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bgdiving
05/26/2002, 09:46 PM
Very interesting article I'm planning on trying it with a couple of corals but have a few questions or concerns. I would think that fishing line would damage the coral tissue where it was tied around as well as other areas that get rubbed as the coral bounces around in the current. How do you avoid tissue damage where the line is rubbing and chaffing? I also do not see how this method would allow more overall coral production than having corals firmly planted on white sand in a shallow container. it would seem that corals swinging on strings would require greater spacing thus cutting down on total space for coral growth.

I would think that racks would be much more efficient than suspention, but I am going to give it a try with a few pieces. Almost any place I try to suspend a coral it will be shadowing some other coral. except directly over a couple of power heads, but then there would not be any white sand directly under the suspended corals.

bgdiving
05/27/2002, 08:44 PM
Now that I've tried the suspension method I have evan more questions. I propped and suspended 3 pieces of a pink birds nest and 2 different types of green Pocilipora. The corals are from 3 different tanks and the suspended frags are each in the tank they originated from so there is no water chemistry difference, BUT... do I need to worry about acclimating them to their new lighting arangement? Since the shadowed side is now pointed up does this require aclimation? They are also all higher in the tank than the parent colony although the birds nest is only 1/2 inch higher and one is whole lot more forward so it may actually be getting less light from the 4 VHOs directly above the surface of the tank but the others are dirrectly under the VHO's and upside down. I also notice the fishing line sliced a little coral tissue off as the line slid around into place.

One of the Pocilliporas came from directly under a 400 watt halide and is now suspended 8 inches higher up but more off to the side just above a DIY rotating power head.

How much should they blow around in the current? Mine are gently swaying and doing partial twists. but not full 180 degree turns. Being some of them are right in the front of the tank they aren't recieving much light from the front of the tank, is this a problem? You mentioned that you use the area infront of the reef slope. Thanksfor your help, I find this an interesting idea although I do have my concerns and questions.

Anthony Calfo
05/30/2002, 02:04 AM
BG,

Cheers my friend!

You proffer some very thoughtful questions in your post that perhaps other aquarists were thinking about and I'm sure will benefit from the consideration. Thank you!

Answered chronologially from the first post:

* No worries about an unfavorable response by the coral to the tied fishing line. So many incidental organisms in the wild naturally take up residence in the corallum of scleractinia quite harmlessly. Many aquarists can recall seeing the feathery "feet" of barnacles kicking out from their embedded lair in "Closed Brain Corals" (Faviids and Mussids commonly), fanworms/"featherdusters" in Acroporids through Poritids, and ever so much more interesting... the gall crabs in SPS that tease and coax a fine branching scleractinian to grow over many weeks and months to form an living encasement around them that effectively imprisons them! I believe it is the female of some/many/all of these species that does this and the male must fertilize the female's eggs from outside of the gall through the opening she has left for herself (at least that is the story I can recall from one night chatting with a biologist after an obscene amount of beer...heehee). At any rate... you will observe that many wild imported coral come in with various growths and adaptations from external stimuli. No biggie. As far as the chaffing, I'm trusting that the frag is tethered/fixed tightly and that sufficent random turbulent water flow will not permit a rythmic or repetitive abrasion... still... I'm sure the coral would simply adapt with a callus if had to.

* For the next two questions in your first two post, one must be able to visualize the dynamics of light and water flow in a three dimesional plane... the very pieces in suspension relative to a benthic standard. As far as comparative best use of space... coral sitting on the sand or any other substrate are limited obviously by the sum total of that benthic area (x sq feet or inches). And so, take for example a situation where such corals are set upon the sand bottom or in sand in cups as you have suggested in an aquarium 4'x2'x2'. There are 8 square feet on the bottom of this aquarium upon which to grow coral. Even if you could optimally grow coral fully in all directions and touching branch to branch on this bottom, you are still limited to 8 sq ft. And so... how big will we let these frags get before moving them (trading, selling, refragging to produce more...whatever)? Really? Frags are commonly traded rather small... just a couple of inches and a few branches at best. Lets forget that small size though, and let's say we are going to be generous... to 4" in diameter? Grapefruit sized? If we now look at the aquarium as a culturing vessel with several planes we can see that beyond the 8 sq ft sand bottom (leaving nearly eight inches to grow this 4" coral in) we have two other planes above the bottom that are also 4'x2'x8". Now imagine them sectioned like a checker board. One would suspend corals on each plane in alternating "sections" (like the ed sections of a checker board on the lowest tier, then on black in the middle and back to red on the top tier). Now realistically one could not effectively grow coral in an aquarium this packed any more than we can expect corals growth on the bottom only to grow fully in a continuous upward maximum block of product filling the tank :D (as neat as the thought is. But this example hopefully will help folks realize that there is far more space to grow coral in than setting them along the flat plabe of a rockscape or vessel bottom.

* pertaining to your concern about the need for suspension with regard for the benefits of light refracted off the white bottom and water flow: corals held in suspension can and do grow faster than benthic orphans in part because a frag sitting on the sand or rock bottom does not have maximum water flow upwelling through its solid substrate underneath (where a freely suspended piece can be bathed fully in turbulent water flow). And as far as light refracted from white sand to a coral sitting on it versus above it.... WAY big difference if one thinks about it. It is a matter of the angle and scope of refracted light relative to the distance of said frag from the reflective surface. Many great examples to illuminate this point (pardon the pun). How about your pendant halides? The further up you suspend the unit the wider the spead of light on the aquarium. For those readers blessed to see a landscape blanketed with snow... the sight of sheer white sky, snow covered trees and ground on a sunny day is painfully blinding... yet if you pull your face close to that same snow white ground, you can focus and handle the limited starkness. So too will your corals benefit from the refaction of light from a wider spread by being suspended higher above a white sand bottom than forcibly subjected to the limited light at best from the very shadow of their near form on the "ground".

* In your second post, you raise a very good point about light acclimation for frags in the same system (water quality). In a nutshell... yes... there most definately should be some consideration for frags that are likely going to be exposed to the same or brighter light witha move. In a perfect world, an aquarists would have a submersible luxmeter to compare the relative change in light to help plan with tools or techniques to temper the stress during acclimation. For the sake of brevity (Ha! now that's funny looking back at this reply and my long-windedness already:D !)... let me direct interested parties to an article that I wrote on this sort of acclimation and placed on our good friend Bob Fenner's web site at http://www.wetwebmedia.com/acclimcoralslight.htm For those new to WetWebMedia do check out the site fully from the home page. Bob has an amazing anount of free content there (it is all and only free content!!! tens of thousands of pages, pics, articles, FAQ's etc). This article is a revised exerpt for anyone that has my first book.

* as far as the blowing, twisting and turning... all part of the ballgame. With good random turbulent flow (generally good, easy and inexpensive to produce flow for coral culture) this will keep most coral frags bathed with reasonably good water flow. Indeed, not all places in the tank (like near the front glass) can be optimal. Some frags will fare better... but alas... no matter with enough time for growout or proper rotation of piecesin a dedicated farming venture.

Thanks to all interested for reading this far. Heehee... needless to say, please don't ever hesitate to ask me a question if you want my attempt at a complet answer;) Or something close to the length of the preamble to the constitution:D

With kind regards, Anthony Calfo

bgdiving
05/31/2002, 12:08 AM
Anthony, thanks for the reply. so far everything looks good with the 6 frags I have suspended, they are polyped out nicely and I don't seem to have burned any one. The cut ends are starting to show signs of healing over the outer edges. thanks, this should be fun to see how they do. Now I'm going to try a newly aquired lavender acro.

You had mentioned in your article that suspended corals didn't have pressure from surronding algae encroaching and weren't being crawled upon by crabs. But one of the reasons I have the crabs in there in the first place is to help keep nuisence algae controlled. Aren't suspended corals actually at greater risk from algae since the crabs and snails can't get at them to keep the area clean? I have some racks suspended by fishing line and I know the ones the crabs can't get to, the bird nests seem to be having more trouble with algae and I seem to get algae clinging to some of the fishing line.

Can you grow suspended corals over corals fixed to the substrate? i.e. actually try to fully utilize the 3 dimentional aspect of the tank? does the swaying and twisting of the suspended corals allow enough light though that the substrate fixed corals do not suffer? If you cover that in your link above please forgive as I'm just on my way there now after posting this. Again thanks for a great aricle.

Anthony Calfo
05/31/2002, 12:56 AM
BG,

Glad to hear your new frags are covering their breaks with tissue cleanly. Do have fun with this technique and remember to take photos in stages! It is fascinating to look back upon and can be very helpful to share with other aquarists.

As far as the need for herbivores... really the notion can be addressed a number of ways. In the strictest sense... one would hope that an aquarist would not contemplate active coral propagation in a tank with any significnt amount of nuisance algae. Controlling nuisance algae as a rule is all about nutrient export processes... and as such (vegetable filtration/harvested, aggressive skimming, chemical media, water changes...whatever) the contemplation of frag suspension versus benthic residence should hardly be influenced by concerns for algae in a controlled tank. The reality of it all, though, is that we all do get nuisance algae to flare at times. I really don't follow though, my friend, how you thought a suspended frag could actually be at greater risk of being overun with pest algae. Where would it grow? A growing sphere of living coral in suspension is fully covered with living (stinging) tissue... a fully defensive shield of living tissue... and algae has nowhere to settle short of the tiny surface area on the string that supports it. As a benthic resident, however, coral can suffer from algae that encroaches upon it from the substrate with imposed noxious compounds locally if not physically by overunning portions of the coral wholly (the coral is forced to "do battle" in a ground war where there is no "ground" for a suspended coral to defend..follow?). And alas... given to choose between running your fingers over an algae covered strand of fishing line or scrubbing rocks and fine branches of algae, which would you choose in the worst case scenario;) ?

I do have some concern about the racks you've mentioned. Many aquarists will use eggcrate to build racks, shelves and teirs. Handy material for many applications but can be an algae magnet in systems with nutrient problems. The course grid acts rather like a comb and catches algae bits/strands quite easily for settlement. Do be considerate of such material if you are using it.

And lastly, with regards to suspended coral blocking light... in all but the most heavily stocked tanks... there will be little concern of this for several reasons. Indeed, a good light reflector above and adequate water flow in the tank will provide sufficient light and movement across the board for coral... ore than enough. Also, frags aren't meant to be suspended forever... if you succeed... the frag will need to be removed or re-fragged within months if growth is good. And do rememeber, I mentioned in the article that this method really is best employed in a dedicated system... open white sand bottom in tank dedicated for this purpose. If you attempt coral suspension in a mixed garden display tank with coral on rock below...then you must concede that it will not work as well as the dedicated display (rock below restricts water flow, reduces light and subsequently growth under and all way around suspended frags becasue of less refraction of off of dark live rockscape, etc).

I hope this has helped you. Thank you for asking such thoughtful questions that others can benefit by. I'll look forward to you posting pictures in a couple of months!

With kind regards, Anthony

puma
06/30/2002, 04:22 PM
Hi my friend, i´m very glad to find you here(remenber the mexican farmer?) i just cut some cladiella pieces and suspend them, they grow really fast, now my question is, how to avoid to lose those polips when decide to put the coral on a rock? any way they look beautyfull hanging and moving with the current.

Okay the idea is to say hello to you and (!!! my new farm its almost ready!!!)

Best wishes :bum:

Anthony Calfo
06/30/2002, 08:30 PM
Puma,

Excellent to hear from you my friend and kudos on your progress with the coral farm! I shall look forward to visiting it in the future!

To answer your question, the best way to attach your "Cladiella"/Colt coral is a stitch through the stalk near the base and tie it off to a piece of rock. They do take some days or weeks to attach. After that, you can snip and extract the line. Use nylon thread or monofilament fishing line. The specifics of the proceedure are detailed somewhat better in an article I submitted last month for the Reefkeeping e-zine seen here at Reef Central. The editor said it might not appear until September though (its in my book too... essentially, "Cladiella" are too mucous to glue or want to for fear of the mucus stimulation inviting an infection). Essentially, a stictch is very fast, simple and low risk.

Also, for a bit of a taxonomic update... Eric Borneman has reminded us that Cladiella (branching colts) that were recently known as Alcyonium are now placed in the genera, Klyxum. So. if you have the branching (not encrusting) Cladiella... it may very well be properly called Klyxum now.

It has been good to hear from you... keep propagating corals and fill Mexican reef aquaria with such cultured beauties :)

With kind regards,

Anthony Calfo

puma
07/08/2002, 11:40 AM
Excellent to hear from you my friend and kudos on your progress with the coral farm! I shall look forward to visiting it in the future!
Any time Anthony, just let me now and i prepare a room for you.


About the question, maybe i dont express my self properly, but my doub its about those polips that grow every were, i mean, the colony have no base for atach it to a rock and not sacrifice those polips down the animal, i hope now in clear(my english is not good enought)

Also, for a bit of a taxonomic update... Eric Borneman has reminded us that Cladiella (branching colts) that were recently known as Alcyonium are now placed in the genera, Klyxum. So. if you have the branching (not encrusting) Cladiella... it may very well be properly called Klyxum now.
Thank you for that, there is a lot of change in taxonomy because of molecular analisis of DNA.

It has been good to hear from you... keep propagating corals and fill Mexican reef aquaria with such cultured beauties

Its the main idea

Thank you again Anthony and congratulations for the forum.:bum:

bgdiving
07/08/2002, 11:21 PM
Anthony, I'd like to thank you for the great idea! One of my suspended green Pociliporas has about 30 new branches starting and at least 25 of them are extra branches I would NOT have had, had I mounted the branch in my usual manner with supper glue to a plug or had I not removed the cutting from the parent colony.

Are the downward pointed "origianl" branches likely to increase in leanth? Or are they just going to stay about the same as when removed from the parent and all growth appear to be on what use to be the under side of the branch? I still have a lot more coral tissue below the loop in the fishing line but I can forsee before too long most of the growth will be heading above the loop but will it continue to grow downward as well?

I was pleased with the results so far with the Pociliporas so about a wk and a half ago I suspended 2 cuttings of a blue acro, the cuttings were taken just below a 3 branch division. On each of the cuttings 2 of the branches are about 1 inch long and the 3rd is about 3/4 inches long. they have healed over and have a bud on the healing cut area. how well does this method work for acros? I know you said something about it not being a good method for table tops.

Anthony Calfo
07/11/2002, 01:32 AM
Cheers, my friends...

My apologies for the slight delay in response. I'm excited to say that I have just returned from sunny San Diego from a visit with my good friends Bob Fenner and Steven Pro. We have sketched out our plan for a new series of aquarium science books on reef animals! 3 titles in the next 2 years with the good Lord willing.

If anyone is interested in letting us know what you'd like to see in the new references, please e-mail me at anthonycalfo@readingtrees.com. Please feel free to suggest any topic/aspect of keeping reef animals (fish, coral, other inverts).

Back to our thread...

PUMA, if i understand your question correctly... there is little to worry about with some polyps being forcibly stifled with the attachment to a hard substrate. If the "fusing" of a colony is a bit slow, a small cut or nick to the underside may encourage fissionary healing/growth and attachment to the new hard substrate of a suspension growth fragment. If you have indefinate time to allow for the attchment, the frag can be dropped in to a rubble trough for natural attachment (this is the best but slowest method).

BGDIVING,

"Anthony, I'd like to thank you for the great idea! One of my suspended green Pociliporas has about 30 new branches starting and at least 25 of them are extra branches I would NOT have had, had I mounted the branch in my usual manner with supper glue to a plug or had I not removed the cutting from the parent colony. "

I am VERY glad to hear this, my friend! Another exciting dimension of reef keeping/farming!

"Are the downward pointed "original" branches likely to increase in leanth? Or are they just going to stay about the same as when removed from the parent and all growth appear to be on what use to be the under side of the branch? "

The extent to which the downward branches will grow fast, well or even at all depends your success at providing water flow and light to the frag in suspension. The water flow is easy to address and self explanatory perhaps (good random turbulent flow from all directions). If the frag is suspened in a somewhat dedicated system with little or no live rock or other obstruction underneath, then the frag is likely to grow fast on underside (with adequate light being reflected off of a plain, uncluttered white sand bottom). However, a rockscaped tank or substrate with other corals or impediments on the bottom (restricting the refraction of light upwards off of the sand bottom) will significantly impede the growth of those downward branches.

"I still have a lot more coral tissue below the loop in the fishing line but I can forsee before too long most of the growth will be heading above the loop but will it continue to grow downward as well? "

Indeed... you can experiment with barebottomed tanks and lighting corals from below and through the tank as well as from above for maximum growth!!! (like a bare-bottomed "refugium" plumbed inline for a growout tank).

"I was pleased with the results so far with the Pociliporas so about a wk and a half ago I suspended 2 cuttings of a blue acro, the cuttings were taken just below a 3 branch division. On each of the cuttings 2 of the branches are about 1 inch long and the 3rd is about 3/4 inches long. they have healed over and have a bud on the healing cut area. how well does this method work for acros?

For many species/morphologies every bit as well as other scleractinian families.

"I know you said something about it not being a good method for table tops."

Yes... really a morphological expression of a dynamic of water flow that inherently cannot be afforded to corals grown in suspension: namely, strong laminar flow that contributes to the planar shape.

Best regards to all,

Kindly, Anthony Calfo