From: steve@celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: [M] Hard coral spawning continued...
Keywords: marine reef
Date: 13 Apr 92 18:25:10 GMT
Reply-To: celia!steve@usc.edu (Steve Tyree)
Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood

In article <30269@cbmvax.commodore.com> scotts@cbmvax.commodore.com (Scott Schaeffer) writes:
>This weekend a second hard coral spawned. It is
>a branched pink hammer coral Euphillia ???. This spawn
   More great news from Scott. Keep up the good work. If you can find the time
   could you post details on light cylces, moonlight and any other tricks you
   have performed. My tank is entering winter mode now and recovering from my
   KH fiasco. I read in a australian tourist book on the Great Barrier Reef 
   that the corals there spawned on the first waning moon in summer time. 
   Did you have a low light nite after you left a halide on all night during
   your first reported spawning ? Could that have been a waning moon ?
>was different from the Elegance spawn in that the sperm
>and eggs seemed to be released from different sources.
>The sperm was a clear liquid which seemed to be produced
>by the coral surface and the eggs were released as a
>mass from the mouths. There were less eggs than the 
>Elegance (maybe 100 or so). The interesting part about this
>spawn was that the coral has been in captivity about 9
>months as opposed to the Elegance which was in captivity
>about 2 months. Jamie Olivier recently stated that thier
>research showed corals would spawn only within a month
>or so of captivity and older corals failed to spawn due
>to less than optimal conditions. This spawn gives some
   Modern day reef systems may be approaching more optimal conditioning.
   What are your nitrate and phosphate levels ? Do you have low range test
   kits ?
>hope of spawning captive corals year after year. The
   Its possible that we could get corals to spawn more then once a year in
   captivity. Like 2,3 or 4 times a year. By adjusting your light cylce times
   a year could be months. The main question is how long does it take a coral
   to produce viable eggs and or sperm. They may be able to do it in a shorter
   time frame then in nature. I could never understand how natural corals can
   spawn only once a year on the same day and still propagate on this planet. 
   What if local water conditions are bad on the one spawning day. All the eggs 
   for the entire year could be lost. This seems like a very primitive form of
   reproduction.
>eggs and sperm were captured via a syringe and long
>plastic tube and inserted into a sterile test tube.
>The cap was replaced by fine gausse held by rubber
>band and a piece of "weed wacker line" used to
>suspend the tube underwater in front of the wave
>making powerhead. The wavemaker was reprogrammed
>to 15 sec on and 5 sec off. When on a random motion
>was produced similar to the wave motion described
>in Jamie's previous article.(again many thanks for your
>help Jamie). Within 12hrs clear disks were visible
>on the inside of the tube. I'll keep updating the
>progress of the disks.
>
    Please do scott. My protozoan blooms which turned into brown/blackish
  disks then turned clear or transparent. They are extremely hard to locate
  after that. I have installed a reef breeding tray farming system which was
  made completely operational this weekend. 3 Trays were seeded with the brown
  disks. 1 Tray has some loose mushroom corals I have taken out of the main
  tank. The other 2 trays will be loaded soon. One way to locate white objects
  easy is to turn off the main light, then use a flashlight held at the proper
  angle. I have little very white growths now on the bottom of the trays. This
  is not algae or diatom. Light can not be shined threw it. I have to use re-
  flected light in the microscope. They appear like white cauliflower but are
  much more detailed. No septa yet. Still dont know if these came from disks 
  or are something else. I havent given up hope. The one possibility for me
  is that the open brain coral released eggs which developed into planulae
  which happen to be very slow developing planulae. Any way this is a good 
  test run for my new tray farming system.

  Steve Tyree - Practicing Reef Breeder

Newsgroups: rec.aquaria