research topic

[nautical]

We have a young student (college level) interested in marine biology with access to a full range of tanks, reefkeeping equipment, supplies etc. Needs help and ideas on picking a research topic - 6 month timeframe. Has technology available to scan soft coral, anemone and observe internal mechanics and flow. Favorite topic: anomone behavior.

Ideas, questions, project design iput all welcome.

[dots]

Im really interested in anenome propagation. There are thousands that die each year due to stress from collection and shipment.

I believe Anthony Calfo, did a seminar on it a few years ago and demonstrated the technique. I don't know if it has been perfected yet, which specie it will work on (or not), success rate etc.....

In addition there was an old wetwebmedia.com article that talks about theories of inducing splitting.

I think propogation of anenome would help lessen the dependance from the wild. Some possible questions: Is there a minimum size, what is it? Which Specie does it not work on/does?

Do some research on "long-term" mortality rates and discover just how long the average life span for a captive anenome is.

[GreshamH]

Almost all can be propped by splitting according to Anthony.

I caught his IMAC presentation on it as well as read his article in "C" on the farm in Sri Lanka. Both were very well put together.

Minimum size is pretty much a personal thing. Do you want it to be bigger, quicker to sell, or do you prefer to work with smaller ones?

[J. Montgomery]

Isolate wild type green fluorescent protein (GFP) from Aequoria victoria, or maybe red fluorescent protein (DsRed) from red Discosoma mushrooms (easy to grow). Or better yet, clone the gene for the protein. Work his molecular biology skillz!

[elegance coral]

You could capture coral larvae from wild spawnings and attempt to keep them alive. Research into the different clads of symbiotic algae and their function could be very helpful.

[Teego]

What other methods of observation does he have at his disposal ?



Since he can observe internal mechanics and flow, why not try some simple experiments of observing corals under typical stress conditions that we the hobbyist create.

Stress conditions include:

Hypersalinity (due to being too lazy to top off water)

Over feeding (increased DOC, nitrate, and other organic levels)

effects of calcium level spike ins (if a person is adding manually rather than kalk drip, or CA reactor)

presence of chlorine (untreated municipal tap water)






OR better still see what can be observed with Vodka dosing !! What effects can be seen via vodka dosing?

See this thread - http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=288714


or here



http://www.kipsreef.com/forum/showthread.php?t=318

[Fishbulb2]

I would like to see if any corals can show signs of learning. For example, non-associative or classical conditioning. I know this has been shown in almost every other group of animals including most invertebrates, but just never in corals. It should be a very easy experimental design, behavioral and not so challenging, and it's novel and could thus be written up in a paper for publication. PM me if you would like help with experimental design. It's something I've considered doing on my own corals for a while now.

FB