sps spawn...

[Stanley-Reefer]

I've been trying to put my tanks on lunar cycles of late simply by letting the lunars stay on all night for 5-7 days as the actual full moon runs. Last night about 20 min after the actinics went out, I noticed my cardinals acting real jumpy.

I look in the tank and see lots of "debris"--I figured my large tangs had just relieved themselves, but I saw little brownish pink balls rising from my large "blue-voodoo like" acro.

They clouded the water for a bit and knocked the skimmer head down. The water is back clear now and nothing is affected. I'll be looking tonight!

Anyone see this in their tanks? I've seen the documentaries that say something like the 21st day after the full moon the reef releases gametes--that's what I saw last night, but it was from only one acro.

 

[jd474]

It's pretty common for brooding corals to "spawn," (Pocillopora damicornis being the most common) and reproduce in tanks, and sometimes broadcast spawners doing the same in closed systems. Unfortunately getting any reproduction out of a broadcast spawner is nearly impossible. It would require different genotypes of the same species to spawn at the same time, fertilization would need to occur, and the larvae would need to make it to settlement and primary polyp formation, which would take around a week of floating through your tank; or being harvested for settlement in a separate tank. Either way, it's still cool you were able to witness it, congrats!

 

[buy_baff]

My pocci did it and now there are about 30 mini colonys here and there.

 

[jd474]

My pocci did it and now there are about 30 mini colonys here and there.

Yup, damicornis planulates almost every night, so it doesn't take long to have them everywhere.