From: krogers@javelin.sim.es.com (K. Rogers)
Subject: Re: [M][R] Coral spawning report
Keywords: coral spawning
Reply-To: krogers@javelin.sim.es.com
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 20:18:16 GMT

steve@celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) writes:

>->I had a coral spawn last night.  It is difficult to tell which one but
>->I'm pretty sure it was the "metallic mushroom" coral.  I don't have a
>->latin binomial for them.  There are 4, originally 2 but one reproduced
>->asexually by spliting into three pieces about a year ago.  They're all
>->about 6" across and are flesh colored with a metallic green sheen on
>->the top surfaces of the discs.  There are various lumps and nubs over
>->the surface as well.
>->
>->Particulars: approx 100-300 yellowish tan to beige (how's that for a
>->difinitive color :) spheres which are a little less than 1mm in
>->diameter.  The company microscope is locked up today so I've only been
>->able to look at them through an el-cheapo 30x pen scope.  At that
>->power they look like totally undifferentiated spheres.
>
> That might confirm what I witnessed in my tank. Did the "fuzzy metallic
>mushroom coral" release the planulae in one large bundle which than slow-
>ly broke apart into individual planulaes ?

Yup.  I was just vegitating in front of my tank, half asleep when I
noticed a mucousy glob get ejected from the right hand side of the
tank.  The mucous broke apart and lots of little planulae seperated to
be eaten by my midas blenny (which goes beserk every time something
spawns) and the filter.  It was just luck I was in front of the tank
to observe the event.

> I am currently 1 day after full moon and was only planning on doing 1 more
>summer full moon before going into winter. This weekend I purchased 2 real
>nice closed brain corals. A Favites sp. (red) and a Leptoria sp. (green
>ridges with purple valleys).

Shit, Steve, why do you get all the neat stuff?  I'd give half the
teeth in my mouth to find what you get - Acropora? Favites? Leptoria?
Sheez, all we have are the same ol' lagoon critters like elegance,
bubbles, hammers and such like cram.  I've been looking for over a
year now for hermatypic corals like Acropora, Porites and Millipora so
I could unleash my MH lights and water pump.  Right now I have egg
crate between the bulbs and the animals because every time I try to
adjust them (slowly) to full exposure most wither from the light.  I
would really like to make a shallow reef tank with lotsa light and
high currents.

> These two corals came from a location that is
>20 degrees south of the equator.

I'm using 19 S as my latitude for lunar and diel cycles.  I forgot the
longitude - it's about 149 E.

> That means that they are probably 1 - 2
>months away from spawning. Should I wait a little longer ? Maybe I will
>slowly go into winter and give the corals 2 more full moons.

I have a feeling the temperature wasn't important for this - the lunar
cycle was.  This was the 3rd full moon since I started my moon light
up and I think more and more things are synching up to it now.  For
example, the turbo snails spawned again 2 nights before full moon,
this was the 2cd simulated month in a row for that.  Also, one limpet
spawned with them.  Keep in mind I've been droping tank temp from 82
to 78 over the past month as well.  If temps were important you'd
expect them to spawn at rising temps, not falling.

> Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
-- 
Keith Rogers
krogers@javelin.sim.es.com
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria