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Steinhart Aquarists head to the Philippines

Sounds great!

However, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Steinhart tank was aimed to be a "low impact" type of tank, meaning wild collected stuff was not going to be what it was about... obviously the fish in some way had to be, but I thought that was something that was mentioned a long time back. Again I could simply be remembering wrong.
 
Thanks everyone. Its pretty awesome so far, but we have only done three dives and seen one coral spawn. :D

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sfsuphysics said:
Sounds great!

However, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the Steinhart tank was aimed to be a "low impact" type of tank, meaning wild collected stuff was not going to be what it was about... obviously the fish in some way had to be, but I thought that was something that was mentioned a long time back. Again I could simply be remembering wrong.
Click to expand...

You are wrong but for a different reason than your memory. :D

We are not collecting like hobby collecting - we are collecting mostly natural frags specifically for culture. The fragments we collect prolly won't go on display, but the F2 and F3 will after a year or two of growout, as well as be shared with other institutions. Super low impact (the coral mass we are planning to collect will prolly fit into both of Matts hands) as well as lessening collecting pressure for wild stuff. Make sense?
We are also working on collecting coral spawn, and plan to be working with SECORE in the next few years in PI.
 
Fun times so far!

One other thing worth pointing out is that we are going to collect stuff that is plentiful and present in huge colonies like Acropora, Montipora, etc. So, inch sized frags from colonies the size of rooms. Fist sized colonies of things like Lobophyllia, Favia, etc. (and there are plenty of dazzling examples of them here) would look nice in an aquarium but we avoid them. Keep in mind that every coral that is called "captive grown", at one point or another, started with a wild collection like this. Our aim is to expand that ever growing list of species in culture.
 
Why wait for a key man, just dive in from the top. Looks like someone beat you to it in the rainforest pool. There is now a screen at water level.
 
So the first guy to find a new species, does he get to name it? Mmmm....Sepia rossitangas, Lobophyllia andthewandells.

Stay safe.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So are you guys trying to actively grow out captured "spawns" (in the ocean? in captivity?) Or what?
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CAS is a member of an initiative that already does this in the Caribbean: SECORE.
http://www.secore.org/

The idea is that we harvest the sperm/egg packets, allow them to fertilize in vitro, wait until they develop into planulae, and then give them an opportunity to settle onto appropriate substrate where they can then be grown out in captivity or in the ocean. Simple in theory, difficult in practice. Especially when you had no idea in advance you'd be doing it! ;)

The technique could also certainly be used to manage and repopulate coral reefs with small colonies like Ken Nedimyer's foundation is doing in the Caribbean:
http://www.coralrestoration.org/CRF/index.php

Over the next few days our biggest concern is documenting everything that is going on in excruciating detail to expand the knowledge base.
 
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