Demonstration: Acute stress induces the formation of propagule-like regenerative offspring in Xenia sp.

Reefer's Corner - Sunday, September 11 10:05 AM

The formation of propagule-like regenerative offspring in Xenia sp. occurred following an acute stress caused by an accident. The accident occurred, between the 26th and 28th of December 2010, while I was traveling, in my 10 liters closed-circuit nano reef, which functions without any filter, skimmer and even no air. A fluorescent energy saving bulb (which was not firmly fixed) fell into the tank, which has no lid.

When I came back home, the fishes, 2 Amphiprion ocellaris and 2 Pterapogon kauderni were OK, but the inverts were severely impacted. The anemones (Entacmea quadricolor) were shrinking. The Turbinaria mesenterina colony was covered with discolored spots. The Stylophora pistillata and the Capnella had severely bleached. The Xenia (one small colony) had lost all of its polyps and was reduced to a lump of meat attached to the rock. Many mollusks (Stomatella vira), brittle stars and almost all of the amphipods were dead or dying.

As far as I can know this disaster had resulted from some metal poisoning caused by the bulb, which remained an unknown number of hours (perhaps 2 days) in the water. I removed all of the dead animals, rinsed the rocks in a bucket of natural seawater and changed all of the water. And all the corals survived and recovered quite rapidly. After a few days, like a sponge, the remaining lump of Xenia meat started to produce a few creeping regenerative offsprings that were looking like sponges’ propagules. These propagules became more or less spherical and detached. One of them settled on the sand and budded one polyp. At this step, I glued it on an 8 mm long grain of coarse coral sand and fixed the grain on a rock using epoxy putty. Then I collected and fixed on the same rock the largest propagule that had budded several polyps while it was still attached to the remains of the colony. A few days later I noticed that 3 very tiny colonies were growing on rock at the place where the remains of mother colony had apparently disappeared. Since that time all of these asexually propagated Xenia are growing and propagating rapidly.

Presented By:

Jean Jaubert

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Exhibitor Spotlight:

Captain's Corals

http://www.captainscorals.com/

Captain's Corals is owned by Morgan Wood and Gary Kolbe. We have over 15 years of saltwater experience between us. We have been in business since late 2009. Our company is located in Bradley, IL about 60 miles south of Chicago. We focus on captive propagation and Aquaculture of corals ranging from the everyday pieces to the High-end collectors market. Morgan is known for being the person who introduced the Flamethrower chalice to the community. We feel that the small size of our business lets us put more focus on customer satisfaction and giving our corals the best possible conditions to grow and thrive. We currently have close to 1000 gallons of growout and propagation tanks with plans to expand in the future. We consider ourselve to be true hobbyists at heart and try our hardest to make even the most rare and collectible corals available to all hobbyists. We pride ourselves on colorful, reasonably priced frags for collectors. See you all in September!!

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