OUsnakebyte

DEFINITELY an option. And with the limited space to work with, probably a better option. I just have no experience with LEDs, so I don't know where to start even with a brand of DIY.

Thanks, but I don't have the room for the light cannons. It's a very tight space between the sides of the tank and the cabinet. Cheers Mike

Hi all - I'm looking to replace the lighting on our tridacna clam tank here at the zoo, and I've historically only dabbled in metal halide and T5s - haven't joined the LED revolution yet, but I'm looking to... Anyway, the T5 fixtures on this exhibit are starting to decline, and I'd like to switch to LEDs. This is not a standard, lighting-over-the-top tank. The light enters from three sides (front, left and right) of the exhibit and needs enough PAR to keep tridacnids happy. The tank is 36" x 48" but, again, light enters from three sides - so, each fixture really only needs to penetrate about 1.5 to 2 feet - not the whole distance (make sense?). Here are my size constraints: Left and right sides - 46" (L) x 8" (W) x 2 3/4" (H) Front - 34" (L) x 8" (W) x 2 3/4" (H) I've been looking, and it seems I can buy one fixture for each side OR I can buy 2-3 fixtures for each side and stack them together. I think I'd prefer just one fixture for each side, but that seems to start to break the bank. In addition, I don't think I have enough sockets for possibly 9 plugs... I'm trying to be cautious during these limited budget times. Also, I have NO NEED for fancy dimmers or day/night cycles. I simply need to light an exhibit with a visually-pleasing mixture of white and blue lighting. Any suggestions? Cheers Mike

Mid-late October and early November is not a time for any Hawaiian coral spawning, that I know of... Regardless, coral spawning does not negatively affect visability in the way Paul has been describing - that's due to massive coastal development, suspended sediments/sedimentation and eutrification of reefs that has been happening for decades. Hawaii's relative isolation in the Pacific means it is significantly less diverse than its counterpart reefs closer to the coral triangle, though its isolation also means it has a very high rate of endemism. If you are interested in a little light reading, here is a publication on the state of Hawaiian reefs from a few years back. http://ccma.nos.noaa.gov/ecosystems/coralreef/coral2008/pdf/hawaii.pdf Cheers Mike

Your best bet is to contact the PR Department of Natural Resources and see if you need any special permitting or license - and be mindful of collecting in some reserve and what the level of protected status is of a given reserve. You also might need a US Fish and Wildlife 3-177 form, but I can't remember if I had to have one of those when bringing back palmata from PR or not - it's been too long... Unless you are in some "No Take Zone" on a particular beach, coral skeletons and shells are usually unregulated. Just please be sure no one is home when you collect that shell. I've had people some ask me how to take care of their new hermit crab when they return from vacation... I've not ever seen any Antipatharians (black coral) for sale in the hobby, and I hope it remains that way (they've primarily been harvested for jewelry). They simply grow too slowly to be considered sustainable, IMO... Cheers Mike

This hits at a project I'd like to run here at the zoo, if I could get my hands on enough haddoni's. I'd like to get at least 10 going in the same tank and try to induce spawning. Anecdotally, the blue one I've had for over 10 years will spawn if mildly stressed - say, just kept in a bag or bucket for a few hours, just so it thinks the world is ending and spawns... If you get enough, you'd likely have enough of a mix of males and females to get good fertilization, and as you have seen - there's no shortage of gametes to work with. I've had the coldwater tank of anemones start spawning after one begins, and I have been able to rear the larvae to three years old now. I'm assuming that these warm water anemones with internal symbionts would grow even faster than the coldwater counterparts. And, this would be a wonderful way to begin taking pressure off wild stocks. Cheers Mike

We don't know what mortality rates of the larvae are in the wild, but it is likely even greater than in captivity, given the greater competition and predation pressures. We've tried various things - higher densities, lower densities, feeding with different regimes (types of foods and frequency). I really don't know what we could do to raise our yields. It is worth noting that after 3 months, survivability tends to level out. In the past, we have on had settlement rates of around 6-10%. In one bin (a low density settlement bin), we had about 15% settlement. This was the first year we tried to get the tiles in the seawater in advance with the CCA on them. The problems lies in competition of various CCAs. My colleagues at the SI marine station in Ft. Pierce, Fl have spent years determining which CCAs will induce settlement and which will inhibit settlement. Get the right CCA, and the larvae will flock to it. Get the wrong one, and the larvae will avoid it. The CCA we collected was all hydrolithon (each piece ID'd under a microscope prior to gluing), but... upon getting the tiles off the reef this summer, other CCA had settled on the tiles, competing with the Hydrolithon. Well, if you have a coral that has bleached, it is likely that there might still be some zoox remaining in the coral. As you know, if environmental conditions are remedied, then there is usually sufficient zoox remaining in the coral that can divide and recolonize. However, if you wished to sacrifice a healthy adult coral to try and reintroduce zoox to a bleached one, you would need to crush up a part of the coral with a mortar and pestle, place the bleached frag in a very small amount of water and add the crushed coral water to the bleached frag and let it sit there for... about an hour. However, if there are other, healthy corals in the tank there is likely sufficient zoox in the water column already. Re getting captive acros to spawn reliably and predictably... replicate the long-term seasonal temperature fluctuations, the lunar cycle, sunrise and sunset, proper nutrition and perhaps even some sort of pheromone-like chemical in the water. Oh, and you'll also need a minimum colony size, which is usually (not always) too large for our small tanks... Cheers Mike

Yes, I would absolutely give this talk at a meeting if wanted. Most of my supplies stay on Carrie Bow at the station (to reduce shipping costs), but I might have a kreisel around here I could bring... Cheers Mike

When the larvae have reached the swimming phase (typically 4-5 days), it's time to move them from the holding kreisels to settlement bins. We then place the grids of settlement tiles into different bins and hope that what we have selected for them they also find a suitable home. After a few days in settlement, we can then check the tiles on the grids to assess settlement rates. The larvae settle WITHOUT their endosymbiotic zooxanthellae, so they are a pale white when counted. Each baby coral is now only about 1mm in diameter and VERY delicate. It never ceases to amaze me that these behemoth, SUV-sized colonies of Elkhorn corals that are remaining on reefs in the Caribbean today started their lives - 150-200 years ago - as these tiny, milllimeter-sized single polyps. One thing we think *might* help post-settlement survivability is this aggregate settlement. It seems that when two or more larvae settle next to one another, they will often fuse, forming a chimera. This "joining forces" it seems might allow them to grow faster than if only an individual polyp and get a head start on forming a new colony. Sadly, the juveniles experience upwards of 90% or more mortality in the first three months post settlement in captivity - so the majority of these won't survive. This is why we need to bring back THOUSANDS to try to ensure that we have some remaining in the months to come. After the corals have settled in for a few days, now comes the most stressful time of the entire trip. As if diving and working around an endangered species (trying to touch it as little as possible), working day and night caring for thousands and thousands of endangered coral larvae for a week, and just trying not to screw up is not enough... now we have to transport about 1700 settlement tiles back to the zoo in Washington, DC - all in one long... stressful... day. We start around 4:30am packing up the settlement grids into two coolers. The trip back to DC will begin at 7am with a 45 minute boat ride back to mainland Belize, and then a pond-hopper plane flight from Dangriga to Belize City to board a flight at 11:30am to Miami. After clearing customs with all the appropriate CITES export and FWS import permits, we fly from Miami to DC, arriving at the zoo around 10pm, where we start acclimating the corals - whcih takes about 3 hours to complete. Assuming no luggage has been lost, coolers haven't leaked, and nothing has been seized at customs, I call the day a win. After the corals are back at the Invertebrate Exhibit in D.C., we then have to get the zooxanthellae to the polyps. Since most corals in the genus Acropora are spawned without their zoox, we have to provide it for them. While back at the field station on Carrie Bow, I have also taken the time to centrifuge down some of the zooxanthellae. I put the grids into tanks with water that just barely covers the tiles and add the zoox to the tanks. These corals will then ingest the zoox through the mouth, where it is stored throughout the polyp. Once we see brown speckles in the otherwise pale white corals, it's nice to know that photosynthesis is now occurring within their tissues. The grids and corals are now being kept in holding tanks at the Invertebrate Exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Zoo: In the months to come, I will slowly, individually, look at all the tiles in the tanks to assess any remaining survivors. This year we were only able to bring back Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) and some of the hybrid (Acropora prolifera) back to the exhibit. Sadly, there was a disease outbreak ravaging the Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) on the house reef at Carrie Bow, and these corals only spawned very minimally. Thus, there were no Staghorn larvae to work with this year. I want to once again thank WAMAS and their grant program for the continued support of this project. Every bit of funding we can get for this project helps. I fund myself for this project from completely outside sources - the zoo currently does not have the funds to contribute to this project (they and my wonderful coworkers do support me with time away from work, however). When we consider what corals do for the ecosystem they build and how important they are to the world's reefs (and economies), they deserve our attention. Many thanks once again to Abby Wood for use of her photos. Documentation for a project like this is extremely important, as it is difficult to tell in words what a picture can easily describe for us. I only used a small portion of her photos. More from this trip and others can be found here: http://abois.zenfolio.com/carriebow Finally, this is an active and open thread. If anyone has questions or comments, I'll be happy to respond. Thanks again. Cheers Mike

After we get the bundles back to the lab, it's time to mix boys and girls together. We all know what that gets us... BABIES! The bundles are separated, and the pink eggs float to the top while the sperm is in the container below: We have to mix eggs of one colony with sperm of another colony, as Elkhorn coral has a very low self-fertilization rate. Staghorn will self up to about 20%, but the larvae typically are not very fit. As hybrids fascinate me, we also took some of the Cervicornis eggs and crossed them with the Palmata sperm to make the hybrid A. prolifera. This cross has a better fertilization rate than the reverse. Fertilization probably happens almost immediately, but we leave them in the tri-pour containers for an hour for fertilization. After about an hour has passed (and things have settled down from the chaos that is working a coral spawn...), we transfer the eggs to our flow-through holding system. The CBC wet lab has a flow-through seawater system in which a pump brings in fresh seawater from the reef, thus eliminating the need for constant water changes. One thing the SECORE team has done for the past several years is to design a system for holding large amounts of larvae that will "stir" the larvae in a circular tank for several days during development. If the larvae "clump up" for too long, they typically perish. Each "kreisel" you see is held in a plastic trash can that has 5 water stream inputs - four around the top and an upwelling from the bottom. Despite the various water inputs to each tank, it is still necessary to manually stir the larvae to separate them from clumping. The next morning, it's time to check fertilization rates (success). On a good spawn with healthy, motile sperm, it is not uncommon to get 90% or more fertilization success. Fertilization is easily scored by counting a small sample of each kreisel. By the next morning, unfertilized eggs will still be round while those that are fertilized will now be flattened down into the very scientifically-named "cornflake stage." After this, it's time to just let the kreisels work, stir the larvae, and let them develop for about 4-5 days. By day two, the unfertilized eggs have fallen apart and the "unfit" fertilized eggs have died off as well. After the "cornflake" stage, the fertilized eggs have rounded back out and gone to the new "jelly donut" phase: By day 4 or so, we now have well-developed, swimming larvae. They go from round to an elongated form, then entering the "baseball bat" or "bowling pin" stage. These swimming larvae will now begin to swim to the bottom of the holding tanks and look for suitable locations to metamorphose to a primary polyp: At this point, the different researchers that have descended upon this tiny island for two weeks during spawning season will utilize the larvae in different experiments (settlement substrates, temperature, bacterial, etc.): Up next is settlement of the larvae...

Our field really season began in January 2013 when Abby Wood (photographer and NZP volunteer) and I traveled to Carrie Bow Cay (CBC) to begin the conditioning of our coral recruit settlement tiles. In addition to placing the tiles in seawater six to seven months in advance to “cure,” we also implemented a new strategy – harvesting a known preferred settlement cue, the crustose coralline algae (CCA) Hydrolithon boergesenii from the reef – and gluing it to our settlement tiles. The grids of tiles were then secured in two pvc/mesh crates and tied to the reef in two locations – one on the CBC house reef and the other in the lagoon area on the east side of the island. This was done with the hope that a known settlement cue – the CCA Hydrolithon – would have a “head start” and grow on/encrust our settlement tiles to make those tiles an “ideal” location for larval coral settlement. Upon our return to CBC this July, we found that in many cases the Hydrolithon had taken hold and began encrusting our tiles. However, the tiles placed in the lagoon area east of the island had a much higher rate of turf algae coverage (these coral larvae often avoid turf algae). If this experiment is repeated again, both crates will likely be placed on the CBC house reef or on the reef wall. This year, the full moon (and anticipated possible early spawn) had us returning to CBC for the Acroporid spawn in late July. At day five after the full moon, we finally collected our first samples of Elkhorn larvae. Night six saw more Elkhorn spawning and collection, with very minimal Staghorn. Since the Staghorn bundles were from the same clone (the same genotype), none of these larvae survived; however, Staghorn eggs were crossed with Elkhorn sperm that night to create larvae of the hybrid, Fused Staghorn Coral (A. prolifera). Four days after fertilization, the larvae from the two species were placed in separate settlement bins with the tiles from the reef, and approximately 2,000 Elkhorn and 300 Fused Staghorn larvae settled. A. palmata setting (holding egg/sperm bundles prior to spawning release): A. palmata releasing egg/sperm bundles: While the corals are setting, we place nets over portions of the colonies to capture samples of the bundles. The key is to get as many different genotypes as possible:

Hello all - My apoogies for delaying this post. I've been trying to find time, as I knew it would be a lengthy, likely multiple post thread. As many of you know, I originally started with SECORE in Puerto Rico to help establish the beginnings of a live, captive population of Caribbean Acroporids - Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) and Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) corals. These corals are currently listed as threatened with extinction and will llikley be downgraded to endangered very soon (they have declined approximately 80-90% throughout their Caribbean and tropical western Atlantic range over the past 30 years. Today, zoos and aquariums serve as live genetic repositories for threatened and endangered species around the world, and the organisms maintained in these populations are educational ambassadors to their wild counterparts. With the well-documented decline in Caribbean coral populations and the subsequent addition of Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) and Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) to the Endangered Species List, it is imperative that zoos and aquariums help these struggling coral communities in much the same way that they aid declining mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, plant, etc. populations. Today, we (US and Europe zoos and aquariums) have Puerto Rican Elkhorn coral in captivity and a minimal amount of Staghorn coral from Florida (the hybrid, Acropora prolifera, is not represented in captivity); we also have cryogenically frozen genetic samples of Elkhorn and Staghorn corals from Puerto Rico and Belize in gene banks. However, we need to diversify our captive genetic diversity. SECORE has moved to working on a reef restoration project in the Caribbean island of Curacao. As an offshoot, I have been traveling to Belize the past few summers during coral spawning season, trying to expand the genetic diversity of captive Caribbean acroporids we currently maintain in public aquaria. The Smithsonian has a field station on the tiny island of Carrie Bow Cay, part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef system, off the mainland coast of Belize. This field station is ideal for our project for many reasons, as it has all the flowing seawater, solar power, diving needs, etc. and the corals are located right off the house reef. Most of the costs are covered by the Smithsonain Marine Science Network - one only needs to get himself/herself to Belize from Washington, D.C. This is where WAMAS comes in. Funding for this project was generously provided by the WAMAS Grant Program. This grant allowed airfare for me to get to Belize and back with these corals and supplies I need to make this project happen. The following post(s) will detail my 2013 field season. All photos in this thread, unless otherwise stated, are courtesy of Abby Wood. http://abois.zenfolio.com/f154771040 Here is a look at the Carrie Bow Cay (CBC) island and marine station from the reef (the hybrid Acropora prolifera) is in the foreground: Another shot of the island - it is small enough that you can walk the perimeter in 5 minutes, at a leisurely stroll (no kidding). The amount of scientific papers per square foot that come from research on this island is pretty astonishing. I'll continue this year's field season in subsequent posts. Cheers Mike

I wonder if my new Belizian cuisine isn't so healthy after all now... http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/lionfish_invasion_the_invasive_fish_are_eating_so_many_native_species_that.html Spear 'em all you can... Cheers Mike

Was it purchased as a wild-collected colony? How long had it been in captivity?

An 8" x 10" colony would likely be large enough to see egg production. I see that the colony was in the system for about 12 months? Was it purchased as a wild colony? 2" from the tips is about standard to not see any egg production (as well as to not see any egg production 2" more or less around a "wound" deeper in the colony). If this was a predator/parasite, then I doubt you would see this uniform distribution throughout the colony. Also, if it was a burrowing parasite, you would almost certainly see superficial colony damage, as someone said earlier. The "ducts" that you see are from where the polyp sits in the skeleton. Remember, each polyp is its own individual feeding/reproducing entity. From our studies with A. millepora, A. tenuis, and A. loripes, we have seen that various polyps from a given colony that produces an egg/sperm bundle can be highly variable in egg production - varying anywhere from about 8-20 eggs per bundle (more or less). Invertebrates are also notorious for last-ditch reproduction/spawning before dying, so it's certainly not unheard of. Cheers Mike

Hmmmm.... it looks to me as if the fragment was taken from near the base of the colony, yes? If so, then that is where eggs would likely be located in the colony. The distal ends of branches are favoring energy into growth instead of gametogenesis. How big/large was the colony? It's possible those were eggs, but it's difficult to tell from those photos alone. I would LOVE to see some under the dissecting scope if you find any more. For reference, here is a cracked branch from A. millepora the day or two before spawning (Singapore workshop). You can easily see the pink eggs in the branches: If it was a parasite that large, you would almost certainly see some movement when placed in a dip. But, I'm not yet ready to declare this reproduction either. Is the colony still alive? Is it possible to get any more samples? Cheers Mike

Here is the link to my ppt that Tom posted: http://wamas.org/for...aquarium-pests/ It is possible to rid the aquarium of these pests AND save all of your acropora corals. But, it takes patience and diligence. I dipped all acros once a week for 1.5 months in the prescribed treatment in that ppt. I also left the display devoid of acros for three months (just in case there were some still lurking...). To date, I have not had them - or red bugs - return. And note, I was not having success with Interceptor killing the red bugs. If you cannot move the acros to a different tank, then just dip them and put them back in your display each week, but you might want to extend the treatments to more than 1-1.5 months - ya know, just to be sure. Cheers Mike

It's a Netted flatworm - Pseudoceros texarus. http://wamas.org/forums/topic/49507-giant-flatworm/ As I understand it, they are snail predators. Cheers Mike

A new look at marine biodiversity - East Africa: Mozambique Channel is home to second most diverse coral reefs in the world Cheers Mike

If you can get to the west end - to Rincon at Tres Palmas marine reserve - you can easily snorkel or dive to see some of the largest A. palmata colonies left in the whole Caribbean. There are about 1100 VERY LARGE colonies off this tiny, 3/4 mile stretch of beach, called Steps Beach (you can find it on Google Earth). The colonies are in 15ft of water just a few yards off shore, which is why you can easily snorkel the site. You can also take a boat over to Desecheo island for a few nice dives. And... the full moon is on August 1. If you are still there between the 3rd and, say... 7th-8th, you might very well get to see one of the most amazing sights nature has to offer - an annual coral spawn. Those colonies are VERY reliable spawners. Just follow the horde of people that are likely to be there getting in the water around 9pm and wait for the spectacle - it's awesome. This colony is about 2-3 body-lengths long, and probably 2 people tall... Cheers Mike

Agreed with Chad. Lionfish, unfortunately, will also inhabit deeper waters than we can safely reach on scuba. I'm afraid they are here to stay. We just need to keep doing our best to over-fish them. I'm just back from the annual GMU coral reef class I take to The Bahamas every year. I first dove on this particular trip in August 2006, and we always dive the blue hole outside of Nassau toward the end of the trip. The first time I dove this site in 2006, there was one Lionfish on the blue hole dive, and the crew captain speared it that day. I just dove this same location last week, and I speared 37 Lionfish on one single dive. 37 - which shatters my previous record of 12 in Belize. And I either missed or hit-and-it-got-away at least 10 more. I only surfaced b/c I was low on air, and we had to move dive sites. Close-up of dive buddy Laura with the bag: I hit HUGE ones, big ones, medium-sized ones, and a few teeny fish-stick sized ones. There were SO MANY more for the taking; it is a regular infestation. Sadly, there use to be tons of juvenile fish at this dive site, and they just are not there anymore. Yes, they are good-eating fish, and I was also cutting out the stomachs to show the students the gut contents. Many had nothing, while we found crabs, small shrimps and gobies in others. Mike

I don't really do the "names" thing (as I quite despise it...), but I do know that I have dipped A. echinata, if that helps. Whether it was a "Hawkins," I don't know. And, what Coral Hind said on the QT. Good luck, and keep us posted. Cheers Mike

Yes, treat everything in the genus Acropora, but happily they seem to be obligate acropora corallivores. However, if you are unsure if a given coral is an acropora, then be safe and dip it. I've dipped Pocillipora, Montipora, Pavona, and a ton of others without ill effects. Cheers Mike

Okay, this sucks, but the war can be won. I recommend the Bayer Insect Killer as seen here: You can read all about the use of this treatment here (this was just posted in another thread recently). RC Bayer Thread Or, I can summarize what I have been doing. DO NOT use this as an in-tank treatment. No, no, no, no... NO! You are going to need to remove all things acropora and dip them repeatedly in this mixture, and you have to scrape off the eggs. I have yet to find a treatment that will combat the eggs as well. I have been using 4 mls per liter for 15 minutes (though I believe there to be a wide therapeutic range for this treatment) with an airstone (I suppose you could use a powerhead too, but it is more difficult to see the flatworms fall off) in some of your tank water. Then, rinse the colonies/frags in a fresh batch of your tank water. I repeat this treatment one every 7-10 days for 3-4 treatments. Now, ideally you have separate system with no flatworms you can place the corals in. If not, and they go back in your system, you can expect recolonization. Either way, keep dipping every week for 3-4, maybe even 5 weeks. The idea is to kill off the juveniles before they have a chance to reach maturity and reproduce - since we know very little about the entire life cycle of the bug. (I have the paper where this species was just described if you want the reference link). KEEP INSPECTING FOR EGGS. Scrape them off whenever you find some - they are typically easy to spot, except when they are deep down in the branches. The only coral I have found that does not take well to this dip is Leishman's red A. hyacinthus table. I use Ivermectin and Revive for that one. Even the "smooth-skinned" A. echinata and echinata-like corals seem to be okay with this treatment. Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions. As a bonus, this dip kills the Tegastes sp. acropora "red bugs" too. Cheers Mike

Here's my Ivermectin write-up here: Ivermectin I use the 1% Ivermectin solution. The injectable solution is MUCH easier to use. You can buy it on 1800petmeds without a prescription. Cheers Mike