Our Hobby Will be Changing

In case you don't realize it.  Over time our hobby will change.  With the environmental and other pressures on the reef and oceans wild capture of fish and corals will eventually cease.  If we want the hobby to be around for our children and children's children we need to all work on captive breeding and propagation.  The following are the best sites on the net for those who are interested in coral propagation or marine ornamental breeding.

Of course, nothing compares to 120 Gallons, but I'm certainly not impartial.

 

As for marine ornamentals, there is only one site worth your time.  It is http://www.marinebreeder.org.   Matt Pedersen who helped found the site, was on episode 13 of our podcast.  This site is refreshing.  There's no politics, agendas, backstabbing, or put downs.  Just a few hundred people who are all working towards better ornamental fish breeding efforts.  Everyone from hobbyists to commercial breeders are represented.  Check it out.

 

For inverts, there's a similar site to marinebreeder.org.  It is project dibs.  Brian Plankis runs the site and they focus on breeding inverts.  If this is your area of interest check them out at http://www.projectdibs.com.

 

One other place to get expert advice is at http://forums.marinedepot.com.  There you can participate in forums featuring Eric Borneman, Anthony Calfo, Dr.Frank Marini, Steven Pro, Dr. Ron Shimek, and Kelly Jedlicki.  All can provide expert assistance and are quite active on the forums and very willing to help.  You've heard Eric and Steven on our podcasts.

 

So hop to it, get to it, use a spare tank and try to spawn a marine fish or invert and report back to the community your findings, even info about failures is helpful.  Let's all work towards saving our hobby for future generations.

Omaha.com Metro/Region Section - Coral Wisperer

 

Carl, an aquarium supervisor at the Henry Doorly Zoo, seems to have a knack for growing a rare but important species of coral from larvae.
In 2006, an international team of scientists and aquarium specialists, led by Holland's Rotterdam Zoo and including Carl, undertook the most ambitious effort ever to establish captive populations of elkhorn coral, using eggs and sperm gathered in the wild.
Of about 500,000 embryos sent to various zoos, only 1,100 survived three months — all in Carl's care.
Last year's harvest produced better success rates for researchers at nine sites in the United States, but again Carl's batch fared the best. Three months after the larvae were brought to zoos, 75 percent of Carl's had survived. The next closest success rate was about 50 percent.
It's no mere academic endeavor. The work "probably will be very important" to replenishing the rapidly disappearing coral reefs of the Caribbean, said Mike Brittsan, curator at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.
Brittsan is U.S. coordinator for the research project, which has been dubbed "SECORE" for Sexual Reproduction of Coral.
About 90 percent of the world's elkhorn coral has disappeared over the past 20 years, largely because of human activities, Brittsan said.
What the dull-brown elkhorn lacks in beauty it makes up in importance to the web of life under sea and to shoreline stability.

 

At one year and three months old, the elkhorn coral shows more of its namesake texture. The effort to grow the coral in captivity is expected to be important to replenishing rapidly vanishing Caribbean reefs.

Elkhorn coral, which can grow to the size of a car, spreads broad fans that provide a forested habitat for sea creatures.
When an elkhorn colony dies, its skeleton serves as a structure for other marine life to adhere to and grow. Long networks of elkhorn coral reefs protect shorelines from harsh waves.
What makes sexual reproduction of elkhorn coral important is that it offers the opportunity to more quickly grow larger numbers of more genetically diverse coral specimens. Traditionally, elkhorn coral has been grown in captivity through cloning — breaking off a piece and letting it root, so to speak.
The problem with cloning, Carl said, is that it is slow, offers no genetic diversity and causes successive generations to adapt to the captive environment, thus becoming less suitable for reintroduction to the wild.

Read Full Article: Omaha.com Metro/Region Section

Fish Room For Marine Ornamental Breeding and Coral Propagation

Finally started doing some work on the room.  Since I already had high humidity in my house (due to the really sealed new house syndrome) from my 120 gallon display and 75 gallon sump in the basement.  I knew I needed to come up with a solution before adding a few hundred gallons of water.  So I decided on a bathroom fan on a dehumidstat.  For the fan I chose a Panasonic FV-11VQ3.  It is super quiet.  (i.e. you cannot hear it - I thought it wasn't working when I first tested it).  It also moves a lot of air, 120 cfm I believe.  So basically whenever the dehumidstat (from Ranco) detects the humidity is above a certain level it will kick the fan on.

Here's some install pictures.