Acropora Tortusa Colony Spawning

[Logzor]

I came down to the basement last night and saw tons of small particles in my reef. I don't have sand in the aquarium so I knew it wasn't something being stirred up by fish, so I started inspecting my colonies to see if it was a spawning event.

This my my acropora tortusa (cali tort) colony spawning at around 11:00pm last night while the lights were on. This morning I could still see some particles from the event flying around in the water.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0-MpAHHNUM

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Congratulation on your truly magnificent achievement.

:beer:

 

[Logzor]

Congratulation on your truly magnificent achievement.

:beer:

Thank you! Had the colony for over 7 years grown from a 1" frag so I was ecstatic when I saw it spawning.

 

[tomae]

Congratulations, it makes it seem as if snowing lol

 

[Logzor]

The particles (sperm/egg) are perfectly buoyant so it was almost like a snow globe.

 

[sahin]

Thats amazing. So nice to know how much the hobby has advanced from the days when even scientists thought it was impossible to keep SPS corals in captivity, to when people thought we could keep them alive, but they are mostly brown, to amazing colours on hard to keep acros and the occassional spawning events. Awesome work Logan. :beer:

 

[Logzor]

Thats amazing. So nice to know how much the hobby has advanced from the days when even scientists thought it was impossible to keep SPS corals in captivity, to when people thought we could keep them alive, but they are mostly brown, to amazing colours on hard to keep acros and the occassional spawning events. Awesome work Logan. :beer:

Thanks Sahin! It's pretty crazy, I was reading some articles awhile ago about intentionally spawning acropora by carefully managing water parameters and night-time light exposure. The next step is captive bred corals.

I highly doubt any individual polyps / new corals will form from the spawning event but wouldn't that be cool?

 

[reefmutt]

That is really cool!
Congratulations!
We certainly don't see this very often at all..

 

[Pife]

That's awesome. Thanks for the video. It's crazy that this is even possible in captivity.

 

[biggles]

Awesome stuff mate, did they all end up floating in the sump.

 

[Logzor]

Thanks everyone for the complements. Most of them either went into the sump, got caught on rockwork, or were eaten by fish. By this morning I could see only minimal amounts still circulating in the display.

 

[cFloor]

Wow! Very cool, congrats. Fish and corals ate good that night

 

[Reef Bass]

Very well done! Congratulations!

 

[March.]

amazing good job! whats your secret

 

[JAustin]

Like all the others have said.....fantastic job! You've no doubt maintained great water quality and chemistry to have one of your colonies decide to make babies.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Logzor]

Wow! Very cool, congrats. Fish and corals ate good that night

Thanks! The next evening the sump and skimmer sure smelled like something funky was going on!

Very well done! Congratulations!

Thank you!

amazing good job! whats your secret

Thanks! Not sure if it's any secret but dumb luck. Have a huge colony helps too, I think they will only spawn at a certain size. Only other changes I've made in recent months was adding an algae turf scrubber and one of my T5 ballasts died so I'm down two bulbs.

I know some people have speculated that moon light plays a role in spawning. I'm not sure this is the case since my reef is in the basement. There are small windows near the aquarium so only minimal moonlight would make it in, not to mention, my lights run until midnight. I think it has a lot more to do with the gravitational pull of the moon rather than the light.

I don't run moon lights but I do have a super-bright red LED light in my refugium that runs all night, quite a bit of this light radiates into the display since I have a bare bottom system.

Like all the others have said.....fantastic job! You've no doubt maintained great water quality and chemistry to have one of your colonies decide to make babies.

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you! Would be so cool if they actually morphed into new polyps. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

 

[tmc1313]

Very cool! Did this happen on the same night as the super moon and lunar eclipse? If so, it would be just so coincidental for the two to happen simultaneously like that. Maybe the lunar cycle was a catalyst, maybe not. Either way, awesome. On a side note, with all that spawning going on, did you have any water quality issues? It's not like all that spawning could just float off into a vast ocean.

 

[Logzor]

Very cool! Did this happen on the same night as the super moon and lunar eclipse? If so, it would be just so coincidental for the two to happen simultaneously like that. Maybe the lunar cycle was a catalyst, maybe not. Either way, awesome. On a side note, with all that spawning going on, did you have any water quality issues? It's not like all that spawning could just float off into a vast ocean.

It happened the night after the super moon. I think there was a connection, but who knows. Maybe I'll shoot some e-mails out to see if I can get a definitive answer from some sort of expert on the matter.

The sump/skimmer smelled kind of funky but no visible water quality issues. I don't think it was more material than a couple of cubes of frozen food, if I had to guess.

 

[danrobberg]

Is it possible for any of them to latch on and actually grow?

 

[greenlime100]

Wow!! Congratulations man. I've recently added some sps in my main tank and I'm certainly inspired by this.
I remember feeling elated when my Kenya Tree began spawning some years ago I can imagine how this would've been for you!