Coral Transplant

I love to just sit and look at my reef when I have the time. Its so peaceful and relaxing. I note the fish doing their thing, the corals swaying in the currents. My eyes automatically pick up any points of special note - it isn’t that I’m robotic its just that I know the aquarium intimately.

One of the things I note every time is the corals growth. They never stop. I’ve taken quite a few cuttings (‘frags’ if you like) when the corals have become oversize or have overshadowed something else. Some of these cuttings have gone to Peter who is growing them on. A few cuttings were quite a size.

One cutting was taken from the left end of the tank, as the coral branch was so large it was travelling along the top of the water and a little distance along the back length. This particular branch will have been around 12″ or so.

Having removed the branch I noticed a space that had previously been hidden. There wasn’t anything of note in it, but something needed putting there as it was fairly obvious, and the loss of the mentioned branch had meant a loss of height appeal.

For quite a while I considered various options, choosing a new coral species then changing my mind. However, my mind was made up for me.

Sitting gazing at the tank recently I noticed that a coral, a Kenyan tree (proper name Capnella sp) was not too far from the water surface and appeared top heavy and in danger of falling over because of it. I wondered if a cutting could be placed in the aforementioned gap, thus solving two problems in one go.

This was considered for a while - I like to be sure the impact on the reef would be aesthetically correct. Shape and colour need consideration. It seemed alright to me.

So out came the sharp scissors and, after the cutting point had been decided, off came a section, a fairly big one. The part that had been removed was pressed into a crevice where it appeared to be secure. The mother coral had of course gone into a serious sulk.

The next morning the cutting had moved probably because of the water currents. So out came a cocktail stick, the cutting was pierced, and the cocktail stick pushed firmly into a tiny hole in the rock. It has remained in place this time.

The mother coral has now ceased its 100% sulk, this has been reduced to 25%. The coral is partially inflated and it looks as though all will be well.

The cutting is in the same situation though of course not yet attached to the rock.

All things being equal the reef will be back to its full splendour in a few weeks.

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Tags: coral conservation, Coral Propagation, Coral Reef, coral-frag, marine-aquarium, reef-tank

VIA

What’s this? It sounds like a technical abbreviation such as PAR, PUR,
DOM, DSB and the rest. They are all relevant to a marine aquarium whether it be a reef or fish only system.

No, this isn’t technical at all. No mumbo-jumbo. However, it is directly to do with the aquarist and his/her aquarium. Very much so. The reef aquarium in this case, and it doesn’t matter if it is a hard coral reef, soft coral reef, or a mixed reef.

We’ve all heard of global warming. I know, I know, but please don’t switch off! This is to do with global warming, but there isn’t going to be any doom and gloom and techno- babble. Well, to be truthful a little gloom just to set the picture.

Reefs are at risk from global warming. Nothing new there. The corals we all care for so responsibly in our temperature controlled systems are at great risk from a temperature increase in the wild. Maybe not tomorrow or the day after, but if science is correct the time is going to arrive. Bleaching corals, dissolving soft corals, acidification and the rest. Not much to sing about really. It will apparently happen over a quite lengthy period in human terms, but a short period in nature’s terms. That’s the end of the gloom, hopefully the picture is clear enough. We’ve all heard it enough times anyway.

The marine hobby has advanced in leaps and bounds. Aquariums that used to house dead rocks and bleached coral skeletons with a few fish and maybe a shrimp or two, are now captive living reefs supporting a host of life forms. This proves the tremendous advance in husbandry techniques. There are of course fish, hard and/or soft corals, shrimps, algae and the myriads of tiny life forms that inhabit the reef rocks and sand. The trend is towards natural methods, hence the DSB (deep sand bed), algae filtration etc in addition to live rock. The captive living reef has been achieved by the maintenance of high quality seawater and the provision of high quality lighting, plus adequacy in other areas such as feeding.

Once an aquarist has, say, around a year of experience and can very honestly state that their aquarium is settled and successful there isn’t any reason that an exercise into ‘fragging’ cannot be undertaken. Many aquarists do this and are to be applauded. It is simply creating new corals from a mother hard or soft coral. It is straightforward and more than likely to be successful provided a little research is undertaken before starting. The techniques are well known and simple, and the research will take little time.

A major advantage of ‘fragging’ is that corals are produced that appear to be more hardy than those in the wild. It also reduces the pressures on wild stocks.

If the practice was done by sufficient numbers of aquarists then there wouldn’t need to be the heavy imports that are currently necessary. I don’t believe that imports would stop, but they would reduce very considerably. Commercial concerns are already involved.

But this is not all about the practice of ‘fragging.’ It is about the aquarist.

It is fairly well known that ’seed banks’ exist of very many land based plants. One such bank is in the UK, Europe. There are others. These banks are there to protect a species should there be a problem that threatens their numbers or even existence.

If enough aquarists undertook the practice of ‘fragging’ the hobby could be nearly self sustaining. But take it further - how many aquarists are there in the world who maintain reef aquariums? There are thousands.

All these aquarists keep corals on their reefs, hard and soft. There isn’t any global warming danger within these aquariums - they are temperature controlled with heaters and/or chillers. The corals grow very well.

So what in effect have we got? A seed bank, or in this case a coral bank. Whatever happens in the wild in the medium and long term, disaster or not, many of the corals will still be with us. They grow and produce more without too much difficulty for the aquarist. In fact, often they grow so well they have to be reduced by ‘thinning‘ - so more corals appear. Provided the marine hobby continues to exist, and I cannot see why it should not, many corals types will never be lost.

Public institutions usually are the main keepers and protectors of wild species, except in the case of marine corals (and fish). I haven’t any figures, but the numbers kept by all the marine aquarists around the world must greatly outnumber those in public aquariums.

So back to VIA then. You’ve no doubt heard of VIP, standing for Very Important Person. VIA stands for Very Important Aquarist.

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Tags: aquarium, coral conservation, Coral Reef, home-aquarium, marine-aquarium, saltwater-aquarium