collect coral larvae instead of colonies?

[Chad Vossen]

i was watching a show on the science channel and they made traps that they just stuck over the colony and at night the larvae floated up into a collection tube. they showed the larvae swimming around under the microscope and eventualy showed them attached to the bottom of the specimen holders. the lady said they collected over 500 coral larvae.

what if instead of collecting the actual colony, collectors mark out an area and collect larvae from the colonys within this grid. take the larvae back to a lab and sort each larvae into its own petri disk with a thin stone disk on the bottom and let it attach. after it has attached, move it into a growout tank.
this way more coral could be generated from a smaller space.

not sure how it would work for those corals that release sperm and eggs. but it looked like it would work for the corals that release larvae.

 

[Steven Pro]

Are you going to MACNA this year? If so, you could hear from Lee Goldman.

From Larvae to Market: Growing scleractinian corals from sexually produced larvae for the aquarium trade.

This presentation will focus on my observations and experience over the past three years working towards the successful production of scleractinian corals from sexually produced larvae and brooded planulae. Following of brief overview of coral reproduction, discussing both the sexual and asexual strategies that are employed by corals, I will begin describe some of my early trials with the settlement of Pocillopora damicornis and Acropora surculosa. There will be a discussion on some of the husbandry issues that I have faced in rearing both brooded and spawned corals and I will use lighting as an example to demonstrate how important it is to understand the habitat in which juvenile corals will thrive.

I will then present several ideas that support the advantages of growing corals from larvae and planulae including the conservation of our natural reefs, genetic diversity of coral species within the aquarium trade, colony morphology, and CITES record keeping. There will also be a discussion about a few of the issues that currently limit this type of farming such as narrow spawning seasons, the lack of known spawning times, and the availability of sexually reproducing corals. Finally, I will present a theory on why I believe brooders rather than spawners are more successful candidates for this type of coral farming. I will conclude the talk with a review of some of the research projects that I will be pursuing in the future and show some photos of my research tanks.

 

[Chad Vossen]

sweet, i wont make it to the MACNA but id like to go someday. the potential volume of colonys that could be grown from spawnings is incredible. i bet that we will someday crossbreed corals and through selective breeding produce some truely amazing colonys.

i just wish i could get into this hobby 100 years from now, but then we dont know how our wild reefs will look in 100 years. in 100 years airplanes realy changed. wonder what 100 years will do for the reef hobby.