Sarcophyton spawning

[seapug]

just thought I'd share this interesting video of my long polyped white sarcophyton spawning with the soft coral forum. It's a little blurry but you can see the egg releases pretty clearly at a few points.

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[Hormigaquatica]

I've seen LPS spawn a number of times, but never a soft coral. Super cool!

 

[seapug]

yeah, I was pretty blown away the first time it did it too, but now it's a pretty regular event. There doesn't seem to be any "pattern" to it, but it's done it about 10 times over the past 3 or 4 months. It really fills the tank with eggs sometimes, but of course, the second turn off the powerheads and pull out the camera, it gets shy about it. Would be good to get some clearer video down the road.

 

[singold]

Very cool

 

[aleonn]

Wow, you might have a lot of these guys popping up in your tank!

 

[seapug]

Wow, you might have a lot of these guys popping up in your tank!

Fortunately, mine seems to only release eggs so I assume it's a girl toadstool. There's no boy toadstool in the tank to release sperm, so no babies are made.

 

[saltwaterpimp]

Dude we need to find you a female ! I have had 2 soft corals spawn for me...Its amazing !!

Thanks for sharing..

 

[NYCBOB]

my toadstools spawn by division or splitting up. cool video.

 

[seapug]

my toadstools spawn by division or splitting up. cool video.

yeah, the green polyped ones in my tank regularly drop pieces of the cap but this one doesn't. I periodically have to take a pair of utility scissors and cut off large sections just to keep it under control. I've given pieces to other people and they have done well, but it just doesn't "self prune." It's getting to the point now where I think I need to cut the entire head off and let it regrow. I'd prefer not to throw it away, so if anyone lives in the Denver area and wants a 24" white sarcophyton cap, PM me.

 

[Outerbank]

Very very cool!!!!

 

[aleonn]

Awww, no tiny babies then, huh? I was thinking they were spores being released.

 

[Misled]

my toadstools spawn by division or splitting up. cool video.

Ditto, something like octomom here!!!!

 

[seapug]

Awww, no tiny babies then, huh? I was thinking they were spores being released.

Some corals are hermaphrodites that can self fertilize, but Toadstools come in boy and girl types. Gotta have both for a successful spawn.

 

[RyanSweatt2004]

I saw this latest post about the sacrophytons all being either boy or girl. My first though of this was no way, come on right. But after doing a bunch of reading tonight it seems to be at least true that individual polyps up to complete colonies can be comprised of all male, all female, all hermaphrodites, or a mix of any of the above. From the reading I have found it doesn't say anything about needing two colonies of the same coral to have a successful spawn though. I guess if you were to end up with a colony that was comprised entirely of one sex than you might need multiple colonies to have a successful spawn in a home aquarium. There's no telling though what the odds are of having a colony of animals be all male, all female, all hermaphrodites, or a mix of any of the above. Just the rare occasion of having such an event happen in a man made environment is Very interesting though.

 

[seapug]

Yeah, corals run the range from being completely dioecious to hermaphrodites and everything in between, depending on genus and species.

 

[SushiGirl]

It really fills the tank with eggs sometimes, but of course, the second turn off the powerheads and pull out the camera, it gets shy about it.

Very cool!
My guess would be it gets "shy" after you turn the powerheads off because it doesn't have the current going to carry the eggs far off to another location. That's just a very uneducated guess tho LOL.

 

[seapug]

yes, that's what I guessed too, but there's quite a lot of current in the tank so trying to get video of the eggs releasing with the powerheads on is just about impossible.