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EDITORIAL
by TERRY SIEGEL
Terry,
First, I would like to congratulate you on all your work. I’ve read all
your articles from Aquarium
Frontiers and I just love them all.
Also, I think your tank is simply one of the most natural I’ve ever
seen. After that, I would like to know if you still have that 12-gallon
tank with Dendros & Alveoporas
that appeared in an article in Aquarium Frontiers.
If so, how’s the setup? Do you have any photos of it?
Eduardo Cavalcanti, Brazil
I
received this very flattering email several weeks ago, and it reminded me
of mine and J. Charles Delbeek’s attempts at keeping Dendronephthya spp.
alive in captivity. Neither of us considered ourselves successful at
maintaining this and other nonphotosynthetic corals. See, http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2002/feature.htm.
Though
Delbeek’s setup was more elaborate than mine, we both attempted to feed Dendronephthya
spp. the correct sized phytoplankton, presented at the correct water
motion. The correct prey delivered at the appropriate water velocity was
based on the research of others in the field. It is true that both of us
were able to keep our small colonies of Dendronephthya alive
considerably longer than if we didn’t try to feed them, we were
nonetheless unable to keep these colonies longer than 6 to 9 months,
during which time they clearly grew smaller, indicating starvation. For
those unfamiliar with nonphotosynthetic corals, it is important to
recognize that these corals get their entire food budget from feeding –
they do not get any food from symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae), as do
photosynthetic corals.
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| This
Alveopora specimen has been with the author for two
years, during which time it has doubled in size. |
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A
possible reason for our lack of success came via implication in Dr.
Yehuda Benayahu’s talk, entitled Early
Developmental Stages of Soft Corals: Crucial Adaptations for
Survival, delivered at the just past MACNA in Dallas/Ft.Worth.
Dr.
Benayahu, with help from his graduate students studied, along with
other corals, Dendronephthya hemprichii. One
of the things that became clear when studying the reproductive
behavior of this coral is that Dendronephthya hemprichii
is that, unlike most
corals, is continuously engaged in reproduction. Also, when the
conditions are favorable, given its reproductive strategy and
growth rate, it can rapidly populate an area.
I
would therefore speculate that when kept in captivity it attempts
the same strategy, but given the limited availability of food this
same strategy becomes counter productive. To be continuously
seeking to reproduce requires a large food budget, and within a
captive system such conditions cannot be easily met.
Interestingly, Dr.
Yehuda Benayahu pointed out that he and his students were unable
to keep this coral healthy and reproducing even in open water
systems. Again, I speculate that the problem was insufficient
nutrition for this very demanding coral. |
Mr.
Cavalcanti also asked about my success or failure with Alveopora spp. I’m happy to report that with one individual
specimen I’m having great success. My Alveopora
sp. has been sitting on the substrate of my display tank for more than
two years, during which time it has doubled in size. It receives moderate
light and water motion. During the day time this photosynthetic coral
extends its polyps to a length of about three inches, and entirely
withdraws them at night.
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I don’t
think reef keepers ought to believe that this genus is therefore easy
to maintain. Like Goniopora
spp., most aquarists find that they rarely live beyond 6 to 9 months
in captivity. However, based on a number of anecdotal observations
where individuals of this genus have been kept long term there appears
to be one common condition, which is that in all of these cases that I
have knowledge of these corals where placed on their respective reef
tank’s substrate. Given the few success stories compared to failures
with these genera one can hardly take this as definitive, but it is a
possible clue toward the successful maintenance of these corals. What
lends a little more credibility to this hypothesis is that most of
these genera in the wild are found on the muddy or sandy bottom of
lagoons.
One of the
things that make our struggle to keep the difficult and hard to feed
alive worth our efforts is the kind of experience transmitted by Lisa
Page in Photo
Gallery in this month’s issue. Her struggle and
success with her basket star (Schizostella bifurcata)
is
quite noteworthy.
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