = 77.5
Reef Day #68 Temp = 78.5 Reef Day #159 Temp = 77.0
Reef Day #75 Temp = 79.0 Reef Day #166 Temp = 76.5
Reef Day #82 Temp = 79.5 Reef Day #173 Temp = 76.0
Reef Day #89 Temp = 80.0 Reef Day #180 Temp = 75.5
---------------------------------------------------------------------
According to my preliminary caculations, spawning should occur in
the days following the full moon of Reef Day #75 and Reef Day #90.
My early predictions for real time spawning are July 15-July 18 and
also July 30 - August 2. We will see if corals spawn and if they
do what days it occurs on.
Reef Days for real time spawning prediction - 76-79 and 91-94.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Daylight length times are also going to be varied. From 9 hour metal
halide cycle times to 12 hour metal halide cycles times. This is where
my current research is centered. What are the proper diel times for
the mid-Great Barrier Reef ? Winter daylight length , spawning months
daylight length and mid summer daylight lengths.
One other question concerning temperature gradient. Should I have the
temperature increase earlier to give the corals more time to develope
sperm and eggs ?
Any help would be appreciated.
note - These are not exact duplications of the Great Barrier Reef.
The water gets a little to warm in late summer for home
reef purposes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 19 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <1992Mar19.015055.3716-at-athena.mit.edu> djboccip-at-athena.mit.edu (Dennis J Boccippio) writes:
>As per the Audobon article ("RAIDING THE REEFS"), it seems they have several
> main gripes:
>
> (4) Stony coral collection; problem being that stony corals have not
> been documented to reproduce in tank setups (presumably the
> reason being their free-swimming stage doesn't agree well with
> filtration systems)
>
>Of these, the stony coral collection sounds the most threatening. The authors
> levelled a challenge to aquarists to document any cases of stony coral
> reproduction (this does not include growth of 'cuttings' from or reproduction
> of soft corals, which seem to do quite well in the right conditions).
> This seems an appropriate forum to extend the question: has anybody had any
> luck with reproduction of their hard corals?
>
I have a 180 gallon reef tank that was set up initially to help collect
pelagically released eggs. I am collecting spawns from 2 types of centropyge
angels quite often. My current hurdle is getting an acceptable live food.
A infusoria culture has been started from my main tank and I have ordered
a very large dinoflagellate culture from a culture center. This culture is
growing very slowly. I feel that im very close to providing an initial food
for both centropyges. My water return system has a bypass valve which keeps
water circulating through the trickle filter bio chamber. I stop all water
circulating threw the main tank for 2 hours every night that I collect eggs.
ps - I have had an 10 gallon culture of rotifers going for about a year
now. Unfortunately they are to large for centropyge angel larvae.
Im in the process of puting together a long (>200 line) article on what
I see emerging as a new solution for some of the problems in the reef damag-
ing area. The article is titled "Call for Open Discussion on Reef Breeding
Techniques and Pratices". I would like to post it into alt.aquaria and
sci.aquaria. It should be complete in 1 - 2 weeks. Would posting an 200 line
article on this very important subject be a correct thing to do here ?
Last week while my water was not circulating threw the main tank, I
witnessed an large Trachyphyllia Geoffreyi (open brain coral) release
sperm and pelagic coral eggs. It was an awesome site. The closed brain coral
has more then 10 mouths or polyps. Each one simultaneouslly released
(more like a small geyser) sperm and eggs. I wasnt looking at it directly
so I dont know if sperm and eggs came from the same polyps or if somes
polyps are strictly male and some female. The brain coral spawned for 5
days and I collected over 500 fertilized coral eggs. I have been hatching
them out like I have been hatching out pelagic centropyge fish eggs.
The coral eggs are not transparent like fish eggs. They are a solid white
in color. Sorry got to run to work. Very busy.
Im currently watching the containers which have the hatched eggs and can
post further info here later. Got to run..
Back to my day job :>
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 24 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <29673-at-cbmvax.commodore.com> scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) writes:
>In article <1380-at-celia.UUCP> celia!steve-at-usc.edu (Steve Tyree) writes:
>>In article <1992Mar19.015055.3716-at-athena.mit.edu> djboccip-at-athena.mit.edu (Dennis J Boccippio) writes:
>>>As per the Audobon article ("RAIDING THE REEFS"), it seems they have several
>>> main gripes:
>>>
>>> (4) Stony coral collection; problem being that stony corals have not
>>> been documented to reproduce in tank setups (presumably the
>>> reason being their free-swimming stage doesn't agree well with
>>> filtration systems)
>>>
>> Last week while my water was not circulating threw the main tank, I
>> witnessed an large Trachyphyllia Geoffreyi (open brain coral) release
>> sperm and pelagic coral eggs. It was an awesome site. The closed brain coral
>> has more then 10 mouths or polyps. Each one simultaneouslly released
>> (more like a small geyser) sperm and eggs. I wasnt looking at it directly
>> so I dont know if sperm and eggs came from the same polyps or if somes
>> polyps are strictly male and some female. The brain coral spawned for 5
>> days and I collected over 500 fertilized coral eggs. I have been hatching
>> them out like I have been hatching out pelagic centropyge fish eggs.
>
>I'm sure fellow reef fanatics would love to hear more about your
>system, water parameters and lighting (including photoperiods) and also
>the length of time you've had the open brain. I have one of these
>beauties and its enormous,but I've never seen spawning. Let us know
>how the eggs do.
I plan on releasing all this information just as soon as I can get it
all typed in and in a coherent format. The brain coral spawning is being
documented and I was able to get pictures of another spawn which occurred
saturday night 2 hours before the night twilight period began. The pictures
are being developed and I hope they turn out. The new spawn was a slow
release spawn and happened over 1 hour. I hope the pictures turn out good
that show more then 100 eggs floating on the surface above the open brain
coral. Will look at them later today. It may have been a combination of a
lot of parameters that induced the spawning. That is why it will take a
while for me to correlate it all. I have some growths that may or may not
be the planktonic form of this of this coral. Here is a basic overview of
what I have observed the eggs to do.
Eggs will only hatch if exposed to bright lite the next morning. I have
not verified yet if this is a hatching or a decomposing. A lot of small
open brain corals will verify this. The round egg mass breaks up into
clumps. These clumps are composed of small 2 - 6 micron sized spheres.
While shing a bright flashlight at one of these clumps , I witnessed what
could end up being the hatching. The numerous (100-200) small spheres per
clump, became detached and moved away from each other. Then about 60 seconds
later the sphers exploded or poped in size to 5 - 10 micron in size.
They appear to shine funny in the center as if they already have a algae
associated with them.
The next 3 days are blank in my records but after that I observed
numerous colonies of sphere shaped diatoms ? that were joining together
making spiked spheres and other formations. Now they are sort of melding
into a large organism. I need to verify what form is inbetwwen the
sphere(5-10)microns and spear(50 microns) before I know whether they
are the same organism. The new spawn should tell me this.
This is just basic spawning info with no details. You could write volumes
of data per each organism if you had the time.....
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 25 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <29720-at-cbmvax.commodore.com> scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) writes:
>... and lots of fascinating detail.
>
>This information should prove interesting to biologists who study corals
>and I'm sure all of us would love hearing thier comments/advice on such
>events. Does anyone know what is the technical title for a "coral
>expert" and if there is any usenet group which would contain such
>experts? Maybe we could get a dialogue between the two groups.
>
Here is the specs of the tank were a Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi (Open Brain
Coral) has spawned. Tank is an 180 gallon reef with 2 center overflow
chambers, trickle filter, 5 foot protein skimmer, uv sterilizer and
ozone generator.
Water parameters - Dissolved Oxygen 6.6 ppm, DKH 13.3 degree,
nitrate < 1.1 ppm NO3, phosphate < 0.05 ppm,
temperature in morning 77 degrees F,
temperature at end of day 78 degrees F,
salinity (I will check into this and report current
value and any trend that may have occurred)
Additives - KH, Kalkwaser, reef calcium, reef ksm, tat ksm, liquid gold,
tech iodine, tat marine vitamins, macro algae iron, marine
plant food.
Water used - Mostly tap filtered 6 times in magnum cartridge.
Coconut carbon, xnitrate, metal gone, xphosphate, poly filters
and micron filter. Some real ocean used during water changes.
10 gallons changed per week. About 5 percent.
Chemical Medium - Coconut carbon, xnitrate, xphosphate, poly filters.
Food used - some corals (including open brain) feed frozen krill soaked
with a couple drops of selcon about every 2 weeks. Live rotifer
and baby brine put in tank daily. This is for a species of
anthias which requires this food. Various other fish foods.
Light cycle - The current light cycle is listed below.
8:00 am 2 - 140 watt actinic tubes comes on.
8:30 am 1 - 175 watt metal halide on right comes on.
9:30 am 1 - 175 watt metal halide in center comes on.
10:30 am 1 - 175 watt metal halide on left comes on.
8:30 pm 1 - 175 watt metal halide on right turns off.
9:30 pm 1 - 175 watt metal halide in center turns off.
10:30 pm 1 - 175 watt metal halide on left turns off.
12:00 am 2 - 140 watt actinic tubes turn off.
This is how all the timers are set. I usually turn off the
actinics by hand and dont do so till 1 or 2 am. This helps
induce spawning of reef fishes by giving them plenty of time
to spawn. They seem to enjoy this extra time to. :>
The main thing about the lighting is that due to fixing various
cooling problems I was increasing the length of the metal
halide cycles. In the current setup each metal halide
is on for a total of 12 hours. It had been only a 9 hour
cycle when I first introduced this coral to the tank. The
coral was purchased in december of 91 and initially placed
15 " below the actual metal halide bulb. Note - my bulbs
are very close to the tank top, which was causing my heat
problems. The coral was moved to the bottom of the tank 24"
below the bulb. Just before increasing the light cycle the
coral was moved to its present location. 5" below bulb, 5"
behind bulb and 2" to left. This is a very high perch in the
back of my tank. The coral seemed to really enjoy this due
to the fact that it expanded in size larger then it ever had.
On 2/12/92 the metal halide light cyle was increased from
9 hour periods to 10 hour periods. On 2/22/92 from 10 hours
to 11 hours. On 3/4/92 from 11 hours to 12 hours. Then on
3/12/92 the coral spawned. I did not collect these eggs cause
I had no idea what the white balls floating in the milky film
was. The tank was stagnate at the time because I was waiting
for centropyge to pellagically spawn. The next day while no
current was moving in the tank I was walking by the coral and
witnessed what could best be described as a geyser spawn.
About 10 - 16 geysers all shoot up from each mouth that the
open brain coral has. All geysers occurred simultaneouslly
and it gave me the impression that this was some kind of
steam engine machine. Very strange. I collectted the white eggs
that were floating in the film and have hatched them. I will
post details later. This is just a short article describing
what may have led to the spawn. The coral spawned a few more
times but these were more like slow release spawns that took
many minutes to complete.
More details to follow.
PS - I believe that the 2 main things that led to spawn were.
- Moving coral to high perch were plenty of light was received and
plenty of current was felt.
- Increasing the metal halide light cycle time from 9 hours to 12
hours over a 30 day period. Ie - the brain coral thought summer
had arrived or was arriving.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder.
by kvk/questor.sw.stratus.com (Ken Koellner)
Date: 25 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
I remember seeing something about corals spawning at the Great Barrier
Reeef aq. in Australia. I don't remember where, probably a
documentary on TDC or something like that. From what I remember,
there was some kind of coral that spawned in the ocean in that area
only one night a year. The conditions of the aq. so well duplicated
the natural conditions in the ocean that the coral in the aq. spawned
at the same time as the coral in the ocean. Supposedly, photoperiod
is one of the key factors. The aq. had the same photoperiod as the
real ocean. I forget the specs on this aq but its a huge huge reef aq
with clear tunnels you can walk through to look at the reef. It's
like a whole section of reef moved from the ocean flow to a very large
aq.
Anyone know any thing about this aq and the coral spawning there?
--
Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control
a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not
crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our
government was founded. - Abraham Lincoln
by frazier/oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Greg Frazier)
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
kvk-at-questor.sw.stratus.com (Ken Koellner) writes:
>I remember seeing something about corals spawning at the Great Barrier
>Reeef aq. in Australia.
>The aq. had the same photoperiod as the real ocean.
If this is the same aquarium that I am remembering, then it
is open-roofed and uses sunlight for lighting, hence the same
photoperiod.
--
Greg Frazier frazier-at-CS.UCLA.EDU !{ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!frazier
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 26 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
Here is the specs of the tank were a Trachyphyllia Geoffroyi (Open Brain
Coral) has spawned. Tank is an 180 gallon reef with 2 center overflow
chambers, trickle filter, 5 foot protein skimmer, uv sterilizer and
ozone generator.
Water parameters - Dissolved Oxygen 6.6 ppm, DKH 13.3 degree,
nitrate < 1.1 ppm NO3, phosphate < 0.05 ppm,
temperature in morning 77 degrees F,
temperature at end of day 78 degrees F,
salinity (I will check into this and report current
value and any trend that may have occurred)
Calcium - greater then 400 ppm. Tested via lamotte test kit.
Trends in water parameters -
I had just recently raised my reef KH due to an article in a tat
book. Here is the history of the reef kh trend leading to spawning.
2/9/92 DKH = ~7 2/16/92 DKH = 7.7 2/18/92 DKH = 9.1
2/19/92 DKH = 11.9 2/21/92 DKH = 14 2/29/92 DKH = 11.9
3/1/92 DKH = 12.6 3/2/92 DKH = 13.3 3/3/92 DKH = 12.6
3/5/92 DKH = 13.3 3/8/92 DKH = 13.3
spawning started to occur on 3/13/92. Stopped monitoring
reef KH cause I determined how to stable it at 13.3.
Testing performed with TAT and dupla test kits. This info
was entered just for completeness in reporting the spawn.
I have no idea if this helped induce the spawning and I was
trying to see how the reef would run at a higher KH. I have
to add reef KH on an almost daily basis to maintain this level.
Trends in salinty -
Value has remained constant at 1.022. I add a little
less then 1 gallon of fresh twice per day. My top
plexiglass covers have been removed for cooling and
oxygen exchange.
Trends in dissolved oxygen -
Readings taken with lamotte test kits.
2/12/92 Dissolved oxygen = 6.5 ppm
2/17/92 Dissolved oxygen = 6.6 ppm
3/1/92 Dissolved oxygen = 6.2 ppm
note- this value may vary a lot in a reef.
Special trends in temperature -
2/2/92 to 2/5/92 tank got very hot due to an ambient
air conditioning problem and very hot weather in LA.
This is what starting my attempts at cooling. I have
run tubing threw my kitchen freezer and removed top
covers of tank. Temperature then dropped down to 74
-76 3 weeks before spawn and then I slowly raised it
up to 76-77 and now its 77-78. My fish seem to spawn
less at the lower temperature. Im trying to find a
medium value where both can be happy. The coral spawned
when temperature was stable at 76-77. Rising up from
74-76.
Additives - KH, Kalkwaser, reef calcium, reef ksm, tat ksm, liquid gold,
tech iodine, tat marine vitamins, macro algae iron, marine
plant food.
Water used - Mostly tap filtered 6 times in magnum cartridge.
Coconut carbon, xnitrate, metal gone, xphosphate, poly filters
and micron filter. Some real ocean used during water changes.
10 gallons changed per week. About 5 percent.
Chemical Medium - Coconut carbon, xnitrate, xphosphate, poly filters.
Salt Mix used - Reef Crystals. I have recently switched to tropic marine.
This brand works better with 2.4 mm centropyge plankton
protolarvae. Much clearer water. The added calcium in
reef crystals is not good for plankton sized organisms.
Food used - some corals (including open brain) feed frozen krill soaked
with a couple drops of selcon about every 2 weeks. Live rotifer
and baby brine put in tank daily. This is for a species of
anthias which requires this food. Various other fish foods.
Light cycle - The current light cycle is listed below.
8:00 am 2 - 140 watt actinic tubes comes on.
8:30 am 1 - 175 watt metal halide on right comes on.
9:30 am 1 - 175 watt metal halide in center comes on.
10:30 am 1 - 175 watt metal halide on left comes on.
8:30 pm 1 - 175 watt metal halide on right turns off.
9:30 pm 1 - 175 watt metal halide in center turns off.
10:30 pm 1 - 175 watt metal halide on left turns off.
12:00 am 2 - 140 watt actinic tubes turn off.
This is how all the timers are set. I usually turn off the
actinics by hand and dont do so till 1 or 2 am. This helps
induce spawning of reef fishes by giving them plenty of time
to spawn. They seem to enjoy this extra time to. :>
The main thing about the lighting is that due to fixing various
cooling problems I was increasing the length of the metal
halide cycles. In the current setup each metal halide
is on for a total of 12 hours. It had been only a 9 hour
cycle when I first introduced this coral to the tank. The
coral was purchased in december of 91 and initially placed
15 " below the actual metal halide bulb. Note - my bulbs
are very close to the tank top, which was causing my heat
problems. The coral was moved to the bottom of the tank 24"
below the bulb. Just before increasing the light cycle the
coral was moved to its present location. 5" below bulb, 5"
behind bulb and 2" to left. This is a very high perch in the
back of my tank. The coral seemed to really enjoy this due
to the fact that it expanded in size larger then it ever had.
On 2/12/92 the metal halide light cyle was increased from
9 hour periods to 10 hour periods. On 2/22/92 from 10 hours
to 11 hours. On 3/4/92 from 11 hours to 12 hours. Then on
3/12/92 the coral spawned. I did not collect these eggs cause
I had no idea what the white balls floating in the milky film
was. The tank was stagnate at the time because I was waiting
for centropyge to pellagically spawn. The next day while no
current was moving in the tank I was walking by the coral and
witnessed what could best be described as a geyser spawn.
About 10 - 16 geysers all shoot up from each mouth that the
open brain coral has. All geysers occurred simultaneouslly
and it gave me the impression that this was some kind of
steam engine machine. Very strange. I collectted the white eggs
that were floating in the film and have hatched them. I will
post details later. This is just a short article describing
what may have led to the spawn. The coral spawned a few more
times but these were more like slow release spawns that took
many minutes to complete.
More details to follow.
PS - I believe that the 2 main things that led to spawn were.
- Moving coral to high perch were plenty of light was received and
plenty of current was felt.
- Increasing the metal halide light cycle time from 9 hours to 12
hours over a 30 day period. Ie - the brain coral thought summer
had arrived or was arriving.
Special note on lighting - I have started to provide moonlight at night
with an overhanging incandescent chandilier. My tank records
where not updated with the light levels during spawning.
Special equipment added - 2/1/92 I added a sandpoint solution ground.
My reef fish have been suffering from head rot. This
is now subsiding.
Diseases in tank - Mild infestation of ick. Have ozone generator and UV
sterilizer running to erradicate the parasite. Only a
few white spots occasionally on fish. A mild case of this
disease does not prevent them from spawning.
Special note on Open Brain Coral -
This specimen was purchased with a small receded spot about
the size of a nickel. Otherwise it was in excellent condition
and purchased anyway. The spot has healed down to the size
of a dime. Apparentlly, this has not affected the species
ability to spawn. When fully expanded the spot is not visible.
Please be careful if you decide to reposition your specimen.
Using scientific names can be very misleading and in this
case insufficient. Not all specimens of this species need
the same light requirements. They vary in color and size and
shape and original location on the reef. The best guide is to
move specimens around in your tank once every couple of
weeks and see how they react. If they expand larger then ever
before, you have found the location that this soecimen likes.
When expanded the open brain coral is greater then 5 " in
diameter. The specimen has a bright green color in valleys
and flesh tones on ridges.
This is a complete listing of parameters for the reef tank where this species
has spawn. Later to follow, will be detailed accounts of the spawn , eggs
hatching and hopefully maturing corals. Still to early to tell if I have
some forming open brain corals.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 29 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
Heres additional details on the light cycle patterns that were in the
180 gallon reef tank which had a open brain coral "geyser" spawn. I have
also included details on temperature trend and my new thoughts on KH.
Notes about charts
All Halides are 175 watt coralife 5500 kelvins.
Timer values are what I tryed to set the timers to.
Real values are actual time values. (Its hard to set my timers)
Note - The open brain coral that spawned is under the left metal halide.
5 - 6 " below, 5" behind, 2" to left. Point of view is yours
looking at tank.
A hot item in the future might be an accurate way to set or progam ac
outlets to come on at a certain time and remain on for a certain length
of time. I know I would buy one.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
9 Hour Cycle Time (Lights were limited due to heat they produced)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Light Source Timer ON Real ON Timer OFF Real OFF Total
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actinics (2-140w) 8:00 am 1:00 am 17
Right Metal Halide 10:00 am 7:00 pm 9
Center Metal Halide 11:00 am 8:00 pm 9
Left Metal Halide 12:00 noon 9:00 pm 9
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
10 Hour Cycle Time (For strong light demanding corals) - 2/12/92
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Light Source Timer ON Real ON Timer OFF Real OFF Total
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actinics (2-140w) 9:00 am (9:05 am) 1:00 am 16
Right Metal Halide 10:00 am (9:55 am) 8:00 pm (8:25 pm) 10
Center Metal Halide 11:00 am 9:00 pm (9:15 pm) 10
Left Metal Halide 12:00 noon (12:22) 10:00 pm (10:15 pm) 10
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
11 Hour Cycle Time (Ran tubing in freezer for extra cooling) - 2/22/92
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Light Source Timer ON Real ON Timer OFF Real OFF Total
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actinics (2-140w) 8:00 am 12:00 midn 16
Right Metal Halide 9:00 am 8:00 pm 11
Center Metal Halide 10:00 am 9:00 pm 11
Left Metal Halide 11:00 am 10:00 pm 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
12 Hour Cycle Time (Ambient Air conditioning recharged) - 3/4/92
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Light Source Timer ON Real ON Timer OFF Real OFF Total
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actinics (2-140w) 8:00 am (8:05 am) 12:00 midn (1-2 am) 17
Right Metal Halide 8:30 am 8:30 pm (8:54 pm) 12
Center Metal Halide 9:30 am (9:32 am) 9:30 pm (9:45 pm) 12
Left Metal Halide 10:30 am 10:30 pm (11:03 pm) 12
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Open Brain coral first spawned on 3/13/92. Spawning was not observed
but eggs were seen floating on the surface. Over 50 eggs seen.
Second spawning on 3/14/92 at 1:30am(technically 3/15) was actually
witnessed. As I was walking up to the tank looking toward the area were
I noticed the white balls the previous night, the open brain coral shot
geysers up to the surface. Each polyp mouth simultaneously released the
cloud of sperm and or eggs. They were from 10 - 16 geysers. It was an
incredable sight I will never forget. Its hard to remember details when
your so stunned. The tank was stagnate at the time, because I was hoping
a pair of centropyge would spawn in the last hour of actinic lightness.
The entire surface of the tank was covered with white milky streams with
little white balls floating in them. The eggs are solid white and .4 mm
in diameter. They were floating in a stream of milky film. Almost all were
collected. Further details to follow.
I believe that this was the actual spawning and what happened the night
before and following nights were not main spawnings.
Third night 3/15 at 1:45 am (technically 3/16) another spawning occured
but the eggs were slowly released over a 30 minute period. All were
again collected. Over 100 eggs.
Fourth nite 3/16. No spawning seen but about 15 eggs on surface.
Fifth nite 3/17. No spawning seen but about 5 eggs on surface.
Sixth nite 3/18. No spawning seen but about 5 eggs on surface.
Seventh nite 3/19. No spawning and no eggs.
Eigth nite 3/20. No spawning and no eggs.
Ninth nite 3/20. No spawning and no eggs.
Tenth nite 3/21. While watching TV at 9:30 pm (2 hours before twilight
for the open brain coral) I noticed large round objects floating in
middle of fully operating tank. I noticed that the open brain was
releasing eggs again so I engaged my special pelagic egg collecting
bypass. The coral slowly for about 1 hour, released clumps of eggs.
The event was photographed and eggs collected. My opinion is that the
coral was rejecting or cleaning out any eggs that remained from the
main spaning.
Coral then remained in a closed state until 3/27 when it started to
expand again.
It might be a good idea to set your tank into a natural rhythm with light
cycles increasing and then peaking and then decreasing again. This could
be done on a 3 or 4 month period. I wonder who might make a product like
this. Rhythmic light timers with period settings ?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daily temperature readings leading up to spawn. First value is morning
reading when hot lights first turn on and second value is night time
right after hot lights turn off. All readings in F.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
2/12/92 78.1 - 79.8 3/1/92 77.7 - 79.2
2/13/92 77.7 - 79.2 3/2/92 77.8 - 79.3
2/14/92 76.8 - 78.6 3/3/92 76.8 - 78.4
2/15/92 76.6 - 78.2 3/4/92 76.1 - 73.5 * Ambient AC Fixed. Setting
2/16/92 76.3 - 78.3 was to low initially. Put
2/17/92 75.7 - 78.1 back up right after I took
2/18/92 75.9 - 78.4 this reading.
2/19/92 - 78.7 3/5/92 74.3 - 76.2
2/20/92 77.4 - 79 3/6/92 74.7 - 76.1
2/21/92 76.8 - 79 3/7/92 - 76.3
2/22/92 76.5 - 77.4 3/8/92 - 77
2/23/92 75.5 - 77.8 3/10/92 - 77
2/24/92 75.7 - 79.2 3/11/92 - 77
2/25/92 77 - 79.6 3/13/92 * Coral started to spawn.
2/26/92 77.6 - 79.8 3/19/92 * raised ambient air up 1
2/27/92 77.4 - 79.8 degree to help stimulate
2/28/92 77.7 - 79.7 fish spawns.
2/29/92 - 78.3 3/20/92 75.8 - 77.7
My gut feelings are that the low temperature swing which lasted on 3/4
followed by a slight rise was enough to make this coral think that water
was warming generally. This combined with a increasing light cycle, is
what induced the coral to pelagically geyser spawn. Look at the real lite
values in cycle chart for left halide which was over coral. Just think
if you ever could induce more then 1 coral to spawn on the same day,
you would have a lot of eggs on your hand.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My KH value was checked again this weekend and it has drifted way up to
close to 18. I have determined that I can not control the values in a
stable fashion using reef KH and will try reef builder. My tank does
not look better then it did at a lower KH value. Dont know if the value
is at fault or value may be moving around to much.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ps - currently have about 60 (6 day old) resplendant protolarve and have
collected a couple hundred flame angelfish eggs just last night.
I thought handling eggs from two reef fish was hard, now I am also
trying to hatch and raise coral. Tough hobby :>
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by jamieo/gbrmpa.gov.au (Jamie Oliver)
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
I have been studying the spawning of corals on the Great Barrier Reef
in Australia for the last 10 years. Although my colleagues
and I have documented spawning
of over 150 species in situ, or in temporary aquaria, we do not have any
records from Trachyphyllia or from any species in the family (there are only
2). The spawning behaviour described is very similar to what we have seen
in several faviid and mussid species.
The "hatching" described in the first note may not be genuine.
by
The addition of artificial moonlight to the aquarium may be a critical
factor in inducing spawning. We have found that the corals almost all
spawn during a particular phase of the moon. Some preliminary experiments
indicate that one can change the time of spawning by providing an altered
moonlight cylce. This may have been the case with the Trachyphyllia. On
the Great Barrier Reef most faviids (close relatives) spawn during one or
2 nights in November or December (our spring).
I would be very interested to hear of any other records of spawning in
aquaria. Our experience here is that corals will spawn if kept in our closed
circuit aquaria for a month or so before spawning. Longer periods seem to
inhibit spawning - presumabley due to suboptimal conditions. Most of
our aquarium spawning observations were from corals brought in from
the field 3 - 5 hours before spawning.
The aquarium facility we have here is a public educational facility. It
is composed of 2 main tanks: a reef tank of 2.5 million liters; and a smaller
predator tank. The main reef tank is open to the sky and gets normal sunlight
(except with shadecloth to keep temperature down) and moonlight. We use algal
scrubbers to keep the nutrient levels down. Coral survivorship is variable.
Large fleshy polyped corals can survive for a year or more, but Acropora and
Pocilloporid corals only last a few months. We are currently conducting
research to figure out how to improve conditions.
Jamie Oliver
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Australia
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 30 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <1992Mar29.135254.8902-at-marlin.jcu.edu.au> jamieo-at-gbrmpa.gov.au (Jamie Oliver) writes:
>I have been studying the spawning of corals on the Great Barrier Reef
>in Australia for the last 10 years. Although my colleagues
>and I have documented spawning
>of over 150 species in situ, or in temporary aquaria, we do not have any
>records from Trachyphyllia or from any species in the family (there are only
>2). The spawning behaviour described is very similar to what we have seen
>in several faviid and mussid species.
>
>The "hatching" described in the first note may not be genuine.
>From the description and sizes given, it is more likely
>that the eggs were bursting and releasing yolk droplets.
>This happens frequently in aquaria if the water is not
>agitated.
These observations were made on eggs that were set aside for microsocpic
viewing and if memory serves me right they were not agitated as much as the
main batch of eggs. I know that agitation is very important due to my many
attempts to hatch centropyge eggs. I have learned threw trial and error
that agitation needs to be incredibly strong for eggs to hatch.
I can not see any normal growth path for the 12 - 25 micron spheres
that were a result of what I thought was a hatching and what I currently
see in the 6 seperate containers that house the hatched eggs. I am work-
ing on the next posting to this thread and if you have time you can look at
my descriptions of what I see in the various tanks. Please let me know
if any of these are close to what you have observed. The article should
be posted within the next few days.
I am quite literally using a toy microscope so the sizes and descriptions
may be a little fuzzy. A higher quality microscope is available and I
might borrow it from a friend of mine.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 31 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <1770-at-transfer.stratus.com> kvk-at-questor.sw.stratus.com (Ken Koellner) writes:
>Could you describe what sort of containers you have these,
>what sort of equipment is running them and what types of
>food or culture or growth is in them?
>
Our friend at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (Jamie Oliver),
has reviewed the last article I posted and says that organism #1 is probably
the coral larvae form. The other possiblity is that some marine protozoan
has started multiplying and feeding on old dead coral egg particles. For now
I will assume that this is the right one. Also, our modems went wacky and I
did not see articles 13279 to 13281. If anyone was asking me a question in
those posts please repost or send email.
I will now describe the containers that I have set up for the coral larvae.
Also, if these turn out to be the real larvae, I may have more then I can
handle and may offer up specimens for anyone in southern cal. They are free
------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE - Please dont overrun me with mail on this. If I decide that I cant
handle this many I will post a message in alt.aquaria.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
forms now but may soon start calcifing and locking into tank glass. They may
not be removable then until they get large enough to safely lift off the
glass. Mr. Oliver says that if these planulae start turning into semitrans-
parent disks, then they are definitly coral larvae and not a protozoan.
To begin with, the containers I am using are very crude, very basic. I was
not set up to handle coral larvae. I was taking a gamble that they werent
to demanding in this form. That may change when they start calcifying. Also,
when going over my tank log again I have discovered that I did retreive
a few of the eggs from that first night 3/13/92. Must have been just inter-
ested in what they were. This were the ones that were seen to spread apart
and pop up. I have also discovered these potential planulae in containers
that I had not seen them in previously.
note - All eggs were hatched utilizing the method I previously posted.
After hatching they were transfered to the following containers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Containers
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C1 - A 1 gallon glass jug. Water changes performed twice per week at 20
percent each time. Airstone, rigid tube and filter floss stopper.
This batch of eggs came from the first spawn on 3/13/92. There are
none of the potential planulae larvae in this container. Could have
been unfertilized eggs but more likely that I did not aerate them
enough. Jug is in within 1 inch of 2x48 inch flourescent strip shop-
light. With growlux full spectrum plant bulbs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C2 - A 1 gallon glass jug. Water changes performed twice per week at 20
percent each time. Airstone, rigid tube and filter floss stopper.
This batch of eggs came from the third spawn on 3/15/92. There are
hundreds of the potential planulae larvae crawling in the diatom
clumps on the bottom of the tank. It looks like they like to eat
golden brown , spear shaped diatoms that form colonial clusters
on the bottoms of very well lighted older established aquaria. I
can start cultures of these diatoms fairly easily from my main
tank. Jug is in within 1 inch of 2x48 inch flourescent strip shop-
light. With growlux full spectrum plant bulbs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C3 - A 6 gallon aquaria tank. Water changes performed twice per week at 20
percent each time. 2 Airstones and rigid tubing. This batch of eggs
came from the first spawn on 3/13/92. There are no planulae larvae
in this container. Again more likely that they were not aerated en-
ough. Tank is under very low 2x48 inch flourescent strip shoplight.
With a growlux full spectrum plant bulb and a special reef bulb I
purchased just for them. Do not remeber the brand.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C4 - A 20 gallon aquaria tank. Water changes performed twice per week at 20
percent each time. 2 Airstones, rigid tubing and heater. This batch
of eggs came from the second main spawn on 3/14/92. There are hundreds
of planulae larvae in this container. Tank is under very low 2x48 inch
flourescent strip shoplight. With a growlux full spectrum plant bulb.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C5 - A 10 gallon aquaria tank. Water changes performed twice per week at 20
percent each time. 2 Airstones, rigid tubing and heater. This batch
of eggs came from the third main spawn on 3/15/92. There are a few of
the planulae larvae in this container. Tank is under very low 2x48 inch
flourescent strip shoplight. With a growlux full spectrum plant bulb
and a special reef bulb I purchased just for them. Do not remeber the
brand.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C6 - A 1 gallon glass jug. Water changes performed twice per week at 20
percent each time. Airstone, rigid tube and filter floss stopper.
This batch of eggs came from the last spawn on 3/22/92. There are
a few of the potential planulae larvae in this container. Jug is
within 1 inch of 2x48 inch flourescent strip shoplight. With growlux
full spectrum plant bulbs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All water temps around 77.5. Have been adding reef calcium, reef ksm,
liquid gold, coral food(tat) and selcon on weekly basis. Am currently
rearranging setup. Will empty C3 and put C2 contents into this 6 gallon
tank. Will transfer some of C4 larvae into C5. I am currently thinking
about how to handle the next stage. What type of filtering will be re-
quired or should I at some point put them back in my main reef tank.
Lots of possibilities.......
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
More accurate description of Organism # 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1 - Hatching. This is what I observed but it may turn out that this
was yolk particles exploding. Like Mr. oliver has suggested.
The eggs from the first spawn that I observed with a flashlight
and microscope broke into clumps. These were composed of numerous
small spheres. Each clump had 100-200 spheres. These clumps then
began to fall apart as the spheres seperated. About 1 minute after
this each sphere poped or exploded to a sphere twice in size.
Size was from 8 - 15 microns. Again, this may not have been the
actual larvae hatching.
Day 2 - Same spheres may have been observed to be 25 microns in diameter
and have a white dot in the center. Following this observation
these spheres were only possibly seen being surrounded by the spear
shaped diatoms. These may correspond the the fact that they were
egg yolks exploded and the spear diatoms were eating or absorbing
the remains. At 1 point I though that the diatoms were formed by
the spheres but dont beleive that now. After this I started to
see what may be the planulae larvae.
Day 4 - This has not been confirmed but may be some early form of the
potential planulae larvae. Clear and mainly transparent. about
50 microns long. Shaped like a hotdog or elongated elipse. It
was crawling threw diatom clumps. It was crawling kind of like
a worm. Stretching and contracting.
Day 8 - Basically like day 15 but it was smaller (100 microns to 125).
At this stage it is still clear with lots of detail in center.
Day 13 - Again like day 15's description but smaller and now has turned
red or brownish. Size is 150 - 250 microns.
Day 15 - It appears as a reddish or slightly brownish, wormlike slug.
The potential planulae larvae seems to like crawling around in
golden brown spear shaped diatom clumps. It streches its neck
almost to a sharp point to pick at parts of the diatoms. Like
a giraffe streches to eat leaves from a tree. At full extension
it can strech to 200 or 250 microns. Seems to be gaining size at
a steady rate. It appears fatish and eliptical in the center when
not streched. When in open water, appears to swim with numerous
hairs or ciliates extending out from its perimeter. Swimming
from one diatom clump to another, it then crawls into the clump
and moves like a worm or slug while streaching its neck out to
eat. The edge appears smooth almost making a nice very thin bor-
der for the main body which has lots of dots or circles of detail.
Day ? - According to Mr. Oliver the next stage will be quite different
from this stage. I hope I can do the rearranging before this
change starts happening.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
ps - will analyse this one some more tonight.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer)
Date: 1 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <1770-at-transfer.stratus.com> kvk-at-questor.sw.stratus.com (Ken Koellner) writes:
>In article <1429-at-celia.UUCP> celia!steve-at-usc.edu (Steve Tyree) writes:
>>
>> (Mr. Tyree describes appearance of larval critters in).
>
>Could you describe what sort of containers you have these,
>what sort of equipment is running them and what types of
>food or culture or growth is in them?
>
I'll be awaiting steves answer too. My elegance coral spawn is
being kept in a breeder guppy net box. I was worried about constant
water flow around the eggs. Before the eggs hatched they were nicely
stuck into the mesh of the very fine fabric. According to Jamie
Oliver of the great barrier feef marine park authority the eggs will
break down if they aren't provided sufficient turbulence.
Yesterday I spoke to Matt Cammaratta of TAT and he said that his
and Alberts experience was that they had captured eggs and placed
some in a closed glass vial. The next morning they had totally
disintegrated under microscopic inspection. As of yet they had
yet to have any grow. I believe a permeable material which allows
water molecules etc to pass through and eggs/larvae to not pass
through. Anyone have any ideas. This also may need additional turbulence
provided by mechanical means, maybe a magnetic stirrer at very low
speed? Any ideas would be appreciated, I find this net an invaluable
source of very bright people from a wide diversity of expertise
and always get good suggestions.
Scott Schaeffer
scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 5 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <29973-at-cbmvax.commodore.com> scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) writes:
>In article <1770-at-transfer.stratus.com> kvk-at-questor.sw.stratus.com (Ken Koellner) writes:
>>In article <1429-at-celia.UUCP> celia!steve-at-usc.edu (Steve Tyree) writes:
>>>
>>> (Mr. Tyree describes appearance of larval critters in).
>>
>>Could you describe what sort of containers you have these,
>>what sort of equipment is running them and what types of
>>food or culture or growth is in them?
>>
>I'll be awaiting steves answer too. My elegance coral spawn is
>being kept in a breeder guppy net box. I was worried about constant
>water flow around the eggs. Before the eggs hatched they were nicely
>stuck into the mesh of the very fine fabric. According to Jamie
>Oliver of the great barrier feef marine park authority the eggs will
>break down if they aren't provided sufficient turbulence.
>Yesterday I spoke to Matt Cammaratta of TAT and he said that his
>and Alberts experience was that they had captured eggs and placed
>some in a closed glass vial. The next morning they had totally
>disintegrated under microscopic inspection. As of yet they had
>yet to have any grow. I believe a permeable material which allows
>water molecules etc to pass through and eggs/larvae to not pass
>through. Anyone have any ideas. This also may need additional turbulence
>provided by mechanical means, maybe a magnetic stirrer at very low
>
Ok, I am installing a home brew reef tray farming system for the potential
planulae larvae that I have. What is driving me is that Im trying to keep
the little critters alive and possibly bring them to subadult form. My initial
conservative estimate is that I have at least 50,000 planulae larvae. It ap-
pears that my pelagic egg collection techniques and pelagic egg hatching method
might be to good in this case. I collected about 500 eggs and have possibly
ended up with 50,000 planulae. If this is true (should have verification of
spat coral formation by end of next week) then there are micro eggs within
the macro egg. This may sound silly, but how in the world is this coral going
to keep propagating if it only release 500 planulae once per year. My cent-
ropyge fish do this every night (proto larvae).
This is how you can hatch pelagic eggs and get about 95 percent hatch rates.
Collect all the eggs and remove them gently from the main tank. See my previous
posts on this one. Then put them in a 1/2 or 1 gallon goldfish bowl filled to
4/5 full. Aerate the heck out of them overnight. By the following evening the
eggs will be hatched and all planulae or protolarvae will be setting their in
the goldfish bowl. Now you must move them to a better environment asap. Their
are 2 methods. Put them in small (10-20) tanks with lots of lighting, or put
them back in your main tank. This is a basic overview of how you can recover
and hatch 90 percent of all pelagic eggs released. But like I said, with 100's
of eggs and thousands of planulae this may be to good of a procedure . :>
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
ps - I could put together an article with detailed info describing this, but
it would take a few days and how many people are interested ?
- The fact that I have 50,000 planulae mught correspond with my initial
observation that I saw clumps of small spheres in the fragments of the
eggs after they fell apart the following morning. These spheres grew
in size and possibly hatched the next day. With 100 - 200 spheres per
egg, these could give the number 50,000. Which is what I count. Now
if these really are planulae, what next ?
by jamieo/gbrmpa.gov.au (Jamie Oliver)
Date: 5 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
steve-at-celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) writes:
>My initial
>conservative estimate is that I have at least 50,000 planulae larvae. It ap-
>pears that my pelagic egg collection techniques and pelagic egg hatching method
>might be to good in this case. I collected about 500 eggs and have possibly
>ended up with 50,000 planulae. If this is true (should have verification of
>spat coral formation by end of next week) then there are micro eggs within
>the macro egg. This may sound silly, but how in the world is this coral going
>to keep propagating if it only release 500 planulae once per year. My cent-
>ropyge fish do this every night (proto larvae).
> This is how you can hatch pelagic eggs and get about 95 percent hatch rates.
>Collect all the eggs and remove them gently from the main tank. See my previous
>posts on this one. Then put them in a 1/2 or 1 gallon goldfish bowl filled to
>4/5 full. Aerate the heck out of them overnight. By the following evening the
>eggs will be hatched and all planulae or protolarvae will be setting their in
>the goldfish bowl. Now you must move them to a better environment asap. Their
>are 2 methods. Put them in small (10-20) tanks with lots of lighting, or put
>them back in your main tank. This is a basic overview of how you can recover
>and hatch 90 percent of all pelagic eggs released. But like I said, with 100's
>of eggs and thousands of planulae this may be to good of a procedure . :>
> - The fact that I have 50,000 planulae mught correspond with my initial
> observation that I saw clumps of small spheres in the fragments of the
> eggs after they fell apart the following morning. These spheres grew
> in size and possibly hatched the next day. With 100 - 200 spheres per
> egg, these could give the number 50,000. Which is what I count. Now
> if these really are planulae, what next ?
I hate to say this, but I'd bet my boots that you have a bloom of prtotozoans
rather than developing planulae. The size is on the small side for planulae,
and there's no way you can get 50,000 from only 500 eggs. Also, based on my
experience raising larvae from other families, the planulae start to settle
out on the sides of the container in a big way after about five days...
that time has well and truly passed. Another thing working against the
possiblility that they are planulae is that none of the planulae that I hvae
worked with have ever shown sides of feeding. I've read one report of a
temperate coral planulae feeding but never any of the tropical reef corals.
by
For anyone else trying to raise planulae, the method we have used is to put
the eggs into small containers with a screwtop lid (plastic). The entire top
of the lid should be cut away, leaving just a threaded rim. Take a piece of
fine gauze (we use 100micron plankton mesh - but nylon mesh gauze similar
to the material that is use in your typical small dip net used in pet store
would probably do) and place it over the lid of the container and use the
threaded rim to screw it into place covering the opening. We then chuck the
container into the sea and tether it to a buoy. That way there natural
agitation and water exchange throught the gauze. This technique might work
in a large aquarium using a small container and lots of agitation in the
aquarium to keep the container rocking gently. The trick is to obtain gentle
but random agitation so that the eggs are kept moving, but don't all
accumulate at one place in the container. You may be able to figure something
better - we have only occaisonally use this technique in aquaria since we
ususally carry out our experiemnts within waling distance of the shore.
By the way, the eggs never "hatch", they simple start to devide into 2, then
4, then 8 cell etc... If the eggs are fertilized you can see the two cell
stage with the naked eye (but only just) about 3hours after spawning.
For those of you with access to an academic library, you may find the
following references useful:
Babcock, R.C. & A.J. Heyward 1986. Larval development of certain gamete
spawning scleractinian corals. Coral Reefs 5:111-116.
Wallace, C.C., Babcock, R.C., Harrison, P.L., Oliver, J.K. &
Willis, B.L. (1986). Sex on
the reef: mass spawning of corals. Oceanus 29(2):38-42.
Harrison, P.L., Babcock, R.C., Bull, G.D., Oliver, J.K., Wallace, C.C.
& Willis, B.L.
(1983). Mass spawning in tropical reef corals. Science 223:1186-1189.
Willis, B.L., Babcock, R.C., Harrison, P.L.,
Oliver, J.K. & Wallace, C.C. (1985).
Patterns in the mass spawning of corals on the Great Barrier Reef
from 1981 to
1984. Proc. 5th Int. Coral Reef Congr. 4:343-348.
Babcock, R.C., Bull, G.D., Harrison, P.L., Heyward, A.J.,
Oliver, J.K., Wallace, C.C.
& Willis, B.L. (1986). Synchronous spawnings of 105 scleractinian
species on the
Great Barrier Reef. Marine Biology 75:379-394.
Hope this helps ......
Don't get discouraged .... as far as I can tell, the amateur aquarist
are way ahead of us marine biologists in keeping corals going in
closed circuit aquaria. I'm still trying to figure out why we
don't have better success with our big 2.5 megaliter job here...
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jamie Oliver Managing Australia's Great Barrier Reef
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 6 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <1992Apr5.110458.17671-at-gbrmpa.gov.au> jamieo-at-gbrmpa.gov.au (Jamie Oliver) writes:
>
>I hate to say this, but I'd bet my boots that you have a bloom of prtotozoans
>rather than developing planulae. The size is on the small side for planulae,
>and there's no way you can get 50,000 from only 500 eggs. Also, based on my
>experience raising larvae from other families, the planulae start to settle
>out on the sides of the container in a big way after about five days...
>that time has well and truly passed. Another thing working against the
>possiblility that they are planulae is that none of the planulae that I hvae
>worked with have ever shown sides of feeding. I've read one report of a
>temperate coral planulae feeding but never any of the tropical reef corals.
>
>From everything you have written, I would say that your eggs disintegrated
>shortly after spawning.
>
Jamie, Thanks for the response and references on spawning. It looks like I
definitely have some kind of protozoan bloom, but I havent given up hope yet.
Its possible that the planulae were hidden in the protozoan bloom. Also their
may be two types of protozoan or more. Some have pointy ends and eat, their
are thousands of these. Others have round ends and are more eliptical, I have
hundreds of these. Last night and for the next couple of days I will search
all containers holding the eggs to see what else I have. I do have some small
semitransparent disks in one or more containers. One container has way to many
of these and they appear to be budding more semitransparent disks. These disk
are on the walls of the container but I need to look at one under the micro-
scope. In most containers the protozoan blooms have crawled up the sides. One
tank has groups of protozoan turning blackish. Under a microscope they appear
to be either transforming or growing into more rounded shapes. Some protozoan
start swimming in tight circles and form spheres. Lots of life forms to check
out.
It appears that the micro world of our reef aquaria is just as fascinating
as the macro world. Hopefully I will be able to find the time to read one of
the references you gave. This might help me in my continuing search.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
ps - Its possible that the conditions of the rearing tanks are slowing the
planulae normal life cycle. Like I said before, I wasnt set up to
handle coral eggs at the time. I will be more prepared next time...
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 7 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
While searching the containers I put the developed coral eggs in, I have
found 2 organisms which might correspond to developing spat (early coral
form). The descriptions of these lifeforms will follow. This information is
being sent to the net to keep anyone interested, informed and up to date with
what I have seen. I am fairly certain that #1 is not coral but #2 shows some
possibilities. I am still searching and will note any other likely candidates
I find.
Organism #1 - Thousands in one container and a few in another. Semitrans-
parent disk with some detail and a spot in circle. I dont
think that this is spat. Their are to many and they appear to
be developing from very small disks, like about 10 microns.
Current size is 10 - 200 microns. They also have a very long
thread sticking out from the center.
Organism #2 - Like I previously stated their are thousands of protozoans in
these containers. Their is definitely more then one type of
protozoan. Two types are brownish/red and appear as 250 micron
sized wormlike slugs. Another type is white and like a slug.
Some have pointed ends and appear to eat, others have rounded
ends and may not eat. In a 20 gallon tank I have which has been
under 24 hour lighting, groups of protozoans are turning black-
ish on the tank walls. When I examine these under the micro-
scope they appear to be transforming or mutating into different
forms which are sphere shaped. I have seen spheres form in the
center with the ends protruding out. Also some have developed
extensions protruding out. Why they like to do this in groups
is beyond me. I have also seen sphere shaped protozoans made
from the same body material that the reddish brown protozoans
have. These could be the completely transformed protozoan or
a new protozoan. I will list the options below.
1 - Sphere shape protozoan is a new protozoan and not spat.
2 - Transformation could actually be the protozoans under attack
by some type of predator.
3 - Protozoans could be dying or transforming into another non-
coral stage which would mean that they are not coral.
4 - Sphere shape could be transforming of planulae to spat. Still
to early to tell. The development into spat could have been
slowed by inadequate illumination, this is the only tank
which has 24 hour lighting. Will put other tanks on 24 light
cycle.
Note - The blooming protozoans has made finding possible planulae or spat very
difficult. This is why I am posting this information for possible review
or comment. Also it may help current or future coral breeders.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 8 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
This is a posting describing observations made on the containers which
developing coral eggs were put in. I had to restart thread due to local
computer problems.
Have been watching Organism #2, the transforming protozoans which are turn-
ing into circular disks. Some further observations will be listed below. I
am still puzzled as to what these are.
- More then half of the wormlike protozoans are turning blackish in a 20
gallon tank. In a 10 gallon tank, about 25 percent have transformed and
others are following. None of the protozoan in the 2-1 gallon jugs I have
are transforming yet.
- Its possible that this wormlike protozoan transforms into a circular proto-
zoan at a certain stage in its life cycle.
- Some small white dots or disks are starting to form on tank glass walls in
area of blackish transforming protozoan. Will try to collect some tonight
for micro viewing.
- If most or half of these are really planulae then I run into the following
problems with my prior observations.
1 - Egg count 500, planulae count 50,000. I did not actually count them
while I was collecting them. It was more of a guess based on collect-
ing and counting fish pelagic eggs from before. Its possible that I
could have been off by a factor up to 10. Result of max error margin
would be 5,000 eggs. Planulae count was guessed at after counting
and transferring 10,000 planulae. This was about 1/2 to 1/3 of the
total in a certain container. Another container had a lot to. End
results of error margins 5,000 eggs and 30,000 planulae. Its possible
that half or less of these protozoans are planulae.
2 - Planulae observed to be eating colonial diatoms. I saw them crawling
around diatoms and they appeared to me to be eating. Its possible
that only a certain percentage of the protozoan were eating and
others were not.
3 - Why they waited so long before transforming. Possible environmental
problems in rearing tanks could have delayed the change.
- The main question I have right now is. Are there worm/slug like protozoans
which transform at a certain stage in their life to circular shaped proto-
zoans ? They can move or wiggle a little bit right now. Its still right
after transforming. They are from 50 - 150 microns in diameter.
- Will concentrate all micro observations on these circular protozoans and
try to discover what they are or what they are doing.
Note - With all the life forms and transformations going on in my rearing
tanks, I still havent given up hope that their might be planulae or
spat somewhere in their. I would be happy if just one made it through,
so I could become familiar with their appearence.
Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 30 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
========================================================================
Call for Open Discussion on "Reef Breeding" Techniques and Practices.
=========================================================================
Section 3 of 3
=========================================================================
Summary of Authors Reef Tank System and Breeding Attempts.
=========================================================================
Setting up authors Reef Tank System.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My 180 gallon reef tank system was setup in December of 1990. Due to
financial restrictions, a bare minimum of live rock was used and this
caused the break in period to be extended. Sea anenomes and sturdy coral
specimens were slowly added. Then the long road to finding a compatible
pair of centropyge angels was begun. The first reef fish to spawn were
centropyge resplendens and this occurred in July of 1991. Only after
verifying that spawning was occurring, did I begin to utilize my hardware
modifications and pelagic egg collection techniques. These techniques
should not be used to induce spawning and should only be utilized to
collect eggs from a spawn or expected spawn. In nature, corals spawn
very rarely, but when they due it usually last for a short period of
days. Once a pair of marine reef fish starts spawning, certain species
can spawn every night. The collection techniques will stress the system
a little and if abused could put lots of stress on the reef trickle
filter system. When used properly, these techniques can help the filter
system by removing eggs that could otherwise pollute the reef tank.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spawning History in authors Reef Aquarium.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My current breeding attempts are focused on three species of marine reef
fish. A trio of Centropyge Loriculus which try to spawn every night but,
the smaller female seems a little shy and the larger one rarely seems
interested. When a complete spawn occurs, from 150 to 500 pelagic eggs
are released. The other spawning pair is Centropyge Resplendens. It took
awhile to produce a compatible pair, but they now perform spawning dances
every night. They have on average 4 complete spawns per week and release
from 120 to 400 eggs per spawn. The other reef fish species consists of
a school of Pseudanthias Ventralis Ventralis. This school includes at
least 3 females, but they have yet to spawn. These fish eat plankton and
pelagic fish eggs in nature and can be used to clean or eat unwanted egg
spawns or as spawning alarms. They go absolutely nuts if a spawn occurs
and the lights must be turned off immediately if any eggs are to be re-
covered that night. This tank also has a medium stocking of various soft
and stony corals. An open brain coral, Trachophylliia Geoffroyi has spawn-
ed recently in the tank. Pelagic egg layers release hundreds of eggs every
spawn. During a recent Saturday I collected 250 eggs from a slow release
coral spawn and then 1.5 hours later collected 250 eggs from a centropyge
spawn. Both times, water circulation was rerouted manually immediately
after observing the spawn. This has me starting to worry about egg pollu-
ton. In this respect im pleased that the anthias love to eat excess fish
eggs and the centropyge will eat some coral eggs.
Below is a listing of pelagic egg and protolarvae counts I have logged
on a monthly basis. The first few months, only collected eggs were count-
ed due to my inadequate hatching rates.
August 91 - 200 Eggs Centropyge Resplendens
September 91 - 1,971 Eggs Centropyge Resplendens
October 91 - 4,357 Eggs Centropyge Resplendens
- 410 Eggs Centropyge Loriculus
November 91 - 1,100 Eggs Centropyge Resplendens
I then perfected a method for hatching the pelagic eggs and thus only
counted the number of successfully hatched centropyge protolarvae.
November 91 - 375 Larvae Centropyge Resplendens
December 91 - 1,040 Larvae Centropyge Resplendens
- 150 Larvae Centropyge Loriculus
January 92 - 640 Larvae Centropyge Resplendens
- 380 Larvae Centropyge Loriculus
These figures were put in this article for the sole purpose of showing
that pelagic egg collection has indeed been occurring in a captive reef
tank. It was at this point that I realized that the initial food was not
acceptable, so I stopped collecting pelagic eggs during the month of Feb-
uary. A large phytoplankton dinoflagellate was ordered from a culture
center and marine infusoria cultures were started from the main reef
tank. The anthias school was added during this period along with more
live coral and a rearranging of the reef by adding more live rock from
another reef tank. In early march 1992 I started to try collecting pelagic
eggs again and had problems hatching them. After solving this difficulty
I am currently starting to collect and hatch centropyge eggs again. Hope-
fully my new food cultures will work with the centropyge larvae. These
are some of the smallest larvae amongst reef fish species.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardware Modification for Pelagic Egg Collection.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My reef tank was purchased and installed with the intent of eventually
collecting pelagically released eggs. The lighting system consists of
3 - 175 watt metal halide bulbs and 2 - 140 watt actinic tubes. The lamp
ballast permits four distinct light cycles to occur. The actinics are
used to simulate twilight hours. Your system should have a properly
sized trickle filter, medium to large sized protein skimmer and ball
valves in all return lines going back to the main tank. The hardware
modification is not extensive and consists of installing a tee and valve
in line after the main pump and before any water return splits or tees.
Attach a hose from the valve and connect the other end to the top of
your biological chamber next to the main tank overflow chamber line.
This plumbing was done on my tank by the aquarium stores installation
technician. I had to explain what I wanted about 5 times before it was
properly done. This and the expression on his face when I told him that
I was going to collect pelagic eggs with this setup, lead me to believe
that this was'nt done very often. The modification will allow you to man-
ually loop water from the sump and main pump through the biochamber and
remainder of the trickle filter. When the valve is turned you should
have a closed loop through the trickle filter separate from the main
tank. The water in the main tank will be stagnant at this point so it
should only be done during the short spawning time or right after a
spawn has occurred, so that you can collect the eggs. This setup has
allowed me to collect marine reef fish pelagic eggs and marine coral
pelagic eggs. This modification will keep water flowing threw the bio-
chamber of the trickle filter via a closed loop. The bacteria colonies
in this chamber will be kept alive by the water flow. With hundreds
of eggs being released by the pelagic spawners, it could take up to
half an hour to collect the eggs. The stagnant period in the main tank
might be equivalent to the high tide midpoint on a natural reef, which
happens to be a very good time to for reef species to spawn. Because of
the closed nature of an aquarium system you should keep this stagnant
period to a bare minimum of time. Don't worry about the affects of using
these techniques if you are initiating them to collect the eggs, the pol-
ution from the hundreds of eggs may be worse for your tank.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pelagic Egg Collection Techniques.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following section assumes you have the pelagic modification install-
ed or have some equivalent method or setup. Almost all reef species
which spawn pelagically, usually do so during a short interval at the
end of twilight evening hours. This helps make the task of collecting
pelagically released eggs a very simple one. Before implementing these
techniques, you should wait until you have verified that a reef species
is releasing pelagic eggs in your reef system.
The safest routine requires you to watch your reef during the night
time twilight spawning period and as soon as a spawn is seen, turn on
the main tank bypass system. This will send water to the biochamber and
then you should close the ball valves in the tank return lines. Water
should then be stagnant in the main tank and looping separately in the
biological filter. You might also turn off uv sterilizing and ozone
production just to be safe. Wait about 5 - 10 minutes for all the eggs
to settle and float up to the surface. You should be able to recover at
least half the eggs if you are fast enough. When pelagic fish spawn they
may make many attempts or rises, but the one that counts will have a
white cloud rising up from the pair at the spawning peak. If some reef
inhabitants start to eat the fish eggs, you can shut off the tank lights
right away.
The pelagically released eggs should then be floating on the waters
surface. A hand flashlight can be used to locate these white or colored
coral eggs and clear and transparent fish eggs. While holding the flash-
light at the correct angle to the waters surface, all the eggs can be
seen and collected with a clear drinking glass. It will take a while
for you to learn the technique of scooping eggs without scattering them
across the surface. Collecting pelagic eggs with this method is easier
then trying to retrieve demersally attached eggs. While using this tech-
nique I have recovered and hatched thousands of pelagic centropyge eggs,
which have been documented with hand written logs going back to august
of 1991. Recently, I collected more then 500 pelagic open brain coral
eggs during a 3 day spawn. No eggs were recovered on the first day of
the coral spawning because I didn't see the spawn and could not figure
out what the white balls floating in a film of milky substance was.
After witnessing the second day spawn, I started to collect these eggs.
A second technique can be used if multiple spawns want to be recovered
or if you cant keep an eye on the tank for an hour or two. I have en-
gaged the bypass from 1 to 2 hours before the night time twilight period
concludes. During this period intense spawning dances by the reef fish
can be observed and corals might spawn during this period of the light
cycle. My night twilight period is longer then the morning twilight pe-
riod, this provides the reef specimens with more spawning time. The
reef fish which spawn seem to enjoy this extra time. When using this
technique please follow the cautions listed in the next section.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cautions to observe while using Pelagic Egg Collection Techniques.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My aquarium has a slightly oversized trickle filter and a 5 foot tall
protein skimmer. This permits me to stop circulation from the main tank
for 1 to 2 hours during on average 4 night twilight periods per week.
My water parameters have remained stable and are extremely good. If
your reef tank has an undersized trickle filter or undersized protein
skimmer or is overstocked with specimens, I do not recommend turning off
the circulation for a 1 to 2 hour period. You could watch your tank
during the spawning period and manually engage the bypass following a
spawning. This should allow you to recover at least half the pelagic eggs.
Alternatively, you could try to recover eggs on only 3 nights per week
while using a 1 hour stagnate period. If you do use these tech-
niques, test your water parameters so you know if you are asking to much
from your filter system. It will take your reef fish a few stagnant per-
iods before they are comfortable with the lack of current. They will
eventually begin to recognize this as spawning time. With a properly
running reef tank, which is not overstocked and has more then enough
biological filtration, you can collect all pelagic eggs released on any
night you choose. I returned home one recent night at about 1:05 am,
walked over to my reef tank and engaged the bypass. 5 Minutes later my
pair of Centropyge Respledens spawned, then by 1:20am I had recovered
all the eggs and put the tank circulation back to normal. Its all a
simple matter of timing.
=========================================================================
Reef Breeding Conclusions.
=========================================================================
This original article could be followed up with more specific topics
or expansions to the information contained within. Listed below are
some ideas for topics of future articles I might post.
- The long road to becoming a reef breeder.
- A reef system designed to collect pelagically released eggs.
- Creating an marine infusoria culture from your reef tank.
- How to locate and order from a plankton culture center.
- Easy methods for high percent hatch rates of pelagic eggs.
- Observations of the spawning of Trachyphylliia Geoffroyi
(Open Brain Coral) (currently being drafted).
- Attempts at hatching and rearing Open Brain Coral eggs.
(currently being drafted).
- Inexpensive multitank setup for marine larvae.
- How to set up a coral reef tray based farming system ?
- Reliable ways to cultivate microalgae and marine rotifers.
- Cultivating attempts for a large phytoplankton dinoflagellate.
- The spawning of Centropyge Resplendens.
- The spawning of Centropyge Loriculus.
- Attempts at rearing Centropyge Resplendens protolarvae.
- Attempts at rearing Centropyge Loriculus protolarvae.
Although my time is limited, I don't mind doing the research for any of
the above topics or any others that you might have. I have discovered
that performing research can be a very enlightening experience. Hope-
fully, others will feel the same way. If one lacks the time to be a
breeder, then doing research at a university library, being a note
taking reef observer or passing messages between computer nets should
not be to much to ask.
=========================================================================
References
=========================================================================
Corals of the World Dr. Elizabeth M. Wood 1983
Dynamic Aquaria - Building Living Ecosystems
Walter H. Adey
Karen Loveland 1991
The Manual of Marine Invertebrates
Martin Haywood
Sue Wells 1989
The Marine Aquarium Handbook Beginner to Breeder
New Edition Revised and Expanded
Martin A. Moe Jr. 1992
The Marine Aquarium Reference
Systems and Invertebrates
Martin A. Moe Jr, 1989
Notes on the Reproduction and Development of Heliopora
Coerulea (The Blue Coral) FAMA Vol 15 #1
Robert A. Weingarten Ph.D. Jan 1992
The Reef Tanks Owners Manual
John H. Tullock 1991
Advanced Reef Keeping Albert J. Thiel 1989
=========================================================================
Call for Open Discussion on "Reef Breeding" Techniques and Practices.
Author - Steve Tyree. Computer Support Specialist and Engineer
and Practicing Reef Breeder.
=========================================================================
by scotts/cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer)
Date: 30 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
After getting the news on the spawning brain coral I decided
to up my lighting to the levels posted in Steve's post.
Three days later my elegance coral began to spawn. The
event was exactly as described by Steve, all mouths
erupting a stream of eggs. I captured the eggs with a syringe
and long tube and placed them into a breeder guppy net enclosure.
The eggs were brown and about the size of a pin shaft. The next
morning the eggs hatched either into something microscopic or into
tiny black dots the size of a pinpoint. I'm not sure if these
are dirt in the fabric net or the actual tiny corals. They are
so small that I didn't notice them on the fabric when I added
the eggs. The distribution of them does correlate to where I
placed the eggs in the net, only time will tell if they grow.
Has anyone read anything about what they feed on?
There is one variable to add to upping the lighting to 2 more hours
per lamp (metal halide). When I set the computer to run one
of the lights from 11:30 AM to 7:30 PM I mistakenly typed in
11:30 PM and one of the lights ran all night long for a single
night until I corrected it. This "moonlight" may have also
encouraged the spawn.
I'll keep you posted on the progress.
I also have video tape of the latter part of the spawn, but I've
yet to see of it came out clearly since I had to manual focus it
through the glass.
Scott Schaeffer
scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 31 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
In article <29902-at-cbmvax.commodore.com> scotts-at-cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) writes:
>Three days later my elegance coral began to spawn. The
>event was exactly as described by Steve, all mouths
>erupting a stream of eggs. I captured the eggs with a syringe
>and long tube and placed them into a breeder guppy net enclosure.
>The eggs were brown and about the size of a pin shaft. The next
>morning the eggs hatched either into something microscopic or into
>tiny black dots the size of a pinpoint. I'm not sure if these
>are dirt in the fabric net or the actual tiny corals. They are
>so small that I didn't notice them on the fabric when I added
>the eggs. The distribution of them does correlate to where I
>placed the eggs in the net, only time will tell if they grow.
>Has anyone read anything about what they feed on?
>
Great news and congradulations scott. Brown eggs. That reminds me of
an event that occurred 5 months ago in my tank. A medium sized giant
green fuzzy mushroom released a clump of PINK eggs. I quickly recovered
them and tryed to hatch them. Without a microscope its really hard to
see what comes out. You can pick up a cheap microscope at "Toys r US"
in the us and japan. I have been using the 100x setting.
You should keep an eye on your tank during spawning hours for the next
week or so. You might have something else spawn and release eggs. Since
my tank is restabilizing after raising the KH, I plan on putting it into
fall and winter mode for a few weeks. Then when the tank is stable, I
might add some additional stonys and go into spring and summer modes again.
That radio shack timer sounds interesting....
This also is probably a good time to describe the pelagic (free floating)
egg hatching method I use. You need the following equipment -
1 gallon or 1/2 gallon goldfish bowl
air pump, air stone with fine bubbles
air line, rigid tubing
saltwater maroxy
Recover eggs any way you can gently, and put them along with any tank
water into the goldfish bowl. After collecting all the eggs the bowl can
be filled to 4/5 's full with sterile salt water or tank water. Attach air
stone to rigid tubing and line and then the air pump. Run very strong bubbles
threw air stone and place it in the bowl close to the bottom. You almost
can not have to strong of an air flow. Eggs need to be constantly moving
but not smashing into everything. Any eggs that settle , will not hatch
properly. Also add about 1/2 cap of maroxy to water. This helps fish eggs
hatch and will kill some nasty bacteria that you dont want to transfer to
rearing tanks. This method works great with fish eggs. Havent tried maroxy
on coral eggs though. Check my next posting for info on what you might
be looking for.
>There is one variable to add to upping the lighting to 2 more hours
>per lamp (metal halide). When I set the computer to run one
>of the lights from 11:30 AM to 7:30 PM I mistakenly typed in
>11:30 PM and one of the lights ran all night long for a single
>night until I corrected it. This "moonlight" may have also
>encouraged the spawn.
>
Good information to have. We shouldnt be afraid to talk about any
uncalculated things we do. I am not going to say that I meant to
get my open brain coral to spawn. It was an incredible sequence
of events that were partially out of my control. Timing was every-
thing.
Steve Tyree - Practing Reef Breeder
by tse/ra.nrl.navy.mil (Anthony Tse)
Date: 30 Mar 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
Hello,
Just had a chat with a guy at the local store. I told him about the
coral spawning discussion and he told me there is a guy in the
Washington DC area whose hammer head coral spawned. He didn't try to
hatch the spawn so there were no baby corals.
-Anthony
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 1 Apr 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria
========================================================================
Call for Open Discussion on "Reef Breeding" Techniques and Practices.
=========================================================================
Section 1 of 3
=========================================================================
Justification for having an open discussion.
=========================================================================
Breeding reef organisms is a very challenging and difficult task to
undertake. Supporting information is hard to locate and most of the
reef species have never been raised in captivity. Despite this, success
is continuing to be made. Scientist, amateur breeders, and commercial
breeders have spawned and raised into subadult form up to 50 species of
marine reef fish. Although a third of these have been marine clownfish,
breeders are beginning to unravel the more difficult to breed coral
reef species. With the advent of marine reef tanks, many forms of marine
invertebrate can now be housed in captivity for their entire natural
life cycle. Some of the colonial and easy to keep species, are propagat-
ing quite naturally in these reef tanks. However, all Madreporia Corals
(stony) and a few Alcyonaria Corals (soft), have been more difficult to
raise due to their natural reproductive methods. Some success with these
species has been achieved through vegatative (coral fragment) reproduc-
tion methods.
A few amateur breeders are currently trying to naturally breed these
difficult species and the research they have performed needs to be made
available to other breeders and people contemplating breeding. Each of
these species has many unique hurdles or difficulties which must be
overcome for captive breeding to be successful. The science required to
to solve these breeding problems is not text book science. Breeders need
to be creative in applying different tactics to each species. When the
solutions for these problems are found we need to distribute this infor-
mation as fast as possible. Since captive breeding has in the past saved
species from extinction, its importance can not be overlooked.
This article is being written with the intent that it will reach marine
fish breeders, marine coral breeders or reef enthusiast who have the
passion and the proper equipment. It might also help others decide to
devote their time and effort into what can be an immensely rewarding
endeavor. We need to establish a communication link of some kind be-
tween breeders. If sending this long article was inappropriate, please
excuse me. As a reef enthusiast who is trying to become a successful
breeder, I have seen just how important this information can be.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using your Reef System for research.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Long term scientific observation is hard to sustain in a reef environ-
ment. Scientist are using captive aquaria to observe fish and coral
species. Reef owners can also make observations and take notes that
could be very valuable to breeders. These notes could be posted as
articles following or in addition to this article. Be very observant
while watching your reef. Some species of coral or invertebrate could
be spawning and due to our unfamiliarity with their spawning behavior,
we may not recognize it. If a species does spawn in your reef aquaria,
(which can happen a lot in a good running reef), we need to have a de-
tailed description of the spawn and type of spawning used. This is why
I have included a section on invertebrate and reef fish propagation.
Below is a basic list of information a reef breeder like myself would
like to know when a spawn is being reported.
- Hardware specifics for the spawning aquarium.
- Type of lighting used and detailed description of light cycle.
- Report any trends that were occurring in the light cycle.
- All the environmental parameters you can test accurately.
- Temperature of water. Some thermometers are very inaccurate.
- Report any trends that occurred to any parameters.
- Time of day that spawn occurred at. (reference light cycle to).
- Detailed description of spawning behavior and techniques.
- Amount of night lite. This is the same as moon light and phase.
- Type of food and feeding methods used for this species.
- Placement of species in relation to light source.
- Placement of species in relation to water current.
- Special things you did to induce spawning.
- Unusual events that have occurred recently.
- Personal thoughts on what might have caused spawning.
- A history of this species in your tank might be appropriate.
This is very important information. Someone might create a generic form
that could easily be filled out by a reef observer and mailed or even
posted here. This reef breeding author as well as many others are very
serious about breeding and propagating reef species. Those of you who
have a living reef in your home, can truly understand the splendor and
importance a reef has. Your observations could be directly responsible
for helping us breeders determine how to propagate these magnificent
creatures.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Description for the concept of Reef Breeding.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Reef Breeding" refers to the captive breeding of any organism which
inhabits a coral reef. A lot of these organisms can now be maintained
and are starting to be propagated in captive aquarium. Below is a list
of scientific classifications for common reef species.
Phylum List of Reef Macroalgae
Phylum Chlorophtya (Caulerpa, Sea Lettuce, Green Algaes)
Phylum Rhodophyta (Red Encrusting Algaes)
Phylum Phaeophyta (Sargassum, Brown Algaes)
Phylum List of Reef Animals
Phylum Coelenterata/Cnidaria (Corals,Sea Anenomes,Sea Fans)
Phylum Porifera (Sponges)
Phylum Annelida (Segmented Worms)
Phylum Platyhelminthes (Flatworms)
Phylum Chelicerata (King/Horseshoe Crabs, Sea Spiders, Some Mites)
Phylum Cordata (Sea Squirts)
Phylum Chordata SubPhylum Agnatha (Marine Jawless Fish).
SubPhylum Gnathostomata (Marine Jawed Fish).
Phylum Crustacea (Crustaceans)
Phylum Echinodermata (Starfish, Sea Urchins, Sea Lilies, Feather
Stars, Sea Cucumbers)
Phylum Mollusca (Molluscs)
Total number of invertebrate species involved is greater then 75,000.
My personal invertebrate interest is in Phylum Coelenterata - Class
Anthozoa(Sea Anenomes, Corals, Sea Pens) (greater then 6,000 species).
Basic propagation information for macroalgaes is absent in the sections
that follow. My reef tank has very little macro algae and thus my exper-
ience is limited. This article is meant to be a starting point for the
discussion of reef breeding. Readers could follow this up with family or
species based information. The last three phylums in the above list can
be extremely difficult to raise to subadult form due to their long and
multileveled plankton or juvenile stages.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current difficulties of Reef Breeding.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Breeding reef organisms is a very difficult task which requires long
term planning and financial investment. You need to study lots of reef
literature and reef species information. An aquarium must be purchased
and equipped properly. The reef system should be capable of providing
low nutrient water, high intensity lighting of the correct spectral
quality, oxygen levels at or near saturation, control of dissolved
carbon dioxide organics, proper management of trace elements and active
water flow. The aquarium must then be installed and brought into a
stable condition. It could take 2 months or longer for a complete reef
system to settle into a low microalgae state. These initial difficult-
ies support the assumption that most breeders will come from hobbyist
who already have an aquarium or are very knowledgeable with reef systems.
A non-reef basic breeding tank could be tried if a specific species is
targeted, however you should completely know the requirements of the
species. If you plan on having anenomes, stony and soft corals, macro-
algae and other delicate species inhabiting your reef, then the species
of reef fish which can coexist peacefully with these invertebrates gets
quite small. Alternatively, you could have a live rock based system or
plain marine tank with no higher order invertebrates and use this as a
base to support butterflyfishes, large angelfish, triggers and other
coral eating type species. Hopefully, an alternative food can be found
for them.
The next task is to acquire breeding pairs of reef species or asexual
invertebrates. These must be acclimated into your system, studied exten-
sively and the proper food must be provided. Hopefully the species will
then begin to spawn or propagate and eggs or young specimens can be co-
llected from your reef. Then hatching the eggs and or growing the young
invertebrates must be done. Also, many protolarvae and larvae are plank-
ton in size and require microplankton sized live food. These foods need
to be cultured and maintained. Then tanks for the young need to be pro-
vided. As you can see, their are many hurdles and difficulties which
must be overcome for captive breeding to be successful. Once techniques
are learned, we need to distribute this information as fast as possible
to other breeders. This discussion was started utilizing a basic format
in which other breeders and potential breeders will hopefully feel com-
fortable with.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Positive aspects of Reef Breeding.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The current living reefs on this planet are not very old in a geological
sense. Way back in earths past, when all the continents were one and their
was only one sea (Tethys), massive reefs flourished in all tropical zones.
Then the continents started pulling apart and individual seas formed. The
reefs remaining in these oceans all evolved down separate paths. Coral
still flourished in some seas and then the ice age period started. These
ice ages devastated the ancient reefs by constantly lowering and raising
the ocean water levels. This caused reefs to be submerged to deep to re-
ceive enough light or actually lifted them out of the water. The modern
distribution of reefs is patchy at best. Some have described our current
oceans as vast deserts with a few reef oasis. It has been estimated that
15,000 years ago ocean levels were 120 meters lower then their currently
are.
As reef breeders, our primary concern should be for the continuing ex-
sistance of natural coral reefs in the oceans of this planet. A long term
goal for reef breeding could be to provide a backup for natures ecosystems
and provide a source of specimens for the propagations of coral reefs
around the world. When breeding marine fish and corals becomes more su-
ccessful, most wild collection could be replaced with captive breed spec-
imen distribution. Then all reefs damaged by natural causes, (hurricanes,
temperature changes, salinity changes, sedimentation and biological fact-
ors), and by man made causes, (food harvesting, torphie hunting, building
materials, destructive fishing methods, dredging, live collecting, sand
extraction and choked with silt washed from land), can then be restocked
with captive breed organisms in subadult or larvae form. We must also stop
current pollution from entering the seas for our work to be ultimately
successful. This pollution exists in the following forms, (sewage, oil,
pesticides, industrial wastes and warm water outflows).
Due to the hostile nature of the coral reef environment, most species
release 100's and 1000's of eggs to maintain their current population le-
vels. If these eggs can be produced in a captive aquarium, we will have
access to all the specimens we could possibly need. Coral reefs can only
exist in certain bands of our oceans. Their temperature requirements limit
them to between 30 degrees north and south latitudes. Also they need very
intense sunlight so the base reef must be raised or within a narrow range
of depth. Many corals have a limited distribution range due to the way
they disperse their larvae (ie-they release short lived planktonic forms
which settle quickly). These corals could be distributed by man via cap-
tive raised larvae or subadult specimens.
Breeders should proceed carefully though because we do not want to start
a breeders craze which could in the short run cause even more demand for
wild specimens. Hopefully, our success will proceed so rapidly that as
restrictions are being placed on wild specimen collection, we can supply
the marine aquarium hobby with tank raised specimens. One great way to
to show the potential success of captive breeding might be for the first
stony coral breeder to donate some specimens to a country with a damaged
reef.
Marine aquarium could also be utilized to provide a home to a species
which may have temporarily lost its natural one. Breeders can furnish
marine aquarists with detailed information on the long term maintenance
requirements for each organism. Armed with modern equipment and breeders
knowledge these aquarist could then provide their reef organisms with a
home as good as the reef itself. If special care is taken to make sure
no natural predators are housed together then the environment might ac-
tually be better for the reef organism.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Future of Reef Breeding.
----------------
The Krib
Marine/Reefs
