Coral PropagationTank 50
Caroline Edge
Maddie Martin
Corals
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Corals are marine organisms that are made up of millions of polyps, which are tiny
carnivorous animals. Colonies are formed when many othe polyps live in a compact
space.
Coral reefs are teeming with life. Although covering only less than one percent
of the ocean floor, there existence supports about 25 percent of all marine
creatures
Both soft corals and hard corals reproduce by dividing its own body into two polyps or
by producing a sperm and egg. Most of the time, corals reproduce sexually; each coral
releases eggs and sperm into the water and those gametes come together to form a
microscopic larva.
Corals also reproduce asexually, by budding or dividing.
Budding is when a new polyp grows from an adult cell and division is when a young
polyp divides into two, which are each as large as the original.
• Corals get most of their energy be feeding on zooxanthellae, a photosynthetic
unicellular algae, that live within their tissue’s.
• Corals can also feed on a variety of small and microscopic organisms by capturing it
with their tentacles and bringing the prey into the stomach.
• There must be a current around the corals so that to food can pass by the coral’s
tentacles and also to take the coral’s waste away
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Importance of Coral Preservation
Coral health influences many of the surrounding ecosystems, since so many
organisms make corals theit habitat.
Scientists estimate that human influences, such as pollution, global warming,
and sedimentation—could possibly kill 30 percent of the existing coral
reefs in the next 30 years
the most harmful strains on coral preservation is unsustainable coral
harvesting. This occurs when coral reef species are removed from the
ocean and traded.
Unsustainablly harvested corals are often used for limestone, traditional
medicines, live marine ornamentals, construction materials, and "live rock"
for aquariums.
if not done sustainably, coral harvesting can undermine the long-term
economic benefits of corals such as shoreline protection, fisheries and
ecotourism
Basics of Propagation
Coral propagation is a way in which marine aquarium
hobbyist can help to limit what is harvested from the
natural reefs.
It refers to the growing or reproduction of corals by
marine aquarists through a process called
fragmentation,or the breaking off fragments of corals
in order to grow multiply colonies.
By growing corals and placing them back into the
coral reef market, the need for naturally harvested corals
will be depleted.
Fragmentation requires the following materials:
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glue or putty for attaching the fragmented coral to the plugs
plugs
a larger body of coral to cut the fragmented, smaller coral from
scissors or a sharp knife to cut the smaller coral off the larger.
Proposal
Hypothesis: If the corals in the 50 gallon tank grow larger than the corals present in
the 120 gallon tank, then the corals in tank 50 will reap a greater overall profit.
Overall Goal: propagate corals in tank 50 until they are large enough to be moved into
a larger tank or traded at the Fish Supply Store for credit.
Questions:
1.Is there a specific arrangement of the corals in tank 50 that will help the corals
grow more rapidly?
2.What type of food affects the growth of the different corals?
3. Which corals are sold for the most profit?
4. What type of environment ensures a coral's maximum possible growth?
5.How should we measure and compare the growth of corals in tank 50 and in tank
120?
Method: Throughout the year, the goal was to grow the corals as fast as possible, in
order to reap the most profit at the beginning of the year. Therefore, our main job
was to make sure the corals are in good health and ready to move into the larger
tanks by the end of the year.
Troubleshooting Questions
Initial Questions:
1.Is there a specific arrangement of the corals in tank 50 that will help the corals
grow more rapidly?
2.What type of food affects the growth of the different corals?
3.Which corals are sold for the most profit?
4.What type of environment ensures a coral's maximum possible growth?
5. How should we measure and compare the growth of corals in tank 50 and in
tank 120?
Initial Objective:
We also decided that our overall goal would be to obtain the maximum profit from
selling and trading the propagated corals grown in tank 50. We set out to
discover which corals were in higher demand, grew the fastest, and were worth
the most. Overall, we knew it was important to discover the best possible
environment for the propagating coral's healthy existence and consequentially
their rapid growth.
October and November
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The tank arrangement
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previously designed by last year's marine biology student, Duncan Rodts, who placed two white plastic grates in the tank
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Arranging the corals along the grates in order to ensure their upright growth.
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Yet, unlike Duncan, who started propagating from scratch, we simply began maintaining the tank's environment and
taking care of the various fragmented and propagated corals that had been previously residing residing in tank 50.
Learned from examining former student's propagation techniques and other various sources such as websites and coral
propagation books.
Issues Encountered
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At the beginning of the semester, tank 50 was in much need of a little "tender loving care".
Both the tank walls and the two plastic grates that had been previously placed in tank were dirty. The corals had algae growing
all up and down their backsides and exhibited a lack of pigment in their outer appearance. T
he corals were bleaching, their health having been diminished. Most noticeable was the rapid bleaching of the branch corals It
seemed as if every branch coral, with the exception of two, were pretty much goners.
The salinity of the tank was also exceptionally high, with salinity levels ranging form 1.026 all the way up to 1.029, over the span
of several days.
With the mystery of the high salinity levels ensuing, we checked the alkalinity and ammonia levels only too find that they too
were also dangerously high.
Solutions
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we performed a 5 gallon water change and cleaned off the plastic grates and corals. We also cleaned the tank walls, and
cleared out all the bleached branch corals.
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October and November cont.
Results cont.
After the water change and immense tank cleaning, the corals began responding better to their cleaner environment with
gradual growth and regain of pigmentation.
The salinity levels also went all the way down to 1.023, which is within the perfect range for coral growth. Since the tank
cleaning, the salinity, calcium, ammonium, alkalinity, and pH were all normal.
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December and January
Very noticeable that the corals had gotten significantly bigger since the
beginning of the school year.
Throughout this month, we focused on keeping the tank clean and making
sure there was no algae left on the corals.
After this month, we redesigned our overall goal. Instead of selling the
corals, we decided that we would grow them and them rearrange them in
the larger tanks, such as the 120.
This month we learned how to fragment corals
o We mounted a fragment of a plate coral, a branch coral, and the small
orange coral.
o We also cut off a small piece of leather coral from Tank 120 . A picture
of this can be seen here. Because it was a soft coral, we did not use
the clay glue to mount the fragment, but superglue instead.
Problems
The coral adapted well to it's new tank, yet soon fell off the plug because it was
not glued correctly. We plan on propagating other corals in the future weeks.
addition of reef janitor, peppermint
shrimp
addition of powerhead in order to promote
better water circulation
February and March
Problems with Coral Bleaching
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The health of our corals decreased significantly, for undetermined reasons
Yet, after a major cleaning and water change our coral health slowly increased. Then all of our corals
slowly started to regain pigmentation and health.
Tank Additions
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We also added a fish and two reef janitors to our tank, both of which increased the cleanliness of the
tank, especially the hermit crabs.
More Fragmentation
frogspawn and the branch corals, grew significantly and thrived well in their new tank.
fragmented frogspawn
February and March cont.
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More Coral Bleaching
Tthroughout the month of March, most of our coral’s health declined. Over time, some of the corals stopped growing and
seemed as if they were in the process of bleaching. Our goal for this past month was to figure out why the corals were in
bad health and stop the excessive bleaching of our corals.
Solutions
The first thing we did was to add a second power head in order to increase the water circulation. Before the addition of the
second power head addition, the water circulation was very poor in our tank. We believe that this could be a potential
reason for the corals decrease in health as the corals may not have been getting the necessary nutrients to sustain
homeostasis and promote growth.
Because the tank gets dirty so quickly, we decided to add multiple reef janitors to the tank, such as snails and a
peppermint shrimp. They greatly affected the cleanliness of the tank and continue to keep the pesky algae to a minimum.
Most of the time, the peppermint shrimp resides on a Montipera Digitata and eats all of the algae off the coral its inhabiting.
Bleaching throughout February
and March
April
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Frogspawn and Button corals were propagated
and sucessfully moved to Tank 72.
Visit to Fish Supply Store, compared our
propagated corals to those that they were
selling.
Discovered the value of our corals, and the
general range of price value that each coral
can be worth
button and
frogspawn corals
successfully
moved to Tank 75
Bibliography
A Long-Term Study of Competition and Diversity of Corals, Joseph H. Connell, Terence
P. Hughes, Carden C. Wallace, Jason E. Tanner, Kyle E. Harms and Alexander
M. Kerr, Ecological Monographs, Vol. 74, No. 2 (May, 2004), pp. 179-210
"Corals, Coral Pictures, Coral Facts - National Geographic." Animals - Animal Pictures - Wild Animal Facts - Nat Geo Wild - National
Geographic.National Geographic. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/coral/>.
"Coral Frag Propagation Tips, Techniques, Tutorials, and Resources - FragOutpost.com." Frag Outpost - Coral Frags, Coral Frag Trading
Portal and Coral Propagation Resources. Frag Outpost. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.fragoutpost.com/frag-propagation>.
Coral Growth-Rate, an Environmental Indicator, E. A. Shinn, Journal of Paleontology,
Vol. 40, No. 2 (Mar., 1966), pp. 233-240
"Corals, Coral Pictures, Coral Facts - National Geographic." Animals - Animal Pictures - Wild Animal Facts - Nat Geo Wild - National
Geographic. National Geographic. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/coral/>.
Gast, Cynthia. "How Do Coral Reefs Depend on Photosynthesis? | EHow.com." EHow
How to Videos, Articles & More - Discover the Expert in You. | EHow.com. Web.
14 Oct. 2011. <http://www.ehow.com/about_6365542_do-coral-reefs-depend
photosynthesis_.html>.