./Reproduction/Coral/asexual
Contents:
- [M] More on MH lighting
by fssmith/venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith) (22 Apr 1992)
- [M] Budding Asexual Reproduction of Reef Coral
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (6 May 92)
- [M] Budding Asexual Reproduction of Reef Coral
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (7 May 92)
- 2 flame & 1 cheurb angels in a tank
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (1 Jun 92)
- baby bubble coral
by fssmith/ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith) (28 Aug 1992)
- goniopora reproducing or dying?
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree) (8 Dec 92)
- reef depletion
by tse/ra.nrl.navy.mil (Anthony Tse) (Fri, 23 Jul 1993)
- [M]RE: Propagation of corals through cuttings?
by steve.shvetsoff/eabbs.com (Steve Shvetsoff) (11 Apr 94)
by fssmith/venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith)
Date: 22 Apr 1992
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
In article <1494-at-celia.UUCP>, celia!steve-at-usc.edu (Steve Tyree) writes...
>In article <1992Apr20.220352.29906-at-javelin.sim.es.com> krogers-at-javelin.sim.es.com writes:
>>
>>Apparently the aquarists in Europe have been breaking off Acropora
>>branches to give to friends for some time now but I've never heard of
>>any in the US. AJ Nilsen says his piece from some guy in Germany
>>barely survived until he started adding strontium, since then it's
>>been growing well. I vaguely remember an article in FAMA a while back
>>of one of the famous Germans getting an Acropora to sexually reproduce
>>in his tank. I may be mistaken on this. I'll see if I can scrounge
>>up the article.
>>
> Acropora are some of the most colorful corals found on reefs. When placed
> about ,Id say 6 inches under a metal halide bulb, they can become very
> colorful. These are some of the fastest growing corals found on reefs. The
> germans have had good success with fragmentive reproduction. Id love to
> be successful with natural coral reproduction. There are many corals similar
> to acropora that are magnificient in color and shape. Unfortunately we have
> not been given opportunities to try to keep these. I dont mind earning
> respect and will try it that way. :>. If one aquarists could get one of
> these types of stony corals to reproduce naturally, we may have "earned"
> access to trying to breed others.
>
I have had both bubble coral and elegans coral produce asexually. They produce
a piece of tissue which hangs from the main stem for several months and
continually grows. While it is hanging it forms a calcarous base and becomes
heavier. It eventually breaks off and forms a new coral. So far I have one
baby bubble coral and two baby elegans.
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 6 May 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
This message is being sent a second time. Our net feed was down and I did
not get confirmation of my first attempt to send. If anyone receives this
twice, sorry..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to report the birth of a new Goniopora lobata (Flowerpot Coral)
coral from a budding growth. It took about 6 months for the bud to grow and
become detached from the parent colony , but this weekend I removed it from
this colony and it is doing fine. I have seen baby flowerpot coral for sale
in reef stores and am assuming that these were pulled from parent colonies in
nature. It is possible that someone is farming these, but the 6 month growth
rate per parent colony, would make it an unprofitable buissness venture.
The original colony is a 4 inch round half sphere skeleton when fully retract-
ed. This is when you can see a smaller sphere growing on the surface on the
main colony. When fully extended the polpys appear as flowers and extend about
4-5 inches from skeleton base. You can not see any budding growths when main
polyps are fully extended. It also appears that a new small bud is forming.
If anyone has seen this species or another species do this please post a
message so I can compile a list. I have received mail from someone who said
an elegance did this twice. This method of reproduction wont be adequate to
supply the reef aquaria hobby or repair damage in nature but it is rather
interesting. Also, we can now say that very difficult to keep stony corals,
have reproduced successfully in a captive aquaria.
ps - My 3 month plan to mass coral spawning is on track and was not interr-
upted by the full scale riot in LA. I live in the hills away from the
chaos. Any mail sent to anyone in LA since last thursday should be
reposted.
Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 7 May 92
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
<edu!celia.uucp!steve-at-usc> writes:
|> I would like to report the birth of a new Goniopora lobata (Flowerpot Coral)
|> coral from a budding growth. It took about 6 months for the bud to grow and
|> become detached from the parent colony , but this weekend I removed it from
|> this colony and it is doing fine. I have seen baby flowerpot coral for sale
|> in reef stores and am assuming that these were pulled from parent colonies in
|> nature.
<usc!BRL.MIL!moss> writes:
> I have a piece of Flowerpot Coral I've had for about 1 year (have to check
> my log to get the exact time of purchase). Since that time, new colonies
> have appeared, usually a cluster of 3 individual polyps 4 or more inches
> away from the main colony. I have never witnessed how these new colonies
> formed, they just appeared as fully formed polyps up to 1/2" long when
> fully extended. In every case, they have survived a week or so, and suddenly
> disappeared. I have always assumed that they were either swept under a rock
> by the current in the tank or pecked off by a fish; the pair of clowns
> (A. ocellaris (sp?) ) like to mouth the tentacles and snuggle in sometimes.
> I'm a little confused by your explanation above. You say it took 6 months
> for the bud to grow and become detached, but then you say you removed it
> manually. I guess you mean you put some distance between it and its detached
> parent?
I have also seen loose polyp mouths floating around in the water, this is not
what I have now. This is a fully functional 1/2 inch calcium 3/4 sphere G.
lobata. Some scientific literature states that certain coral species brood
new polyps and then release them for settling elsewhere. Its possible that this
is what you have obsevered. I will try to explain the formation of my juvenile.
What happens is that a round bud grows on the surface of this particular
species of Gonipora (possibly lobata). This bud continued growing in size
till it starting tearing away from the parent colony. It was literally hang-
ing by a thread when I finished the detachment, by pulling on the juvenile
coral. A new very small bud is growing in the same vicinity of the original
bud. The first bud was placed in a secure well lite place. Its basically a
round calcium ball about 1/2 inch in diameter. It contains about 12 polyps
which extend out to the normal flower type. The bud is the same exact color
and shape as the parent colony. There appear to be many different types of
Gonipora sp. and I dont know if they all use this budding method. I beleive
that they all can release masses of eggs to.
<edu!celia.uucp!steve-at-usc> writes:
|> The original colony is a 4 inch round half sphere skeleton when fully
|> retracted. This is when you can see a smaller sphere growing on the
|> surface on the main colony. When fully extended the polpys appear as
|> flowers and extend about 4-5 inches from skeleton base.
<usc!BRL.MIL!moss> writes:
> My colony is less than 3 inches across and is also hemispherical.It is almost
> always expanded however, with large polyps extending about 4 inches. There
> are numerous baby polyps in between the larger ones. I have never noticed
> "a smaller sphere growing on the surface of the main colony", I'll keep my
> eyes peeled.
The best way to check is to gently move your finger threw the extended flower
polyps. The polyps will fully retract. The surface will normally be somewhat
smooth. Look for round balls sitting on top of the surface of parent colony.
Size can be from 1/64 inch to 1/2 inch.
<usc!BRL.MIL!moss> writes:
> A couple of times I have noticed detached polyps or clusters of polyps
> that were not anchored to anything. I was not successful in wedging them
> into a crevice in live rock; they always get swept away. Do you know
> any tricks for attaching polyps to rock until they can cement themselves?
I dont know how these loose polyps become dettached or attached. Its possible
that the clown fish could be biting them off, but I think it is probably some
form of reproduction. I havent discovered any tricks yet.
<usc!BRL.MIL!moss> writes:
> -Gary
> PS: Thanks for keeping this thread alive, breeding corals is at the top
> of my list for topics of interest. Feel free to post this; I only have
> access to sci.aquaria, I can't cross-post to the other two groups.
Ok, I will post it for you.
Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 1 Jun 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
In a previous post I described a budding reproduction of a stony coral
which occured in my main reef tank. The coral was a Gonipora lobata. A
small spehrical calcium based bud grew on the main coral and was detached
by me and is now a completely functional juvenile gonipora lobata. Some
netters asked me to describe the event better and I tried to. But , if
anyone is still interested, this event has occured in another reef tank.
Check out "Marine Fish Monthly" June 1992 Vol. 7 # 5. Pg 22 - 25.
The author of this article has included 2 pictures which show basically
the same thing that occurred in my tank. His budding occurred some time
after or during april. He did not give an exact date. My budding occured
on 5/1/92. Note - According to scientific journals, Gonipora sp. also
release eggs and or planulae.
S. Tyree - Reef Breeder.
by fssmith/ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith)
Date: 28 Aug 1992
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
< This morning I noticed a small, .75 inch diameter whitish green mass on
<the bottom of my 135 gallon reef tank. Upon closer examination I was able to
<identify it as a small bubble coral. It has a small mouth at its center and
<it does not appear to have a calcareous base. A long time ago a piece of a
<larger bubble coral started to elongate past the end of the coral base. After
<a month or so the extended piece fell off and down into the rock work of the
<tank. That piece became attached to a piece of dead organ pipe coral and
<continued to live for over a year. Since then I had purchased a hard plate
<like coral and placed it in such a manner that it blocked most to all of the
<light reaching the small bubble coral. About a month or so ago I noticed that
<the small bubble coral was no longer in its original position. Perhaps the
<coral I noticed this morning was the piece that attached to the dead organ pipe
<coral and decided that it should seek a better home or perhaps or perhaps, less
<likely, one of the larger bubble corals in the tank released another baby.
<(Surely I would have noticed it).
< If I can find the baby bubble when I get home after work today, I will try
<to isolate it in a plastic mesh structure with a small rock inside for it to
<attach to. I have used this method somewhat successfully for small pieces of
<xenia.
I thought I would update everyone on what happened. I made a small 3 inch
by two inch by one inch deep basket out of the plastic canvas mesh they sell in
craft stores. I glued the sides together with a hot glue gun. I placed the
coral in a small depression in a piece of live rock and hung the basket
containing the live rock and baby coral from a piece of plexiglass such that
the coral was about 1 inch under the water surface and out of direct light from
the metal halides. The coral was doing fine until I started trying to feed
it thawed frozen brine shrimp. It appears that some of the shrimp didn't get
eaten and started to rot. The decay spread to the baby bubble coral and caused
it to rot also.
Lessons learned... Next time I will increase the current in the basket
by placing it in a different location. I will also remove any food that has
not been eaten within an hour or so. I occasionally find these small corals
in the tank and now I am ready for them.
Greg Smith
by steve/celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Date: 8 Dec 92
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
In article <1g08ltINNe4m-at-fido.asd.sgi.com> thk-at-tyres.asd.sgi.com (Tom Kong) writes:
->I think there may be hope, I now see two small bumps on near
->the top, each slightly over a quarter inch in diameter. Each bump
->looks like a miniture goniopora on top of the parent dome, each
->with small polyps growing distinctly from the bump. Is this
->the beginning of reproduction via budding?
->If it is, what should I do to make sure things go ok?
Thats good news and might also be bad news. My gonipora which is now about
20 months old, developed a bud like yours about 8 months ago. The bud even-
tually became so large that it starting falling off the parent colony. When
it was dangling by a thread I removed it and it has survived and grown now
for 8 months or so. It takes a while for the buds to fully develop. You need
to be adding kalkwaser or calcium into your reef. My gonipora has not develop-
ed anymore buds. This may be due to the fact that my reef is now running a lot
better then it was back when the bud developed. Its now an elevated reef with
no dead rock and I refer to it as a "Turbid Coralline Reef".
The bad news might be that these species of coral only develop buds or repro-
duce asexually when they sense that environmental conditions are not 100 %
correct. This may explain the corals receding. Are you adding Strontium ?
ps - Still trying to induce my Gonipora to spawn sexually. The only problem
with that is most scientific reviews say these corals are gonochoric
(seperate sexes).
Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
by tse/ra.nrl.navy.mil (Anthony Tse)
Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1993
Newsgroup: alt.aquaria,rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
In article <22o41kINN1fo-at-gap.caltech.edu> laurence-at-cco.caltech.edu (Dustin Lee Laurence) writes:
>steve-at-rhythm.com (Steve Tyree) writes:
>How fast do these soft corals grow, anyway? Does a quarter of an
>inch imply an unreasonable rate?
Well, the big soft coral sitting in the middle of my 75g came
on a piece of rock about the size of a big chicken egg. I measured
it last night and it is 16.5" across, 12" tall. It split insely
into 2 pieces, and one branch is connected to the main body by
a thread, so it will be 3 pieces soon. BTW, the piece is 22 months
old.
-Anthony
by steve.shvetsoff/eabbs.com (Steve Shvetsoff)
Date: 11 Apr 94
Newsgroup: rec.aquaria
drlovemd-at-jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Steve Liu) wrote:
>Anyone have experience with propagating corals through cuttings? I have
>read Wilkens' books(the two little expensive ones) and he mentions
>propagation of acropora through broken-off pieces and propagation of leather
>corals and mushroom anemones through cuttings.
>Where exactly do you cut from a Sarcophyton sp. leather coral? I have a
>specimen that is attached to a small piece or rock. Would it be proper to
>cut it off the rock, leaving a stump on the rock and securing the cut-off
>piece to another rock? Also, would extra application of an additive such as
>iodine be beneficial?
>
>--
>Steve Liu
>drlovemd-at-jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
>No, not in Baltimore. At home in Los Angeles, California.
Yep, it's all been done, Acropora, Sarcophyton, Sinularia, Cladiella
can all be successfully propagated via cuttings. Sinularia is the
easiest to cut. Just get a good sharp pair of scissors or a single
edge razor and just slice through a branch. With Cladiella its a bit
trickier, get some thin fishing line and tie a knot around one of the
branches, just enough to pinch it a little. Then for the next few
days tighten the knot little by little, the limb should pop right off.
Sarcophytom is just as easy. Again get some sharp scissors or razor
blade and cut a round piece, about inch diameter, from the cap. You
can also cut the whole coral horizontally, but its a bit risky. The
stump should grow another cap, 50/50%. Wedge the cuttings onto a rock
and place it in good current. Use rubber bands to hold it in place, as
needed. The rock should be clean with no growth of algae. The cutting
should attach in a week or so. A couple of success tips: You must make
sure that you make an absolutely clean cut. The mother coral must be
healthy and growing. And your tank must be in good shape. Good luck.
Acropora is a bit different. But it's sort of the same. Since it
has a hard skeleton you must break a branch off. Then it's wedged
on a rock. Or you can use an underwater epoxy like Dr. Jaubert in
Monaco. Once again, clean break is key. Steve Tyree has had much
experience in Acropora propagation, maybe he'll catch this thread
and join in.
********************************************\\Steve//
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