Breeding journal: Sansibia sp. "Blue"

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
Breeding Journal DataSheet
This first post should be updated regularly to include new information as events take place or changes are made to your system

General
Species: Sansibia sp. "Blue"
Social Structure: Colonial
Size of Individuals: Small polyps
Age of Individuals: Unknown
Date added to Tank: January 2010

Broodstock Tank Details
Size of Tank: ~480 gals.
Substrate Details: Sand
Filtration Details: Rarely skimmed, algae removal, snail removal as a form of nutrient removal
Water Changes: ~100 gals./week or so
Water Temperature: 80-82
Lighting: Metal halide, broodstock are under 250W 20,000K
Lighting Cycle: 11am-11pm
Other Tank Inhabitants: Aiptasia (sigh), Tangs, Clowns, Wrasses, Grammas, Gobies, Blennies. The works. Ricordia.

Broodstock Feeding Details
Food Types: Mostly a homemade frozen fish goo. Fresh marine ingredients blended together.
Feeding Schedule: Tank fed 3x-4x/day. No target feeding.

Spawning Details
Date of First Spawn: 14 April 2010
Spawn Time of Day: Late afternoon/early evening
Dates of Consecutive Spawns:
Courtship Details: Usually with brooding corals, male polyps release sperm to the water column, females take the sperm in and use it to fertilize planulae in a section of the inside of the polyp. Some corals will brood in the tentacles, but I don't think that's true here. On the day of spawn, planulae will stage out to the oral disk, and will later release.
Planula Size: Unknown , pretty small
Planula Color: White
Egg Count: Unknown

Hatch Details
Hatch Date: Unknown
Hatch Time of Day: Unknown
# Days after Spawn: Unknown
Larvae Description: Normally, planulae (which look like a grain of rice with cilia) will swim for a while, then will descend and start "tasting" the substrate with chemoreceptors. When the planula likes the way things taste, it will attach and then flatten out like a pancake. A primary polyp will arise from that.


Larval Tank Details
Temperature: Same as broodstock.
Size of Larval Tank:
Substrate Details:
Other Tank Decor:
Filtration Details:
Lighting:
Lighting Cycle:
Water Changes:

Larval Feeding Details
Food Types: No direct feeding.
Feeding Schedule:

Metamorphosis/Settlement
Date of Settlement Start: See under hatch description above. If the primary polyp is successful, secondary polyps will appear.
Days after Hatch: I didn't see the primary polyp development. But colonies have formed in many places all over the tank.
Date of Settlement End: No real clue.
Description of Fry: Coral colonies look like small versions of the adult colonies.

Grow-Out Tank Details
Temperature: Same tank as broodstock.
Size of Grow-Out Tank:
Substrate Details:
Other Tank Decor:
Filtration Details:
Lighting:
Lighting Cycle:
Water Changes:
Size at Transfer:
Age at Transfer:

Grow-Out Feeding Details
Food Types: No direct feeding.
Feeding Schedule:

Additional Information
Miscellaneous Information: These really are _easy_ corals to propagate sexually. Anyone who is interested in beginning to study coral sexuality could do much worse than to start with these.

Also, do check out this thread:

http://www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org/forums/showthread.php?t=2159

Cory has really done a good job of documenting the entire process.


You will be required to provide photographic evidence in this thread of each event submitted for the MBI Program.
If your thread does not contain these photos the MBI Committee will not be able to approve your reports.
 

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#4
So, I've shown you these guys spawning. I also wanted to show you how they've spread. Here are a couple of photos of the tank with color-coded circles around colonies of these.

Red = the original colony (hiding behind the aiptasia).
Blue = areas of asexual spread of the mother colony.
Green = colonies that have sprung up that are completely unconnected to the mother colony.





As you can see, the planulae settled densely around the mother colony, with new colonies becoming more sparse with a greater distance from ground zero, much as you'd expect. The farthest colony from the mother is about 10 feet away and around a corner.
 

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#6
I'd expect it to show a pattern like what you see. If it were just asexual reproduction, the colonies would all be attached or very close to the main colony. But with sexual repro, I would expect that some of the planulae would get up into the water column so that, even if they are fast settlers as it looks like here, some of them would wind up a good distance from the mother. Like the one colony that's most of the way up the pillar that's protecting the corner in the tank, or the two colonies that have worked their way halfway down the tank and almost to the overflow respectively.

It's just a little circumstantial evidence that these are indeed sexually produced.

Not that I need convincing, but you know those guys at MBI.... ;)
 

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#7
Looks like a planula of one of these set up shop on the aquarium glass. It took me a while to notice it/figure out what it is. In fact, my lovely bride is who spotted it (she has eagle eyes).

At any rate, it's a good excuse to get some more photos. These are at 4x.

The polyps provide shelter for all kind of little things. That's a juvenile collumbellid, and you can also see a flatworm and a couple of regular worms in the forest there.



A photo of the connective tissue on the glass:



Enlarge that and you can see a couple of the little mite things I have, another flatworm, and maybe a small snail. The line of white "boulders" in the connective tissue are grains of sugar-fine aragonite.

 

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#8
For reference, if you look at the second FTS this new colony is on the far glass right behind the big tang and is right above the sand line.
 

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#9
These are still doing well and have expanded to many more areas of the tank. Here's another photo from below:

 

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#10
Here is one of the daughter colonies (if you look at the second FTS above, it's the colony farthest away from the parent colony) spawning:



 
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