hey guys havent posted in awhile i wrecked a finger at work and delt with that and workmans comp over the last 2 months then a vacation to nh and jen had finals so it nice to be back at work with nothing to do sitn at a comp. icy was over a few weeks ago and helped me and jen id a few new growths in our tank. that seems to be an sps of some sort there kind of mound shaped only a cm or 2 across for now and a peach color. we have a peach ish stylophora so im thinking it might be that but icy also informed me it might have to grow more to take on color. i think there 2 or 3 in the tank that i can find. just wondering if this has hapend in anyone elses tank and also wondering if there are certan sps there are more likley to do this in a tank as to have a better idea of who spawned. i know everyone gona say pics… so i will post some to night.
Eric Borneman is the man to talk to. He gives lectures on this stuff all around the world and has worked with many species of coral that have spawned in his lab as well as studied them on many dives on the reefs.
I was very sad that I only caught the tail end of his lecture last year at the NJ Reef Club frag swap. What I did come away with in the short time that I was there is that:
- Fragging stonies corals frequently keeps them in a constant state of recovery and doesn’t give them time to store up the massive amount of energy it takes to spawn. The corals have to be in very good conditions for an extended period of time to build up the energy for an event.
- I completely forget the technical terms, but there is two different types of spawning from what I can remember. In one instance one coral will release sperm into the water column and another coral will release eggs and the plankton stages will remain in the water column for extended period of time. In another type of spawning a single coral will release everything required for offspring to grow out.
- Predation in our tanks significantly hinder the odds off viable offspring making it to maturity. Also the types of filtration we use such as skimmers and often times our “water movers”(aka pumps, power heads and such) can also take a tool on the larvae.
Odds are slim, but in the right conditions it is completely possible. If you find out that you are producing viable larvae you might consider making a couple of changes to the tank to turn it into a… birthing tank of sorts. Just imagine hundreds of frags which could be at sale size in one years time! Not really simple to do, but it could be a lucrative venture.
Good luck, we want to hear all about it, and take a look into Eric Bornemen as he is the expert on this stuff.
Jon
It took me a while to figure out what this might be. I looked at them for quite a while, and fortunately one is growing on the glass so I could look at the base. I can almost 100% say that it is an SPS, because you can see the beginnings of skeleton growing on the glass. I know that they are not hitchickers because they have popped up in three places… one on rock they got from Craig, one on the glass, and one on some base rock that was dry before going into the tank.
I am guessing that these are probably the product of asexual planuae release, which some corals can do. In that case, they dont need another coral to fertalize the eggs, they are realeased already fertalized.
I found the article I was talking about John, check this one out…
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/eb/index.php
By Eric Borneman 
I know that there is another article out there some where, I think it is a past RC TOTM, that has a guy talking about one of his corals spawning asexually, which was nice at first, but eventually became a pain because he was scraping them off like coralline algae. Thats a problem I would like to have…
Some other tanks that have had the same thing happen.
Thats pretty awesome guys, congrats! I just hope its a coral you like >LOL< Ive seen a couple of videos of coral spawning on youtube, very messy! There are also vids of clams spawning as well. If im not mistaken, i think Meleve had a clam that would routinely spawn.
Having an event like this in your tank should attest to the quality of the tank and your husbandry. You guys should be proud!
thanks guys we try and do our best we only have 3 blue cromis in the 75 so not much bio load and im sure that helps. i would realy like to figure out whos doing it as theres several sps none of them very large. the one doing the best is a birds nest i got from entoreefer as a very small frag that is at problay a 1000% or its origonal size so maby it was happy about that and mated with it self lol. moved one of the spawn that i could get to in to a better spot more light at flow see if it starts to grow a lil faster. but i will keep every one posted and prob have a frag or 2 of this coral to trade in a few months.
I have had pink pocci show up in different spots in my tank. I think it happens fairly frequently with this species of sps. Did you get a pocci from me? I now my mother colony does this a lot in my tanks.
“asexual planulae release” that is the technical name I was looking for.
I’d love to trade for one of these frags. Please let me know as soon as you are willing to let one go. Let them size up though and figure out which coral they came from, lol.
The only one that looks big enough is the birds nest, but the new corals are encrusting a lot more than it does.
Maybe once Jon gets some pics up you will be able to see a little better.
(P.S. You guys need a lot of pics before you move over to the other tank! Your tank is beautiful.)
[quote=“icy1155, post:9, topic:1794”]
Maybe once Jon gets some pics up you will be able to see a little better.
(P.S. You guys need a lot of pics before you move over to the other tank! Your tank is beautiful.)[/quote]
Pictures!
+9999
will have some pic up tomorrow not sure if i will be able to get a good one but do my best and by me i mean jen lol. but we will also post a new fts in are 75 thread thanks icy. were thinking of diffrent set up ideas for the 90 but i will talk about that in the 90 thread its good to be posting agan.
heres a pic of the sps spawn theres about 10 total in the tank. the mom is in the back left of the 2nd pic i think.
Awesome to see pics! This is potential the future of aquaculture in the hobby. Proves your animals are healthy and happy!
Can I call dibs? Will trade some Cespitulaira or ORA pink birds nest frag for it.
we have cespitulaira and not overly intrested in the nest any other trade offers? jon
Do you have both Purple and African Blue Cespitularia? Other then that pretty much monti and sofites. Shooting you PM.