Reefs.com exclusive. Coral Spawning from home. Future of our industry?

[@aarondus]

This is absolutely amazing. Congratulations you three. It’s so cool to see what happens when you cool cats (scientists, reefers, and coral farmers) come together with your knowledge, passion, and generosity to advance not just the reef keeping hobby but conservation efforts to support our planet. Can’t wait to see and read more over the coming months. I hope next year you’ll race the Ozzie’s and win ;) haha

[@Reefscom]

Thanks, bud! It's all good and fun. Race to perfection and pushing each other to do better and to spawn more corals!

[@carlosaquaticexhibits9492]

This is amazing news!!

[@leemont909]

Very cool

[@telegraham]

Psyched for this, y'all! Thanks for sharing.

[@Reefscom]

Thanks for watching Jim! I'm happy to see that you enjoyed it. :)

[@dazsboxofwater]

Wow that’s so cool, very interesting , cannot wait to see the updates , keep up the amazing work & all the best going forward 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@Reefscom]

Thanks! Updates are definitely coming!

[@LukeGreen_]

congratulations! good luck!

[@Ellery-USA]

That's Exciting! So far the only stuff spooging in my tanks are urchins and clams.

[@Reefscom]

I know you would love this. 😉

[@Richs_reef]

As a big fan of Acanthophyllia this is incredible work!

[@Reefscom]

Thank you! We are with you. We love Acanthos we well!

[@queencityreefs]

So amazing to see. Thanks for sharing 🙏

[@Reefscom]

Thanks for watching!

[@Messier87_M87]

Wow, can’t wait to see future updates! Thanks for sharing, Richard!

[@Reefscom]

You are very welcome! I'm glad that you enjoyed this video. 😀

[@TerraReef]

Love this!

[@Reefscom]

I knew you would, Jon. ;)

[@WifePriceReefer]

Very exciting! Hopefully prices will go down too once people get the work flow down pact.

[@Reefscom]

I'm sure it will eventually. Look at some of the captivebred fish now. It's cheaper than it's wild caught counterparts. It will get better!

[@dusk1947]

I very much think this is the way forward for the hobby, and experienced reefers should be playing with this at home. It's also likely a way forward for certain corals in the industry. Though, I don't think it's a blanket statement for every coral. Like everything, there are species this could really benefit, where others are harder to justify the operating costs of breeding over just fragging (if we're looking at a business). for specific corals, such as Acanthophyllia or Scolymia which are not possible to truly fragment: this is the way forward for the hobby and industry alike. Likewise for very hard to fragment like Catalaphyllia. It would also be a phenomenal boon to rare hobby species or simply corals that aren't seen in large diversity in the trade such as A. lokani, A. solitaryensis, or A. efflorescens which see little importation, are sensitive in shipping, and aren't the fastest growers. These are examples where "improvements" through domestication could be gained which target traits like hardiness to improve shipping survival. A breeder would need to target a diversity of genotypes for that species, and then work on developing hobby strains. But this is another place where the cost could be justified, as they'd have the inside track on providing 'rare' corals to the trade. For the common things that have wide diversity on the trade or easily fragmented species, like branching Fimbriaphyllia or A. yungei, spawning is likely a fun side project for hobbyist's to see if they can create new color variations or simply advance hobby understanding. Costs are likely harder to justify for the industry in this case. But, we as hobbiest's should certainly see if we can make exciting color variations, or simply rack up experience in knowing how to breed coral. And as costs come down as we learn more, that math could easily change. This is also the Marine hobby and industry's backstop should wild importation ever stop. If tropical freshwater fish collection and aquatic plant collection were to be stopped by law, 90% of the freshwater hobby would be just fine. Because the hobby can breed most of there fish and propagate nearly all of there plants (at both a hobby and commercial scale). Reef's are far more likely to be targeted by environmental and conservation regulation, stopping collection. And we can only breed a small fraction of fish and corals. Having a ready supply of home grown and aquaculture species to keep the hobby independent of wild reefs is a shared responsibility between both the hobbyist and the industry. As they are completely interdependent on one another, and both the hobby and industry can do this. We can breed corals and fish thanks to the wonderful efforts of these researchers and conservationists. Perhaps one day we'll even see cervicornis or palmata in the trade thanks to these techniques. That is the hope and the potential of this knowledge :) But only if we collectively use it. I'd also happily buy one of Ms. O'Neil's frags once they grow out. The second half of this is of course: the hobby readily buying tank bred corals, or the industry will not persue it. So count me in! (We also need more lights that can run season tables. Those Radion Gen 4's will run it. As far as I'm aware, the Gen 5 and 6 won't. The Sky is another option that works. And then it gets to a pretty slim selection. Apex season table is the underlying necessity here. And we need more options from the industry when they are developing lights, heaters and controllers to include season table capability) *I'm also trying to give constructive feedback, because I'm very excited about this process and I want it to succeeded. I wish you all the very best of luck and hope to one day join the process in my own tank.

[@Reefscom]

Wow! What an amazing comment. I agree with almost everything you said. Unfortunately, unless U.S. government agrees with Caribbean corals being in the trade, and we won't see it. Currently, they have a hard time finding baby corals home once they are settled and ready, which, to me, is absurd. Gen 5 and 6 can run if we have mxm module, it's just that we put all of these together using the equipment that we had laying around to show folks that anyone can try to do this. I'm also speaking with multiple different controller companies to make this feature available and accessible for EVERYONE. hopefully, more and more people will get in on this, and we will see more captive spawned corals in our trade. Like you mentioned, scolys, acanthos, trachys, indophyllias, logos and etc, many LPS corals can benefit and are on our radar. Thanks for watching and for your thought-provoking comment. I really enjoyed reading it.

[@jahsreef8386]

Amazing. Good to see something being spawned are something that will no longer be collected. Acro being easily fragged makes it not as important imo