breeding corals?

[shane 1111]

i am interested in breeding corals. or trying.
but i need info on how i would go about it?
i would like to try to breed=
Dendrophyllia Sp.
Fungia

[shane 1111]

any one?

[MCsaxmaster]

The first step is to get them to spawn reliably. That in-and-of-itself seems very difficult in captivity, at least so far. More spawing reports are always coming in though. After that you've got to allow fertilization (let the gametes meet) and keep the larvae alive until they're competent. You then have to be able to get them to settle. After that is should be pretty straightforward (grow them), but this is a difficult and little travelled path so far. It isn't impossible by any means, but logistically difficult.

I'm sure Eric will be able to provide more on the details (and difficulty) of such and endeavor.

Chris

[ReefDiver]

Eric will have much more to say on this. I did meet with him at the recent MACNA covention and he showed me his "new babies" that were grown from collected gametes of spawned corals of the Flower Garden reefs off the coast of Texas. These apparently are the first sexually reproduced corals in the U.S.!

Dirk Petersen of the Rotterdam Zoo was the first to develop this technique and taught Eric the procedures. Dirk gave a good lecture on this very subject. Apparently, once the planula are produced they can settle almost anywhere. Eric had thousands of them settle in a cooler no less!!

To be sure, this is fascinating and amazing science. Whether or not the same thing can be accomplished in our closed systems remains to be seen. Furthermore, it's not at all certain if this can be accomplished with all species of corals. However, hopefully this will lead to the culturing & reproduction of corals for the aquarium hobby without having to take anything off of the reefs any longer. That would be quite an accomplishment!!

OK, I will shut my mouth now and let Eric tell you the rest. :)

[shane 1111]

thanks i cant wait to hear from him

[EricHugo]

I wish I could help you more, but this is a process not easily explained although I do plan an article in the near future. I would first research corals that are brooders and choose those to work with first - make sure they are of a sexually mature size and age. When you have those, get back to me. There is logisitically no way to breed broadcast spawning corals in captivity at this point unless you are very lucky and prepared every single night.

[shane 1111]

so how do i find out what is a brooder?
is it in your book?
Dendrophyllia Sp. aren't in your book

[EricHugo]

Shane: Really, I am not trying to be insulting at all, but if you don't know or can't find out what species are brooders versus broadcast spawners, you aren't ready to start breeding corals. There are a number of papers that show which species are which, including entire book chapters. If you need help finding them, let me know. An internet search, especially using google scholar, I am sure, will point you in the right direction. I don't want to discourage you, and I would love to see you give it a shot, but you have to at least be familiar with some basic reproductive biology of the animals you want to breed before you can do it.

[shane 1111]

ok
i am willing to learn
so what key words should i use