acro-ed
Member
Hey guys,
I dont usually post on here, but I figured somebody may be interested. My green toadstool leather sexually spawned last night. I have never before seen sexual spawning in captivity, though I have heard about it with other types of coral.
I have had the coral for about 6 years. (acquired May 2001, spawning was 25th July, 2007) It came from another tank where it was an offshoot of a very large leather coral. It started about 2" tall when opened, it is now nearly a foot tall when completely opened.
Last night, about 30 minutes before the lights went off the polyps started "shooting" out dozens of bright red spheres, about 0.5-1.0mm in diameter. My wife noticed it first, and we were both wondering what was going on. Then the polyps started shooting out hundreds, and then thousands more of these spheres. The event lasted about 45 minutes total. Upon close examination, you could actually see multiple eggs stacked up inside each polyp, ready to be launched out.
Here are the tank stats:
75g with closed loop
4 x 110w VHO (3 super actinic, 1 aquasun)- timer from 1pm-10pm
1x 250w XM 20k (I have two halides but one has been off b/c its been too hot in my living room) - timer from 3pm-6pm
[the halide which was removed was the one over the leather, it has been off for about 6 weeks.]
flow:
- 2 x maxijet "mods" - ~1200gph each
- closed loop one intake and three returns all on back wall of tank, pump is around 1400gph - timer: on 11a-3p, 7p-11p, 6a-8a.
- return pump runs both return and skimmer, Mag18, ~800gph to return.
Temperature:
Stays 80-81 F , 1/4hp chiller.
Water Parameters: Salinity 1.026, nitrate -0 , phos- 0, Ca - 450, Alk - ~9.5dkh, Mag- 1500, ph - 8.0
In trying to figure out what may have induced this spawning, I did a little research. Generally these corals spawn in late spring or summer. So possibly it was triggered by the lunar cycle and had nothing to with my tank parameters. We are about 2-3 days away from a full moon.
Alternatively, the only parameters which changed in my tank resulted from an Interceptor treatment this past Monday. The spawning event was the evening of Wed. July 25th. After the Interceptor treatment I did a 10g water change, and put in a new Pura-pad. None of the corals seemed affected by it, and the redbugs are definitely dead.
My wife took several pictures, and a short video of the event. I dont know how to post that up here. If anyone is interested Pm me with instructions on how to post them.
Comments and opinons are certainly welcome.
Thanks all!
Ed
I dont usually post on here, but I figured somebody may be interested. My green toadstool leather sexually spawned last night. I have never before seen sexual spawning in captivity, though I have heard about it with other types of coral.
I have had the coral for about 6 years. (acquired May 2001, spawning was 25th July, 2007) It came from another tank where it was an offshoot of a very large leather coral. It started about 2" tall when opened, it is now nearly a foot tall when completely opened.
Last night, about 30 minutes before the lights went off the polyps started "shooting" out dozens of bright red spheres, about 0.5-1.0mm in diameter. My wife noticed it first, and we were both wondering what was going on. Then the polyps started shooting out hundreds, and then thousands more of these spheres. The event lasted about 45 minutes total. Upon close examination, you could actually see multiple eggs stacked up inside each polyp, ready to be launched out.
Here are the tank stats:
75g with closed loop
4 x 110w VHO (3 super actinic, 1 aquasun)- timer from 1pm-10pm
1x 250w XM 20k (I have two halides but one has been off b/c its been too hot in my living room) - timer from 3pm-6pm
[the halide which was removed was the one over the leather, it has been off for about 6 weeks.]
flow:
- 2 x maxijet "mods" - ~1200gph each
- closed loop one intake and three returns all on back wall of tank, pump is around 1400gph - timer: on 11a-3p, 7p-11p, 6a-8a.
- return pump runs both return and skimmer, Mag18, ~800gph to return.
Temperature:
Stays 80-81 F , 1/4hp chiller.
Water Parameters: Salinity 1.026, nitrate -0 , phos- 0, Ca - 450, Alk - ~9.5dkh, Mag- 1500, ph - 8.0
In trying to figure out what may have induced this spawning, I did a little research. Generally these corals spawn in late spring or summer. So possibly it was triggered by the lunar cycle and had nothing to with my tank parameters. We are about 2-3 days away from a full moon.
Alternatively, the only parameters which changed in my tank resulted from an Interceptor treatment this past Monday. The spawning event was the evening of Wed. July 25th. After the Interceptor treatment I did a 10g water change, and put in a new Pura-pad. None of the corals seemed affected by it, and the redbugs are definitely dead.
My wife took several pictures, and a short video of the event. I dont know how to post that up here. If anyone is interested Pm me with instructions on how to post them.
Comments and opinons are certainly welcome.
Thanks all!
Ed
