Justin Credabel has been one of our reefing homeys for many years now and as logn as we’ve known him he has had a long standing love affair with flowerpot corals. In addition to making really creative and adorable music videos that reflect reefing culture, Justin is the lead aquaculturist at Underwater World Enterprises. Justin will occasionally be dropping by to share some of his Mad Hatter reefing ideas, this spiral fusion is but of taste of what we can expect from Mr. Credabel.

Goniopora tenuidens is currently one of my favorite aquarium subjects, and if you so desire to keep one, it may become one of yours too. This is a relatively reliable species of Goniopora, of which many hobbyists will see for purchase. When I say reliable I mean that can be counted on to expect healthful regular feedings, strong light, flow, and optimal water conditions. Reliable, also, that if given the proper captive environment, this species will reward you with slow but steady growth, most of it prevalent around the fringes of the colony. There a two forms commonly seen, one tends to be from a lagoon type environment. Others are collected from reefs. Most that are imported sport a shade of purple or blue, from just a hint, to in-your-face bright. Some of the reef collected types have multiple rings of color, even yellow eyes (a recurring theme in Goniopora coloration), and bright purple acrospheres, the little ball shapes at the end of each tentacles. I have been establishing dozens of strains of Goniopora at Underwater World LA, many of them are Goniopora tenuidens, due to their great color and ease of care (Goniopora wise). Recently I had the pleasure to use a couple colonies as a medium for an art piece.

In some ways of thinking the spiral is regarded as negative, symbolizing falling into an abyss. Others see it has a symbol of outward flowing energy and regeneration. I’d like to believe the latter. Just a bit more positive way of looking at things, bring a little sunshine into my life. I tend to contemplate opposites and their prevalence in the structure of universe on the macro and micro scale. I am also keen to use a band saw and Goniopora to explore these thoughts and feelings and express it in living flesh, that glows. It took patience, a steady hand, and crazy band saw skills (one level above nunchuck skills, Dremmel nunchucks count). I took special care not to waste any coral tissue. I ended up with mirror image spirals and several frags.

Goniopora tenuidens tolerate others of their own species quite well. I have yet to have them fuse their soft tissue, but they will grow right up against tissue of other colonies from the same species. They will however provoke fights with Goniopora planulata, usually G. tenuidens wins. Regarding other genera of coral, appropriate measures should be taken to avoid contact and competition (allelopathy). Goniopora tenuidens themselves produce many allelopathic compounds that inhibit the growth of other species of Goniopora and other coral. This is known in particular because G. tenuidens has been the subject of various scientific papers, from the bio-reactive compounds they produce, to the blue and purple hued fluorescent proteins, harnessed and used for ground breaking research in cancer, genetics, and the function of proteins, organelles and other critical cellular systems. Thank you Goniopora tenuidens. I wonder what other secrets lurk under the lid of other species of Goniopora? So take one home, preferably captive grown, and develop the awestruck respect I continue to have to this day for this species and the whole
genus.
Rock!

Related Posts:

• Read the Digital version of CORAL magazine for free for Reef Builders Readers
• Wisconsin Northwoods “Little Bohemia” of marine life
• Jellyfish-eating coral caught in the act
• Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants
• Petition targets 83 coral species for U.S. endangered species list protection
• Indonesia to set quotas on coral trade
• Two Little Fishes ad stirs debate among reef addicts
• Live Bottles are reborn as Aquacultured Art by Atlantic Reef Aquaculture

CORAL magazine, a popular saltwater aquarium publication is promoting their digital version which allows you to take the magazine wherever you go. If you are already a print subscriber you will receive the digital version for free. Nifty yes? Single copies and Digital-only subscriptions are also now available. However, because of Reef Builders special relationship with CORAL magazine, you can view the latest CORAL magazine for free in its digital version. Just click that prior link and you’ll be able to browse all the articles. Don’t forget you can purchase a digital copy for only $22 which is cheaper than most online forums.

When we think of marine aquaculture and warehouse facilities we think about the typical havens like Southern California’s thriving wholesaler industry a stone’s throw from LAX. So it’s amazing to see Drs. Foster & Smith’s LiveAquaria, one of the top-notch facilities, in the heart of America’s Midwest a five-hour drive north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s largest city. This post was inspired by a recent article in NewsoftheNorth.net on LiveAquaria and it’s director Kevin Kohen.

Let me frame the story for you. Northern Wisconsin was heavily based in mining and logging over the years, in fact my grandparents both Finnish and German immigrants started their new lives in America in Northern Wisconsin as farmers and loggers. Over the years, the Northwoods (or “Up North” as they say there) became the place to escape the hustle and bustle of life with vacation homes abundant on the vast and beautiful lakes of the area. In fact, during the heyday of organized crime in the 1920s and 30s, Northern Wisconsin was home to hideouts of famous gangsters like John Dillinger and Al Capone. In Manitowish Waters, less than an hour from LiveAquaria Rhinelander facility, is a resort named Little Bohemia where John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson narrowly escaped the FBI.

Back in 2002, Drs. Foster & Smith entered into the aquaculture and marine market acquiring Kohen’s Ohio-based LiveAquaria. In 2005 they opened their well-planned and cutting edge Rhinelander facility. To see the proof, just check out their state-of-the-art filtration and holding systems we brought you from the Reef Builders Live tour of the facility last summer.

A few key points Kohen brings up in the article shows just how the hobby is not a major threat to the coral reef ecosystems around the world but has done tremendous amounts for the understanding and knowledge of the coral reefs. Building a self-sustaining industry is one of the keys to the long-term health of the hobby.

“We’re trying to offset some of this wild harvest with desirable species of coral, grown in large quantities, to be able to supply the United States with captive grown coral,” says Kohen. Although LiveAquaria hopes to promote the demand for cultivated coral, it is not seeking to completely replace the wild harvest coral industry. “When done right, selective harvesting of wild coral can benefit the reef,” he adds. “Similar to the effect selective logging can have on the health of a forest. It’s a sustainable fishery when it’s done properly. It’s very controlled, it’s highly regulated, and it can even be beneficial to coral reefs. It also provides a trade for all these people that live in these remote regions have no other means to make an income, except for their resources.”

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Bloy

Kohen also views hobbyists as a thriving component of the science and research of corals. As we’ve seen over the years, the hobby and the goal of sustaining these fragile ecosystems in captivity has added greatly to the scientific body of knowledge. “The aquarium industry has helped the scientific community with an incredible number of discoveries,” said Kohen. “If you talk to some old scientist, they don’t believe corals can be kept alive in captivity. We’ve broken so many barriers as aquarists to help scientists and reef ecologists, and to discover new species of fish. It’s a win-win for aquarium people and the scientific community. Check out the gallery below for some pictures from the Reef Builders tour of the facility last summer.

Related Posts

• Petition targets 83 coral species for U.S. endangered species list protection
• LiveAquaria’s Acropora and SPS coral display tank
• Get interactive with MASNA Live
• Jellyfish-eating coral caught in the act
• Study shows concensus, save the reefs
• Awe-inspiring island views from space
• Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants
• Coral Cryobank being developed to preserve the diversity of threatened coral species
• Indonesia to set quotas on coral trade
• Two Little Fishes ad stirs debate among reef addicts

Post from: Reef Builders

Wisconsin Northwoods’ “Little Bohemia” of marine life

Wisconsin Northwoods’ “Little Bohemia” of marine life

Recently scientists from Israel encountered a strange sight—a coral eating a jellyfish in the Red Sea. We saw this news posted on the BBC’s website and did a bit more digging. Typically larger predators are the animals taking advantage of jellyfish for a meal but during a season upwelling in March 2009 a large number of moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) made their way to the reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba where Omri Bronstein (Tel Aviv University) and Gal Dishon (Bar-Ilan University) were able to witness and document mushroom coral (Fungia scruposa) making a meal of the jellyfish. This is the first known documentation of a coral eating a jellyfish and was recently published in the International Society for Reef Studies Coral Reef Journal saying:

Despite the fact that hermatypic corals may feed heterotrophically on a broad variety of sources ranging in size from bacteria to mesozooplankton (up to 1,000 lm) (Houlbre`que and Ferrier-Page`s 2009), this is the first report of solitary corals feeding on large gelatinous plankton (ca. 12 cm in diameter) in their natural habitat.

The team also noted other cnidarians, like anemones such as Entacmaea medusivora in Palau, have been known to regularly feed on jellyfish. The main difference is the jellyfish there are constantly around providing these anemones a steady source of food plus the anemones don’t have the symbiotic photosynthetic “endosymbionts” as corals to help meet their nutritional needs.The research team finds it hopeful for corals to adapt to more opportunistic opportunities for food, especially in wake of global climate and ocean acidification plaguing the future of the coral reef. As hobbyists, we’re used to finding some pretty interesting things in the mouths of our beloved LPS corals (a dwarf cerinth in a mouth of the author’s A. echinata for example) so we know they can be opportunistic in alternative sources of foods at times. But we wonder if these corals caught the jellyfish as they propelled by or if they had the meal fall into their laps?

[via BBC News, Coral Reef Journal]

Related Posts

• Giant jellyfish invade Japanese waters
• Mantis shrimp eyes: the key to next generation high def devices
• Robotic fish to swim, monitor the open seas
• Rare video footage of deepwater marine life on Davidson Seamount
• Awe-inspiring island views from space
• Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants
• Petition targets 83 coral species for U.S. endangered species list protection
• Indonesia to set quotas on coral trade
• Two Little Fishes ad stirs debate among reef addicts
• Aquarium nuisance lends its “sting” to medicine

Post from: Reef Builders

Jellyfish-eating coral caught in the act

Jellyfish-eating coral caught in the act

Coral antioxidants and fluorescent proteins  are about to crossroad after the publication of the paper by Palmer et. al on Coral Fluorescent Proteins as Antioxidants. According to Palmer, Modi and Mydlar, most corals have been known to produce a wide range of fluorescent proteins but the purpose for these proteins was relatively undocumented. The research team examined how some corals seem to produce more fluorescence when they are stressed or injured, and they used Hydrogen Peroxide scavenging rates as a proxy measurement for the antioxidant potential of these upregulated proteins. The paper noted that chromoprotein, cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and red fluorescent protein (RFP) behaved as powerful antioxidants that protected corals from free oxygen radicals, promoting healing in the compromised tissues of corals. It is unclear how this study might relate to GFP infection in stony corals but if the intense fluorescent color of ZEOvit and ULNS aquaria is anything to go by, the keepers of these kinds of oligotrophic reef aquarium systems might want to rethink why their corals are so bright, and whether their brilliant corals might be stressed into appearing so bright. The Astreopora coral above has displayed a concentration of chromoprotein in purple spots for over two years now. This coloration occurs precisely where the coral appears to be developing some sort of aberrant growth form all over the colony. Under certain conditions, fragments from this colony can also display the odd purple coloration and whether this is some  sort of Chromoprotein “infection” akin the GFP infection is totally speculative, but it’s still totally cool. The Porites image to the right is from a short piece on the topic from NatGeo.

Related Posts

• Petition targets 83 coral species for U.S. endangered species list protection
• Indonesia to set quotas on coral trade
• Two Little Fishes ad stirs debate among reef addicts
• CORAL Magazine to go Digital with Nov/Dec issues
• Bioluminescing coral filmed in the deep sea
• Extensive genetic resource for reef-building coral created
• Rare video footage of deepwater marine life on Davidson Seamount
• CORAL Magazine announces $10,000 marine aquascaping contest
• Preis Aquaristik and Ricordea Farm launch Coral-Energize food

Post from: Reef Builders

Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants

Fluorescent Proteins and chromoprotein protect corals as antioxidants