SALLY JO'S PICTURES OF THE WEEK 7/11/99
REEF PICTURES SPONSORED BY REEF JANITORSTM
CALLING ALL GREEN TREE CORALS
|
The reef aquarium hobby has a chance to help
During the past five years the Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation -GARF- has been building a genetic bank of reef aquarium animals here in Boise, Idaho. We now have over 300 strains of corals and other invertebrates that have commercial value in the reef aquarium trade. We have been using the Internet to train many people from around the world to farm these corals in captive, land based, small scale farms. Our web site www.garf.org has hundreds of free pages of farming information. The Internet has made it possible for us to trade corals with dozens of people each month. GARF has been collecting as many strains of Sarcophyton leather corals as we can find. We have recently been able to donate many of these species to the University of Arizona Cancer Research Center. GARF will make free corals available to any Medical Researcher who wants to use them in their programs. We have also developed a simple method for setting up research and hobby aquariums. We have been asked to collect the first captive raised corals that may be returned the ocean. Palau is famous for it's bright green finger corals. Because of recent warming this coral has been killed in many of it's historic habitats. The government of Palau is interested in finding the original corals that were sent to the hobby. If you have any types of bright green tree shaped coral that may have been shipped from MMDC in Koror, Palau we are very interested in trading. This coral may be a Sinularia sp. that was sold as a Nephthea. We will have a DNA profile mapped for each coral so we can trace the original genetics. We have already collected nine strains of this type of coral. Two of our strains can be traced directly to Palau. We need as many types of these corals as we can find so we can compare them and their Zooxanthellae algae. When we have collected a group of these corals we hope to work with a Public Aquarium so we can help deliver them back to Palau - It's a tough job, but someone has to do it. If you have any of the Green Tree Shaped soft corals we need this semester please call us at 800-600-6163 or visit our web site at www.garf.org. You can e-mail us at leroy@garf.org and we will send the box and bags you need to ship your corals to GARF. We have many rare corals that are not for sale that we are willing to use for trades. Sally Jo has several dozen different bright colored purple and blue Bottle Brush shaped Acroporas that can be used for these trades. Many people choose to trade their corals for our Reef JanitorsÅ so they can trim their corals and get rid of the problem algae at the same time. The best way to propagate these corals has been the old method of cutting a branch off and pinching the cutting between two small rocks. When we are making several cuttings at the same time we often cut the branches into one inch pieces and put them into a shallow tray with gravel. As soon as the small pieces have attached to the gravel we use Super Glue to mount the corals on the AragocreteÅ sand molded live rock. Please help us help the reefs! We hope to deliver the first batch of Green Tree Corals this November.
|
ALIVE AND READY TO SAVE A REEF
IF YOU WANT TO PURCHASE SOME OF SALLY JO'S GREAT NEW CUTTINGS PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO ENTER YOUR NAME AND PHONE NUMBER
We are having a special on all of the coral cuttings. WHEN YOU PURCHASE 5 AT THE REGULAR PRICE OF $100 WE WILL GIVE YOU TWO FREE CORALS!. If you have any questions please use this form to ask them. WE WILL PHONE YOU AND HELP YOU PICK THE BEST CORALS FOR YOUR REEF AQUARIUM. We will continue to provide the most current data on reef farming for both education and profit.