Spawning coral turns sea pink

Ah, Wednesday. Mid-week. Hump day.

The perfect day to squander your lunch hour viewing videos of coral reefs.

This clip of spawning corals is from BBC News. If you check the video credit, however, the footage actually comes "courtesy of Reefvid.org."

Oh really ...

... well, I have a 60-minute lunch so of course I checked out the site and watched, like, 6 more videos. Most of the stuff I searched for—clown, blue tang, giant clam—came up with at least one watchable video snippet.

Alas, the time has come for me to clock back in. If you find any cool videos you want to share, comment with a link so we can check 'em out later.

Happy hump day!

Q&A with Jake Adams of CORALidea

Jake Adams is a professional, practicing aquarist who has been an active participant in the national marine aquarium community for over 10 years. He has been educating aquarists of a wide range of marine aquarium topics through frequent articles, podcasts and presentations around the country. He recently founded www.coralidea.com which provides a free downloadable guide to coral identification for mobile devices and home computers. Jake has a Bachelor's Degree in Marine Science and he will be returning to graduate school to further pursue research in the field of coral reef ecology. (Bio Source: Sierra Saltwater Systems)

Marine Depot: Can you tell us a little about your background in the saltwater aquarium hobby?

Jake Adams: I have been keeping corals and reef tanks since 1996. My first job was at an aquarium store and I have worked and managed several marine aquarium stores in Denver and Atlanta since then. I received a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Science from the University of South Carolina and even there I managed a wetlab, where I designed, set-up and maintained aquarium systems tailored for specific research purposes. While in college I carried out an independent research project which showed that water flow is crucial in driving photosynthesis. Soon after graduating I worked with spawning coral in Puerto Rico and learned and developed techniques for handling coral larvae. I would say that my background in the aquarium hobby has one foot in the academic world so I try to bring scientific understanding to aquarium knowledge through frequent articles, podcasts and speaking at national and regional aquarium events. Currently my main focus is on developing CORALIDEA as a free digital media resource for identifying and learning about corals, clams and anemones.

MD: What inspired you to create Coralidea? What role do you see it playing for your average reefkeeper?

JA: Since I travel around to many reef events and visit many reef tanks I get to see many unique, rare and unusual specimens which I enjoy photographing as a natural extension of my passion for marine aquaria. I am also somewhat of a gadget head so I keep many pictures on my iPod and smartphone to show other reefers a particular coral when it comes up in conversation. I am also known as a stickler for proper identification and I often use the pictures on my iPod to settle an identification debate. I was literally driving down the road one day when it occurred to me that I had pictures of many different corals and that I should organize them into an ID guide for other people to use on their portable devices such as iPods and smartphones. One of the biggest advantages of the CORALIDEA guide is that the identification is all in Latin so the guide is useful no matter what language you speak. Since the media is in a digital format and useable on so many platforms like iPods, smartphones, computers, PDAs and more, I hope the identification landscape will become easier to learn for the average reefkeeper.

MD: So … what’s YOUR tank like? A quick breakdown of your system specs and livestock should do the trick!

JA: My big tank will either seem really interesting or really lame. It’s a 115 extra tall tank with the footprint of a 75 gallon tank which I primarily use for water flow research. This tank is used for creating wave harmonics using a pair of wireless Vortech pumps to produce long waves and standing waves to a dramatic effect; there is no rock or livestock, just freshwater. My other real tank is a 29 gallon, mixed reef with just about a little of everything coral-wise. Some of the notable livestock includes a wild Onyx true percula, a sunburst anemone, orange flower anemone, a gold coral banded shrimp, a weeping willow toadstool, a red Cycloseris, lots of brilliant zoanthids and a fuschia Neospongodes. The tank is run with a Vortech pump for flow (either oscillating or constant flow), a remora protein skimmer, an OmegaStar DE 150 watt pendant and a heating element controlled by a Medusa. You might say that this hardware is overkill for this type of tank but it allows me to leave the tank alone for a week or two at a time while I am traveling. I add a two-part solution, feed arcti-pods and roti-feast and I change a bucket of water out every 3-5 weeks. I keep it simple so my brother doesn’t have to do much to the tank while I am out of town. This video shows the wave tank with a standing wave or third harmonic wave and the 29 gallon with a long wave or second harmonic. I am really excited about my next reef aquarium which is will be an industry-supported aquarium to showcase what is possible with efficient design and inclusion of energy-saving technologies such as brushless motors, LED lights and thermo-electric chillers.

MD: If you were approached by someone interested in getting into the marine/reef aquarium hobby, what advice would you give them? Are there any misconceptions you would want to clear up? What sites or resources might you recommend to them?

JA: The biggest misconception people have about reef tanks is that lighting is the most important parameter. The well meaning hobbyist then blast their tanks with too much light for too long leading to problems in the form of nuisance algae and unhealthy corals. Water flow is the factor that drives the light and dark reactions and I would love to see people invest a lot more attention to the water motion within their aquarium. A common response I get from the DSB crowd is that more flow will blow away their precious oolitic sand which leads me to the next big common misconception about reef tanks: sand is not a natural part of most of the reef zones that our corals come from. I am not denying the obvious ecological benefits that a sand bed provides for a reef tank but I believe that this effect is best harnessed in an area which is remote from the main aquarium such as in a sump or dedicated refugium.

Probably the best resource for reef noobs is their local aquarium clubs. Most clubs will have some old salt members who can help them to learn more about their area of interest and point them in the right direction for specific information. There are a lot of old aquarium books on the shelves these days so try to pick one or two that have been published within the last five years. Also, make sure to use some critical thinking when you read anything in an open forum such as the internet.

MD: Are you participating in any forthcoming events we should know about?

JA: As I mentioned earlier, I am very active in the national marine aquarium community and I will be speaking at several upcoming events. I will be in Manhattan April 27^th for their frag swap. The following weekend, May 3-4^th, I will be in Rockford Illinois for the Rockford FragFest. In late May I will be speaking at IMAC in Chicago and finally in September I will be doing a workshop at MACNA XX in my old stomping ground of Atlanta. The talks will be on Atlantic stony corals or on the importance of water flow in reef aquariums. Please visit the event websites for more information.

MD: What’s next for you, personally and professionally? How do you see Coralidea fitting into the hobby? What are the next steps for Coralidea? How can hobbyists support Coralidea?

JA: In addition to developing the low-energy reef I mentioned earlier, I am in the process of working on FISHIDEA as a guide to reef fish identification and as a companion to CORALIDEA. Like the coral guide, the fish guide will also be a free download and supported by sponsors. We reefers don’t carry our books around but we do carry our phones and mobile devices. I hope that CORALIDEA and the related guides will eventually become one of the standards we use to identify our reef animals. Although I have no misconceptions that all of the IDs are correct, the guide will eventually include an archive of changes made to the guide so that we will all be able to track our shifting understanding on the proper identification of certain species.

CORALIDEA is currently a balanced operation which I spend a lot of time and energy developing. Hobbyists can support CORALIDEA by submitting images for use in the guide, either fish, corals, clams or anemones. Additionally, since the guide is still a very new concept I really need feed-back on how the guide works for you on your device and what can be done to make it better. Furthermore, I would love to tailor the guide for optimum performance on a range of platforms but I can only afford one new device every six months or so. There is a (seldom-used) Paypal donation button on the website for the development fund. If you would like to see increased functionality in the guide please consider making a donation with comments as to what device or functionality you would like to see added to the CORALIDEA guide. All submissions and Paypal donations can be sent to corallite at gmail dot com.

MD: Quick, name your top 5 favorite corals (starting stopwatch). Go!

JA: Disc corals Fungia and Cycloseris are first on the list. They have such a neat reproductive strategy and they are one of the few corals you can call a pet because you are looking at the same polyp year after year. We all love Acros but one I like in particular is Acropora abrotanoides. ‘Abros’ have such a thick branching pattern that they make a really majestic staghorn colony, quite different from your typical green slimmer, but they require very fast water flow to grow well. As a group I really like Pavona species and the related Caribbean counterpart Agaricia. Both of these coral genera have very interesting growth forms and intricate skeletal detail which is unique and extremely rewarding to photograph. Stylocoeniella is kind of a weirdo coral which I think I was the first to identify among boulder-shaped Porites. I remember the funny looks I used to get when identifying this coral to old-salts but now it is not uncommon to see several different species properly identified and available for sale. I like Stylocoeniella because it is a primitive cryptic coral which takes a true aficionado to appreciate. The skeleton is very hard, a lot more like marble than limestone and this coral will release brooded larvae in the aquarium much like Pocillopora species. Another weirdo which is infrequently imported from the Solomon Islands is Australogyra zelli. This species has a branching pattern which is unique amongst larger polyped Faviids. A. zelli is a often a poor shipper so it is not available for sale very often. This majestic species was on the cover of Veron’s first major coral ID book, Corals of Australia and the Indo-Pacific. Like the ‘Abro’ I mentioned before, the thick branches of A. zelli also need a lot of water flow to survive.

Japan uses coral to define international border

In what is the largest coral fragging project in the world, Japan is using living coral to lay claim to parts of the Pacific over 200 miles from their shore.

Started in 2006, the Japanese government has budgeted 7.55 million dollars to collect, reproduce and grow more than 100,000 fast growing acropora fragments about the size of a finger.

Japan is using these fragments to fortify small islets, that they claim are islands, from erosion.

According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, if these are "real" islands, not just outcroppings as the Chinese government claims, Japan's control over the Pacific would extend another 200 nautical miles.

Even though Japan is using the coral to expand their share of the ocean, the research that they are doing is proving beneficial to help save coral reefs around the world.

I've got White Syndrome!

The other day I came home oblivious, to my well off, half dead Tri Color Acropora.

In doing my daily routine of maintenance and strict husbandry, an utterly hideous white blotch, appeared out of the corner of my eye. Behind the rock scape was one of my favorite tri color Acropora’s, which was located in the back corner of my tank, with moderate oscillating flow, and adequate light.

You would figure, that would be prime conditions for this specific coral, well it was for the most part, being that it had thrived there for the past year and half, until this day everything was going good.

As I peered closer to that unsightly and obvious deteriorating bleaching blotch, it appeared as if the tissue had just diminished. As the panic began to sink in, all measures and realizations of my husbandry came into play. “What is that? What did I do wrong? What did my roommate do? What did I forget to do? GOD?”

Well, that last one was a little extreme, but anything is possible in this hobby!

In continuing my routine, and staring at this half-bleached Acropora, I began hunting for ideas for salvation and to preserve this coral, before complete annihilation. My first thought was to go ahead and frag what is left, of this decaying organism, but I was afraid of shocking it even more. I had already come to the conclusion of RTN (Rapid Tissue Necrosis). I have never encountered this wretched and devious disease, which in reality has no real diagnosis or scientific description as why this occurs.

Rapid Tissue Necrosis (RTN) can be best described as a term that is used for the occurrence of tissue sloughing in captive corals (i.e. laboratory and aquarium corals). Neither a cause nor the mechanisms involved in tissue loss has been determined, but two hypotheses have been proposed by Borneman (2002).

“In the first, a pathogenic agent causes RTN. In the second, RTN is solely a response to an external stress, such as physical damage, nutritional deficiencies, or high temperatures, that results in autolysis or a breakdown in the immune system functioning. A third hypothesis should also be considered, in which a potentially pathogenic agent normally present in coral mucus or tissue becomes infectious when a coral’s immune system is weakened by stress.”

I believe that corals can become weak due to lack of supplements; necessary elements that are rapidly consumed in a closed body of water leading to the slow degeneration of a corals immune system. Once at this point, coral mucus, which is commonly acquired in moderate to heavily stocked coral tanks, can become toxic to corals that are weak and deficient in many aspects of health and immunity. Which may lead to what we call “RTN,” or in my case the “white plague.”

The truth is that many reef diseases are still in the shadows of science and marine biology.

The need for knowledge and understanding or reef related diseases and treatment is far greater than one can comprehend. To understand these reef related diseases, implementation of different types of investigation needs to be done. Ecological, microbiological and histological methods of investigation need to be performed in order to understand this disease and many other types of reef “killers”.

Whether intervening with Mother Nature is a good thing or not, understanding and treating it in your aquarium is the main concern here as well as my concern.

I am not saying go out and find the cure for this and treat the infected reefs. I am saying lets find out what is going on to better equip reefers and understand this “white plague” and effectively treat the issue.

That way we can preserve the corals in our aquariums for many “ooh’s and ahhh’s” still to come.

The Wonderful World of Mariculture, Part II

One of the more recent “pests” becoming prevalent in mariculture is a small crustacean that resembles a mite.

It is nearly impossible to see without a magnifying glass at a mere ½ mm in length, but this crustacean is yellow in color with a red dot and appears to prefer species of Acropora corals.

This particular parasite wears its “red bug” moniker proudly. It has been theorized that these red bugs are either a parasitic form of copepod or micro-amphipod, though little research has been done to uncover their true identity.

Parasites and pathogens can—and should—be avoided when choosing your corals, so pay careful attention to where you purchase them from. Many experienced reef hobbyists understand the damage red bugs and flat worms inflict upon a reef system. That is one of many reasons why maricultured corals are becoming more popular in the industry today.

Here are some things to look for when choosing corals for your aquarium:

1. See if your current vendor and/or local pet store carry maricultured corals. If not, ask them to order them!
2. Observe the husbandry and quarantine techniques of your local pet store. Ask them how they would administer treatment if the need arose. Also, don’t be afraid to ask what measures they take to ensure their systems are free of pests and pathogens.
3. Never take a fellow hobbyists’ word that their system is free and clear of pests when trading frags. You must quarantine all new specimens until you are sure that the colony is free of unwanted organisms and are adjusted to their new environment. This is a perfect time to acclimate new arrivals to the water and lighting conditions used in your main system.

Despite the many pros, there are several downfalls to maricultureing products.

Waste can leak into bodies of water and contaminate that ecosystem. Excessive feeding and treatments that would not occur naturally in the wild can sometimes leach out if handled carelessly by farmers. Cleaning supplies, chemicals, overfeeding and sedimentation can be released back into the ocean if mariculture is not practiced thoughtfully under stringent regulation.

The flipside, “black market” mariculture, can alter or decimate reefs altogether due to a lack or understanding or concern for the surrounding wildlife.

The good news is more and more conservationists are teaming together to thwart such bootleg operations. The Global Coral Reef Alliance (GCRA) is comprised of several large mariculture farming operations and operates under a stern code of aquaculture ethics and guidelines.

A great way to lend support to conservation and preservation efforts is to patronize local pet shops that deal only with reputable mariculture facilities and/or groups. Strike up a conversation with your vendor/supplier and ask whether they get their corals from mariculture or the wild.

Some popular, eco-friendly mariculture and frag suppliers include:

• MarineDepotLive.com: fish, inverts, coral, etc.
• ORA: Supplier of corals, clams and clownfish
• Walt Smith International: Supplier, live rock, coral and fish
• Pacific Aqua Farms: Supplier, live rock and corals
• Frag Farmer: Supplier of corals and rarities; “frag specialist”
• Atlantis Aquarium: Supplier of corals and rarities; “frag specialist,” fish

Knowledge is power. Use the knowledge you have acquired as a practicing reef keeper and share it with other hobbyists and local groups to empower them and change the way they think.

Sure, it might be fun to get a saltwater tank and throw a bunch of life into it. But unless you take the time to educate yourself about the bigger picture, you may never truly see things in the proper perspective.

Reefing is a lifestyle that should not be taken lightly.

Don’t get me wrong: I think everyone should experience the joy and awareness that comes with being a hobbyist. But I also think that before you dive in head first, you should do your homework and due diligence. You owe it to yourself… and the creatures whose lives you hold in your hand.

And with that, my mind begins to wander back to that tropical island paradise. I realize that my fantasy of being submersed in my own personal “aqua world” is only a dream. But hopefully a dream that will one day be fulfilled.

Whether it is an island or merely a small spot in the middle of nowhere, I hope my dream of operating a mariculture facility becomes reality one day soon. I cordially invite you all to join me and share the passion I have for this hobby … and the world!

Until next time … thanks for reading. Happy reefing!