SALLY JO'S REEF PICTURES OF THE WEEK 10/30/99
Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation

SALLY JO'S PICTURES OF THE WEEK 10/30/99

REEF PICTURES SPONSORED BY REEF JANITORSTM

OUR FIRST CORAL ORDER FORM

THESE ARE THE ARCH CAVES THAT STUART GOULD USED TO REEF SCAPE THE LEFT END OF THE 135 GALLON REEF

Stuart started by gluing pieces of coralline algae that he cut from a coral branch that was in the 300 gallon reef aquarium. Stuart used reef glue to attach the coralline algae covered branches. He first put a drop of glue on one finger and then he rubbed the glue on the arch under water. After he had a spot of glue on the arch he put a small drop on the coralline algae covered branch. Stuart then attached the branches by rubbing it to the spot of glue.

STUART GOULD'S ARCHES
STUART'S ARCH PROJECT
We are going to learn about growing broodstock. This is the first step that is needed for starting a coral farm. You can start this part of the project in the reef aquariums you have now. We use the propagation methods such as super glue and netting to increase the stock we have in our reefs. When many of the animals are divided they grow faster than the same size animals that are not divided. Each group of reef animals have certain things that you can provide to increase their growth rate.

Bright lighting and clean water are two of the most important things we have control over in our reef aquariums. The time it takes to grow the broodstock colonies is one thing that we do not have direct control over .

I always think of a Chinese quote when I am asked about starting a reef farm. The wise one asked - what was the best time to plant a tree? - The answer was twenty years ago. Then he asked - what was the second best time to plant a tree? - the answer is TODAY.

If you are like us , you did not plant sps corals twenty years ago, but many of us are ready to plant some today.

I am often asked what reef animals are the best investment for future broodstock. I have learned that you can never have too many GREEN - green stars. These green polyps come in many colors of green, but almost everything coming in from the wild has been shades of brown. Almost everyone who buys reef animals has enough BROWN. If you see colonies of bright green Clavularia virdis you can not go wrong if you buy or trade for as many colors as you can afford.

Bright red Mushrooms, deep purple Mushrooms, and all types of blue Mushrooms are always a great investment. I will repeat it again - there are three things that sell reef animals COLOR- COLOR- and COLOR!

The best place to start a reef farm is in the reef you have now, the best time to start a reef farm is today, and the best way to learn how to run a reef farm is to do it.

STUART'S ARCH PROJECT

SPS CORAL ARCH PROJECT

This project is designed to produce a large show sps coral in the shortest possible time using as little of the brood stock coral as we can.

Materials
1. dead coral branches - SCRAP CORAL

2. small frags of Acropora.

3. one tube Super Reef Glue

Methods
We started this project by gluing several several frags to the deads sps coral branches. We glued the frags outside of the reef and then we placed the structure in the aquaruim.

We removed the frags of the Acropora from other aquariums. The frags were then glued to the ends of the coral branches by applying a small ball of glue to the dry coral and then Stuart put a very drop of glue on the small frag. We then pushed the frag against the coral head and rotated it until we could feel the glue start to attach - 10 seconds. Stuart then put the frag under water before the glue could get hot.

Frags about 1/2 inch long will work very well.We chose the acropora for their color and we used the small frags so we could produce more colonies

Expected Results
The coral frags will first start growing down onto the branches until they have covered a large portion of the dead coral. The new growth will then start replacing polyps with branches. As the coral tips start to branch they will grow into each other. Because all of the frags came from the same colony, the branches will soon grow together. We have placed several small frags at each place where the dead coral was glued together. These frags will bridge the joints with living coral tissue and the structure will become very strong.

Advantages
The first advantage we had from using this method is that we were able to use the Acropora heads that died in pet shops. I hate to waste anything that can be used to produce a captive reef. Many of these coral heads were scrap from a sea shell dealer who was going to use them as road fill.

The next advantage is that the frags will soon look like a large, old head of coral. These colonies will be producing frags in a few months. This is a great way to produce show corals for rental aquariums.

The corals tend to do very well when they are mounted this way because they are able to get water flow from all directions. Nature never tends to repeat accidents and the shape of coral heads have evolved as the perfect structure for each polyp to grow in the best most productive way.

If you have some old dry coral this is a great way to use them. You can NOT bring them back to life - but this is the next best thing.

Please watch this feature for updates on how Stuart's arches are doing.

NEW

We are now mounting some Acropoara frags upside down by breaking the tip from a small branch. Our fist experiment shows that the polyps turn toward the light and they create many BUD TIPS. Bud tips are important because they all grow at the same rate. If we can increase the number of tips we can produce colonies faster.

THESE PICTURES ARE OF TWO OF NEW GREEN TREE CORALS WE ARE COLLECTING. STUART'S ARCH PROJECT

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 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. GARF 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 the reef - It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

FOR THE LAST 5 YEARS WE HAVE WORKED VERY HARD TO PURCHASE, TRADE, AND SAVE AS MANY TYPES OF CORALS AS WE CAN.

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.

Please enter the types of corals you are purchasing.
Please let us know if you have any questions about our research.
WE WILL CALL YOU AND TELL YOU ABOUT THE MANY RARE CORALS THAT ARE READY THIS WEEK - YOU WILL RECEIVE 7 CAPTIVE GROWN CORALS FOR THE PRICE OF 5!
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