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THE REEF & MARINE AQUARIUM MAGAZINE<br />

Giant Clams<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

<br />

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012


EDITOR & PUBLISHER | James M. Lawrence<br />

INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHER | Matthias Schmidt<br />

INTERNATIONAL EDITOR | Daniel Knop<br />

SENIOR ADVISORY BOARD |<br />

Dr. Gerald R. Allen, Christopher Brightwell,<br />

Dr. Andrew W. Bruckner, Dr. Bruce Carlson,<br />

J. Charles Delbeek, Dr. Sylvia Earle, Svein<br />

A. Fosså, Jay Hemdal, Sanjay Joshi, Larry<br />

Jackson, Martin A. Moe, Jr., Dr. John E.<br />

Randall, Julian Sprung, Dr. Rob Toonen,<br />

Jeffrey A. Turner, Joseph Yaiullo<br />

SENIOR EDITORS |<br />

Scott W. Michael, Dr. Ronald L. Shimek,<br />

Denise Nielsen Tackett, Ret Talbot,<br />

Matt Pedersen<br />

SENIOR CONTRIBUTORS |<br />

Dr. Dieter Brockmann, Dr. Roy Caldwell,<br />

Charles Delbeek, Ed Haag, Inken Krause, Alf<br />

Jacob Nilsen, John H. Tullock, Tim Wijgerde<br />

PHOTOGRAPHERS |<br />

Denise Nielsen Tackett, Larry P. Tackett,<br />

Matthew L. Wittenrich, Vince Suh<br />

TRANSLATOR | Mary Bailey<br />

ART DIRECTOR | Linda Provost<br />

PRODUCTION MANAGER | Anne Linton Elston<br />

ASSOCIATE EDITORS |<br />

Louise Watson, Alexander Bunten,<br />

Bayley R. Lawrence<br />

EDITORIAL & BUSINESS OFFICES<br />

Reef to Rainforest Media, LLC<br />

140 Webster Road | PO Box 490<br />

Shelburne, VT 05482<br />

<br />

CUSTOMER SERVICE<br />

customerservice@coralmagazineservice.com<br />

<br />

ADVERTISING SALES |<br />

James Lawrence | 802.985.9977 Ext. 7<br />

james.lawrence@reef2rainforest.com<br />

BUSINESS OFFICE |<br />

Judy Billard | 802.985.9977 Ext. 3<br />

NEWSSTAND | Howard White & Associates<br />

PRINTING | Dartmouth Printing | Hanover, NH<br />

CORAL ® , The Reef & Marine Aquarium Magazine<br />

(ISSN:1556-5769), is published bimonthly in January,<br />

March, May, July, September, and November by Reef<br />

to Rainforest Media, LLC, 140 Webster Road, PO Box<br />

490, Shelburne, VT 05482. Periodicals postage paid<br />

at Shelburne, VT, and at additional entry offices.<br />

Subscription rates: U.S., $37 for one year. Canada, $49 for<br />

one year. Outside U.S. and Canada, $57 for one year.<br />

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CORAL,<br />

PO Box 361, Williamsport, PA 17703-0361.<br />

CORAL ® is a licensed edition of KORALLE Germany,<br />

ISSN:1556-5769<br />

Natur und Tier Verlag GmbH | Muenster, Germany<br />

All rights reserved. Reproduction of any material from this<br />

issue in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.<br />

COVER:<br />

Giant clam, Tridacna maxima, photo by Daniel Knop.<br />

BACKGROUND:<br />

Seriatopora hystrix,<br />

under UV lighting,<br />

photo by Daniel Knop.<br />

4 LETTER FROM EUROPE by Daniel Knop<br />

7 EDITOR’S PAGE by James M. Lawrence<br />

8 LETTERS<br />

12 REEF NEWS<br />

24 RARITIES by Inken Krause<br />

30 INTERVIEW: CORAL talks with Dr. Rio Abdon-Naguit<br />

FEATURE ARTICLES<br />

38 THE ORIGIN & FUTURE OF FARMING GIANT CLAMS<br />

by Gerald Heslinga, Ph.D.<br />

54 WAIKIKI AQUARIUM’S GIANT CLAMS<br />

MARK 30-YEAR ANNIVERSARY<br />

by Dr. Bruce Carlson<br />

62 ENDANGERED GIANTS<br />

by Daniel Knop<br />

68 KEEPING GIANT CLAMS IN THE AQUARIUM<br />

by Daniel Knop<br />

72 FORGOTTEN FLORIDA<br />

by Matt Pedersen<br />

84 KEEPING ZEBRA MANTIS SHRIMP<br />

Part 1 by Roy L. Caldwell, Ph.D.<br />

95 A KREISEL TANK FOR REARING MARINE LARVAE<br />

by Christian Martin<br />

AQUARIUM PORTRAIT<br />

103 A MUD FILTER AND LOTS OF PATIENCE:<br />

One path to success<br />

by Kevin Bittroff<br />

DEPARTMENTS<br />

111 SPECIES SPOTLIGHT:<br />

Randall’s Watchman Goby by Daniel Knop<br />

115 REEFKEEPING 101:<br />

Phosphate binders—how to use them correctly<br />

by Daniel Knop; The Two Spot Blenny by Inken Krause<br />

120 CORAL DESTINATIONS:<br />

World-class aquarium shops & places to visit<br />

122 CORAL SOURCES: Outstanding aquarium shops<br />

124 ADVANCED AQUATICS:<br />

Lessons from the turf wars<br />

by J. Charles Delbeek<br />

128 ADVERTISER INDEX<br />

130 REEF LIFE: by Denise Nielsen Tackett and Larry P. Tackett<br />

www.CoralMagazine .com


LETTER<br />

Inotes from DANIEL KNOP<br />

n the marine aquarium hobby,<br />

giant clams can be considered<br />

the most beautiful<br />

invertebrates in the world.<br />

As the name implies, the<br />

coral-reef aquarium focuses<br />

on corals and coral fishes.<br />

Giant clams are often kept<br />

incidentally—but they are particularly<br />

attractive and interesting<br />

additions, and very few<br />

aquarium enthusiasts would<br />

want to be without them.<br />

In the past 25 years we<br />

have experienced a transition<br />

from wild-collected to farmreared<br />

giant clams. Even today, I can still picture in my<br />

mind’s eye a wild-collected Tridacna squamosa measuring<br />

14 inches (36 cm) in the sales aquarium of a dealer,<br />

priced at current equivalent of just $80 US back in the<br />

1980s. Anyone who looks around in an aquarium store<br />

today will realize that times have changed. Wild-harvest<br />

clams are no longer commonly offered in the aquarium<br />

trade, nor are they cheap. And that is a good thing.<br />

As we hear in this issue, the politics and regulations<br />

in the island countries of the Indo-Pacific have resulted<br />

A “gentle giant” from the<br />

Pleistocene: this fossil Tridacna<br />

gigas shell is thought to be up to<br />

2.5 million years old.<br />

in a mixed bag of successes<br />

and failures in the attempts<br />

to farm giant clams commercially.<br />

Some promising programs<br />

have lost momentum,<br />

but large giant-clam farms in<br />

the Philippines have now been<br />

able to fill this gap and simultaneously<br />

provide many Filipinos<br />

with a way of making a<br />

living. Profits from this type of<br />

commercial production have<br />

also provided funding and livestock<br />

for the reintroduction of<br />

giant clams on coral reefs in<br />

the Philippines.<br />

And a project initiated by two giant-clam enthusiasts<br />

from Germany is very cheering: they are striving to<br />

save a huge quantity of fascinating Tridacna gigas fossils<br />

from the crushers and grinders of the Kenyan cement industry.<br />

Or would you rather see concrete pillars inscribed<br />

with the words “I was once a giant clam”<br />

Happy reading!<br />

FOCUS: Fireworks<br />

A glance into the filter-feeder aquarium reveals sponges, little tubeworms, and hundreds<br />

of tiny, transparent disc anemones, known as jewel anemones. These azooxanthellate<br />

actinians cover the substrate and rockwork and settle on the aquarium walls, extending their<br />

transparent tentacles. These “jewels” are colorless wallflowers, but, viewed under the right<br />

light, they are a fascinating sight. Here, flashes of green fluorescence outline the bodies of<br />

Pseudocorynactis caribbeorum with glowing streaks of light, like a miniature fireworks display.<br />

TOP: R. KNOP; BOTTOM: D. KNOP<br />

4 CORAL


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correspondence from our readers<br />

COUSTEAU’S MACNA MESSAGE<br />

At the end of September, my wife and I attended the Marine<br />

Aquarium Conference of North America (MACNA<br />

2012) in Dallas, Texas. Having been in the aquarium<br />

industry in some way, shape, or form since 1995, I got<br />

to meet many of the people who wrote the books that<br />

essentially allowed me to be where I am today.<br />

The keynote speaker was Jean-Michel Cousteau, son<br />

of the famous Jacques Cousteau, conservationist and<br />

co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung.<br />

Jean-Michel heads an organization<br />

called Ocean Futures Society,<br />

based in Santa Barbara, California,<br />

and France. He also owns an<br />

eco-resort on Vanua Levu, Fiji.<br />

His speech was very interesting<br />

to say the least. He had me<br />

on the defensive at first battling<br />

with my own thoughts. His talk<br />

was about being good stewards to<br />

the ocean and planet. He shared<br />

many stories of things he has<br />

seen on his journeys to far-flung<br />

islands and remote reefs that,<br />

frankly, would make you sick to<br />

your stomach. In one remote island<br />

location, he found discarded<br />

plastic items floating in the water<br />

from 50 something different<br />

countries, and this was on an<br />

uninhabited island thousands of<br />

miles from nowhere. Cousteau also shared the fact that<br />

many sea birds search the ocean surface to feed their<br />

young. Apparently, tens of thousands of baby birds die<br />

yearly because the mother birds unknowingly feed their<br />

babies plastic pieces.<br />

My inner struggle came about because M. Cousteau’s<br />

speech felt like scare tactics, finger wagging at our industry<br />

at first. I think I had a natural defensive reaction, but<br />

what he showed us and shared with us is undeniable. We<br />

are using the ocean as a giant toilet bowl. By “us” I don’t<br />

mean the aquarium industry, but humans in general.<br />

The aquarium industry has been proven to have a very<br />

tiny impact on wild habitats and we continue, day after<br />

day, to push towards more and more sustainable harvest<br />

of wild animals.<br />

Together with captive breeding and propagation of<br />

livestock, we protect what we love and most of us have<br />

MACNA 2012 keynote<br />

speakerJean-Michel Cousteau of<br />

the Ocean Futures Society<br />

some sort of understanding that we are not here to raid<br />

the reefs and rape the ocean. In fact, we are obsessed with<br />

the ocean. That is why we struggle to maintain tiny displays<br />

of it in our homes. There are careless hobbyists and<br />

unscrupulous stores out there that kill livestock through<br />

bad husbandry or carelessness, but I believe that the<br />

ones who care and try their best far outweigh those who<br />

don’t. Either way, if you know a hobbyist or store that<br />

falls into this “bad” category, let them know by helping<br />

them to educate themselves. If it<br />

is a store, vote with your wallet<br />

and don’t go there anymore.<br />

I don’t believe that Cousteau<br />

is fully informed about what<br />

the aquarium industry has been<br />

striving for these past several<br />

decades, but I might be wrong. I<br />

hope that he stays in touch with<br />

us to realize the things we do to<br />

make less of an impact every day.<br />

Perhaps he began to fill in those<br />

blanks during MACNA. He has<br />

given me greater drive to use as<br />

much captive-bred or propagated<br />

livestock in my client’s tanks as<br />

possible. He has given me more<br />

thought about protecting what<br />

I love. What we love. What he<br />

loves. The ocean.<br />

Thank you Jean-Michel Cousteau<br />

for helping the people who<br />

attended MACNA 2012 to understand that the ocean<br />

won’t magically fix itself and that each and every one of<br />

us has to do more than simply feel bad about the condition<br />

of this planet. We have thrown our trash all around<br />

this campsite…time to clean it up.<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Readers are invited to write the Editor:<br />

Editors@CoralMagazine-US.com<br />

Ben Johnson<br />

Captive Ecosystems, LLC<br />

The Woodlands, Texas<br />

Ocean Futures Society, www.oceanfutures.org<br />

Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Islands Resort, www.fijiresort.com<br />

COURTESY OF WWW.OCEANFUTURES.ORG<br />

8 CORAL


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CORAL<br />

11


NEWS<br />

findings and happenings of note in the marine world<br />

Great Barrier Reef losing coral cover<br />

It is easily one of Earth’s greatest natural wonders and<br />

the largest structure built by animals on the planet, but<br />

the Great Barrier Reef is shrinking at an alarming rate—<br />

its mantle of live coral is disappearing.<br />

A new study by Australian scientists reports that the<br />

Great Barrier Reef has lost half of its coral cover in the<br />

last 27 years. The massive reef is composed of more than<br />

2,900 individual reefs and some 900 islands that stretch<br />

more than 1,615 miles (2,600 km). It is described by<br />

some as the “largest living organism” and “the largest<br />

living thing.”<br />

The loss was due to storm damage (48%), Crown of<br />

Thorns starfish (42%), and bleaching (10%), according<br />

to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National<br />

Academy of Sciences by researchers from the Australian<br />

Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville and<br />

the University of Wollongong.<br />

“We can’t stop the storms, but perhaps we can stop<br />

the starfish. If we can, then the Reef will have more opportunity<br />

to adapt to the challenges of rising sea temperatures<br />

and ocean acidification,” says Dr. John Gunn,<br />

CEO of AIMS.<br />

According to Dr. Peter Doherty, research fellow at<br />

AIMS, “This finding is based on the most comprehensive<br />

reef monitoring program in the world. The program<br />

started broadscale surveillance of more than 100 reefs in<br />

1985, and since 1993 it has incorporated more detailed<br />

annual surveys of 47 reefs.” Doherty is one of the program’s<br />

original creators.<br />

Worst losses in southern regions<br />

“Our researchers have spent more than 2,700 days at<br />

sea, and we’ve invested on the order of AU $50 million<br />

in this monitoring program,” Doherty says.<br />

Damage by Crown of Thorns starfish (inset) to Beaver<br />

Reef, part of the huge Great Barrier Reef, which has lost<br />

50 percent of its coral cover in just 27 years.<br />

AIMS LONG-TERM MONITORING TEAM<br />

12 CORAL


Bleaching at<br />

North Keppel<br />

Island.<br />

“If the current trend continues, coral cover could be<br />

halved again by 2022. Interestingly, the pattern of decline<br />

varies among regions. In the northern Great Barrier<br />

Reef, coral cover has remained relatively stable, whereas<br />

in the southern regions we see the most dramatic loss<br />

of coral—particularly over the last decade, when storms<br />

RAY BERKELMANS, AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE<br />

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14 CORAL


have devastated many reefs.”<br />

The study clearly shows that three factors are overwhelmingly<br />

responsible for the loss of coral cover. Intense<br />

tropical cyclones have caused massive damage, primarily<br />

in the central and southern parts of the Reef, and<br />

population explosions of the coral-consuming Crown<br />

of Thorns starfish have affected coral populations along<br />

the length of the Reef. Two severe coral-bleaching events<br />

have also had major detrimental impacts in northern<br />

and central parts of the Great Barrier Reef.<br />

“Our data show that the reefs can regain their coral<br />

cover after such disturbances, but recovery takes 10 to 20<br />

years. At present, the intervals between the disturbances<br />

are generally too short for full recovery, and that’s causing<br />

the long-term losses,” says Dr. Hugh Sweatman, one<br />

of the study’s authors.<br />

“We can’t stop the storms, and ocean warming (the<br />

primary cause of coral bleaching) is one of the critical<br />

impacts of global climate change,” says AIMS CEO John<br />

Gunn. “However, we can act to reduce the impact of<br />

Crown of Thorns. The study shows that if they were not<br />

a threat, coral cover would increase at 0.89 percent per<br />

year, so even with losses due to cyclones and bleaching,<br />

there should be slow recovery.<br />

“We at AIMS will be redoubling our efforts to understand<br />

the life cycle of Crown of Thorns so we can<br />

better predict and reduce its periodic population explosions.<br />

It’s already clear that one important factor is water<br />

quality, and we plan to explore options for more direct<br />

intervention on this native pest.”<br />

“Still lovely to visit”<br />

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company,<br />

Dr. Gunn noted, “The damage to the reef is patchy,<br />

with some areas affected more than others. Some parts<br />

of the reef are still pretty much as we’d like the whole<br />

of the reef to be, and they give us some hope that that’s<br />

what we could achieve with the whole of it. These are<br />

areas north of Cooktown, and they’re pretty healthy<br />

reefs—in fact, they’re beautiful.<br />

“It’s the areas that have these cumulative impacts<br />

from the three factors that we take account of in the<br />

study that have really come under major pressure. But<br />

even in those areas, there are reefs that are still very, very<br />

lovely to visit.”<br />

REFERENCES:<br />

From materials released by the Australian Institute of Marine<br />

Science (AIMS), http://www.aims.gov.au www.scienceinpublic.<br />

com.au/marine<br />

De’ath, Glenn, Katharina E. Fabricius, Hugh Sweatman, and<br />

Marji Puotinen. 2012. The 27–year decline of coral cover on the<br />

Great Barrier Reef and its causes. Proc Nat Acad Sci (PNAS) 2012,<br />

109 (40): 15967–15968, doi:10.1073/iti4012109.<br />

CORAL<br />

15


New international coral research facility<br />

opens in <strong>Florida</strong><br />

A new $50 million state-of-the-art coral reef research<br />

center, built in part with U.S. federal stimulus funds,<br />

opened in September 2012 at Nova Southeastern University<br />

in Hollywood, <strong>Florida</strong>, at NSU’s Oceanographic<br />

Center at John U. Lloyd Beach State Park.<br />

The center is focused on researching coral reef ecosystems<br />

in South <strong>Florida</strong>, throughout the nation, and<br />

around the world. The center has created 22 new academic<br />

jobs and 300 construction jobs, and will employ<br />

50 graduate students and preserve 22 existing academic<br />

jobs. Fifteen million dollars came in the form of a competitive<br />

grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce<br />

The new 87,000-square-foot (8,000 m 2 ) coral reef<br />

research center near Ft. Lauderdale, <strong>Florida</strong>.<br />

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“By opening this state-of-the-art facility,<br />

NSU is taking a leadership role in<br />

<strong>Florida</strong>’s marine science research and<br />

helping boost an important multibilliondollar<br />

coral reef industry that employs<br />

thousands of South Floridians and sustains<br />

many small businesses,” said NSU<br />

president Dr. George L. Hanbury II, who<br />

went diving on the morning of the grand<br />

opening to visit NSU’s offshore coral reef<br />

nurseries. “The research center is critical<br />

for the environmental sustainability of<br />

coral reefs, which are the lifeblood of our<br />

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Receiving the largest research grant<br />

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Dean Richard Dodge<br />

with an Acropora<br />

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NOVA SOTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY<br />

16 CORAL


tion<br />

to the ocean.<br />

<br />

the world.<br />

<br />

reefs and environmental conditions.<br />

<br />

stand<br />

connectivity.<br />

<br />

may impinge on reefs.<br />

ON THE INTERNET:<br />

http://www.nova.edu/ocean/excellence/index.html<br />

impinging upon them, said Dr. Richard<br />

E. Dodge, dean of NSU’s Oceanographic<br />

Center and executive director of NSU’s<br />

National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI).<br />

The Center aims to develop solid research<br />

products and information that will lead<br />

to better management and conservation<br />

solutions.<br />

Research at the center allows for<br />

greater understanding of how reefs respond<br />

to threats. Eliminating or mitigating<br />

local threats to coral reefs is part<br />

of that solution. Some of these are easy<br />

fixes that include stopping overfishing,<br />

controlling pollution, and establishing<br />

marine protected areas.<br />

As a multidisciplinary facility, the<br />

center’s coral reef research aims to:<br />

<br />

their ability to recover from injury and<br />

damage.<br />

<br />

on reefs.<br />

CORAL<br />

17


accelerated coral growth<br />

Animating global marine currents<br />

NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio has combined images<br />

of the global marine currents between June 2005<br />

and December 2007 into an animation that is available<br />

free on the Internet. In the video, the globe slowly rotates<br />

and the currents can be seen. Two different lengths of<br />

the video are available (3 minutes and 20 minutes).<br />

This model of the circulation of the oceans was produced<br />

within the framework of a project to research glob-<br />

<br />

with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).<br />

Data from satellite photos and buoys were processed<br />

using the NASA computer Pleiades, one of the fastest<br />

computer systems in the world. The pattern of currents<br />

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corals that have been injured, damaged in shipping, or subject to bleaching from<br />

<br />

ionically balanced two part calcium and buffering system, will provide needed calcium<br />

and carbonates for steady growth of the coral stone. The two are an excellent<br />

combination to provide for tissue and stone growth!<br />

provides a very plastic representation<br />

of marine currents, for example<br />

the Gulf Stream in the North<br />

Atlantic, which transports around<br />

<br />

into the sea from all the rivers of<br />

the world put together. But at the<br />

same time it is possible to detect<br />

the numerous smaller vortices that<br />

develop from it and ultimately lead<br />

to localized circulatory effects.<br />

The worldwide maritime current<br />

system is a kind of “global conveyor<br />

belt” that transports the larvae<br />

of a huge variety<br />

of marine creatures,<br />

thereby spreading<br />

species. As a result<br />

Above: Frame from NASA<br />

animated video.<br />

Below: Larvae of a Briareum star<br />

coral drifting away.<br />

Right: Drifting Briareum larvae.<br />

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18 CORAL


of larval drift, sessile animals, such as corals, are<br />

also able to travel far. The maximum distance that<br />

can be covered is determined by the length of the<br />

planktonic stage of the life cycle and other factors.<br />

But even more distant regions can be reached by<br />

means of stepping stones in the form of coral reefs<br />

that lie along the way. The larvae of marine organisms<br />

drift as far as they can within their maximum<br />

survival period; then the larvae from subsequent<br />

reproductive cycles drift from there to even more<br />

distant points.<br />

In this way numerous habitats of marine organisms<br />

are linked together through these staging<br />

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CORAL<br />

19


Nowadays it is thought that larval drift from very speciesrich<br />

coral reefs, such as those of the Coral Triangle,<br />

supplies numerous reefs as far away as Okinawa in the<br />

south of Japan with larvae, which settle there and also<br />

colonize damaged reef zones.<br />

The NASA animation of the marine currents illustrates<br />

that coral reefs are not genetically separate units,<br />

but in many cases components of a highly complex network<br />

of genetic exchange.<br />

—Daniel Knop<br />

Lionfishes spit!<br />

The Pacific Red Lionfish Pterois volitans continues to become<br />

more widespread in the Atlantic, at least in those<br />

zones where the water temperature is suitable for it. How<br />

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these fishes arrived in the Atlantic Ocean is a question<br />

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biologists, is the reason for its rapid spread in the<br />

new habitat: this is a function of its hunting technique.<br />

The trick it uses is to spit at potential prey. But what<br />

appears ridiculous at first turns out to make perfect<br />

sense: the predator uses its mouth to send a surge of<br />

tacts<br />

its lateral-line organ. This highly sensitive system<br />

<br />

in pressure in the surrounding water; it serves the fish<br />

for orientation. The stream of water confuses the prey<br />

fish so much that it becomes disoriented, and the attacking<br />

predator can take it by surprise. Affected fishes<br />

often even turn in the direction of<br />

the stream of water. Pterois volitans<br />

exploits this moment to swallow the<br />

prey, using a suck-snap process.<br />

Curiously, this hunting technique<br />

is seen in 56 percent of attacks on<br />

prey in the Pacific Ocean, but in only<br />

Pterois volitans uses patience and<br />

spit to capture its prey.<br />

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20 CORAL


18 percent in the Atlantic. Perhaps this depends on the<br />

species, and the species composition of the prey may be<br />

different in the two habitats. So far, this spitting technique<br />

has been observed during the hunting of gobies<br />

and blennies, very fast swimmers such as wrasses and<br />

parrotfishes, and nocturnal cave-dwellers such as cardinalfishes.<br />

Mark Albins of Oregon State University and Patrick<br />

Lyons of Stony Brook University have documented this<br />

on video and published their findings in the journal<br />

Marine Ecology Progress Series.<br />

—Daniel Knop<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Albins, M.A. and P.J. Lyons. 2012. Invasive red lionfish Pterois<br />

volitans blow directed jets of water at prey fish. Mar Ecol Prog<br />

Ser 448: 1–5.<br />

ON THE INTERNET:<br />

See a video of the lionfish’s spitting behavior: http://news.<br />

sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/video-huffing-andpuffing-for.html<br />

CORAL<br />

21


Cone shells of the family Conidae.<br />

Combating pain with cone-shell toxin<br />

Cone shells of the family Conidae are very inconspicuous hunters that lie in<br />

wait for their prey in the bottom sediments of the sea, with only their breathing<br />

siphons extended. When a fish approaches, the snail shoots a “harpoon”<br />

lightning-fast into its body, and as it passes through the snail’s mouth the<br />

projectile is loaded with venom. A peptide toxin in the venom known as<br />

<br />

impossible. The snail can then devour the fish at its leisure.<br />

If a human is stung and poisoned, the result is paralysis, which can affect<br />

the respiratory musculature and may even kill the victim. No antitoxin<br />

is known, so extreme care is advised when handling unknown marine snails<br />

on the beach, when diving, or in the aquarium.<br />

The paralysis results from the toxin blocking the transmission of signals<br />

between the individual nerve cells. Scientists led by Professor Diana Imhof of<br />

the Pharmaceutical Institute at the University of Bonn in Germany are now<br />

studying ways in which it may be possible to deliberately use tiny amounts<br />

of the toxin to reduce or switch off the transmission of pain impulses in the<br />

human nervous system. Working specifically with Conus purpurascens, they<br />

have found that the toxin neutralizes pain very well, and its advantages include<br />

the fact that it is non-addictive.<br />

However, it will be some time before a medication becomes available,<br />

because the work is still in the preliminary stages. For one thing, the amount<br />

of peptides that can be extracted from the snails is too small, so methods<br />

of artificial production will have to be devised. And the human body breaks<br />

down this substance very quickly, so that more stable forms will have to be<br />

developed. But this partial success in combating pain, an exceptionally important<br />

area of medicine, demonstrates the great potential of the countless<br />

biochemical substances derived from organisms from the coral reef.<br />

—Daniel Knop<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Imhof, D. and A.A. Tietze. 2012. Die einzig wahre Faltung Strukturell diverse Isomere<br />

des μ-Conotoxins PIIIA blockieren den Natriumkanal Nav1.4. Angewandte Chemie,<br />

DOI: 10.1002/anie.201107011.<br />

D. KNOP<br />

22 CORAL


CORAL<br />

23


are and exotic creatures by INKEN KRAUSE<br />

Touring local aquarium shops in search of rare and usual animals can be an adventure, especially if<br />

you have a companion to join the expedition. We found and photographed the rarities in this issue<br />

at four European stores, and we are grateful to these dealers for their cooperation. At the end of the<br />

photo session our photographer, Dietmar Schauer, bought this sensationally colored Banana Wrasse<br />

for his own aquarium.<br />

Banana Wrasse, female<br />

Banana Wrasse<br />

Thalassoma lutescens<br />

We found this exceptionally fine specimen of Thalassoma<br />

lutescens at Fressnapf, a shop in Aachen, Germany. It is<br />

exhibiting female coloration, but such a brilliant yellow<br />

is outstanding; the color is often washed-out and brownish.<br />

Males exhibit bright blue on a yellow background.<br />

This wrasse grows to up to 12 inches (30 cm) long, and<br />

because of its trophic preference for assorted invertebrates<br />

(shrimps, crabs, sea urchins, starfishes), it is suitable<br />

for keeping only in large reef or fish-only aquariums<br />

with robust tankmates.<br />

D. SCHAUER<br />

24 CORAL


CORAL<br />

25


combination with bright orange and green, is particularly<br />

rare. These animals develop their full splendor in<br />

weak current and under not-too-bright lighting with a<br />

blue component.<br />

Belted Cardinalfish<br />

Apogon townsendi<br />

Acropora “Red Dragon”, Acropora carduus<br />

Acropora “Red Dragon”<br />

Acropora carduus<br />

This cardinalfish, which Dietmar Schauer photographed<br />

at Reef-Corner in Belgium, is one of a number of rather<br />

similar Apogon species that are all sold as Flame Cardinalfishes.<br />

The classic Flame Cardinalfish is the larger<br />

and more commonly seen A. maculatus. But the striped<br />

pattern on the tail of our specimen clearly distinguishes<br />

This filigreed Acropora will quicken the pulse of any lover<br />

of rare stony corals. With its delicate, finely branched<br />

skeleton and pink-red coloration, this variant of Acropora<br />

carduus is unique within the entire genus. The specimen<br />

shown here was propagated artificially in Bali; it<br />

was on sale at Extreme Corals, Holzgerlingen, Germany.<br />

Belted Cardinalfish, Apogon townsendi<br />

Disc anemone “Indian Summer”<br />

Ricordea yuma<br />

Disc anemones aren’t really rarities, not even the relatively<br />

expensive Ricordea yuma. But this very unusual<br />

tricolor variant from Extreme Corals still deserves a<br />

mention here. The intense blue-violet base color, in<br />

Disc anemone “Indian<br />

Summer”, Ricordea yuma<br />

LEFT AND BOTTOM: I. KRAUSE; RIGHT: D. SCHAUER<br />

26 CORAL


Bluestriped Fangblenny,<br />

Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos.<br />

The photo inset shows the<br />

knife-sharp, file-like dentition<br />

of the fangblenny.<br />

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South <strong>Florida</strong> and Caribbean species A.<br />

townsendi in Paul Humann and Ned Deloach’s<br />

Reef Fish Identification, although<br />

the prominent red coloration differs from<br />

the images of this species in a number of<br />

references.<br />

Bluestriped Fangblenny<br />

Plagiotremus rhinorhynchos<br />

This fangblenny is extremely attractive,<br />

but not generally recommended for<br />

aquarium maintenance. It feeds on the<br />

skin of other fishes and imitates assorted<br />

peaceful species—juveniles, for example,<br />

mimic the Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse,<br />

Labroides dimidiatus—in order to approach<br />

its prey unhindered. The small photo<br />

shows the knife-sharp, file-like dentition<br />

of the fangblenny. These fishes are usually<br />

imported as by-catch with more popular<br />

species in the aquarium trade; we found<br />

this one at Kölle Zoo in Heidelberg. However,<br />

they are quite attractive and suitable<br />

for keeping in a species aquarium or<br />

for behavioral studies.<br />

D. KNOP<br />

28 CORAL


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CORAL talks with DR. RIO ABDON-NAGUIT<br />

Dr. Rio Abdon-<br />

Naguit (center,<br />

in straw hat)<br />

at a workshop<br />

in Indonesia,<br />

demonstrating<br />

the injection<br />

of serotonin<br />

to trigger the<br />

release of sex<br />

cells.<br />

Dr. Rio Abdon-Naguit is a marine biologist at the Jose Rizal<br />

Memorial State University (JRMSU) in the Philippines city of Dapitan. For 25<br />

years, she has been extensively involved with the breeding of giant clams. In<br />

the 1990s she was in charge of a breeding farm in Dumaguete City, where she<br />

took her Masters and Ph.D. degrees in marine biology. In 2010, she became<br />

director of the research division at the JRMSU. She has introduced a wide variety<br />

of groups in the Philippines and Indonesia to giant-clam breeding, including<br />

students at the Philippines Science High School in Iloilo City, members of<br />

a youth organization on Camiguin Island, and college students, teachers, and<br />

fishermen in Kupang, Indonesia, and in the Philippines.<br />

CORAL: Giant clams are particularly popular in the reef aquarium hobby<br />

and awaken strong emotions. In the past two decades, marine aquarists<br />

have seen a switch from wild-collected to farm-bred specimens. There is<br />

a great deal of interest in these creatures and their ecological situation.<br />

So we would like to talk to you about the past, present, and future of<br />

giant-clam breeding. I still remember working with you in 1994, preparing<br />

for an attempt at breeding Hippopus porcellanus, and the exciting<br />

transportation of 12 adult captive-bred specimens from Apo Island to<br />

Dumaguete. Has this species subsequently been bred successfully in the<br />

Philippines or elsewhere<br />

Rio Abdon-Naguit: Unfortunately, no—the only successful breeding of<br />

Hippopus porcellanus was in 1987. I have heard of no further success<br />

in the past 15 years. That is partly because of a lack of breeding stock.<br />

Since 1994 we have been unable to find H. porcellanus on any of the<br />

Philippine coral reefs we have visited; there just aren’t any sexually<br />

mature specimens available for breeding.<br />

CORAL: What is the status of this species in its natural habitat Are there still any wild specimens of<br />

Hippopus porcellanus anywhere in the Philippines<br />

Rio Abdon-Naguit: I have been unable to find a single specimen within the area covered by my<br />

scientific work, the Bohol Sea in the Philippines and East Nusa Tenggara in Indonesia. I have<br />

heard that this species is being bred in Bali for the aquarium hobby, but I don’t know how accurate<br />

this information is.<br />

CORAL: What is the status of Tridacna gigas and Tridacna derasa Some years ago I was able to find<br />

a number of specimens of both species in Palawan, but I was told that they had all been captive-<br />

30 CORAL


ed by the marine research institute at the University of the Philippines (UP MSI) and then reintroduced<br />

into the wild. In the case of Tridacna gigas, they mainly traced their ancestry to larvae<br />

from breeding farms in the South Pacific. Are wild specimens of these two species still known in<br />

the Philippines<br />

Rio Abdon-Naguit: All the specimens of T. gigas and T. derasa on the reefs I have visited personally<br />

were bred on farms. I haven’t been able to find a single wild specimen. And the parents of<br />

the farmed specimens were also captive-bred.<br />

CORAL: The UP MSI has worked hard for the conservation of natural giant-clam populations and<br />

introduced a large number of captive-bred giant clams into the wild. What is the outlook for the<br />

success of such projects in the long term Is there any information as to what percentage of such<br />

clams survive predation and remain in situ to eventually breed in a natural manner<br />

A Tridacna gigas<br />

is hauled into<br />

the boat in the<br />

Philippines<br />

province of<br />

Davao. It will be<br />

temporarily kept<br />

on a breeding<br />

farm and used as<br />

broodstock.<br />

Rio Abdon-Naguit: I have personally visited three of the areas where captive-bred giant clams<br />

have been introduced, and my impression was that around 60–70 percent of the clams introduced<br />

there have survived and are now producing offspring. A number of small Tridacna<br />

gigas—in each case, one young specimen per 500 m 2 (5,382 square feet)—have been found on<br />

the reefs around Camiguin Island, for example. And the T. gigas and T. derasa at Samal Island,<br />

Davao del Norte, are also developing very well.<br />

ALL: R. ABDON-NAGUIT<br />

CORAL: In the early phase of giant-clam breeding, the plan was to also supply them as food, in<br />

the hope that this might reduce collection from the wild for culinary purposes. Growing clams<br />

large enough for this purpose subsequently proved to be an extremely protracted process. And it<br />

was precisely here that a new market came to light, interested in small clams and one which few<br />

had thought of in the 1980s: the marine aquarium hobby. It seems that the giant-clam farms now<br />

CORAL<br />

31


Dr. Abdon-Naguit (above left) is working<br />

hard to spread information on how to<br />

breed giant clams. At right, sperm<br />

release by Hippopus hippopus during<br />

a workshop in Indonesia.<br />

produce mainly for the aquarium<br />

trade. Is that right Is there still any<br />

significant giant-clam production for<br />

the food trade nowadays<br />

Rio Abdon-Naguit: In Palau, definitely.<br />

In the Philippines, the farming<br />

of giant clams is particularly<br />

useful for ecotourism. Of course,<br />

the focus is on the large species, T.<br />

gigas and T. derasa. The majority of farms I have visited<br />

were breeding for marine protected areas (MPAs), where<br />

these bivalves are an additional attraction for divers and<br />

snorkelers. But they can also be purchased on the local<br />

aquarium-hobby market. A farm recently started operating<br />

in Cebu City for this purpose.<br />

CORAL: You have recently conducted a project involving<br />

giant clams in Indonesia. Can you tell us about that<br />

Rio Abdon-Naguit: It was a combined project by the<br />

Universitas Kristen Artha Wacana in Kupang, Indonesia,<br />

and my home university in the Philippines. The<br />

object was to investigate and document the ecological<br />

status of giant clams in the Savu Sea, produce stocks<br />

for introduction into the wild, and try to motivate the<br />

coastal people to protect marine habitats. In addition<br />

we also performed genetic structural analyses of the giant<br />

clam population in the field, in order to gain an<br />

insight into the genetic networking of the Tridacnidae<br />

populations and develop a management scheme for the<br />

Savu Sea. The overall project also included the briefing<br />

of students and fishermen from Kupang in the methods<br />

used to breed giant clams.<br />

CORAL: What is the state of the natural giant clam populations<br />

in Indonesia Is the situation as critical as it is in the<br />

Philippines<br />

32 CORAL


CORAL<br />

33


34 CORAL


CORAL<br />

35


What’s black<br />

and white and red<br />

AND used all over<br />

Dr. Abdon-Naguit (sixth from left) after a<br />

workshop in Indonesia on breeding giant clams.<br />

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Rio Abdon-Naguit: The Philippines and Indonesia are comparable in terms<br />

of their giant clam species. Four species are encountered in both countries:<br />

Hippopus hippopus, Tridacna squamosa, T. maxima, and T. crocea. But the population<br />

densities vary considerably among individual habitats. In the Philippines<br />

the two smallest species (T. maxima and T. crocea) are the most common.<br />

Sadly, T. gigas is practically no longer to be found in Indonesia. In the<br />

Philippines, by contrast, the introduction of farmed T. gigas and T. derasa has<br />

led to success, at least in some areas.<br />

CORAL: How do you see the future outlook for these unique mollusks in Asia<br />

In the last three decades the human population of the Philippines has almost<br />

trebled, from around 35 million to the current 95 million, while during the same<br />

period the Indonesian population has grown from around 150 million to 254<br />

million and marine food resources have shrunk dramatically. Is it possible for<br />

populations of edible giant clams to survive in the wild at all in the long term, or<br />

is their extinction more or less inevitable In your opinion, what must happen<br />

to ensure that these fascinating mollusks have a future And can reef aquarists<br />

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Rio Abdon-Naguit: The Marine Science Institute at the University of the Philippines<br />

(UPMSI) and the Marine Lab at Silliman University have produced<br />

mollusks for naturalization and, as I mentioned, introduced them at many<br />

places in their natural habitat. If we postulate that 50 percent of them will<br />

survive for the first five years, and further assume that these efforts will be at<br />

least doubled, or even tripled, then I can see a realistic chance that, at some<br />

point, these clams will be able to reproduce on their own on the coral reefs.<br />

Science’s answer to any threat to a species is invariably mariculture. If<br />

communally run giant-clam breeding projects can make fishermen aware of<br />

how important and valuable these mollusks are in the wild, they will begin<br />

to conserve these creatures. How can marine aquarists contribute to conserving<br />

giant clams in the wild I believe that by maintaining captive-bred<br />

specimens in reef aquariums and introducing as many people as possible to<br />

the beauty of the underwater world—coral reefs in general and giant clams<br />

in particular—aquarists can increase awareness of the importance of these<br />

mollusks for reef ecosystems.<br />

CORAL: Rio, thank you for this conversation!<br />

—Interview conducted by KORALLE Editor-in-Chief Daniel Knop<br />

36 CORAL


Poly-Filter® has rescued tens of thousands of freshwater, brackish, saltwater and reef aquaria during the past<br />

Thirty-Five years. During December 2011 alone we received ten emails, from experienced reef aquarists, all<br />

asking about the blue coloration adsorbed into Poly-Filter®. These long term, reef aquarists had not been<br />

previously using Poly-Filter®. Instead they had chosen: activated carbon, activated carbon and ion exchange<br />

resins, macro reticulated styrene adsorbents and other sorbent media. However, when problems with the<br />

corals developed each had decided these other filtration products didn’t work. Maybe a Poly-Filter® would<br />

solve the problem<br />

The unique, Patented color change in Poly-Filter® appeared to indicate<br />

copper being adsorbed. How could this happen Each of these<br />

aquarists had been treating tap water using low pressure reverse<br />

osmosis and mix bed deionization. We explained that if the<br />

mixed bed D. I. resins failed copper would certainly enter the<br />

aquaria. Could ten very experienced reef aquarists, all having<br />

mix bed resins fail It is certainly possible, low pressure reverse<br />

osmosis will bypass sufficient copper that it would negatively<br />

impact corals. However, we suspected additional copper and<br />

other heavy metals, so inquiry was made about amount, frequency<br />

and types of water treatments and/or coral “additives“ being<br />

used. Every reef aquarist had been dosing: calcium, magnesium,<br />

strontium, iodine /iodide, carbonates and trace elements. Would<br />

copper, iron, lead be trace contaminates found in these additives<br />

It is a scientific fact that lead is the major contaminate in all<br />

calcium compounds! Iron is another almost a universal contaminate.<br />

Copper may have entered aquaria as a trace contaminate found<br />

in the trace elements or other coral additives However when<br />

Poly-Filter® adsorbed the copper it would also adsorbed: iron,<br />

lead, excess heavy metals, dissolved organics, phosphates, volatile<br />

organic chemicals, pesticides and any biotoxins. Water quality was<br />

corrected, aquarists reduced the amount of additives and the clarity<br />

of their aquaria greatly increased. Coral health and growth problems<br />

solved! Poly-Filter® adsorbed 31.97% of 718.95 micrograms per liter<br />

ionic copper @ 14.307 liters per minute within seventeen seconds.<br />

Activated carbon/resins (283 grams) adsorbed only 20% of the 718.95<br />

micrograms per liter of copper but needed<br />

30 seconds. Zeolite resin adsorbed 14.5% of the 718.95 micrograms per liter of copper within<br />

17 seconds. Poly-Filter ® also adsorbed 61.8% of 211 micrograms per liter within 60 seconds at 14.307 liters<br />

per minute out of saltwater. Poly-Filter® adsorbed 46.4 % of 1570.2 micrograms per liter of chelated copper<br />

@ 14.307 liters per minute within 14 minutes. A strong chelating resin (1000 ml.) could only adsorb 13.03 % of<br />

1570 micrograms per liter @ 14.307 liters per minute within 14 minutes.<br />

CORAL<br />

37


T. LAGE/TROPICAL LIFE IMPORT<br />

CORAL<br />

39


MASASHI’S LEGACY<br />

My interest in the family Tridacnidae began in the fall<br />

of 1974, when I was a Harvard undergraduate spending<br />

a year abroad. I worked in the laboratory of Professor<br />

Masashi Yamaguchi at the University of Guam Marine<br />

Laboratory, sharing office space with graduate students<br />

Storm Rideout and Steve Jameson. Steve was nearing<br />

completion of his MS thesis on the early life histories<br />

of giant clams, having successfully reared T. maxima, T.<br />

crocea, and Hippopus hippopus through their larval stages<br />

at Guam and Palau (Jameson, 1976). Storm was working<br />

Tridacna maxima<br />

in a breeding farm<br />

in Tonga.<br />

on Linckia starfish (Rideout, 1978), and I was examining<br />

the toxic effects of marine anti-foulants on the embryos<br />

and larvae of coral reef sea urchins (Heslinga, 1976).<br />

Coming from chilly Massachusetts, I was thrilled to<br />

be embarking with Steve, Storm, and Masashi on field<br />

trips around tropical Guam, launching our Zodiac inflatable<br />

boat at various points around the island to snorkel<br />

the reef flats, scuba dive to new depths, and collect<br />

specimens of starfish, sea urchins, and brilliantly colored<br />

Tridacna maxima clams. These we brought back to the lab<br />

for our spawning and larval rearing studies. I was exceptionally<br />

lucky to have an entire academic<br />

year on Guam during which to<br />

learn from the faculty and students<br />

there, especially Masashi, one of the<br />

best marine invertebrate larval biologists<br />

in the world and the first to envision<br />

giant clam conservation through<br />

cultivation (Yamaguchi, 1977).<br />

As Steve Jameson was conducting<br />

his MS thesis research in Guam, a<br />

group of marine scientists led by Professor<br />

Stephen Wainwright of Duke<br />

University was publishing the results<br />

of a recent field trip to Fiji, where<br />

graduate student Mike LaBarbera had<br />

successfully raised the larvae of T.<br />

maxima and T. squamosa in laboratoryscale<br />

cultures (LaBarbera, 1975). I<br />

remember Steve, Storm, and I excitedly<br />

discussing the galley proofs of<br />

LaBarbera’s manuscript. Although at<br />

the time we did not consider research<br />

on tridacnids to be a competitive race,<br />

it would become one 10 years later as<br />

many nations, universities, scientists,<br />

and entrepreneurs jumped into giant<br />

clam culture with an enthusiasm seldom<br />

seen before in the region’s maricultural<br />

sector.<br />

In the summer of 1975, Masashi<br />

received a grant from the National<br />

Geographic Society to study the larval<br />

development of starfish in Palau,<br />

in the Western Caroline Islands. Palau<br />

had a well-deserved reputation as<br />

one of the earth’s wild places, at or<br />

near the top of every serious diver’s<br />

“bucket list” of places to visit. To my<br />

delight, Masashi invited Storm Rideout<br />

and me to accompany him as assistants.<br />

I was 21 years old, and little<br />

did I realize that as a result of that<br />

summer expedition, Palau, its people,<br />

and its marine organisms would become<br />

the focus of my professional life<br />

D. KNOP<br />

40 CORAL


Right: Dr. Bruce Carlson with an extraordinarily large Tridacna<br />

gigas on a reef off the Solomon Islands—an irrefutable<br />

argument for this species being unsuitable for maintenance in<br />

the home aquarium.<br />

Bottom: Setts Mongami censusing T. derasa specimens in Palau’s<br />

MMDC giant clam nursery at Malakal Harbor in 1993.<br />

for the next two decades, or that I would meet my future<br />

wife, Kyoko, there.<br />

Jim McVey, who would later enjoy a distinguished career<br />

with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric<br />

Administration (NOAA), was already in Palau working<br />

as the founding director of MMDC, the Micronesian<br />

Mariculture Demonstration Center, which became our<br />

base of operations. Our work in Palau would not have<br />

been possible if Jim and his Palauan colleagues had not<br />

established this unique laboratory on Malakal Harbor in<br />

the early 1970s.<br />

Upon our arrival in Palau, Masashi Yamaguchi’s instructions<br />

to Storm Rideout and me were simple: explore<br />

new habitats and find new species of starfish. That we<br />

did with gusto over the next six weeks, scraping our rubber<br />

Zodiac on Acropora thickets and Porites heads more<br />

than a few times as we threaded our way among the<br />

jagged reefs, learning to navigate by the ever-changing<br />

color of the water beneath our hull. Some of the people<br />

we met that summer became friends for life and would<br />

prove to be vitally important allies on my many future<br />

trips to Palau. How many trips Over a two-decade period<br />

I landed in Palau more than 70 times, spent 17 years<br />

on the ground there, made working visits to 18 countries<br />

in the Asia-Pacific region, and logged half a million miles<br />

in the air.<br />

It would therefore be a mistake to call the development<br />

of giant clam mariculture an overnight success,<br />

a chance discovery, or some kind of scientific flash in<br />

the pan. In fact, it cost millions of dollars, consumed<br />

entire careers (or large chunks of them), left a lasting<br />

mark on Pacific island landscapes, and wove its way into<br />

the families and bloodlines of people from all over the<br />

globe. Each time I look at our grandson, Kupa’a A Mauloa<br />

Brandt, now just a toddler, I see in his handsome<br />

face the blended features of people from Palau, Hawaii,<br />

Japan, Northern Europe, Samoa, and America. What a<br />

remarkable living testament he is to the attraction we all<br />

share to peoples of different nationalities and cultures.<br />

TOP: MARJ AWAI; BOTTOM: B. PERRYCLEAR<br />

HIGH RISK, HIGH REWARD<br />

After completing my undergraduate degree at Harvard in<br />

the spring of 1976 and spending that summer working at<br />

the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, more trips to<br />

Palau would follow as I pursued graduate studies in marine<br />

science at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Professor<br />

William Hamner and his family arrived in Palau<br />

in the summer of 1977, fresh from two years at the Aus-<br />

CORAL<br />

41


An unusually beautiful<br />

specimen of Tridacna maxima<br />

from a breeding farm.<br />

T. LAGE/TROPICAL LIFE IMPORT<br />

42 CORAL


G. HESLINGA<br />

Colorful yearling Tridacna derasa specimens (2-inch [5-cm] shell<br />

length) at Palau’s MMDC.<br />

tralian Institute of Marine Science and keen to undertake<br />

research on marine lakes and tridacnid reproduction<br />

at MMDC. Soon after Bill arrived we collected some<br />

T. gigas broodstock at Aulong Reef and induced spawning<br />

in captivity with this species for the first time in history<br />

(Heslinga, 1979). I set up a phytoplankton lab to culture<br />

larval foods. Peace Corps volunteers Nancy Beckvar<br />

and Anne Hillman joined the MMDC staff to work on<br />

clams and commercial Trochus niloticus snails that year,<br />

and succeeded in producing laboratory-scale batches of<br />

juveniles (Beckvar, 1981). Rick Braley joined us in Palau<br />

in the summer of 1979, when Trochus and clam culture<br />

at MMDC were beginning to bear exciting results. It was<br />

clear that MMDC was where the action was going to<br />

be in the coming years, but Nancy and Anne completed<br />

their Peace Corps terms in the summer of 1979, Rick left<br />

for graduate school in Australia, and Bill was winding up<br />

his work on the marine lakes. Who would carry on the<br />

MMDC mollusc project<br />

Marine Resources Division Chief Toshiro Paulis,<br />

who by that time had known me for five years, asked if<br />

I would consider seeking international funding to continue<br />

the work. My proposal was approved, and in 1981<br />

I signed a three-year contract with the Pacific Fisheries<br />

Development Foundation (an agency funded by NOAA)<br />

to be principal investigator on a study of the reproductive<br />

biology of commercially important reef molluscs in<br />

Palau. That three-year project would stretch into 15 years<br />

of applied research aimed largely at unveiling the secrets<br />

of the family Tridacnidae.<br />

In my pursuit to learn how to cultivate large numbers<br />

of baby clams on Palau’s lagoon floor, I spent over<br />

5,000 hours scuba diving on reefs of unparalleled biological<br />

diversity, amassing a trove of knowledge and a<br />

sea chest of stories. My handwritten journal expanded<br />

to fill nine volumes, chronicling an ongoing intercultural<br />

education, exotic adventures and near misses at<br />

sea, typhoons, political unrest, bouts with dengue fever,<br />

research contracts with a dozen international agencies,<br />

the attainment of noteworthy scientific goals, and, most<br />

important, my marriage to Kyoko and the raising of our<br />

daughters, Olivia and Lisa.<br />

While the technical aspects of the advancement of<br />

giant clam mariculture have been well described in the<br />

scientific and popular literature by our group and those<br />

who came later, little has been written about the personal<br />

and human aspects of the story. They are at least<br />

as compelling. Technology, the application of science,<br />

is a necessary but insufficient ingredient for progress.<br />

If there is one overarching lesson I learned during my<br />

20-year association with the Republic of Palau and the<br />

members of the Indo-Pacific family of clam workers, it<br />

is this: the technology is 10 percent, the human factor<br />

is 90 percent (Coereli, 1994). The legions of expatriate<br />

experts working in the developing nations of the world<br />

often seem to believe that the reverse is true. This inversion<br />

of priorities goes a long way toward explaining why<br />

many projects fall short of their objectives. Before you<br />

can make progress you must first make friends.<br />

Ultimately, our clam farming work in Micronesia<br />

succeeded in ways that we could scarcely have imagined<br />

at the outset. It did not happen in a vacuum. I am especially<br />

indebted to the open-minded and far-sighted<br />

Palauans with whom I was privileged to work, day after<br />

day, for many years. The closest among them became<br />

my mentors, language instructors, fishing buddies, and<br />

bodyguards on occasions too numerous to count. At<br />

times I literally owed my survival to them, appreciating<br />

from the outset that the opportunity to get that close,<br />

for that long, is not afforded to many outsiders. Their<br />

early skepticism of my clam farming mission was well<br />

justified. There was no instruction manual and certainly<br />

no guarantee of a positive outcome. In fact, one of my<br />

graduate thesis advisors in Hawaii, the late Professor<br />

John Bardach, had offered this dubious assessment of<br />

my plan to make an environmental impact half a world<br />

CORAL<br />

43


Nena Kilma, the Marshall Islands’ first<br />

giant-clam farmer, diving on the MMDC<br />

ocean nursery during his mariculture<br />

training course in April, 1985.<br />

Above: This 4-day old Tridacna derasa larva is in the process of<br />

establishing symbiosis with ingested zooxanthellae cells (arrow).<br />

The size of the larva is just 110 microns—about the width of a<br />

human hair.<br />

Left: Rick Braley, Australia’s first giant-clam breeder, tagging<br />

oysters at Palau’s MMDC in the summer of 1979.<br />

away: “You’ll fail, but try anyway.” It was not exactly a<br />

pep talk. I admired Dr. Bardach in spite of that predication—or<br />

perhaps because of it. He could not possibly<br />

have known the motivating impact his words would have<br />

on me each time failure seemed unavoidable.<br />

REACHING MILESTONES<br />

My Palauan friends had lived intimately with reef organisms<br />

of every description all their lives, yet they had<br />

never seen a baby giant clam the size of a garden pea. In<br />

nature, clams of that size are cryptic, widely scattered,<br />

G. HESLINGA<br />

44 CORAL


World’s first giant-clam hatchery: the Micronesian<br />

Mariculture Demonstration Center (MMDC) on Malakal<br />

Harbor, Republic of Palau, in 1994.<br />

TOP: B. PERRYCLEAR; BOTTOM: F. PERRON<br />

and virtually impossible to find. As the 1980s unfolded<br />

and our mariculture work at MMDC progressed, the<br />

Palauans would see an abundance of tiny clams—first a<br />

few, then thousands, then tens of thousands, and ultimately<br />

hundreds of thousands—of blue and green jewels<br />

carpeting the floors of our hatchery tanks.<br />

Based on those unprecedented results, and using<br />

revenues generated by sales of our sustainably produced<br />

mariculture products, I directed a tenfold expansion of<br />

the MMDC clam hatchery, from 6 to 64 large concrete<br />

raceway tanks. Simultaneously, our ocean nursery grew<br />

from an unproven concept to 2,000 modular steel-mesh<br />

cages, eventually yielding over 100 tons of cultured<br />

clams. It was the world’s first and largest giant clam<br />

gene bank. The durable concrete raceways we designed<br />

and built in Palau, and ones modeled after them in the<br />

Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia, are<br />

still in production today after more than 25 years. Our<br />

modular steel-mesh ocean nursery cage design (Heslinga<br />

et al., 1990) remains the industry standard for lagoonbased<br />

clam farming throughout the Indo-Pacific region.<br />

We reached the million-seed production milestone<br />

in 1987, generated cumulative sales of $850,000 U.S.<br />

by 1994, and donated another $200,000 U.S. worth of<br />

seedstock and mature broodstock to Palauan states and<br />

individuals, at one point donating one ton of clams per<br />

month over many months as we endeavored to include<br />

every Palauan state in clam conservation efforts. The<br />

money we raised through sales of sustainably cultured<br />

clam products created jobs for Palauan hatchery workers<br />

Gerald Heslinga with wild<br />

Tridacna gigas broodstock at<br />

Palau’s MMDC in 1982.<br />

and allowed us to upgrade our facilities. We renovated<br />

our visiting scientist dormitories, then built a state-ofthe-art<br />

hatchery building, wet lab, gift shop, screenprinting<br />

shop, shell-crafting shop, and administrative<br />

offices. By 1994, MMDC had become Palau’s top landbased<br />

tourist destination, hosting daily busloads of tourists<br />

(Heslinga, 1995). It was also a favorite stop for local<br />

school children, who were excited to see real reef tanks<br />

and baby giant clams for the first time in their lives.<br />

We received several years of support from the United<br />

CORAL<br />

45


Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s South Pacific<br />

Aquaculture Development Program based in Suva,<br />

Fiji, which at that time was headed up by Hideyuki Tanaka.<br />

Tanaka-san was an ardent believer in our work, the<br />

more so when he saw us exporting sustainably maricultured<br />

giant-clam sashimi to Japan, something that had<br />

never been done before.<br />

On one visit Tanaka-san saw hundreds of thousands<br />

of cultured T. derasa in our tanks and said, “You have<br />

a problem.” We pressed for an explanation. “The problem,”<br />

he said, “is overproduction.” Little did Tanakasan<br />

know that those words were music to our ears: an<br />

acknowledgment by the top international development<br />

agency that my colleagues and I in Palau had taken the<br />

Tridacnidae, a family of threatened and endangered species<br />

already known to have gone extinct in many areas,<br />

and showed the world how to mass-produce their offspring<br />

in abundance. Achieving control over the vast<br />

reproductive powers of a photosynthetic animal and<br />

harnessing it for human food production was something<br />

that had not been accomplished in the 10,000-year history<br />

of agriculture. The United Nations took note.<br />

We demonstrated that adding dissolved inorganic nitrogen<br />

to the land-based clam tanks sped up the growth<br />

rate of young clams, shaving two months off the usual<br />

time required to produce “yearling” specimens (Hastie et<br />

al., 1992; Fitt et al, 1993). We perfected the judicious use<br />

of antibiotics to increase survival in clam larval cultures<br />

(Fitt et al., 1992), elucidated predator-prey relationships<br />

(Perron et al., 1985) and nutritional physiology<br />

(Maruyama and Heslinga, 1997), and pioneered the coculture<br />

of algal grazing Trochus snails with young clams<br />

to help control algal fouling (Heslinga and Hillmann,<br />

1981), publishing the results in a series of peer-reviewed<br />

articles in Aquaculture and other journals. It was an exciting,<br />

rapid-fire series of insights and advances, ably assisted<br />

by visiting collaborators like Bill Fitt, Bob Trench,<br />

Chuck Fisher, Lee Hastie, Tadashi Maruyama, and others.<br />

The discoveries came faster than we could publish<br />

them in journals, so we developed a quarterly newsletter<br />

called The MMDC Bulletin and distributed it (by<br />

snail mail, of course) to 300 international colleagues.<br />

We invited economics professors from the University<br />

of Hawaii to analyze the inputs, outputs, and sensitivities<br />

of MMDC’s production system. It was judged to be<br />

economically viable at current levels of production and<br />

management (Leung et al., 1993; Shang et al., 1993).<br />

We closed the life cycle of Tridacna derasa in 1984<br />

with second-generation offspring and produced thirdgeneration<br />

offspring in 1989, achieving true independence<br />

from wild populations with over 10,000 mature,<br />

cultured broodstock clams in our Malakal Harbor<br />

ocean nursery (Heslinga et al., 1990). This enormous<br />

giant-clam gene bank—the world’s first—gave our hatchery<br />

team in Palau the capacity to conduct year-round,<br />

weekly spawnings with 200 fresh brooders each week, returning<br />

them to the ocean nursery for a full year before<br />

using them again. This achievement, verified at the time<br />

by many visitors to the MMDC, supports our claim of<br />

being first to domesticate T. derasa. To my knowledge,<br />

nothing close to this number of fully mature giant clam<br />

breeding stock, or this level of independence from wild<br />

populations, has been produced since then with any tridacnid<br />

clam species. At about the same time (1990), I<br />

Gerald Heslinga (left) with Ned<br />

Howard of the Cook Islands, preparing<br />

to ship 1,000 yearling Tridacna derasa<br />

to Aitutaki in May of 1986. Ned is<br />

Polynesia’s first giant-clam farmer.<br />

T. WATSON<br />

46 CORAL


Governor Jackson Ngiraingas of Peliliu State in Palau<br />

taking 200 mature, captive-bred Tridacna derasa to<br />

plant on the reefs of Peliliu in June, 1989.<br />

Right: Tom Watson (left) and Asap<br />

Bukurrou assembling a 3-horsepower<br />

stainless steel submersible pump at Palau’s<br />

MMDC clam hatchery in 1989.<br />

G. HESLINGA<br />

was honored to receive an award from<br />

Rolex of Geneva for our regional Gene<br />

Banks for Giant Clams project, including<br />

the gift of a gold Rolex Oyster<br />

watch that I have now worn for<br />

21 years. That same year, our book on<br />

clam farming was published, our conservation<br />

work was featured in a commemorative<br />

postage stamp series, and<br />

Kyoko and I were married.<br />

In the late 1980s and early 1990s,<br />

our hatchery team trained over 100<br />

people from Palau and around the region. We started<br />

clam nurseries in 14 of Palau’s 16 states and made<br />

hundreds of international shipments of clam seed for<br />

conservation and cultivation in Micronesia, Polynesia,<br />

Melanesia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Guam, Japan, Hawaii,<br />

and elsewhere. We pioneered the sale of thousands<br />

of cultured T. derasa, T. gigas, T. crocea, and H. Hippopus<br />

to the U.S. aquarium trade through large Los Angeles<br />

wholesalers like All Seas and Quality Marine, as well as<br />

California’s local fish stores. We shipped live, cultured,<br />

two-year-old T. derasa clams for sale in restaurants in<br />

Saipan and Okinawa and prepared sashimi clams on the<br />

half-shell for many Government of Palau official functions.<br />

It had not been our intention to become accidental<br />

caterers, but it was an honor to oblige. MMDC’s trays<br />

of baby T. derasa clams, served with lemon, soy sauce,<br />

and Tabasco sauce, were an instant hit.<br />

This was a far cry from the early days, when our Palauan<br />

friends and colleagues at MMDC had watched our<br />

setbacks and miscalculations with amusement. I recall<br />

the sting of being teased each time our ocean nursery<br />

was invaded by an eagle ray or a giant puffer fish, resulting<br />

in many clam mortalities and forcing us to upgrade<br />

from plastic to steel mesh cages. That worked, and<br />

CORAL<br />

47


Employees of the Tom 2Y Mariculture<br />

company loading wire-mesh clam cages for<br />

ocean nursery deployment in Palau in 2011.<br />

Palau’s Tom Watson (left) with sons Tommy<br />

(center) and Billy (right) on their giant clam<br />

farm in Malakal Harbor.<br />

upon seeing the throngs of baby clams appearing in the<br />

tanks and in our ocean nursery, our Palauan co-workers<br />

pitched in with genuine enthusiasm. They adopted clam<br />

farming as their own in 1995, fully two decades after<br />

Masashi Yamaguchi and Steve Jameson took the first<br />

tentative steps toward clam breeding in Micronesia. In<br />

1995 MMDC became PMDC (Palau Mariculture Demonstration<br />

Center), emphasizing Palau’s pride in the<br />

place and its reputation as the “mecca” of giant clam<br />

culture, a nickname bestowed by Professor John Lucas of<br />

Australia during his 1984 visit to Palau. Today (2012),<br />

an all-Palauan hatchery staff continues to produce baby<br />

giant clams for distribution to local reef farmers, while<br />

PACA, the Palau Aquacultured Clam Association, provides<br />

extension services and marketing assistance.<br />

CONSERVATION THROUGH<br />

DOMESTICATION<br />

It is important to recognize that true<br />

domestication (and indeed, truly sustainable<br />

farming) requires verifiable<br />

genetic independence from wild populations<br />

and production of multiple<br />

generations of offspring on a reliable<br />

basis (Heslinga and Fitt, 1987). Domestication<br />

should be the objective of<br />

every giant clam–farming nation and<br />

sustainability its guiding philosophy.<br />

Anything short of this may correctly be<br />

called cultivation, mariculture, ranching,<br />

or husbandry, but it cannot be<br />

called true farming, and it still leaves<br />

wild populations at risk of overexploitation.<br />

Examples of wild breeding<br />

stock depletion are occurring in some<br />

giant clam producing areas of Micronesia<br />

and Polynesia today, especially<br />

with T. maxima.<br />

Domestication and conservation<br />

are fully compatible and mutually reinforcing,<br />

because forward-thinking<br />

farmers do not annihilate their own<br />

breeding stock. In effect, each farm<br />

becomes a gene bank—that is, a hedge<br />

against loss of the genetic resource<br />

elsewhere. Not all farmers are forward<br />

thinkers, however. Just as some<br />

promising cattle ranching projects in<br />

developing countries have ended with<br />

a barbecue, some unprotected giant clam broodstock<br />

specimens have wound up as sashimi. This is unfortunate,<br />

but localized poaching incidents are not likely to<br />

stop development of the giant clam mariculture industry<br />

on a region-wide basis.<br />

AGE AT MATURITY<br />

AND FARMER FRIENDLINESS<br />

In Palau, T. derasa specimens planted in our ocean nurseries<br />

required five years to reach full male/female sexual<br />

maturity. Evidence now accumulating from around the<br />

region indicates that T. gigas reaches male/female phase<br />

maturity in about a decade near the equator and closer<br />

to twice that long at the higher latitudes of Australia’s<br />

Great Barrier Reef (R. Braley, pers. comm.). This means<br />

TOP: B. WATSON; BOTTOM: G. HESLINGA<br />

48 CORAL


that Australian T. gigas, with a generation time of some<br />

two decades, is likely the slowest-maturing marine invertebrate<br />

ever cultivated, an attribute that will limit its<br />

appeal as a maricultural candidate going forward.<br />

As of this writing (2012), no second-generation T.<br />

gigas juveniles have been produced in Australia, meaning<br />

that the life cycle of this species has not been closed<br />

there. Add to that the difficulty and danger of handling<br />

the enormous broodstock specimens, and it is not hard<br />

to see why, despite an intensive campaign by James Cook<br />

University to cultivate T. gigas in Australia beginning in<br />

1984 and by ICLARM (International Centre for Living<br />

Aquatic Resources) in Solomon Islands beginning in<br />

1987, there is little or no maricultural activity with T.<br />

gigas in those locations today.<br />

T. gigas cultivation for local<br />

conservation has progressed in the<br />

Philippines (Gomez and Mingoa-<br />

Licuanan, 2006), and a new giantclam<br />

hatchery, the Cebu Mariculture<br />

Demonstration Center (CMDC), is<br />

under construction (J.C. Leroy, pers.<br />

comm.). Prospects for commercial<br />

farming of giant clams in the Philippines<br />

are presently constrained by an<br />

export ban on all tridacnid specimens,<br />

both wild and captive bred. Unfortunately,<br />

this reduces incentives for the<br />

establishment of additional farms<br />

because international markets for<br />

cultured clam products are not accessible.<br />

Will a nationwide ban on exporting<br />

maricultured tridacnids help<br />

to restore the depleted resource, or is<br />

the effect more likely to be negative<br />

because it limits farming opportunities<br />

This important question requires<br />

further study.<br />

My conclusion from the above<br />

observations is that T. gigas, while<br />

deserving of continued cultivation<br />

for conservation purposes and justifiable<br />

as a choice for display in public<br />

aquariums and on snorkeling trails,<br />

lacks the attributes necessary for economically<br />

sustainable ocean farming.<br />

It is simply too big, too slow to mature,<br />

too challenging to handle, and<br />

too hard to sell within a reasonable<br />

time frame when compared to other<br />

tridacnid species and to other mariculture<br />

opportunities, like seaweeds and corals.<br />

We now know that T. gigas prefers exposed, outerreef<br />

habitats over the calmer, safer lagoon areas in which<br />

mariculturists prefer to work. Moreover, because of its<br />

great weight and razor-sharp shell margins, T. gigas can<br />

be a risky animal with which to work, both on land and<br />

at sea, as those of us who have handled many T. gigas<br />

specimens can attest from painful personal experience.<br />

In short, T. gigas is an impractical farm animal because<br />

it lacks farmer friendliness. This concept helps explain<br />

why sheep, goats and cows, for example, have been very<br />

successfully domesticated by man but lions, tigers, and<br />

blue whales have not.<br />

I believe T. gigas is best left undisturbed on reefs unless<br />

long-term funding is available for dedicated stock<br />

G. HESLINGA<br />

Tom Watson stocking a pre-shipment<br />

quarantine tank at MMDC with 1,000<br />

yearling T. derasa in 1989.<br />

CORAL<br />

49


Gerald Heslinga diving on<br />

the MMDC ocean nursery<br />

in 1989 among 10,000<br />

mature first-, second-, and<br />

third-generation Tridacna<br />

derasa broodstock<br />

specimens. This nursery<br />

was the world’s first giantclam<br />

gene bank.<br />

enhancement and protection efforts with no expectation<br />

of economic return beyond potential environmental or<br />

tourism benefits. The challenge in the future will be to<br />

attract committed personnel and sustained funding for<br />

conservation efforts in areas where T. gigas is threatened,<br />

endangered, or already extinct. Unfortunately, this applies<br />

to most of its natural range, with Australia’s Great<br />

Barrier Reef being the notable exception.<br />

In the aquarium trade, T. maxima, T. crocea, and T.<br />

derasa will always have strong appeal due to their attractive<br />

mantle colors. There is an urgent need for hatcheries<br />

presently producing juveniles of these species from<br />

wild breeding stock to create protected pools of cultured<br />

broodstock, to raise multiple generations reliably in captivity,<br />

and to stop depending exclusively on wild<br />

specimens as a sources of gametes. Such dependence<br />

can easily endanger local populations if<br />

carried on for an extended period. While producing<br />

juveniles from wild broodstock may<br />

qualify loosely as mariculture, it does not qualify<br />

as conservation or sustainable farming, and<br />

may seriously deplete local clam populations if<br />

no effort is made to augment them.<br />

For all-around ease of spawning, food-free<br />

larval culture, ease of handling, hardiness in<br />

ocean nurseries, and salability in a wide variety<br />

of markets encompassing meat, shells, and<br />

aquarium display, T. derasa seems best suited<br />

for lagoon-based mariculture programs, a point<br />

recognized by Heslinga and Perron (1983)<br />

some 30 years ago. H. hippopus holds high value<br />

as a meat producer for local consumption due<br />

to its exceptional hardiness, ease of culture, and<br />

short generation time. Like T. derasa, it ranks<br />

high on the farmer-friendliness scale.<br />

THE FUTURE<br />

OF GIANT CLAM CULTURE<br />

As we look around the Indo-Pacific region today,<br />

do we see a booming giant-clam farming<br />

industry, employing thousands of people and<br />

generating hundreds of millions of dollars per<br />

annum in sales, as is the case with seaweed<br />

culture Not yet. The present state of tridacnid<br />

farming in the Indo-Pacific region is considerably<br />

more modest than that. Across the region<br />

where these clams occur naturally, there are<br />

likely hundreds of people now involved on a<br />

daily basis in their cultivation and husbandry,<br />

with annual revenues in the countries of origin<br />

in the low millions of U.S. dollars at farm<br />

gate. Some production is not for export at all,<br />

but for subsistence consumption at the family<br />

or village level. This artisanal production and<br />

consumption is, of course, significant to the<br />

people who grow and eat the clams, but will<br />

never show up as national trade statistics.<br />

It is unrealistic to think that every giant clam farm<br />

or sanctuary will be immune from interference, or that<br />

every new hatchery venture will proceed along a straight<br />

path toward economic viability. The achievement of these<br />

ends demands favorable government policies, international<br />

cooperation, and qualified, committed management.<br />

These requirements were met at Palau’s MMDC<br />

between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, allowing us<br />

to make rapid progress and to demonstrate unequivocally,<br />

for the first time, that (a) giant clam seed of several<br />

species can be produced in great abundance with modest<br />

technical inputs; and (b) T. derasa, an exceptionally efficient,<br />

photosymbiotic producer of valuable meat, can<br />

B. PERRYCLEAR<br />

50 CORAL


G. HESLINGA<br />

be raised through multiple generations in an economically<br />

and environmentally sustainable manner to supply<br />

domestic and international markets.<br />

These achievements represent significant milestones<br />

in the history of agriculture. In an ideal world they would<br />

be widely embraced without delay, and, in fact, a recent review<br />

by Kinch and Teitlebaum (2010) noted the existence<br />

of some 10 private ventures and 15 government-linked<br />

ones culturing tridacnid clams in Micronesia, Melanesia,<br />

and Polynesia. Others exist in the Philippines,<br />

Indonesia, and Thailand, and a researchoriented<br />

giant clam culture program began in<br />

Brazil in 2011 (Miguel Mies, pers. comm.).<br />

While this expansion of tridacnid cultivation<br />

is encouraging, in today’s world we should<br />

not be surprised to see occasional episodes of<br />

political unrest, ethnic tension, or outright<br />

tribal conflict, nor should we be reluctant to<br />

acknowledge that progress in localized areas<br />

may be interrupted as a result. Government<br />

corruption is also a factor that cannot be ignored;<br />

it is real, it is ongoing, and its impact on<br />

industry development can be crippling. Despite<br />

these caveats we can accurately state that the<br />

technical feasibility of giant-clam culture has<br />

now been convincingly demonstrated in many<br />

locations, and the economic feasibility in several.<br />

Constraints to industry growth are likely<br />

to be political and regulatory in nature rather<br />

than technical or economic. The main regulatory<br />

barrier pertaining to international marketing<br />

of cultured clams is CITES (Convention<br />

on International Trade in Endangered Species),<br />

and that has recently been addressed by Kinch<br />

and Teitlebaum (2010). Ultimately, these issues<br />

will have to be resolved by policy makers in<br />

the sovereign nations of the region, but history<br />

teaches us that two things are beyond dispute:<br />

international cooperation accelerates progress<br />

in agriculture; isolationism retards it.<br />

As we mark the 30th birthday of the maricultured<br />

Palauan T. gigas so expertly cared for<br />

by Bruce Carlson, Charles Delbeek, Marjorie<br />

Awai, and their Waikiki Aquarium colleagues,<br />

it is appropriate to put events in the giant-clam<br />

world into broader perspective. Harvesting of<br />

wild specimens continues largely unabated<br />

across the natural range of the family Tridacnidae.<br />

We can thank burgeoning human<br />

populations for that. The aquarium industry<br />

plays an undeniable role in this, as thousands<br />

of large, wild T. crocea and T. maxima still enter<br />

the trade annually from Vietnam and Tahiti,<br />

respectively. This is regrettable, given the<br />

historical tendency of giant clams to be overharvested<br />

when commercially exploited. Now<br />

that there are reasonably priced captive-bred alternatives<br />

available, the continued harvest of wild tridacnids for<br />

the aquarium trade is difficult to justify.<br />

Responsible hobbyists need to understand that while<br />

we all may love the beautiful mantle colors of wildcaught<br />

T crocea and T. maxima, what we do not see is the<br />

thousands of gaping white holes chiseled into the coral<br />

heads from which those clams were collected or the loss<br />

of reproductive capacity in areas where large numbers<br />

Captive-bred two-year<br />

old Tridacna derasa<br />

specimens (4-inch<br />

[10-cm] shell length)<br />

in a land-based<br />

raceway at MMDC in<br />

1987, showing the<br />

green and yellow<br />

blue-rimmed color<br />

morphs typical of this<br />

species.<br />

CORAL<br />

51


of highly fecund adult clams have been permanently removed<br />

from breeding populations. Nor is there published<br />

evidence available indicating that current wild-capture<br />

operations are being conducted on a sustainable basis.<br />

We should not lose sight of the fact that as consumers in<br />

the aquatic pet industry, our purchasing decisions online<br />

and in local fish stores can exert a powerful influence on<br />

the health and wellness of the world’s coral reefs. One<br />

good way to exert this influence is by demanding captivebred<br />

tridacnid clams instead of wild ones.<br />

The rapid technical progress we’ve seen in giant clam<br />

mariculture has been achieved in a relatively short period<br />

of time, roughly 30 years, mainly in areas where<br />

subsistence-level, land-based agriculture and a huntergatherer<br />

mode of reef harvesting have been the rule for<br />

thousands of years. The past three decades are but an<br />

eyeblink when one considers that giant clams have been<br />

aggressively fished from coral reefs for an astonishing<br />

150,000 years (Roa-Quiaoit, 2005).<br />

What has changed since those prehistoric times, and<br />

indeed since the first commercial-scale production of T.<br />

gigas at Palau’s MMDC in 1982, is that today humans are<br />

not just taking wild giant clams from reefs. Instead, we<br />

are producing previously undreamed-of numbers of baby<br />

giants in hatcheries, culturing them in ocean gardens,<br />

offering them for sale in local and international markets,<br />

placing them on display in sophisticated aquariums<br />

around the world, learning more about them each year,<br />

and, for the first time in history, putting them back onto<br />

coral reefs. Why do we do this, often with no expectation<br />

of financial gain The answer is simple: giant clams are<br />

rare, tasty, valuable, fascinating to watch, and in many<br />

ways unique. Producing more of them is desirable; preventing<br />

their extinction is essential. Mariculture aimed<br />

at domestication is under way, and reefkeepers can play<br />

an important role in speeding its development.<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Beckvar, N. 1981. Cultivation, spawning and growth of the giant<br />

clams Tridacna gigas, Tridacna derasa and Tridacna squamosa in<br />

Palau, Caroline Islands. Aquaculture 24: 21–30.<br />

Coeroli, M. 1994. Oral presentation at Pearls 1994 Conference<br />

(Honolulu, Hawaii).<br />

Doty, M.S. 1982. The diversified farming of coral reefs.<br />

University of Hawaii Harold L. Lyon Arboretum Lecture, no. 11.<br />

University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 29 pp.<br />

Fitt, W.K., G.A. Heslinga, and T.C. Watson. 1992. The use of<br />

antibiotics in the mariculture of giant clams (f. Tridacnidae).<br />

Aquaculture 104: 1–10.<br />

———. 1993. Utilization of dissolved inorganic nutrients in the<br />

growth and mariculture of the tridacnid clam, Tridacna derasa.<br />

Aquaculture 109: 27–38.<br />

Gomez, E.D. and S.S. Mingoa-Licuanan. 2006. Achievements<br />

and lessons learned in restocking giant clams in the<br />

Philippines. Fisheries Research 80: 46–52.<br />

Hastie, L.C., T.C. Watson, and G.A. Heslinga. 1992. Effect of<br />

nutrient enrichment on Tridacna derasa: dissolved inorganic<br />

nitrogen improves growth rate. Aquaculture 106: 41–9.<br />

Heslinga, G.A. 1976. Effects of copper on the coral reef echinoid<br />

Echinometra mathaei (de Blainville). Mar Biol 35: 155–60.<br />

———. 1979. The giant clams of Palau. J Hawaiian Malacolog<br />

Soc 27 (10): 1, 6, 7.<br />

———. 1995. Clams to cash: how to make and sell giant clam<br />

shell products. Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture<br />

(Hawaii), pub. no. 125, 47 pp.<br />

Heslinga, G.A. and A. Hillman. 1981. Hatchery culture of the<br />

commercial top snail Trochus niloticus in Palau, Caroline Islands.<br />

Aquaculture 22: 35–43.<br />

Heslinga, G.A. and F.E. Perron. 1983. The status of giant clam<br />

mariculture technology in the Indo-Pacific. SPC Fisheries<br />

Newsletter no. 23, Jan–Mar 1983, 5 pp.<br />

Heslinga, G.A., F.E. Perron, and O. Orak. 1984. Mass culture of<br />

giant clams (f. Tridacnidae) in Palau. Aquaculture 39: 197–215.<br />

Heslinga, G.A. and W.K. Fitt. 1987. The domestication of reefdwelling<br />

clams. BioScience 37: 332–9.<br />

Heslinga, G.A., T.C. Watson, and T. Isamu. 1990. Giant Clam<br />

Farming. Pacific Fisheries Development Foundation (NMFS/<br />

NOAA), Honolulu, HI, 179 pp.<br />

Heslinga, G.A. and T.C. Watson. 2012. The MMDC/PMDC<br />

Archives online, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nOk6L<br />

C1W8nmrO9AK44piHh6o1TDovtUl3qVDf698RKA/editpli=1.<br />

Jameson, S.C. 1976. Early life history of the giant clams<br />

(Tridacna crocea, Tridacna maxima and Hippopus hippopus),<br />

Pacific Sci 30: 219–33.<br />

Kinch, J. and A. Teitlebaum. 2010. Proceedings of the regional<br />

workshop on the management of sustainable fisheries for giant<br />

clams (Tridacnidae) and CITES capacity building (4–7 August<br />

2009, Nadi, Fiji). Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Noumea,<br />

New Caledonia, 52 pp.<br />

LaBarbera, M. 1975. Larvae and larval development of the<br />

giant clams Tridacna maxima and Tridacna squamosa (Bivalvia:<br />

Tridacnidae). Malacologia 15: 69–79.<br />

Leung, P., Y. Shang, K. Wanitprapha, and X. Tian. 1993.<br />

Production Economics of Giant Clam (Tridacna species) Culture<br />

Systems in the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands. Center for Tropical<br />

and Subtropical Aquaculture, University of Hawaii, pub. no.<br />

114.<br />

Maruyama, T. and G.A. Heslinga. 1997. Fecal discharge of<br />

zooxanthellae in the giant clam Tridacna derasa, with reference<br />

to their in situ growth rate. Aquaculture 127: 473–7.<br />

Perron, F.E., G.A. Heslinga, and J. Fagolimul. 1985. The<br />

gastropod Cymatium muricinum, a predator on juvenile<br />

tridacnid clams. Aquaculture 48: 211–22.<br />

Rideout, R.S. 1978. Asexual reproduction as a means of<br />

population maintenance in the coral reef asteroid Linckia<br />

multifora on Guam. Mar Biol 47: 287–95.<br />

Roa-Quiaoit, Hilly Ann F. 2005. The ecology and culture<br />

of giant clams (Tridacnidae) in the Jordanian sector of<br />

the Gulf of Aquaba, Red Sea. Vorgelegt im Fachbereich 2<br />

(Biologie/Chemie) der Universitat Bremen als Dissertation<br />

zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der<br />

naturwissenschafte (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Bremen,<br />

Germany), 100 pp.<br />

Shang, Y.C., P. Leung, K. Wanitprapha, and G.A. Heslinga.<br />

1993. Production cost comparisons of giant clam (Tridacna)<br />

production systems in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands.<br />

Proceedings of the Third Asian Fisheries Forum.<br />

Yamaguchi, M. 1977. Conservation and cultivation of giant<br />

clams in the tropical Pacific. Biol Conserv 11: 13–20.<br />

52 CORAL


CORAL<br />

53


Waikiki Aquarium’s<br />

giant clams mark<br />

30-year anniversary<br />

T<br />

by Dr. Bruce Carlson<br />

The year 2012 marks the 30th anniversary of two landmark<br />

events in aquarium and aquaculture history. In<br />

March 1982, Gerald Heslinga and his colleagues succeeded<br />

with the first commercial production of Tridacna<br />

gigas at the former Micronesian Mariculture Demonstration<br />

Center (MMDC) in Palau. Three months later,<br />

in June 1982, some of those clams arrived at the University<br />

of Hawaii’s Waikiki Aquarium in Honolulu. One<br />

of those clams has now become the oldest aquacultured<br />

giant clam in the world, and another may be the largest<br />

in any aquarium. In the previous article, Heslinga relates<br />

his experiences rearing giant clams.<br />

This story focuses on the 30-year history of T. gigas at<br />

the Waikiki Aquarium. I will also address an important<br />

question about this species: is Tridacna gigas appropriate<br />

for aquariums and, if so, under what conditions<br />

Until recently, Dieter Brockmann held the longevity<br />

record for T. gigas in an aquarium. His clam died<br />

in 2009 after 30 years in his aquarium, and he told its<br />

life-story in his article “Requiem for a Giant Clam” in<br />

B. CARLSON<br />

54 CORAL


Left: Tridacna gigas at the Waikiki<br />

Aquarium, 2012. Gigas-77 is in the<br />

foreground, MMDC-82 is behind it.<br />

Above: Pat Colin (right) and the<br />

author hoist a large T. gigas into<br />

a shipping container at Enewetak<br />

Atoll. This was the first live T. gigas<br />

to be displayed in the United<br />

States.<br />

Right: The Enewetak T. gigas and<br />

other tridacnid clams on exhibit at<br />

the Waikiki Aquarium.<br />

TOP: M. DEGRUY; RIGHT: B. CARLSON<br />

CORAL (Brockmann, 2009).<br />

Brockmann got his clam from<br />

a pet store in Germany in<br />

1979, when it measured only<br />

4.25 inches (11 cm); when it<br />

died, it was 30.25 inches (77<br />

cm) long. Daniel Knop (2009)<br />

credited Brockmann with having<br />

the oldest giant clam in any<br />

aquarium, followed closely by<br />

the T. gigas at the Waikiki Aquarium.<br />

Our experiences with T. gigas at the Waikiki Aquarium<br />

also began in 1979, but prior to this I set up the<br />

Waikiki Aquarium’s first experimental live reef exhibit<br />

that included several T. crocea and one T. squamosa, collected<br />

in Palau in 1978. Very little was known about giant<br />

clam husbandry in 1978, and one notable Tridacna<br />

biologist who viewed the exhibit assured me that Tridacna<br />

would not survive in an aquarium; fortunately, he was<br />

wrong. We did know that Tridacna needed bright light,<br />

based on their relationship with zooxanthellae algae.<br />

In those years, all we had were incandescent spotlights,<br />

which barely sufficed. By 1979, the small clams and corals<br />

were moved from the 75-gallon (284-L) aquarium to<br />

a 350-gallon (1,325-L) exhibit exposed to natural sun-<br />

CORAL<br />

55


June, 1982: Gerald Heslinga poses with the<br />

world’s first commercial batch of T. gigas. One of<br />

these clams is still alive and resides at the Waikiki<br />

Aquarium.<br />

light (some of the corals from 1978 are still on exhibit<br />

at the Waikiki Aquarium). Our success with the small<br />

clams and corals motivated us to attempt bringing in a<br />

large T. gigas.<br />

Tridacna gigas remained an elusive goal until October<br />

1979, when I contacted Mike deGruy, the lab manager<br />

on Enewetak Atoll and a former Waikiki Aquarium biologist.<br />

He and I set about devising a plan to bring a living<br />

T. gigas to the Waikiki Aquarium. Dave Powell of the<br />

Steinhart Aquarium offered advice and plans to build a<br />

watertight container to transport such a creature. Based<br />

on his recommendations, we constructed a box made<br />

from .5-inch (1.3-cm) marine plywood and had it fiberglassed<br />

by a local boat building company. It measured 5<br />

feet long x 2 feet wide x 2 feet deep (152 x 61 x 61 cm)<br />

and was divided into two compartments. The main compartment,<br />

designed to hold the clam, was 3.5 x 2 feet<br />

(107 x 61 cm) and held about 100 gallons (378.5 L) of<br />

seawater. The adjacent, smaller 1.5 x 2 foot (46 x 61 cm)<br />

compartment was dry and held a 12-volt car battery and<br />

pumps. To ensure that the container was<br />

watertight, we also built a fiberglass lid with<br />

a neoprene seal that could be bolted to a 2<br />

x 2-inch (5.1 x 5.1-cm) frame around the<br />

inside rim of the tank.<br />

Dr. Pat Colin, who succeeded Mike as<br />

the Enewetak lab manager, worked with us<br />

to collect the clam. We raised it to the surface<br />

using a lift bag, hoisted it into the fiberglass<br />

box on the boat, and relocated it to<br />

the lagoon near the airstrip. On departure<br />

day, we repeated the lifting procedure, but<br />

this time the clam was sealed in the box and<br />

loaded on an Air Force jet bound for Honolulu<br />

(see sidebar story). The 12-volt car battery<br />

powered a bilge pump and an air pump<br />

to keep the water circulating and aerated<br />

during the five-hour flight.<br />

The T. gigas from Enewetak arrived at the<br />

Waikiki Aquarium in excellent condition,<br />

and, due to its large size, it went directly into<br />

the new exhibit rather than into a quarantine<br />

tank. This T. gigas was probably the first<br />

large giant clam ever displayed in an aquarium.<br />

For the next two years, it seemed to<br />

thrive, but by April 1982 its condition deteriorated<br />

and it suddenly died. We never determined<br />

a definitive cause for its demise, but<br />

we decided we would try again with another<br />

T. gigas. Meanwhile, the Enewetak clam was<br />

mounted and displayed in the Waikiki Aquarium galleries,<br />

where it can still be viewed today. It may also have<br />

some residual research value (see sidebar story).<br />

In June 1982 I made a trip to Palau and stayed at the<br />

MMDC, where Gerald Heslinga was conducting his trials<br />

with spawning and rearing T. gigas and other tridacnid<br />

species (for details read Heslinga, et al., 1984). He<br />

offered to give us 24 young T. gigas from his first successful<br />

commercial production, which he had accomplished<br />

three months earlier. He also gave us one wild-caught T.<br />

gigas that he estimated had settled on the reef in 1977,<br />

making it about five years old in 1982. Based on published<br />

growth data (Munro, 1992), at five years it was<br />

about 11.8 inches (30 cm) long, which matches my recollection<br />

that it was about the size of a football. Henceforth,<br />

I will refer to this older clam as Gigas-77 and the<br />

other clams as MMDC-82. Thirty years later, Gigas-77<br />

and one of the original MMDC-82 clams are both alive<br />

and growing at the Waikiki Aquarium.<br />

For 20 years, these clams were exhibited in a relatively<br />

B. CARLSON<br />

56 CORAL


simple, 350-gallon (1,325-L) aquarium. The Waikiki<br />

Aquarium exhibits are primarily open-system—they receive<br />

a constant supply of new seawater drawn not from<br />

the ocean but from an 80-foot (24.4-m) deep well on<br />

the Aquarium’s property. Seawater from this well is characterized<br />

by elevated levels of inorganic nutrients, relatively<br />

low organic nutrients, and a depressed pH due to a<br />

high concentration of carbon dioxide. The water is heavily<br />

aerated to drive out excess carbon dioxide, and this<br />

raises the pH to about 8.0 before it enters the exhibit.<br />

(For a detailed analysis of this well water and its effects<br />

on growing corals and clams, see Atkinson et al, 1995.)<br />

Over the decades, we have often been asked what we<br />

feed the clams, and the answer is: “nothing!” The well<br />

water contains no plankton. If the clams filter any phytoplankton<br />

from the water, it has to come from whatever<br />

grows naturally in the aquarium system. There are also<br />

fish in the exhibit, and it is possible that the clams ingest<br />

feces or excess food that the fish miss. Otherwise, symbiotic<br />

zooxanthellae (single-cell algae) provide the bulk<br />

of the nutrition for these giant clams. The zooxanthellae,<br />

in turn, require bright light. In the early years, the giant<br />

clam and coral exhibits were illuminated by the direct<br />

natural light of the sun, which shines almost every day<br />

in Waikiki, and several incandescent spotlights (mostly<br />

for evening viewing). By the early 1990s, we had installed<br />

400-watt metal halide fixtures over the exhibit to<br />

provide supplemental illumination during the day and<br />

evening hours.<br />

One unfortunate discovery that we made in the early<br />

1980s was the presence of small parasitic snails infesting<br />

the clams. I noticed these snails one evening when they<br />

appeared by the hundreds along the edges of the clams’<br />

mantles. Closer inspection revealed that they were feeding<br />

on the mantle tissue. The next morning the snails<br />

appeared to be gone, but they had simply retreated into<br />

the crevices in the clams’ valves. I sent samples of the<br />

snails to the late Dr. Alison Kay at the University of Hawaii,<br />

who specialized in micro-mollusks; she concluded<br />

that they were pyramidellid snails and, ominously, they<br />

were direct developers: they did not have a planktonic<br />

larval stage. We found their egg masses everywhere on<br />

the valves just beneath the mantle tissue. Once the<br />

clams were infected, the snails proliferated rapidly. To<br />

Atomic age T. gigas<br />

The United States detonated 23 nuclear bombs at Bikini Atoll from 1946 to 1958, including<br />

the largest of all hydrogen bombs, dubbed “Castle Bravo,” which was detonated on March 1, 1954. Despite the<br />

destruction and radiation, ocean life, including Tridacna gigas, persisted there. Kelshaw Bonham published an<br />

article in the journal Science (Bonham, 1965) in which he reported the estimated age of a 20.5-inch (52-cm)<br />

T. gigas. By slicing the shell into sections and exposing them on x-ray film over a period of three months, he<br />

observed bands representing radioactive material (strontium-90). By correlating these bands to the 1956 and<br />

1958 tests, he was able to measure the growth rate of the clam and then, by counting the bands in the shell, he<br />

estimated its age. His data are included in the accompanying chart and his results are comparable to the actual<br />

age-size measurements of the clams at the Waikiki Aquarium, as well as Dieter Brockmann’s clam.<br />

Interestingly, the first T. gigas collected at Enewetak in 1979 and displayed at the Waikiki Aquarium may<br />

also have survived nuclear testing. Pat Colin related the following story to me:<br />

I remember going after the clam well. It came from one of the channels between the island in the northeastern<br />

part of (Enewetak) atoll and we lifted it up with a lift bag and towed it back to the boat. That<br />

would have been a little over 20 years after the last nuclear test at Enewetak. Could the clam have grown<br />

enough in 22–24 years to reach the size it was, or would it have been alive during the testing<br />

From what we know now, the answer to the latter part of Pat’s question is definitely “yes.” The T. gigas<br />

collected in 1979 and now displayed as a museum exhibit at the Waikiki Aquarium measures 31.5 inches (80<br />

cm). This means it would have been 30–35 years old in 1979, and would have survived all, or nearly all, of the<br />

43 nuclear tests conducted at Enewetak from 1948 through 1958. Presumably, it also has strontium-90 bands<br />

in its shell that faithfully recorded some or all of the blasts from the era of atmospheric nuclear testing in the<br />

Pacific. But even more remarkable is that it survived any nuclear explosion in such close proximity!<br />

There is one final anecdote that Pat Colin related about this giant clam from Enewetak (note: the GS ranking<br />

is the pay scale for government employees):<br />

When the clam was shipped out of Enewetak on the flight you and I were on, Mike deGruy had the clam<br />

listed on the manifest as “Clam, Killer, GS-15,” much to the chagrin of the lesser-ranking GS feds who<br />

were on the flight, as the highest GS rankings came first on the list!<br />

CORAL<br />

57


Size (cm)<br />

120<br />

100<br />

80<br />

60<br />

40<br />

20<br />

0<br />

TRIDACNA GIGAS GROWTH RATES<br />

Bikini<br />

Age (years)<br />

Palau<br />

Waikiki<br />

Brockmann<br />

Australia<br />

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40<br />

control the snails, I went into the aquarium at night and<br />

removed the snails using a small brush and a siphon—a<br />

laborious procedure, but effective for short-term control.<br />

At that time we were not aware of any reports of<br />

these snails parasitizing giant clams. I contacted Gerry<br />

Heslinga about my observations, and he went out into<br />

the field to observe the wild clams. He found snails on<br />

the giant clams on the reef, but more important, he also<br />

observed a wrasse, Halichoeres chloropterus, that fed upon<br />

the snails. We obtained some of these Pastel-Green<br />

Wrasses and they became part of our snail population–<br />

control procedure. Since that time, using wrasses for<br />

snail control has become standard procedure for aquarists<br />

and is included in almost every book and paper on<br />

giant clam husbandry. (For more information on these<br />

snails, see Cumming, 1988).<br />

Every few years, one of our clams died. Usually we<br />

could not determine any cause of death. Giant bristle<br />

worms apparently killed a few of them by entering the<br />

byssal opening at the bottom of the clam and feeding<br />

on the clams’ internal organs. Occasionally we noticed<br />

gas bubbles developing in the mantle tissue (“gas bubble<br />

disease”). This condition usually appeared in the spring,<br />

when the clams received more direct sunlight. We speculated<br />

that increased solar radiation may have contributed<br />

to this condition, either directly, or perhaps indirectly<br />

via warmer water temperature, but we never reached a<br />

definitive conclusion. This condition always resolved itself<br />

and never resulted in mortality.<br />

Whenever a clam died, we recorded its age and the<br />

maximum length of the shell. These measurements are<br />

reported in the accompanying chart. Ideally, we should<br />

have measured each of the clams on a regular schedule<br />

to have complete growth records for each individual, because<br />

each clam grew at a different<br />

rate. Instead, the Waikiki<br />

Aquarium data are a composite<br />

of all of the clams, representing<br />

their size and age when<br />

each clam died. Fortunately,<br />

we do have recent measurements<br />

for the two oldest living<br />

clams (Gigas-77 and MMDC-<br />

82). All of these data points<br />

are on the chart, as well as the<br />

growth data reported by Dieter<br />

Brockmann in his article. How<br />

do these growth rates compare<br />

with growth rates reported elsewhere<br />

John Munro (1993) published<br />

a table including data<br />

from a variety of sources on the<br />

growth rates of six species of<br />

giant clams, including T. gigas.<br />

For each data set, he estimated<br />

future growth based on Von Bertalanffy growth equations.<br />

In the accompanying chart, I selected the fastest<br />

and slowest estimated growth rates from Munro’s table<br />

and equations, and then plotted the data from the<br />

Waikiki Aquarium and from Dieter Brockmann’s clams.<br />

(Also included are data from one T. gigas from Bikini<br />

Atoll; refer to the sidebar story about this clam). Both<br />

data sets nearly coincide with the slower growth rate estimated<br />

for wild clams on Michaelmas Reef, Australia<br />

(the faster projected growth rates were estimated from<br />

aquacultured clams in Palau). These data are the best<br />

evidence that the aquarium growth rates are probably<br />

not aberrant. Note that the single data point at 35 years<br />

is the estimated age of the Waikiki Aquarium’s oldest<br />

clam: Gigas-77. It now measures just shy of 3 feet (90.49<br />

cm), making it very likely the largest giant clam in any<br />

aquarium in the world.<br />

Weight measurements of Gigas-77 were recorded on<br />

three occasions over a span of 20 years. These are “wet<br />

weights” of the whole animal. To take these measurements,<br />

we tied a harness around the clam and hoisted it<br />

in the air, with the harness attached to a scale. A video<br />

highlighting these weighings can be viewed on YouTube<br />

at .<br />

These data are recorded in Table 1.<br />

Table 1.<br />

Wet weight of Gigas-77 at the Waikiki Aquarium<br />

DATE AGE WEIGHT WEIGHT<br />

years kilograms pounds<br />

8/24/90 13 43.1 95<br />

2/25/93 16 54.4 120<br />

5/21/02 25 75.7 167<br />

58 CORAL


In 2002, the Waikiki Aquarium completed work<br />

on a new, larger coral reef exhibit. This 5,500-gallon<br />

(20,820-L) exhibit is 5 feet (1.5 m) deep and has a<br />

maximum front-to-back width of 9 feet (2.7 m). The<br />

viewing window is 14.3 x 4 feet (3 x 1.2 m). The exhibit<br />

was created to be a spectacular display of Pacific reef life,<br />

but also to accommodate the growing size of the giant<br />

clams and the burgeoning collection of living corals. Illumination<br />

continues to come primarily from sunlight,<br />

augmented with three 1,000-watt/6,500K and four<br />

400-watt/20,000K metal halide lamps. One significant<br />

change was made to the life support system: the exhibit<br />

is no longer maintained as an open system. Instead, it<br />

now operates as a typical, albeit very large, closed system,<br />

complete with a calcium reactor and foam fractionator.<br />

Two 250-gallon (946-L) auto-surge tanks are located on<br />

the roof above the exhibit, fed by a 2 HP pump, and they<br />

generate periodic, but significant turbulent circulation.<br />

A second 2 HP recirculation pump provides additional<br />

water motion within the tank via returns in the corners<br />

and throughout the rockwork. A<br />

third 2 HP pump supplies water<br />

to a 10 HP chiller, and this water<br />

is returned via surface outlets<br />

located along the top of the<br />

viewing window.<br />

Tridacna gigas spawning at<br />

Right: Waikiki Aquarium biologist<br />

Rick Klobuchar measures the length<br />

of Gigas-77.<br />

the Waikiki Aquarium has been erratic—and sometimes<br />

a cause for alarm. The first spawning event that we observed<br />

took place on June 18, 1994, when Gigas-77 was<br />

16 years old. The younger MMDC-82 clam spawned a<br />

year later on July 6, 1995, at the age of 13. Spawning has<br />

continued over the years, but has not been predictable.<br />

And, oddly, the clams have only produced sperm; by now<br />

they should be producing eggs. On one evening in May<br />

2008, one or more of the clams spawned in the new exhibit.<br />

Charles Delbeek was alerted to the situation and<br />

took the accompanying photograph on the next page.<br />

Visibility in the exhibit was reduced to zero and the foam<br />

fractionator was overflowing. At the Waikiki Aquarium<br />

it is relatively easy to manage a situation like this by<br />

opening a seawater valve and flushing the exhibit. This<br />

would not be possible in most closed-system aquariums<br />

operated by home aquarists, unless they maintain ample<br />

backup supplies of seawater.<br />

Is T. gigas a desirable choice for hobbyists In my<br />

opinion, the answer is no. Tridacna gigas in the wild are<br />

rapidly disappearing due to overfishing,<br />

despite protection in many<br />

island nations. Wild-caught tridacnid<br />

clams should never be offered<br />

for sale to hobbyists, as they are<br />

protected by the Convention on<br />

International Trade in Endangered<br />

Species (CITES). It is possible to<br />

legally purchase aquacultured T. gigas,<br />

but unless you have an aquarium<br />

capable of eventually managing<br />

a clam that could reach at least 3<br />

These clams are all part of the 1982<br />

cohort of T. gigas from Palau. Age and<br />

size data for these clams are recorded<br />

on the accompanying chart.<br />

TOP: D. TANGONAN; BOTTOM: B. CARLSON<br />

CORAL<br />

59


“White out!” This is what happens when a large T. gigas<br />

spawns in an aquarium. Charles Delbeek photographed<br />

this scene at the Waikiki Aquarium in 2008.<br />

feet (1 m), don’t buy one. And if you aren’t prepared<br />

to keep your aquarium and clam for many (many!) decades,<br />

then resist the temptation to buy one of these giants.<br />

I have seen T. gigas in quite a few home aquariums,<br />

and I know that in a few short years the owners will<br />

face the prospect of greatly expanding the size of their<br />

aquariums or disposing of the clams. Public aquariums<br />

are already adding T. gigas to the list of unwanted pets<br />

that owners deliver to their doors (think “pacu”). If you<br />

want to keep Tridacna in your home aquarium, stick with<br />

the smaller species, such as T. derasa, T. crocea, and T.<br />

maxima, which also tend to be much more colorful. If<br />

you really want to see T. gigas, plan a diving trip to the<br />

South Pacific or make a visit to the Waikiki Aquarium on<br />

your next trip to Hawaii.<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Atkinson, M., B. Carlson, and<br />

G.L. Crow. 1995. Coral growth in<br />

high-nutrient, low-pH seawater:<br />

a case study of corals cultured at<br />

the Waikiki Aquarium, Honolulu,<br />

Hawaii. Coral Reefs 14: 215–23.<br />

Bonham, K. 1965. Growth rate<br />

of giant clam Tridacna gigas<br />

at Bikini Atoll revealed by<br />

radioautography. Science 149:<br />

300–302.<br />

Brockmann, Dieter. April, 2010.<br />

Requiem for a giant clam.<br />

CORAL online, http://www.<br />

reef2rainforest.com/2012/10/06/<br />

requiem-for-a-giant-clam/.<br />

Cumming, R.L. 1998. Pyramidellid<br />

parasites in giant clam mariculture<br />

systems. In: J.D. Copland and J.S.<br />

Lucas, eds, Giant Clams in Asia<br />

and the Pacific, pp. 231–6 (ACIAR<br />

Monograph No. 9, Canberra, Australian Centre for International<br />

Agricultural Research).<br />

Heslinga, G.A., F.E. Perron, and O. Orak. 1984. Mass culture of<br />

giant clams (f. Tridacnidae) in Palau. Aquaculture 39: 197–215.<br />

Fetherree, J. 2006. Giant Clams in the Sea and the Aquarium.<br />

Liquid Medium, Tampa, FL.<br />

Knop, D. 2009. Riesenmuscheln—Arten und Pflege im Aquarium.<br />

Dähne Verlag, Ettlingen, Germany.<br />

Munro, J.L. 1992. Giant Clams. Forum Fisheries Agency Report<br />

92/75.<br />

Many thanks to Gerald Heslinga, who has been an inspiration to<br />

all of us through his pioneering work with giant clam aquaculture<br />

and his efforts to help us procure T. gigas. Heslinga and Charles<br />

Delbeek reviewed this article and provided additional details. I<br />

also must thank Waikiki Aquarium biologist Rick Klobuchar,<br />

who recorded the most recent measurements of Gigas-77 and<br />

MMDC-82. Rick is the fourth aquarist responsible for the care<br />

of these clams at the Waikiki Aquarium (Bruce Carlson 1982–<br />

1985, Marj Awai 1985–1995, Charles Delbeek 1995–2008).<br />

The entire Waikiki Aquarium husbandry and life-support teams<br />

also deserve credit for maintaining the exhibits for all these decades.<br />

I thank the Aquarium’s current director, Dr. Andrew Rossiter,<br />

who allowed me to photograph the clams and to work with<br />

Klobuchar and Gerald Crow to obtain additional information. I<br />

also extend thanks to Dr. Pat Colin for his recollections and participation<br />

in our 1979 T. gigas expedition; and to Mike deGruy,<br />

who was instrumental in arranging logistics for that effort and<br />

so many other Waikiki Aquarium expeditions and documentaries.<br />

Tragically, Mike died in a plane crash on February 4, 2012, while<br />

on a filming expedition in Australia.<br />

Three-year old Ashlynn M.<br />

poses next to the T. gigas<br />

collected at Enewetak<br />

Atoll in 1979.<br />

B. CARLSON<br />

60 CORAL


CORAL<br />

61


Endangered giants<br />

The evolution of the giant clams is a dynamic process, just like<br />

changes in their distribution. Change is the only constant—along<br />

with the threat posed by illegal fishing.<br />

by Daniel Knop<br />

D. KNOP<br />

62 CORAL


Opposite page: Tridacna<br />

gigas fossils to be sold<br />

as collectible objects in<br />

Europe.<br />

This page, clockwise<br />

from top left: Tridacna<br />

costata; Tridacna<br />

mbalavuana, formerly<br />

described as Tridacna<br />

tevoroa; T. elongatissima<br />

(T. squamosa).<br />

M. KOCHZIUSL E. THALER; D. KNOP<br />

For decades it was considered a fact that there were only<br />

two giant clam species of the family Tridacnidae in the<br />

Red Sea: Tridacna maxima and T. squamosa. But the first<br />

description of an additional species by the Philippine marine<br />

biologist Dr. Hilly Ann Roa-Quiaoit in 2008 showed<br />

that even today, it is still possible to overlook unusual<br />

giant clams, even though we live in an age when scientists<br />

and divers have visited almost every coral reef in the<br />

world, photographed<br />

the animals that live<br />

there, and made this<br />

pictorial material accessible<br />

worldwide.<br />

This original description<br />

of a Tridacnidae<br />

species will<br />

undoubtedly not be<br />

the last. In 2006, scientists<br />

working with<br />

Naglaa M. Mohamed<br />

conducted comparative<br />

studies of T. maxima<br />

and T. squamosa<br />

specimens in the Red<br />

Sea and came to the<br />

conclusion that there weren’t just two species there,<br />

as assumed at the time, but a total of five (Mohamed<br />

2006). Two of the then-unknown species are, according<br />

to the author, more closely related to T. maxima, and one<br />

more closely to T. squamosa. It is conceivable that the<br />

last of these is the new species T. costata, described in<br />

2008, but the others are still unknown. All these species<br />

are related to one another and descended from common<br />

CORAL<br />

63


Left, both: A quarry in Kenya—this is where<br />

Tridacna gigas fossils are “mined.”<br />

Opposite page: The shells are accumulated in<br />

front of the simple houses of the workers until<br />

they are taken away for further processing.<br />

ancestors; their existence can be explained as the result<br />

of adaptation to specific habitats.<br />

In addition, individual species often cannot be unequivocally<br />

separated from one another, as it is humans,<br />

not nature, that dictate the relevant criteria. This applies,<br />

for example, to the unusual giant clam from the<br />

Red Sea that Bianconi described as Tridacna elongatissima<br />

in 1856. It combines characters of T. squamosa and T.<br />

maxima, but is noticeably longer and has up to seven<br />

vertical folds in its shell, which is very similar to that of<br />

T. maxima, but the mantle lobe is typical of T. squamosa<br />

in its color pattern. It is, in fact, the latter species: Bianconi’s<br />

original description was declared invalid after<br />

scientific checking. If this T. squamosa morph turns up in<br />

the aquarium trade, it is usually called T. maxima on the<br />

basis of its appearance. But the matter remains of considerable<br />

interest, as the latest genetic research methods<br />

make more precise analysis of phylogeny possible. In the<br />

final analysis, is T. elongatissima one of the three undescribed<br />

species mentioned by Mohamed<br />

When, in 1984, the Russian marine biologist Dr. Boris<br />

Sirenko was working on the Mascarene<br />

Plateau in the Indian Ocean, collecting<br />

specimens for the Zoological Institute<br />

in St. Petersburg, and picked up Tridacna<br />

shells from the bottom in a sea-grass<br />

meadow, he was unaware that what he<br />

held in his hand might be an undescribed<br />

giant clam species. As he revealed to me<br />

a few years ago, that became clear only a<br />

few days later, when he was collecting on<br />

a reef some distance away and found both<br />

T. maxima and T. squamosa there. During<br />

one dive it suddenly occurred to him that<br />

the specimens he had found days before<br />

exhibited completely different characters.<br />

Together with Professor Orest Alexandrovitch<br />

Scarlato, he subsequently described<br />

them as Tridacna rosewateri. But<br />

there was a problem: Immediately after<br />

collection, Dr. Sirenko had removed all<br />

the soft parts of the specimens, which are<br />

indispensable for the scientific description<br />

of a mollusk species. Sirenko was the only<br />

one who had seen the 10 Tridacna rosewateri<br />

specimens alive, but he had paid<br />

little attention to their mantle lobes while<br />

diving. He told me that today, around 25<br />

years later, he can no longer remember<br />

the appearance of the living clams in detail.<br />

Without these soft parts, the genetic proximity to T.<br />

squamosa and T. maxima cannot be precisely ascertained,<br />

so it has been impossible to confirm the scientific validity<br />

of the species. It appears that T. rosewateri evolved from<br />

T. squamosa, and genetic exchange with T. maxima is also<br />

conceivable. It remains to be seen whether the features<br />

distinguishing T. rosewateri from T. maxima and T. squamosa<br />

go far enough for it to be regarded as a distinct species,<br />

but it appears certain that these three species in the<br />

Indian Ocean represent a syngameon, a group in which<br />

genetic exchange takes place.<br />

In addition, matters can remain in flux even after the<br />

scientific description of a new species, as was the case,<br />

for example, following the original description of the<br />

Devil Clam (Tridacna tevoroa), a species that is regarded<br />

by some scientists as an intermediate form between Hippopus<br />

and Tridacna.<br />

A few years after the original description by Lucas<br />

et al. (1990), it turned out that the species had been<br />

described under the name Tridacna mbalavuana by Ladd<br />

back in 1939, from a 2-inch (53-mm) fossil. Hence it is<br />

C. DIEHL & V. BRENNER<br />

64 CORAL


TOP: C. DIEHL & V. BRENNER; BOTTOM: P. KIJASHKO<br />

now called T. mbalavuana, as the first name given always<br />

remains valid. Dr. Hilly Ann Roa-Quiaoit may experience<br />

something similar: other scientists are convinced<br />

they have demonstrated that her Tridacna costata is, in<br />

fact, Tridacna squamosina, originally described by Sturany<br />

in 1899 (Huber et al. 2011).<br />

DISTRIBUTIONS CHANGE<br />

The giant clams also demonstrate that extreme changes<br />

can occur in the distribution regions of species on our<br />

planet. Can you imagine that giant clams formerly also<br />

occurred in Europe This may sound absurd to anyone<br />

familiar with the fauna, geography, and climate of tropical<br />

coral reefs, but don’t forget that Europe once lay on<br />

the Equator! Until around 150 million years ago there<br />

was only a single continent on Earth, termed Pangea by<br />

polar researcher Alfred Wegener. So the land mass of<br />

central Europe contains the calcareous remains of marine<br />

mollusks, such as ammonites and trilobites, and giant<br />

clams of the genus Tridacna can also be found there.<br />

The holotype of Tridacna rosewateri.<br />

For example, in 1837 Georg Gottlieb Pusch described the<br />

species Tridacna media from fossils originating from the<br />

Tertiary (65–2.5 million years ago) in areas of what is<br />

now Poland.<br />

Tridacna gigas, whose distribution is today restricted<br />

to the western Pacific, was formerly also distributed on<br />

the East African coast, and recent fossil finds offer impressive<br />

evidence of a high population density of these<br />

in earlier times. But contrary to what one might assume,<br />

they aren’t found in coastal areas of the sea but on land.<br />

This is because sea level was higher in earlier geological<br />

epochs, and when it fell marine habitats gradually dried<br />

up and became land. In the course of subsequent millennia,<br />

layer upon layer of sediment covered these fossil<br />

coral reefs so that the Tridacna gigas shells migrated ever<br />

deeper into the ground. Geologists have ventured to date<br />

them based on the depth of the finds; they derive from<br />

the geological era known as the Pleistocene, which began<br />

2.5 million years ago and ended around 10,000 years<br />

before our reckoning of time, around 12,000 years ago<br />

from our current viewpoint. The age of these giant clam<br />

fossils thus lies somewhere between 12,000 and 2.5 million<br />

years. The oldest finds from the Pleistocene can be<br />

dated to the time of the rise of humanity (Homo erectus),<br />

1.9 million years ago.<br />

These shells are now being exposed by quarrying.<br />

African workers are removing the fossils from the solidified<br />

sediment surrounding them, initially by rough<br />

excavation. Next the clam shells are gradually freed from<br />

the layers of rock by hand—a time-consuming job. The<br />

weight of these massive shells is sometimes more than<br />

900 lbs (200 kg)—so the work is very taxing, but provides<br />

a lot of people with economic security. The downside is<br />

that these unique witnesses to past epochs are either<br />

ground to fine powdered lime in Africa and used to make<br />

cement, or sawn into small pieces that are ground into<br />

rounded shapes and sold to the jewelry industry as “Tridacna<br />

Pearls.” This is a deplorable practice.<br />

Christian Diehl and Vera Brenner of Waldkappel,<br />

Germany, are going down a different path. In 2011<br />

CORAL<br />

65


Tridacna gigas<br />

fossils prior<br />

to export to<br />

Germany.<br />

they imported a large number of these huge fossils from<br />

Kenya, which they plan to sell to museums, scientific<br />

institutions, and other interested parties, including the<br />

aquarium trade, sport-diving businesses, and even private<br />

marine aquarists and divers. Anyone who owns such<br />

an impressive fossil will look after it carefully, and thus<br />

it will survive for posterity. The few fossil Tridacna gigas<br />

shells that reached Europe in earlier days, for example<br />

with homecoming seafarers, are now highly prized objects<br />

that are passed down from generation to generation.<br />

These fossils originate from an area where these animals<br />

haven’t existed for thousands of years—an example<br />

that demonstrates how the species composition in natural<br />

habitats is subject to constant change. We are hardly<br />

aware of such natural changes, as they don’t take place<br />

within our limited human lifespan. On the contrary, the<br />

Arrival in Germany. These<br />

witnesses to past epochs have<br />

escaped the cement industry.<br />

TOP: DIEHL & V. BRENNER BOTTOM: D. KNOP<br />

66 CORAL


Above: A Tridacna gigas being killed off the coast of Palau.<br />

Left: Tridacna gigas with a shell length of 40 inches (100 cm) are<br />

highly prized collectibles that retain their value.<br />

TOP: ARCHIVBILDER G. HESLINGA; BOTTOM: B. KNOP<br />

disappearances of species from their natural habitats that<br />

we see are not natural shifts in populations, but the extinction<br />

of species caused by man. Giant clams are a very<br />

vivid example of this: within recent decades, their natural<br />

occurrence in many places has dropped to a thousandth<br />

of their original population density (Knop 2009).<br />

THE PERSECUTION CONTINUES<br />

Despite all this, the hunting of live giant clams continues.<br />

In Palau, for example, at the beginning of April<br />

2012 the coast guard authorities of that South Pacific<br />

island state captured a Chinese fishing boat whose crew<br />

were killing specimens of Tridacna gigas in a protected<br />

area and removing the flesh of the closure musculature.<br />

In the confrontation, one of the occupants of the boat<br />

was shot and killed.<br />

A Cessna carrying American pilot Frank Ohlinger<br />

and two policemen from Palau were pursuing a larger<br />

Chinese ship that was likewise hunting giant clams in<br />

the vicinity. After the authorities had stopped the fishing<br />

boat, the fishermen set it on fire and made their escape<br />

in a small speedboat. The plane then went missing; the<br />

last radio transmission from the pilot said that his fuel<br />

was going to run out in a few minutes.<br />

By chance, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was<br />

nearby on his large yacht. The crew of Allen’s yacht<br />

heard radio messages from the Cessna pilot and alerted<br />

the coast guard. To help in the search for survivors from<br />

the missing plane, Allen put the two helicopters based<br />

on his yacht at their disposal, but the Cessna and its occupants<br />

were never found. The spokesman for the Palau<br />

coastguard service, Richard Russell, subsequently let it be<br />

known that according to his last radio message, the tourist<br />

pilot had apparently lost his way due to a defect in the<br />

GPS navigation equipment.<br />

This drama involving the flesh of Tridacna gigas cost<br />

four human lives. Around 25 Chinese fishermen subsequently<br />

faced charges in Palau for illegal fishing and<br />

other infractions.<br />

ON THE INTERNET<br />

www.riesenmuschel.eu (Information on Tridacna fossils from<br />

Kenya)<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Huber, M. and A. Eschner. 2011. Tridacna (Chametrachea)<br />

costata Roa-Quiaoit, Kochzius, Jantzen, Al-Zibdah &<br />

Richter from the Red Sea, a junior synonym of Tridacna<br />

squamosina Sturany, 1899 (Bivalvia, Tridacnidae). Annalen des<br />

Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, ser. B, 112: 153–62.<br />

Gomez, E.D. and S.S. Mingoa-Licuanan. 2006. Achievements<br />

and lessons learned in restocking giant clams in the<br />

Philippines. Fisheries Research 80 (1): 46–52.<br />

Knop, D. 2009. Riesenmuscheln—Arten und Pflege im Aquarium,<br />

2nd edition. Dähne Verlag, Ettlingen, Germany.<br />

Mohamed, N.M., et al. 2006. Molecular Genetic Analysis of<br />

Giant Clam (Tridacna sp.) Populations in the Northern Red Sea.<br />

Asian J Biochem 1 (4): 338–42.<br />

Richter, C., H.A. Roa-Quiaoit, C. Jantzen, M. Al-Zibdah, and M.<br />

Kochzius. 2008. Collapse of a new living species of giant clam in<br />

the Red Sea. Curr Biol 18 (17): 1348–54.<br />

CORAL<br />

67


Keeping giant clams<br />

in the aquarium<br />

by Daniel Knop<br />

Just as the natural habitats of individual giant-clam species differ, the aquarium husbandry requirements of<br />

different species also vary—here we provide some tips on the subject. Hippopus porcellanus, Tridacna mbalavuana,<br />

and T. rosewateri are not mentioned, as they aren’t available for aquarium maintenance.<br />

When purchasing a giant clam, make sure that it is opening well in the dealer’s tank, that the mantle<br />

lobe is extended fully, that it shows a rapid sight reaction (reaction to movement or a shadow response), and<br />

that there are no bleached-out areas on the mantle lobe. The intake siphon should be slit-like and ringed<br />

with tentacles (if they are present in the species in question). A permanently extended siphon suggests serious<br />

weakening of the animal.<br />

Tridacna gigas<br />

Hippopus hippopus<br />

Description: Length up to 16 inches (40 cm), significantly more<br />

only in exceptional cases. Coloration dark brown to olive green;<br />

pattern of thin, light lines running longitudinally (parallel to the<br />

edge of the shell).<br />

Diagnostic characters: Thick, heavy, scale-free shell, noticeably<br />

shorter than Tridacna shells; numerous, variably wide vertical folds<br />

with serrated upper edges. Mantle lobe not overhanging outer<br />

edge of shell, serrated byssal opening, red spotting on entire outer<br />

side of shell, intake opening tentacle-free.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: H. hippopus is very robust and less dependent<br />

on the photosynthetic products of its symbiotic algae<br />

than the Tridacna species. Just like T. gigas, it often lives in muddy<br />

habitats, from which it can be concluded that it is not only resistant<br />

to floating matter but also filters phytoplankton as food. The<br />

lighting should be moderate and can have higher Kelvin values.<br />

Adaptation to very bright lighting should take place slowly and<br />

carefully.<br />

Tridacna gigas<br />

Description: Length up to 48 inches (120 cm), brown or olive<br />

green predominating in the coloration, individual green/blue iridescent<br />

rings, in rare cases a dense covering of the latter.<br />

Diagnostic characters: Scale-free shell with four clearly prominent<br />

vertical folds, no thicker shell closure on the upper edge,<br />

azooxanthellate, white longitudinal stripes on the central third of<br />

the mantle lobe, intake opening tentacle-free.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: T. gigas is one of the most sensitive giant<br />

clam species and requires very stable environmental conditions.<br />

Because of its adaptation to deeper and significantly more stable<br />

habitats, this species is not as tolerant of shallow-water fluctuations<br />

as T. maxima or T. crocea. However, it will tolerate relatively<br />

heavy accumulations of sediment in the water and probably also<br />

filters more phytoplankton from the water as food than do the majority<br />

of other Tridacnidae species. Exercise care when using very<br />

strong lighting; this species will tolerate strong whole-spectrum<br />

daylight, but needs to be slowly adjusted to it. Moderate illumination<br />

with higher Kelvin values (e.g., 14,000 K) is better.<br />

Hippopus hippopus<br />

TK<br />

68 CORAL


Tridacna squamosa<br />

Tridacna costata<br />

Tridacna squamosa<br />

Description: Length up to 16 inches (40 cm), coloration variable,<br />

brown shades usually predominating, rarely blue and green, usually<br />

a “circular” pattern whose elements run parallel to the edge of<br />

the mantle.<br />

Diagnostic characters: Shell has rows of scales at greater intervals<br />

than in T. maxima, lower part of shell almost always scaled, tentacles<br />

present on inlet siphon.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: Like T. maxima, T. squamosa<br />

is a particularly robust giant clam and is eminently<br />

suitable for aquarium maintenance. In the wild they<br />

live at depths of 33–66 feet (10–20 m). This species has<br />

a lower light requirement than the smaller species T.<br />

crocea and T. maxima. They often live in depressions in<br />

the reef wall or in the coral sand at its foot. Many specimens<br />

that are placed in the aquarium when small will<br />

attain maximum size even under T8 fluorescent lighting<br />

(1 inch / 26 mm).<br />

Tridacna costata<br />

Description: Length up to 14 inches (35 cm), patterned inconspicuously<br />

brown.<br />

Diagnostic characters: Five to six noticeably prominent vertical<br />

folds in shell, long zig-zag processes on upper margin, shell has<br />

long, close-packed scales, mantle lobe has wart-like prominences.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: T. costata was first discovered only a few<br />

years ago and is the third Red Sea giant clam. So far, no informa-<br />

Tridacna maxima<br />

T. COSTATA: M. KOCHZIUS; ALL OTHERS: D. KNOP<br />

Tridacna maxima<br />

Description: Length up to 16 inches (40 cm), but usually<br />

attains only around 12 inches (30 cm). Coloration<br />

variable, multicolor patterning, usually “radial” (from<br />

the center to the periphery of the mantle).<br />

Diagnostic characters: Row of dark hyaline organs<br />

close to edge of mantle lobe, tentacles present on intake<br />

siphon; shell has scales in horizontal rows, more<br />

close-packed than in T. squamosa; lower part of shell<br />

usually scale-free, as it is partially embedded in a solid<br />

substrate.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: T. maxima is one of the<br />

most robust giant clams and hence one of those<br />

most suitable for the aquarium. In the wild it lives significantly<br />

deeper than T. crocea and tolerates lighting<br />

with Kelvin values well above daylight values (around<br />

6,000 K) that simulate the natural light at around<br />

50–66 feet (15–20 m). The lighting should also be less<br />

powerful than for T. crocea.<br />

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69


tion is available on its maintenance in the aquarium. But because<br />

this clam inhabits the habitat occupied by T. maxima, and by T.<br />

crocea in the West Pacific, it should be assumed that the maintenance<br />

suggestions given for those species are also valid here. The<br />

lighting shouldn’t deviate too much from daylight values (6,000 K);<br />

very high Kelvin values do not correspond to the natural habitat.<br />

Tridacna crocea<br />

Tridacna<br />

derasa<br />

Tridacna crocea<br />

Description: Length 6 inches (15 cm), coloration variable, multicolored<br />

patterning.<br />

Diagnostic characters: Thick, heavy, scale-free shell with fine fluting,<br />

very large byssal opening, tentacles present on intake siphon.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: T. crocea is often offered in the aquarium<br />

trade. Nevertheless it is not the easiest giant clam species to<br />

keep. This may be due in part to the fact that it is almost always<br />

kept in the aquarium without the “limestone mantle” that it possesses<br />

in the wild; this species almost always lives embedded in<br />

rock or a coral skeleton. This may be one of the reasons<br />

why a kind of “flight behavior” can be observed<br />

in T. crocea in the aquarium more often than in all<br />

the other species: The clam releases its byssal attachment<br />

from the substrate and tries to leave the spot,<br />

repeatedly opening and closing its shell and levering<br />

itself with its foot, which it extends through the byssal<br />

opening. This can only be taken as a sign of a lack<br />

of well-being.<br />

Because it is adapted to the shallow-water areas<br />

of the coastal zone, this species is relatively tolerant<br />

of fluctuations in density and temperature, and it is<br />

the least dependent on planktonic food. It requires<br />

strong lighting with the full daylight spectrum<br />

(around 6,000 K).<br />

Tridacna derasa<br />

Description: Length up to 26 inches (65 cm), coloration variable,<br />

gold-yellow striping (parallel to the shell margin, “circular”) on a<br />

brown background, often with a thin blue margin to the mantle<br />

lobe.<br />

Diagnostic characters: Scale-free shell with five or six moderately<br />

prominent vertical folds, thick shell closure at upper edge, some<br />

local variants azooxanthellate (farms in the South Pacific), round,<br />

whitish spots on outer third of mantle lobe, tentacles present on<br />

intake siphon.<br />

Aquarium maintenance: T. derasa is considered one of the more<br />

sensitive giant clams. Its gill anatomy doesn’t permit it to develop<br />

in sediment-rich zones; the gills can become badly clogged when<br />

dirt is stirred up, and the animal can suffocate. For this reason these<br />

clams should be temporarily removed from the aquarium during<br />

cleaning or any work that disrupts the sediment, and replaced only<br />

when the water is clear again. The species is relatively adaptable in<br />

terms of lighting; moderate to high light strength, daylight color<br />

(6,000 K) to moderate blue illumination (e.g., 14,000 K).<br />

Cultured Derasa beauties<br />

Once regarded as drab and<br />

the least desirable of Giant<br />

Clams, Tridacna derasa<br />

has come a long way in<br />

the hands of breeders in<br />

mariculture facilities. These<br />

beauties from Oceans Reefs<br />

& Aquariums in Ft. Pierce,<br />

<strong>Florida</strong>, are bred and raised<br />

on the ORA farm in the<br />

Marshall Islands.<br />

MATTHEW L. WITTENRICH / HTTP://WWW.AQUATICPIXELS.NET/<br />

70 CORAL


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CORAL<br />

71


The exciting challenge of breeding “native” marine fishes<br />

article and images by Matt Pedersen<br />

72 CORAL


Orangeback Bass,<br />

Serranus annularis, is<br />

a prized deepwater<br />

species that the author<br />

is working to breed.<br />

In 2011 I got the itch to reexamine the Caribbean<br />

reef fishes that started the entire<br />

marine aquarium hobby here in the U.S.<br />

Any number of things might have triggered<br />

my interest in the fishes of <strong>Florida</strong> and the<br />

waters beyond.<br />

Perhaps it was my reacquaintance with the<br />

writings of Robert Straughan, whose book The<br />

Salt-Water Aquarium in the Home I first read when<br />

I was about nine years old. Oddly, I have a certain<br />

feeling of nostalgia for a time I never even<br />

lived through, a time when “Boston Beans” and<br />

“Jewelfish” may have lived in a stainless steel–<br />

framed aquarium with a slate bottom. Through<br />

Straughan’s rarer books, such as The Marine Collector’s<br />

Guide and Adventures in Marine Collecting,<br />

I later came to have a deeper appreciation of<br />

the history of collecting marine fish and how the<br />

saltwater aquarium hobby started.<br />

My recent interest might have been sparked<br />

when I collected my own fishes while diving with<br />

Tom Scaturro last year. It might have been all the<br />

political controversy about Hawaii and my personal<br />

concerns that <strong>Florida</strong> could be the next<br />

flashpoint for anti-aquarium activists. It may<br />

have even been that empty reef tank in the corner<br />

and my desire to create a “biotope” aquarium<br />

and avoid the SPS-filled reefs that have become<br />

commonplace—diving on the reefs of the <strong>Florida</strong><br />

Keys, often dominated by gorgonians, gave<br />

me a different vision to work toward. Maybe it<br />

was Todd Gardner’s stories of wayward tropicals<br />

being carried up the coast by the Gulf Stream,<br />

filling my head with visions of fish in desperate<br />

need of salvation from certain doom, that had<br />

me thinking about our forgotten natives.<br />

Or it could have been my lifelong love affair<br />

with the Foureye Butterflyfish, Chaetodon capistratus,<br />

which I first kept when I was only 10 or 11<br />

years old and which didn’t live for more than a<br />

few weeks in my 10-gallon marine tank with its<br />

air-driven undergravel filter.<br />

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73


The Spotted Drum, Equetus<br />

punctatus, is exoticlooking<br />

as a juvenile and<br />

might make for an offbeat<br />

breeding experiment.<br />

Maybe it was Dr. Wittenrich pointing out the actively<br />

courting pair of Sharpnose Pufferfish in a “Space Coast”<br />

lagoon in 2010 that got me thinking about breeding<br />

some Floridians. Or it could have been the random discovery<br />

that some of the rarer fish that I had presumed to<br />

be Indo-Pacific were, in fact, found in Caribbean waters.<br />

As I discovered random overlooked species, either on my<br />

own or through the guidance of fellow aquarists, my appetite<br />

for information grew. Before long, I was plowing<br />

through Paul Humann’s book Reef Fish Identification,<br />

Volume 1: <strong>Florida</strong>, Caribbean, Bahamas<br />

and realizing that the aquarium<br />

community has all but ignored a true<br />

treasure trove of species that can be<br />

found right here in our “backyard”!<br />

A few species from these waters<br />

(Liopropoma rubre and L. carmabi)<br />

have recently been bred for the first<br />

time, both by Todd Gardner at Long<br />

Island Aquarium. Let’s take a quick<br />

look at some truly special <strong>Florida</strong><br />

species that I’ve tried to tackle as a<br />

breeder, including one that may be<br />

almost entirely new to everyone reading<br />

this.<br />

marine aquarium<br />

hobby. The Foureye’s<br />

unpopularity<br />

may have been<br />

well deserved, due<br />

to relatively humble<br />

coloration and a deplorable<br />

track record<br />

in captivity. Some<br />

experts may disagree,<br />

but the overall consensus<br />

is that the<br />

Foureye Butterflyfish<br />

is anything but easy.<br />

Still, this is one<br />

of those fish that<br />

has held my heart<br />

from day one. Never<br />

mind Straughan’s<br />

stories of individuals<br />

that required<br />

feedings of live Rose<br />

Corals (Manicina<br />

areolata)—by the<br />

time I was breeding Harlequin Filefish and trying to rear<br />

Dragonets, I felt I had gained enough skill to revisit this<br />

boyhood fantasy. I have learned a lot about keeping the<br />

Foureye along the way.<br />

First, start small. With today’s modern transportation,<br />

the old advice to start with larger fish (who have<br />

larger “reserves”) is outweighed by the overall resiliency<br />

and adaptability of smaller specimens. Still, it has been<br />

my experience that even with quick handling, Foureyes<br />

are not the best shippers, so they should be put straight<br />

The Foureye Butterflyfish<br />

is an endearing species<br />

from native waters and a<br />

voracious Aiptasia hunter.<br />

The author is currently<br />

working with this species<br />

in hopes of finding success<br />

with captive breeding.<br />

THE FORSAKEN FOUREYE<br />

BUTTERFLYFISH,<br />

CHAETODON CAPISTRATUS<br />

Butterflyfish took a huge hit in popularity<br />

when reef tanks and nano<br />

aquariums started to dominate the<br />

74 CORAL


Widely thought difficult to<br />

acclimate, the Foureye Butterflyfish,<br />

Chaetodon capistratus, readily<br />

eats live blackworms and can be<br />

transitioned to more convenient<br />

prepared foods.<br />

into individual quarantine to give them the best chance<br />

of recovery following transit.<br />

Although these fish are difficult to get to feed at<br />

times, I have never had a healthy wild-caught Foureye<br />

refuse live blackworms, so they are highly recommended<br />

as a first food. From there, you can wean a Foureye<br />

onto prepared foods by starting with freeze-dried Tubifex<br />

worms soaked in Selcon or other liquid HUFA enhancers.<br />

Once they are consuming this food with gusto, branch<br />

out into other foods soaked in the same preparations;<br />

frozen brine shrimp and Mysis will likely be accepted.<br />

Eventually, but not always, you may even get your Foureyes<br />

eating pellet foods; mine showed particularly good<br />

response to APBreed’s TDO, as well as Spectrum Thera A<br />

in the smaller 0.5-mm pellet size.<br />

The Foureye offers another bonus: it is a phenomenal<br />

controller of Aiptasia. I first became aware of this<br />

through Mike Meadows, who used to keep the related<br />

Banded Butterflyfish, Chaetodon striatus, in a large SPS<br />

reef tank for Aiptasia control. Of course, like many fish<br />

that excel at feeding on this pest anemone, Foureyes are<br />

not 100 percent reef safe. I’ve seen them pick at zoanthids<br />

and consume the tentacles, although they seldom<br />

eat the animals outright. Compatability with gorgonians<br />

is a mixed bag; early on I had a specimen that completely<br />

ignored them, but when I placed some larger broodstock<br />

in my gorgonian reef they eventually turned on the gorgonians,<br />

causing them to remain closed during daylight<br />

hours. Overall, I can say Foureyes are generally safe with<br />

SPS corals. While I’ve certainly seen the occasional nip,<br />

there have been no closed polyps, a sign that these fish<br />

are “reef compatible with caution.”<br />

There is perhaps no better butterflyfish for the home<br />

breeder to attempt. Foureyes are one of the smallest butterflyfish<br />

species at maturity; a specimen over 4 inches<br />

(10 cm) is probably very rare. I found some documentation<br />

in the scientific literature that suggests this species<br />

may be sexually mature at a size of no more than 2 inches<br />

(5 cm). Butterflyfish are pelagic spawners, and as far as<br />

I know no one has yet successfully reared a butterflyfish<br />

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75


species in captivity, but these days, such statements only<br />

encourage breeders to attempt the “impossible.”<br />

There is a downside: most butterflyfish are pairforming<br />

fish, and the Foureye is no exception. Leave it<br />

to Jeremy Maneyapanda to remind me, some years ago,<br />

that many butterflyfish, while often considered “peaceful”<br />

with other tank inhabitants, can be quite violent<br />

with each other. We’ve found that pair-forming marine<br />

fish are often hermaphrodites, but to date most literature<br />

suggests that butterflyfish buck that trend and are<br />

fixed-sex, or gonochoristic.<br />

Interestingly, I have found a single paper that researched<br />

another small butterflyfish species, the Hawaiian<br />

endemic Pebbled Butterflyfish, Chaetodon multicinctu,<br />

and suggested a striking possibility: butterflyfish may<br />

be hermaphrodites, but they sexually differentiate into<br />

male or female early in their lives and are then unable<br />

to switch again. If this is true for Chaetodon capistratus,<br />

the absolute best broodstock would be the stray tropicals<br />

collected on the northeastern U.S. shores, as these<br />

fish are often quite small. In fact, they are much smaller<br />

than the legally permissible minimum size that can be<br />

collected in <strong>Florida</strong> (1 inch/2.5 cm), and the specimens<br />

Todd Gardner sent me in 2011 arrived ready and willing<br />

to eat larval pellet diets like TDO.<br />

Needless to say, the biggest breeding hurdle is getting<br />

a pair. If you’re lucky, two tiny juveniles placed together<br />

could form a pair (a 50 percent chance, but that could be<br />

much higher if the Foureye “fixes” sex at some point as<br />

the fish grow up together). I’ve found that large groups<br />

quickly whittle themselves down to three individuals.<br />

This arrangement may last for weeks, months, or, in one<br />

recent case, a year. But at some point, a pair will form<br />

out of the three remaining fish and they will turn on<br />

the outcast. Foureyes can be extremely aggressive with<br />

each other; on more than on occasion I have placed two<br />

fish together, only to have one kill the other the first<br />

night. So plan ahead if you attempt to tackle pairing this<br />

fish—multiple tanks will be required. Thankfully, your<br />

fellow reefkeepers may be highly interested in your extra<br />

Aiptasia-eating machines.<br />

I have been working seriously on this project for<br />

about two years now, and I encourage anyone to join my<br />

race! Or, for that matter, try the Banded Butterflyfish…its<br />

bold black and white markings have truly grown on me.<br />

BYGONE BASSLETS<br />

The genus Serranus is awesome. With one or two exceptions,<br />

these mini-groupers would be called “dwarfs” because<br />

most are less than 4 inches (10 cm) long. Perhaps<br />

the most commonly seen is the Chalk Bass, Serranus<br />

tortugarum, which is surprisingly small, only 2–3 inches<br />

(5–8 cm) long, and it’s gregarious to boot. There is a curious<br />

sexual twist—it’s thought that all the Serranus species<br />

are simultaneous hermaphrodites. If that’s true, any<br />

two specimens will make a viable male and female pair.<br />

While the Chalk Bass is interesting, the real allure<br />

of the Serranus genus lies in the species that look like<br />

perfect miniatures of the large, aggressive predators<br />

they’re related to. Sure, these are still predators in their<br />

own right, but to be honest, I repeatedly tried and failed<br />

to feed 1-inch (2.5-cm) culled Percula Clownfish to full<br />

adult, 4-inch (10-cm) Harlequin<br />

Basslets (Serranus tigrinus).<br />

Still, there is a risk of these<br />

basslets consuming small fish<br />

and crustaceans.<br />

The risks aside, I love the Serranus<br />

basslets now that I’ve kept<br />

a couple of species. Serranus tigrinus<br />

was one of the two fish I<br />

caught by hand while diving in<br />

the Keys last year (the other was<br />

a Trumpetfish, which I quickly<br />

released). I quickly realized there<br />

is a downside to keeping pelagic<br />

spawners; once they were conditioned,<br />

they tended to jump<br />

out of open-topped quarantine<br />

tanks. Only later did I realize<br />

that they were jumping because<br />

Harlequin Bass heavy with eggs in a<br />

tank aquascaped with Purple Plume<br />

Gorgonians, Muriceopsis flavida,<br />

from <strong>Florida</strong>.<br />

76 CORAL


A pair of Cherubfish or<br />

Atlantic Pygmy Angelfish,<br />

Centropyge argi, spawns<br />

nightly in the author’s<br />

24-gallon (90-L) nano reef<br />

aquarium.<br />

they were spawning.<br />

I finally documented the spawning of Serranus tigrinus<br />

in my 92-gallon (348-L) corner reef, and I don’t believe<br />

this tank is big enough. Though they coexisted, the<br />

pair at times seemed unhappy to be sharing this space.<br />

There was no outright damage, but as the pair grew, I<br />

often found one specimen hiding in the upper back corner,<br />

chased there by the other. That said, they spawned<br />

frequently at night, and it did appear that both fish acted<br />

as both male and female, though I can’t be sure. It appeared<br />

that one fish would soar over the reef, dorsal fin<br />

held erect, fins on the ventral surface clamped, with the<br />

back arched upward to display the distended, gravid belly.<br />

About an hour after the first spawn, I saw the other<br />

specimen perform this same courtship display on multiple<br />

occasions. The eggs were buoyant and small, and<br />

it’s safe to assume they would quickly hatch as prolarvae.<br />

Ironically, for years I kept a pair of a much rarer species<br />

of Serranus (the Orangeback Basslet, Serranus annularis)<br />

in a 24-gallon (90-L) cube with no major aggression.<br />

The species literature suggests this is generally<br />

a deep water species and, while it is seen in <strong>Florida</strong> from<br />

time to time, I believe it enters the trade through other<br />

areas of the Caribbean where collecting deeper is probably<br />

cheaper. My pair did initially exhibit some aggression<br />

toward each other, but so long as they were kept fat<br />

and happy, they got along quite well.<br />

I was able to document the spawning of this species<br />

just once, and then only by recording video in the evening<br />

and watching it later. That said, I am convinced<br />

they were spawning far more frequently. I have a hunch<br />

that in this species may not function as a simultaneous<br />

hermaphrodite. I had one fish that was routinely stocky<br />

and robust, as if always ready to spawn, while the other<br />

fish remained much more svelte in appearance. Could<br />

it be that these fish were protogynous, with the larger,<br />

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Juvenile Rock Beauty, Holacanthus tricolor, a<br />

species that has thrived on “spongivore” rations<br />

and formed pairs in the author’s aquariums.<br />

dominant one functioning as the female in the pair<br />

I will never know, as their tank recently overheated to<br />

91ºF, which killed them quite rapidly (their tankmates<br />

made it through no worse for the wear). The lesson here<br />

was that being deeper water fish, they probably should be<br />

kept slightly cooler.<br />

Another lesson: We routinely culture groupers as<br />

food fish. Serranus spp. are, in many ways, nothing more<br />

than scaled-down versions of groupers, so what works<br />

for groupers may work quite well for Serranus. For all we<br />

A small, wrasse-like <strong>Florida</strong> species,<br />

the Greenblotch Parrotfish,<br />

Sparisoma atomarium, is a dedicated<br />

herbivore and will spawn in<br />

captivity. Adult phase male, left, and<br />

intermediate phase female, right.<br />

78 CORAL


know, someone has already reared a Serranus somewhere, but maybe you’ll<br />

be the first to do it and write about it here in CORAL!<br />

ABANDONED ANGELFISHES<br />

It’s amazing to think that the first captive-bred angelfishes were none other<br />

than the often-ignored Pomacanthus paru (French) and P. arcuatus (Gray),<br />

and they were bred decades ago by Martin Moe. He also tried to rear the<br />

Rock Beauty, Holacanthus tricolor.<br />

The Rock Beauty’s reputation for being doomed is so firmly entrenched<br />

in hobby literature that few keep it these days, and I guarantee that no one<br />

has been trying to pair them up. It seems that much of the hobbyist literature<br />

will have to be rewritten, because while they certainly are a more sensitive<br />

angelfish and can be picky when first starting to eat, I had 100 percent<br />

success rates getting appropriately sized fish to feed. Were it not for two<br />

outbreaks of Cryptocaryon and a jumper, all the fish I’ve had would still be<br />

alive today. I still have a strong juvenile who’s been on hand for over a year<br />

now and shows no signs of failing me anytime soon.<br />

Any dietary concerns can be addressed by offering the frozen foods that<br />

contain sponge, and Brightwell Aquatics is now offering a “spongivores”<br />

food soak that is said to provide the exact amino acids found in sponges,<br />

which, in theory, could provide a nutrient that might be missing from a captive<br />

diet. Although veteran aquarists such as Sanjay Joshi have told me stories<br />

of adult Rock Beauties dying for no reason, even in recent times, I think we<br />

are far better prepared to attempt this species now than we were in the past.<br />

I’ve now formed three pairings of juvenile Rock Beauties, and in all<br />

cases, having a reasonable size difference of 1 inch (2.5 cm) resulted in<br />

compatible pairings. Could it really be that easy Well, considering I’ve also<br />

had to pair up my Queen Angelfish (Holacanthus ciliarus) twice, and both<br />

times it worked so long as there was a size difference, I think we’re heading<br />

down the right path. Of course, the pairing of large angelfish while still<br />

juveniles is only a first step; all of these pairings could end in tragedy when<br />

sexual maturity hits. Or they could require massively larger aquariums than<br />

most can offer. I stand ready with a 300-gallon (1,136-L) Rubbermaid pond<br />

in my basement—it’s a start! The Rock Beauty is technically the second<br />

CORAL<br />

79


smallest of <strong>Florida</strong>’s angelfishes; if there is any hope for<br />

the captive breeding of a Holacanthus in our future (I’m<br />

aware of no home spawnings at this time), the Rock<br />

Beauty probably offers the best chance.<br />

Breeding big angelfishes is probably more appropriate<br />

for commercial scale operations, but <strong>Florida</strong> offers<br />

the home aquarist arguably the perfect angelfish species<br />

with the Cherubfish or Pygmy Angelfish, Centropyge argi.<br />

I have kept a colony going for years now in a 24-gallon<br />

(91-L) nano cube, and the original colony members<br />

were spawning within two weeks of introduction.<br />

The number of fish has varied at times from two to<br />

four, due to two murders and one jump (finding a fiveyear-old<br />

fish dried out on top of the screen installed to<br />

prevent this sort of thing is highly frustrating); it seems<br />

that three is the magic, stable number. Get one large and<br />

two small specimens, quarantine them separately for a<br />

couple of weeks to get them into condition, and then<br />

introduce them to their final home at the same time.<br />

Given their protandrous, haremic social structure, you<br />

should have few issues establishing a breeding trio in<br />

short order. They’ll spawn nightly, and they’ll do it for<br />

years. Angelfish breeding expert Frank Baensch finally<br />

got around to “claiming the first” breeding of this species<br />

in 2011, so you’re looking at a species that we know<br />

can be done because it has been done! With Parvocalanus<br />

copepod cultures now commercially available, the breeding<br />

of an angelfish at home is finally within the reach of<br />

the home hobbyist. The information and<br />

materials are readily available—what are<br />

you waiting for<br />

FLORIDA’S ALGAE-EATING<br />

FAIRY WRASSE—OK, IT’S A<br />

PARROTFISH<br />

Tony Vargus and Julian Sprung deserve<br />

credit for turning me on to one of the<br />

coolest overlooked marine fish of all<br />

time—the Greenblotch Parrotfish, Sparisoma<br />

automarium. I jokingly call it an<br />

“algae-eating fairy wrasse” because the<br />

juveniles are largely red, like many juvenile<br />

fairy wrasses. They swim a lot like<br />

wrasses, too. But unlike most other parrotfish<br />

species, the Greenblotch tops out<br />

at roughly 4.5 inches (11 cm) in length;<br />

most are even smaller.<br />

I cannot sing the praises of this fish<br />

enough. It appears to be pretty hardy, settles<br />

in well, is reef safe (I never saw one<br />

nipping on SPS frags), eats algae, and is<br />

fundamentally very different from most<br />

other commonly kept reef fishes. Knowing<br />

that herbivores play a vital role in reef<br />

health, I worried about popularizing a<br />

species like this. Initially, when I inquired<br />

about this species I was told that collectors<br />

hadn’t seen it, but when I got in the water<br />

with Tom Scaturro last year, they were everywhere.<br />

It turns out that this is a common,<br />

small red parrotfish that simply gets<br />

overlooked. That’s probably a good thing,<br />

because on multiple occasions I’ve received<br />

the Redband Parrotfish, Sparisoma<br />

aurofrenatus, instead. The Redband isn’t<br />

a popular aquarium fish, with very good<br />

reason. When settled in, the difference is<br />

generally obvious; juveniles of both species<br />

are bright red, but the Redband has<br />

two horiziontal white stripes and a black<br />

80 CORAL


spot above the pectoral fin. However, this coloration can<br />

change on a dime. The unfortunate consequence is that<br />

you could wind up with a parrotfish species that grows to<br />

11 inches (28 cm), not 4.5 inches (11 cm)!<br />

The collectors I’ve purchased this species from see<br />

no risk in the sustainable harvesting of the Greenblotch<br />

Parrotfish, but even early on, I encouraged them to put<br />

a premium price on the species to reduce demand. Some<br />

divers were collecting this fish and selling it as an “assorted”<br />

parrotfish for practically nothing, but now that<br />

we know it’s desirable, I am concerned about rapid overharvest<br />

if the price is too low. In addition to overcollection,<br />

the greater risk in hobbyists pursuing this species<br />

is that we could end up with a bunch of unwanted,<br />

oversized Redband Parrotfish (I have one<br />

right now…any takers). If we see more<br />

of this fish for sale, it must be collected<br />

in a responsible manner and properly<br />

identified.<br />

While the Greenblotch Parrotfish is<br />

truly fascinating, it is far from perfect.<br />

Don’t buy one to fix your hair algae<br />

problem; mine never touched the stuff!<br />

They do graze all day long, so they may<br />

keep algal growth from getting a foothold.<br />

Greenblotches are aggressive with<br />

each other, particularly two males. I<br />

maintained a small colony for a while in<br />

my 92-gallon (348-L) tank, and I have<br />

to say they were awesome in a group of<br />

four or five juveniles and a single male.<br />

Since they are protandrous, I found that<br />

in a group of red-colored juveniles, the<br />

dominant fish turns male in a matter<br />

of weeks. The biggest problem I had was<br />

jumping; they are true escape artists. But<br />

if they’re jumping, it means you’re treating<br />

them right and they’re happy. They’re<br />

jumping because they’re spawning.<br />

Yes, I spawned this species earlier<br />

this year and even managed to hatch<br />

some out, but this represents another<br />

species—in fact, another family—that<br />

no one has successfully spawned and<br />

reared. Greenblotch Parrotfish are pelagic<br />

spawners, but it seems they like to<br />

spawn in the morning, which is highly<br />

atypical for most pelagic spawners. They<br />

spawn very frequently, perhaps even<br />

daily. Courtship consists of rapid parallel<br />

swimming around the tank, and the<br />

spawning rises that I’ve seen are rapidly<br />

spiraling corkscrew ascents to the surface<br />

at lightning speed. How did I know<br />

my fish were spawning I’d hear them<br />

hitting the cover glass during the day.<br />

THE HONORABLE MENTIONING<br />

OF UNSUNG HEROES<br />

The very first marine fish spawned and reared successfully<br />

may have been the Neon Goby, Elactinus multifasciatus,<br />

and not the Ocellaris Clownfish that we all might<br />

assume was first. Of course, the cleaner gobies of the<br />

genus Elactinus offer several exciting offbeat choices<br />

besides the common Neon Goby, and these fish are all<br />

within the grasp of even first-time breeders.<br />

Someone with a lot of space and a penchant for the<br />

unusual might try something like the Spotted Drum,<br />

Equetus punctatus. I had one for a while; the downside is<br />

that they’re sensitive shippers and very rarely available in<br />

the aquarium trade. Both the High Hat (Pareques acumi-<br />

CORAL<br />

81


natus) and the Jackknife Fish (Equetus lanceolatus) were<br />

spawned and reared successfully decades ago; the smaller<br />

and more easily obtainable High Hat would make a great<br />

subject for an offbeat breeding project. Given their dietary<br />

preferences, a reef tank with a sand bottom could<br />

house a pair of these striking black and white fish.<br />

Perhaps the most interesting species in this list is a<br />

little gem called Monacanthus tuckeri, the Slender Filefish.<br />

My time spent breeding the Harlequin Filefish (Oxymonacanthus<br />

longirostris) gave me a deeper appreciation for<br />

all things “filefish,” and Monacanthus tuckeri is one of<br />

those really unique species that you just never see in the<br />

trade. I’ve had the good fortune to have three of them,<br />

all hand-collected for me at great lengths and all found<br />

singly; this fish is not common in <strong>Florida</strong>’s waters. Of<br />

course I wanted to try to breed the species, but for the<br />

hobbyist who’s doing something with gorgonians, these<br />

are just fantastic fish in their own right. In nature, it<br />

is common for them to reside within the branches of<br />

the gorgonians, well camouflaged. They might even be<br />

sexable through the presence or lack of bristles on the<br />

caudal peduncle. I even kept these in reef tanks and they<br />

were quite benign, never causing any damage to anything.<br />

But as luck would have it, M. tuckeri are Olympic<br />

high-jumpers. The collectors who found these fish for<br />

me never had any problems, but my first disappeared<br />

from an open-top reef tank and was found only when<br />

we moved the tank. The second jumped within 48 hours<br />

of arrival. I watched the third specimen<br />

jump three times while I was looking at it<br />

with a fellow aquarist. So before you seek<br />

out this beautifully cryptic filefish species,<br />

get yourself an airtight lid for your<br />

aquarium!<br />

EVEN MORE AWAITS YOU<br />

The roll call of awesome “native” marine<br />

fish that deserve our attention is<br />

long. Someone out there should breed<br />

Blue Reef Chromis (Chromis cyanea) and<br />

Sailfin Blennies (Emblemaria pandionis).<br />

I drool over the slightly more southern<br />

Blackringed Gobies (Gobiosoma zebrella)<br />

and Spotcheek Blennies (Labrisomus nigricinctus),<br />

not to mention the Tesselated<br />

Blenny (Hypsoblennius invemar) that occurs<br />

in the Gulf’s waters. Who doesn’t<br />

like the notion of kinky sex going on in<br />

his or her aquariums—how about some of<br />

the other simultaneous hermaphrodites<br />

found in our waters, the various hamlets,<br />

genus Hyploplectrus Why not one of the<br />

jawfishes (Opistognathus spp.) They’re<br />

just another example of native fishes that<br />

have already been bred, but deserve more<br />

of our attention.<br />

There is no shortage of stunning,<br />

droolworthy, under-appreciated beauties<br />

to be found in the waters that border our<br />

eastern and southern shores. If you want<br />

to learn more about them, grab yourself<br />

a copy of Humann’s Reef Fish Identification,<br />

Volume 1, and start dreaming. With<br />

a recent revival of interest in Caribbean<br />

cnidarians, be it Flower Anemones or the<br />

highly agreeable photosynthetic gorgonians,<br />

and no shortage of highly interesting<br />

invertebrate life, perhaps the next<br />

tank you set up should be a Caribbeanbiotope/propagation<br />

tank.<br />

82 CORAL


STEP UP<br />

Reef Chemistry Trusted by Professionals, Now In Hobbyist Sizes<br />

Ask Your Local Specialty Retailer, or<br />

Buy Direct Online: www.fritzpet.com/reef-chemicals<br />

CORAL<br />

83


Keeping Z E B R A MA N T I S<br />

<strong>Shrimp</strong><br />

article and images by Roy L. Caldwell, Ph.D.<br />

PART I<br />

Stomatopod crustaceans, or mantis shrimp, as they are commonly known, are becoming<br />

increasingly popular with aquarists. These colorful marine predators are active,<br />

inquisitive animals around which a considerable mythology has developed. No, their<br />

strike does not have the same power as a .22 caliber bullet capable of taking out the<br />

side of your new 100-gallon glass aquarium. (The largest stomatopods have a strike<br />

more equivalent to a pellet gun, although the measured striking force of a 6-inch<br />

[15-cm] Peacock <strong>Mantis</strong> <strong>Shrimp</strong>—1,400 Newtons—is impressive and more than 2,500<br />

times the animal’s weight.) And no, they will not consume every fish, snail, and crab<br />

in your aquarium for the pure sport of it, although they are predators and, given the<br />

opportunity, they will feed on available prey.<br />

Figure 6: Adult male <strong>Zebra</strong> <strong>Mantis</strong> <strong>Shrimp</strong>,<br />

Lysiosquillina lisa, a magnificent “spearer”<br />

stomatopod.<br />

84 CORAL


What makes stomatopods unique is a pair of highly<br />

specialized appendages that they use to capture and<br />

process prey and that serve as lethal weapons in fights<br />

with competitors. Early in the evolution of stomatopods,<br />

over 350 million years ago, one of the pairs of mouth<br />

Figure 1: An undescribed species of<br />

the stomatopod Gonodactylus from<br />

southeast Queensland, Australia.<br />

appendages, the second maxillipeds, became greatly enlarged<br />

and were used to rapidly reach out and seize prey.<br />

With these first “raptorial appendages,” each armed with<br />

a single terminal spike (dactyl), the stomatopod could<br />

grasp or stab soft-bodied prey (Figure 2). However, over<br />

time, the form and function of the raptorial appendages<br />

became specialized in different lineages. In many<br />

groups, the dactyls bear from 3 to over 20 barbed<br />

spines that are used to impale soft-bodied animals<br />

such as shrimp and fish. Functionally, I have classified<br />

such stomatopods as “spearers” (Figure 3).<br />

Other groups of stomatopods have evolved raptorial<br />

appendages with enlarged and heavily calcified dactyl<br />

heels. These appendages are more powerful and are<br />

used to smash armored prey such as crabs, snails, and<br />

hermits. I call these stomatopods “smashers” (Figure<br />

4). The type of raptorial appendage that a stomatopod<br />

possesses determines not only the prey it consumes,<br />

but just about every aspect of its biology, from the<br />

home it occupies and the habitat in which it lives to its<br />

aggressive and mating behaviors. Spearers tend to live<br />

in muddy or sandy habitats, where they excavate burrows<br />

in which they lie in ambush for passing prey, typically<br />

only leaving the safety of their burrows to hunt<br />

at night. Smashers are more likely to inhabit hard substrates,<br />

such as the rocky intertidal or coral reefs where<br />

they seek out and defend cavities. They are also more<br />

likely to hunt away from their cavities during daylight<br />

hours. Due to the lethal nature of their weapons and<br />

CORAL<br />

85


the danger of interacting with other individuals, smashers<br />

have evolved much more sophisticated sensory systems,<br />

more elaborate communication, and more complex aggressive<br />

behavior than spearers. One manifestation of this<br />

is their use of dramatic coloration for signaling.<br />

All of these factors—frequent forays away from home<br />

during the day, dramatic attacks on prey, bright coloration,<br />

and a bold, inquisitive nature—have made smashers<br />

the aquarium stomatopods of choice. At the top of<br />

the list is the Peacock <strong>Mantis</strong> <strong>Shrimp</strong>, Odontodactylus<br />

scyllarus. Also known as the Clown or Harlequin <strong>Mantis</strong>,<br />

it is one of the largest and most brightly colored of all<br />

stomatopods (Figure 5). Found from East Africa to Japan<br />

and New Caledonia, this species is widely available<br />

through commercial sources, and many aquarists who<br />

first encounter one cannot resist the dramatic colors and<br />

interactive nature of the beast. However, Peacock <strong>Mantis</strong><br />

<strong>Shrimp</strong> have their drawbacks. They are large and active,<br />

requiring a relatively large species aquarium—at least 35<br />

gallons (132.5 L) for a mature 5-inch adult. They are<br />

also prone to digging and rearranging the local landscape,<br />

which can cause havoc for sessile invertebrates.<br />

As generalist predators, they will attack everything<br />

from fish and crabs to clams and urchins. They are<br />

highly aggressive by nature and you cannot keep more<br />

than one in a tank. And then there are health problems.<br />

Molting problems can lead to raptorial appendage loss<br />

or death, and the dreaded “shell rot” is an often fatal<br />

disease that attacks the cuticle of older animals. These<br />

issues reduce longevity in the home aquarium to usually<br />

less than two or three years. And finally, as the popularity<br />

of O. scyllarus has grown, availability is declining and<br />

prices are escalating.<br />

A NEW GROUP OF STOMATOPODS<br />

ON THE SCENE<br />

Recently, representatives of another group of stomatopods<br />

are being offered for sale. Known in the aquarium<br />

trade as <strong>Zebra</strong>, Striped, or Bumble Bee <strong>Mantis</strong> <strong>Shrimp</strong>,<br />

these stomatopods are armed with vicious-looking, multibarbed<br />

raptorial appendages and are dramatically colored<br />

with yellow and brown or black transverse stripes (Figure<br />

6). They can also reach a prodigious size—over a foot in<br />

length (30 cm). These spearers belong to the family Lysiosquillidae.<br />

While their biology is quite different from<br />

that of the popular Peacock <strong>Mantis</strong>, for some aquarists<br />

they offer an interesting and desirable alternative.<br />

First, a bit of taxonomy. There are 3 genera and 17<br />

species in the family Lysiosquillidae. All are found in<br />

tropical waters. Ninety-five percent of the animals I’ve<br />

seen for sale are Lysiosquillina maculata from the Indo-<br />

Pacific, but occasionally one can find Lysiosquillina sulcata<br />

from the Central and West Pacific, Lysiosquillina<br />

lisa from Indonesia (Figure 7), Lysiosquillina glabriuscula<br />

from the Caribbean (Figure 8), Lysiosquilla tredecimden-<br />

Figure 4: Odontodactylus<br />

scyllarus smashing a snail.<br />

86 CORAL


Figure 2, left: A 100-million-year-old<br />

fossil stomatopod, Pseudosculda<br />

laevis, from Lebanon. Note the<br />

simple spikes that tip the<br />

raptorial appendages.<br />

Figure 3:<br />

Lysiosquillina<br />

sulcata spearing<br />

a damselfish.<br />

tata from the Indo-Pacific, and Lysiosquilla scabricauda<br />

from the Caribbean. All of these species form pairs as<br />

adults and reach a maximum size of at least 7.8 inches<br />

(20 cm). The largest is L. maculata, which can reach a<br />

total length of 15.3 inches (39 cm). They vary somewhat<br />

with respect to substrate and depth preference, but in<br />

general they all live in sandy substrates and dig U-shaped<br />

burrows lined with a mixture of sand and mucus. Some<br />

species, such L. maculata, are sexually dimorphic, with<br />

males doing most of the hunting. Others, for example L.<br />

glabriuscula, are not, and both males and females hunt<br />

simultaneously from the burrow entrances. For more information<br />

on some lysiosquillids, see http://www.ucmp.<br />

berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/index.html.<br />

I’ll restrict the rest of<br />

my comments to L. maculata, the species that we know<br />

the most about and that is most likely to be encountered<br />

in the aquarium trade (Figure 9).<br />

L. maculata are very long-lived. I have followed burrows<br />

in Hawaii for over 20 years and I have adult pairs<br />

in my laboratory that have not substantially grown, but<br />

that I captured as adults nine years ago. Given that postlarvae<br />

settle out at about .79 inch (20 mm) and grow<br />

fairly slowly (one juvenile in my lab is only 4.7 inches<br />

[12 cm] at nine years old), I estimate that L. maculata<br />

can live at least 20 years and probably longer. Postlarvae,<br />

juveniles, and sexually immature adults dig simple vertical<br />

burrows 6 to 8 times the animal’s total length. At<br />

about 40 percent of maximum adult size (5.57 inches<br />

[14–18 cm]), they become sexually mature and form<br />

pairs, although we don’t know how males and females<br />

find one another. The pair apparently expands one of<br />

their burrows, digging a second entrance to form a U-<br />

shaped home. The burrows of adult pairs are typically<br />

2.75–4.7 inches (7-12 cm) in diameter and 11.8–19.7<br />

inches (30–50 cm) deep, and may extend horizontally<br />

6.5–16.4 feet (2–5 m). Reproductively mature L. maculata<br />

are sexually dimorphic. Females have smaller raptorial<br />

appendages and eyes better suited for a life within<br />

the burrow, digging and caring for eggs; the males have<br />

larger raptorial appendages for hunting (Figure 10).<br />

L. maculata are classic “sit and wait” ambush predators.<br />

In the field they almost never leave their burrows.<br />

In my laboratory, one pair has been kept in a “natural”<br />

CORAL<br />

87


Figure 7, top left: Closeup of the raptorial appendages of<br />

Lysiosquillina lisa.<br />

Figure 8, bottom left: Lysiosquillina glabriuscula threatening.<br />

burrow for eight years and we have never found the male<br />

or female out of the burrow. In the field, the only time<br />

we see an individual leave its burrow is if a male loses<br />

a mate. Within a day of the loss he abandons the burrow<br />

to search for another female. These searches usually<br />

take place at night, and lone males may occasionally<br />

be attracted to night lights. If a female’s mate dies, she<br />

does not abandon the burrow, but advertises for a nearby<br />

male to pair with him. This can be an immature, unpaired<br />

male (Figure 11) or, more typically, a male already<br />

paired with a smaller female. These males will “trade up”<br />

to get a larger female who will lay more eggs. On rare<br />

occasions, environmental disasters like substrate erosion<br />

or freshwater or anoxic conditions will force animals<br />

from their burrows, but these events are usually fatal.<br />

There is some evidence that pairs in the field molt<br />

synchronously, sealing their burrow with a sand-mucus<br />

cap 5.9-inches (15 cm) thick while they molt. They<br />

can remain sealed in the burrow for more than two<br />

weeks. I don’t see this behavior as frequently in the<br />

laboratory, although when the male molts the female<br />

remains in the entrance and reduces the size of<br />

her burrow opening. You can usually tell when a pair<br />

has molted, because when they reopen the burrow<br />

they discard their raptorial dactyls and mandibles on<br />

the surface near the entrance. The rest of the molt<br />

skin is stored in the burrow and eventually eaten<br />

(Figure 12).<br />

In the field, males hunt during the day from a<br />

mostly sealed burrow with a small opening in the<br />

center, through which the sand-colored eyes and<br />

antennules protrude (Figure 13). The “cap” on the<br />

burrow is formed by mixing sand and mucus into<br />

a paste and forming it into a flat disk. The animal<br />

shapes the cap by pressing it between the first, third,<br />

fourth, and fifth maxillipeds, rotating as it adds to<br />

the membrane. When the cap is finished, the male<br />

uses his antennules to sweep away any telltale marks<br />

on the outside of the cap. When a fish ventures within<br />

striking distance of the entrance, about a third of<br />

the stomatopod’s length, the male strikes through<br />

the cap, impaling the prey on the dactyl spines. At<br />

the same time the dactyl closes against the propodus,<br />

which is armed with long, movable spines that become<br />

erect during the strike, effectively pinning the<br />

fish between the dactyl and propodus (Figure 14). In<br />

one quick movement, the stomatopod withdraws tail<br />

first into the burrow, dragging the fish down with it.<br />

Using cut-away burrows in the laboratory, we have<br />

been able to see what happens next. Once down the<br />

burrow, the male makes a jackknife turn to face his<br />

mate and presents the prey to her. He then returns<br />

to the entrance to repair any damage to the cap and, if<br />

hungry, resumes fishing. Surplus fish are cached in the<br />

burrow for a day or two and eaten later. When a fish ap-<br />

88 CORAL


Figure 5: Adult male Peacock <strong>Mantis</strong> <strong>Shrimp</strong>,<br />

Odontodactylus scyllarus.<br />

proaches the burrow, I have watched males<br />

wiggle their antennule flagella in a wormlike<br />

manner, apparently attempting to lure<br />

prey to within striking distance. Sometimes<br />

males do not close their burrows, but partly<br />

conceal the entrance, using their sand-colored<br />

antennule scales to fill the entrance<br />

(Figure 15). After dark, particularly on<br />

moonlit nights, males also hunt from a burrow<br />

entrance without forming a cap.<br />

Most of what we know about reproduction<br />

in Lysiosquillina comes from the spawning<br />

of pairs in the laboratory. After a molt,<br />

the female’s ovaries develop. They are clearly<br />

visible as a broad pink or orange stripe down<br />

her back, extending from the carapace to the<br />

telson (Figure 16). In fact, females caught in<br />

Figure 9, right: Large male<br />

Lysiosquillina maculata.<br />

Figure 10, above right:<br />

Sexual dimorphism<br />

in adult Lysiosquillina<br />

maculata. The female<br />

(top) has smaller eyes and<br />

raptorial appendages. Both<br />

members of this pair were<br />

12 inches (31 cm) long.<br />

Figure 11, left: A small<br />

male Lysiosquillina<br />

maculata (bottom) caught<br />

paired with a larger female.<br />

The 6.3-inch (16-cm) male<br />

is just becoming sexually<br />

mature.<br />

CORAL<br />

89


Figure 12, above: A molt skin of a Lysiosquillina maculata visible<br />

in a cutaway burrow.<br />

Figure 14, below: A male Lysiosquillina sulcata capturing a fish.<br />

Note the erect propodal spines that pin the fish between the<br />

dactyl and the propodus.<br />

the field usually have some ovarian development. Mating<br />

occurs in the burrow shortly before the female lays her<br />

eggs. The male mounts the female from the rear, grasping<br />

her carapace with his maxillipeds and turning her on<br />

her back so that their ventral thoraxes are opposed. He<br />

then inserts his pair of gonopods, or penises (Figure 17),<br />

into her genital openings and deposits his sperm into her<br />

sperm storage organ. The female can store sperm for a few<br />

months as long as she doesn’t molt. If she does, the sperm<br />

are lost and she must mate again to fertilize her eggs.<br />

As the female nears egg-laying, three pairs of cement<br />

glands on her ventral thorax become engorged and white<br />

(Figure 18). These glands provide the matrix material<br />

that the female will use to form her eggs into a mass<br />

that she will keep in the burrow with her. The individual<br />

eggs are pink to orange and are about 0.35<br />

mm in diameter. They are extruded through<br />

the female’s two gonopores as she lies in the<br />

burrow on her side. As the eggs emerge, she<br />

mixes them with secretions from the cement<br />

glands and kneads the mass into a large disk<br />

using her first, third, fourth, and fifth pairs<br />

of maxillipeds. The matrix material sets in a<br />

few hours, and she then picks up the flexible<br />

egg disk in her maxillipeds and wads it into<br />

a ball, working it frequently for aeration and<br />

cleaning (Figure 19).<br />

A large, 11.8-inch (30 cm) L. maculata<br />

will produce over 100,000 eggs each time she<br />

Figure 13, below, left: A male Lysiosquillina sulcata<br />

hunting from a capped burrow.<br />

Figure 15, below: A male Lysiosquillina maculata<br />

hunting from an uncapped burrow. The large<br />

antennal scales help camouflage the entrance.<br />

90 CORAL


Figure 16, above left: The pink ovaries of the female (top) of this<br />

pair of Lysiosquillina maculata are packed with eggs.<br />

Figure 17, above: The penises of a male Lysiosquillina lisa are<br />

tubes extending from the base of the third pair of walking legs.<br />

Figure 19, above, right: A female Lysiosquillina maculata holding<br />

her egg mass shortly after laying.<br />

Figure 18, right: The cement glands of a female Lysiosquillina<br />

maculata provide the matrix material that hold the eggs in a<br />

mass. Just before egg-laying, the glands are white and greatly<br />

enlarged.<br />

spawns; in the laboratory this has occurred about twice<br />

a year. At 77°F (25°C), the eggs take a little over three<br />

weeks to develop and hatch. At two weeks, eyes are visible<br />

in the developing larvae and they turn dark gray as<br />

their yolks are depleted. The eggs hatch at night and the<br />

larvae remain in the burrow until sunrise. The first instar<br />

larvae are attracted to light, and at dawn they swarm out<br />

of the burrow and enter the plankton. The male remains<br />

in the burrow entrance at this time and may “assist” the<br />

larvae’s exodus by vigorously fanning water from the burrow.<br />

Other than ventilating the burrow and occasionally<br />

retrieving the egg mass, this is the only direct care the<br />

male provides for his offspring (Figure 20). When most<br />

of the larvae have hatched and left the burrow, one of<br />

the parents—we don’t know which—picks up the matrix<br />

material that had encased the eggs and throws it out of<br />

the burrow entrance.<br />

CORAL<br />

91


Figure 20: A male Lysiosquillina maculata<br />

sitting in his burrow entrance as newly<br />

hatched larvae leave the burrow.<br />

After the larvae enter the plankton, their behavior is<br />

largely unknown. Over the next several months they will<br />

molt seven times and grow to over .94 inch (24 mm)<br />

in length. Lysiosquillid larvae are armed with formidable<br />

spines on their bodies that deter fish predation. When it<br />

is time for the larvae to settle from the plankton, they appear<br />

near shore and, beginning four or five days after the<br />

full moon, they move onto sand flats and reefs in the early<br />

evening. At this time larvae are easily collected because<br />

they are attracted to light. (We can catch<br />

dozens in an evening, standing in waistdeep<br />

water, pointing a dive light out to<br />

sea, and scooping up larvae with a net<br />

as they swim into the light beam.) Once<br />

the larvae have encountered a suitable<br />

sandy patch, they settle to the bottom<br />

and molt their spiny armor, revealing<br />

.79-inch (20-mm) postlarvae that resemble<br />

clear miniature adults. By dawn,<br />

the postlarvae will have excavated a burrow<br />

and begun feeding (Figure 21).<br />

Burrows are critical for the survival<br />

of lysiosquillids, and their excavation<br />

and maintenance takes up much of the<br />

animal’s time. The process starts with<br />

the mantis shrimp vigorously fanning<br />

its pleopods (gills) to create a trench by<br />

pushing out loose sand behind it. Once the stomatopod<br />

has dug a trench about as long and deep as its body, it<br />

uses its maxillipeds to bulldoze more sand, forming a<br />

vertical front wall to the trench. The animal then scoops<br />

up sand in its mouth parts and jackknifes, depositing the<br />

sand from the bottom front of the trench into the rear of<br />

the trench. After several such maneuvers, the trench is<br />

filled with sand from the base of the front wall and there<br />

is the beginning of a burrow. At this point, the stomato-<br />

Figure 21: A newly settled Lysiosquillina maculata hunting from<br />

its burrow. It has just speared a larval Pullosquilla lateralis, a<br />

small stomatopod common on the same sand flats.<br />

92 CORAL


Lysiosquillina sulcata lunges forward to try and capture a<br />

fish. I have only once managed to take a photo like this,<br />

showing the lunging movement.<br />

pod uses its maxillipeds to mix mucus, which it secretes,<br />

with the sand and uses this mixture to form the burrow<br />

walls. As the burrow deepens, the animal dives down<br />

head first, grabs sand from the bottom in its maxillipeds,<br />

jackknifes, bringing the sand to the surface, and throws<br />

it away from the entrance. The burrow entrance remains<br />

flush with the substrate, with no mound to reveal its<br />

presence. As needed, more sand is mixed with mucus to<br />

shore up the walls of the burrow. The burrow is only<br />

about 1¼ times the diameter of the stomatopod, which<br />

possesses a highly articulated body that allows it to turn<br />

in such tight quarters. Postlarvae and juveniles can excavate<br />

a burrow in a few hours and produce sufficient<br />

mucus to shore up the walls. However, adults require a<br />

much larger burrow and they don’t have enough mucus<br />

to build even the beginning of a burrow that will conceal<br />

them. I’ve followed large L. maculata that I have released<br />

on an open sand flat, and even after several hours attempting<br />

to dig a burrow, they manage to achieve no<br />

more than a shallow pit that leaves them totally exposed<br />

to predators. This inability of larger animals to construct<br />

a new burrow from scratch may explain why lysiosquillids<br />

typically occupy the same burrow for life. They constantly<br />

modify and expand it, recycling the stabilized<br />

sand/mucus mixture. It may also explain the evolution<br />

of monogamy in this group. If males went searching for<br />

mates, there is a good chance that they would lose their<br />

burrows, and without the ability to quickly dig a new<br />

one, would be subject to predation. It is a better option<br />

for the male to remain with his mate in the safety of<br />

the existing burrow and defend and provision her as she<br />

produces a steady supply of his offspring.<br />

Part II of this article will appear in the January/February 2013<br />

issue of CORAL. The complete article is now available online at:<br />

http://www.reef2rainforest.com.<br />

Professor Roy Caldwell lectures at the University of California,<br />

Berkeley, USA. He is director of the University of California<br />

Museum of Paleontology and head of the Caldwell Laboratory.<br />

His main interests are the ecology and behavior of invertebrates,<br />

and he is regarded as one of the leading experts on mantis shrimps<br />

worldwide. He has been studying these creatures both in the wild<br />

state and in the laboratory for decades, and observing them in<br />

laboratory aquaria.<br />

For more information<br />

on Lysiosquillidae:<br />

www.ucmp.<br />

berkeley.edu/<br />

arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/<br />

eumalacostraca/<br />

royslist/index.html.<br />

CORAL<br />

93


94 CORAL


Kreisels are not new, but commercial units are expensive and not yet readily<br />

available to aquarium hobbyists. As small-scale marine breeding grows in<br />

popularity, many questions arise: “What are the benefits of a kreisel” “How<br />

does it work” “How can I build one myself”<br />

K<br />

reisel, in German, means rotating or moving in<br />

a circular pattern, and a kreisel or kreisel tank is<br />

an important tool for rearing delicate marine<br />

larvae, including fishes, crabs, and shrimps.<br />

Baby seashorses, for example, do much better<br />

in a kreisel than in a boxy tank. A kreisel<br />

is especially worthwhile for anyone who<br />

has difficulty with the rearing of a particular species, and<br />

wants to improve his or her results with tiny larvae or<br />

newly hatched fishes. This technique came to my notice<br />

through discussions with successful breeders, and the<br />

benefits very quickly became clear to me. I have already<br />

been able to help several people via Internet forums or<br />

on the phone with information on the advantages of<br />

kreisel tanks in rearing marine larvae and tips for constructing<br />

and running them. I use three of them to rear<br />

Thor amboinensis and Lysmata seticaudata. I would now<br />

like to share the experience I have gained with CORAL<br />

readers. My interest is mainly invertebrates, but the basic<br />

kreisel design works extremely well for fishes, too.<br />

PRINCIPLES OF THE KREISEL TANK<br />

A kreisel is a horizontal cylinder in which a gentle,<br />

regular circular current is created. This current can be<br />

produced either by the injection of bubbles from an air<br />

pump or with a small water pump. The airline is secured<br />

A kreisel for rearing<br />

marine larvae<br />

by Christian Martin<br />

Thor amboinensis. The larvae of this “Sexy <strong>Shrimp</strong>”<br />

are particularly easy to rear in a kreisel .<br />

in the middle of the kreisel (see diagram) so that the air<br />

bubbles rise up the wall of the cylinder in a quarter circle,<br />

taking the water with them and creating the circular current.<br />

However, it is important to ensure the movement<br />

is gentle so that the larvae aren’t constantly exposed to a<br />

strong current. This is particularly important with delicate<br />

larvae such as those of Lysmata shrimps. The larvae<br />

should be kept permanently in motion so that they don’t<br />

settle on the bottom.<br />

SEXY SHRIMP: I. KRAUSE; ALL OTHERS: C. MARTIN<br />

Left: A homemade<br />

rearing kreisel<br />

(around 1.6<br />

gallons/6 L in<br />

volume) in use.<br />

Right: Schematic<br />

representation<br />

of the kreisel<br />

principle, using air<br />

bubbles to set up<br />

a rotating water<br />

motion.<br />

CORAL<br />

95


Pre-bending the acrylic sheet.<br />

Fitting the acrylic-glass kreisel into the glass<br />

tank; the clamps secure the construction until<br />

the silicone has set.<br />

WHY USE A KREISEL<br />

Kreisel tanks have been used for a long time for<br />

rearing seahorses and marine crustaceans. When<br />

my first attempt at rearing Lysmata shrimps failed,<br />

I was advised to try using one of these—and it<br />

worked!<br />

THE ADVANTAGES OF A KREISEL TANK:<br />

ly<br />

suspended.<br />

<br />

current (as in a rectangular tank).<br />

<br />

walls of the tank, where there can be numerous<br />

(potentially harmful) microorganisms.<br />

<br />

to the lowest point of the kreisel and can easily be siphoned<br />

off.<br />

DIFFERENT TYPES OF KREISEL<br />

I will discuss three types of kreisel tank, each with its own<br />

advantages and disadvantages. There are other designs be-<br />

Two finished kreisel tanks, each with a volume<br />

of around 4.2 gallons (16 L).<br />

96 CORAL


CORAL<br />

97


yond what I present here. The choice of construction ultimately<br />

depends on the breeding project in question, and<br />

in this respect everyone must weigh the advantages and<br />

disadvantages.<br />

Standalone air-driven kreisel. This variant is a selfcontained<br />

kreisel that is operated with an air pump and<br />

not connected to a larger aquarium system. The air supply<br />

can be regulated using an airline clamp or valve. Because<br />

the water volume in this type is relatively small,<br />

partial water changes should be performed frequently.<br />

Kreisel permanently installed in a larger tank. The<br />

permanently installed kreisel is built into a larger tank<br />

and has a fine mesh panel of fiberglass window screen<br />

material on one side to permit water exchange. The tank<br />

can also be linked to a centralized aquarium system or a<br />

sump, which makes it significantly easier to keep the nutrient<br />

concentration in the rearing kreisel at a low level.<br />

With this type of kreisel, a water current pump or small<br />

powerhead can be used instead of an air pump, guaranteeing<br />

good water exchange. Its inlet must be outside<br />

the kreisel, or larvae will end up in it. Very small pumps<br />

that can be throttled back if necessary are suitable for<br />

the purpose. The mesh screen tends to get clogged very<br />

quickly, so it must be cleaned frequently. For this reason<br />

it is practical to construct the unit so that the mesh can<br />

be removed quickly and cleaned outside of the aquarium.<br />

Transportable kreisel tank. This type of kreisel can<br />

be suspended in a functioning aquarium or sump. It<br />

is a matter of choice whether it is operated<br />

as a self-contained unit or linked to<br />

the aquarium in which it is suspended. I<br />

would advise a self-contained system, as<br />

the suspended material that occurs in a<br />

typical reef aquarium or equipment tank<br />

will clog the gauze of an open system<br />

very rapidly. The biggest advantages of a<br />

kreisel suspended in a normally operated<br />

aquarium are that no separate heating is<br />

required, and the rearing tank occupies<br />

no additional space in the living room. A<br />

transportable kreisel tank should be made<br />

entirely of plastic so that it is lightweight<br />

and therefore easy to handle.<br />

BUILDING A KREISEL TANK<br />

Essentially there are two options when<br />

constructing a kreisel. You can get a large<br />

acrylic or PVC tube with a diameter of<br />

at least 8 inches (20 cm), saw off a suitable<br />

length, and make an opening in the<br />

top. Or you can form the kreisel yourself<br />

from a thin plexiglas (acrylic) sheet. Using<br />

a large tube is easier, but costs more.<br />

The kreisel can be closed off with glass or<br />

plexiglas at the front and back. It is essential<br />

to use a suitable adhesive, such<br />

as Acrifix® for acrylic or Tangit for PVC.<br />

Silicone will work, but the gluing of glass<br />

and acrylic with silicone requires the<br />

prior use of a primer on the acrylic, as<br />

silicone doesn’t stick well to acrylic. If<br />

you don’t use a primer, you should compensate<br />

by being very generous with the<br />

silicone in order to increase the area of<br />

contact, create mechanical solidity, and<br />

avoid leaking, even if it doesn’t look very<br />

neat. Never cobble together an outer tank<br />

in this way; this measure should only be<br />

used to fix a plastic kreisel in an otherwise<br />

watertight glass or acrylic tank.<br />

98 CORAL


CORAL<br />

99


HOW I BUILD MY KREISEL TANKS<br />

I prefer to use a simple kreisel operated by air and not<br />

linked to an aquarium system. I built my first kreisel into<br />

a 3-gallon (12-L) standard aquarium that measured 12 x<br />

8 x 8 inches (30 x 20 x 20 cm) (l x w x h). The kreisel itself<br />

had a volume of around 1.5 gallons (6 L). Because of<br />

this rather small tank volume, it wasn’t possible to rear<br />

a large number of larvae in it, and very frequent, regular<br />

partial water changes had to be performed. I fitted my<br />

next two kreisels into glass tanks of about 5 gallons (20 L)<br />

and hence suitable for a far higher number of larvae.<br />

In order to create the “roll” that will ultimately form<br />

the kreisel, I use a 2-mm acrylic sheet. I cut this to the<br />

precise size I need, using a saw with a fine-toothed metal<br />

blade. I establish the required length beforehand using<br />

a tape measure directly inside the glass tank, and the<br />

width corresponds to the internal width of the glass tank<br />

less a millimeter, to allow room to maneuver and space<br />

for a thin layer of silicone in between.<br />

However, acrylic sheets are far too stiff to be bent to<br />

such a tight radius and glued into the tank immediately.<br />

For this reason I start by bending it into a horseshoe<br />

shape and securing it with a strong cord. I then heat it<br />

in the oven for about 10 minutes at around 140–158°F<br />

(60–70°C), though I start at a somewhat lower temperature<br />

setting and slowly increase it; at too high a temperature<br />

the material will become very soft and distort.<br />

After heating in the oven the sheet should be carefully<br />

removed and allowed to cool. As soon as the cord is removed,<br />

the kreisel will open up a little, but will largely<br />

retain its shape and be sufficiently pre-formed to be<br />

persuaded into the eventual shape required in the outer<br />

tank. This is achieved by using clamps to hold it in the<br />

desired shape and securing it at the top with thick blobs<br />

of silicone. The whole thing should then be allowed to<br />

set for two days before removing the clamps and attaching<br />

the kreisel to the tank all the way around with silicone.<br />

Apply as much as possible to make sure that the<br />

construction is really watertight. After two days more<br />

it should be tested for leaks and improved if necessary.<br />

Finally, the heater and airline can be fitted (a suction cup<br />

can be used to secure the airline). Before using, be sure<br />

to “season” the kreisel in full-strength saltwater for at<br />

least a day and then rinse thoroughly.<br />

SUMMARY<br />

I hope that this article has provided you with some useful<br />

information on the subject of kreisel tanks and motivated<br />

you to construct a simple one of your own. In my<br />

opinion, this type of rearing tank is now an important<br />

tool in the hobby-scale rearing of marine creatures, especially<br />

the larvae of shrimps and crabs. If you are having<br />

difficulty rearing a particular species, try using a kreisel—<br />

I wish you every success!<br />

What is Power<br />

The mind has exactly the same power as the hands: not merely to<br />

grasp the world, but to change it. - Colin Wilson<br />

Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that<br />

we are powerful beyond measure. - Nelson Mandela<br />

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in<br />

their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a<br />

brave, determined spirit. - Mark Twain<br />

Knowledge is power. - Francis Bacon<br />

This is Goniopower ® .<br />

Justin Credabel<br />

www.twolittlefishies.com<br />

100 CORAL


CORAL 101


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102 CORAL


aquarium portrait | BY KEVIN BITTROFF<br />

A mud filter and lots of<br />

patience—one path to success<br />

My career as an aquarist began with a jar of<br />

sticklebacks and followed the typical path,<br />

inevitably culminating in the acquisition of<br />

a marine aquarium. On the way I experienced<br />

the highs and lows that many of you<br />

know very well.<br />

I have been involved in the aquarium<br />

hobby since I was 11 years old. Like so many aquarists, I<br />

have been fascinated by creatures that live in the water<br />

since I was a child. My first aquarium wasn’t a proper<br />

tank at all—it consisted of a large glass jar in which I put<br />

wild fishes I had caught in a stream. I kept them as long<br />

I could, but naturally they didn’t survive very long under<br />

such conditions. My parents eventually bought me my<br />

first real aquarium. It was a simple freshwater tank, but<br />

it sparked an interest that I have never lost.<br />

ALL: K. BITTROFF<br />

FALSE START<br />

After 10 successful years with freshwater aquariums, I<br />

wanted to try my hand at the marine side of things. So I<br />

converted my 63-gallon (240-L) freshwater aquarium to<br />

a marine tank, which I planned to run using the EcoSystem<br />

Miracle Mud® filter method. But because of several<br />

career-based moves, I soon had to give this aquarium up.<br />

I didn’t want to be left with no aquarium, so I set up a<br />

16.5-gallon (63-L) nano reef tank. But I was impatient,<br />

and it wasn’t long before I decided to upgrade. This hasty<br />

decision was one of the biggest mistakes of my aquarium<br />

career. Perhaps I simply didn’t allow myself enough time,<br />

and as a result I twice had to contend with fish deaths<br />

that remain unexplained to this day.<br />

A NEW BEGINNING<br />

That was a hard lesson, but it opened my eyes to the fact<br />

that good planning and, above all, patience are the most<br />

important factors in the successful and responsible running<br />

of a marine aquarium. Armed with this knowledge,<br />

I ventured a new beginning and was determined to do<br />

everything properly this time. My desire was to create a<br />

splendid reef tank that could be run with a minimum of<br />

equipment and effort. During the planning stage, I recalled<br />

my first mud-filter aquarium, at the time my only<br />

marine aquarium, which had actually worked without<br />

any major problems. So I decided to set up my new, appreciably<br />

larger reef tank using mud in a refugium.<br />

EQUIPMENT<br />

Since we were already moving, I naturally wanted to<br />

find the optimal solution for the new 240-gallon (900-<br />

L) aquarium and include it in our plans right from the<br />

start. It was to be integrated into our living room, but because<br />

the house itself would use up most of our budget,<br />

CORAL<br />

103


Thriving specimens of various Acropora species, above left, and<br />

healthy, fast-growing, colorful Montipora stony corals, right.<br />

the amount available to realize my aquarium dream was<br />

very small. I tried to design the most energy- and costefficient<br />

setup possible.<br />

I built the stand for the aquarium myself out of autoclaved<br />

aerated concrete (AAC) blocks. The deck was<br />

of 1.5-inch (40-mm) beech plywood. In order to get by<br />

without an external sump, I had Aquarien Geis construct<br />

a custom tank with three filter chambers in a compartment<br />

at the rear. In this way I saved the cost of plumbing<br />

as well as a sump, but this design also saved electricity,<br />

as I was able to choose a comparatively small return<br />

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CORAL<br />

105


LED lighting is economical, and<br />

the corals like it too.<br />

pump that didn’t need to contend with any difference<br />

in height. The protein skimmer was installed in the first<br />

chamber.<br />

Because the chamber was small at 8 x 8 inches (20 x<br />

20 cm), the skimmer also had to be very compact; I chose<br />

a Cyclon AS 1500 from Zinn. The second chamber, with<br />

a bottom area of 36 x 8 inches (90 x 20 cm), was filled<br />

with around with 40 lbs (18 kg) of Miracle Mud. This<br />

chamber also contains the macroalgae, which are illuminated<br />

by two 13-watt T5 lamps. A Royal-Exclusiv Red<br />

AQUARIUM Details<br />

SIZE, VOLUME, TIME IN OPERATION: 49 x 39 x 27.5<br />

inches (125 x 100 x 70 cm) (visible area) + filter<br />

area (additional 8 inches / 20 cm); around 240 gallons<br />

(900 L); approximately 1.5 years.<br />

ZOANTHARIA (STONY CORALS, ETC): Acropora (various<br />

species), Alveopora tizardi, Blastomussa wellsi,<br />

Caulastrea (various species), Echinopora lamellosa,<br />

Euphyllia (various species), Favia (various species),<br />

Galaxea fascicularis, Goniopora (various species),<br />

Hydnophora rigida, Lobophyllia, Montipora (various<br />

species), Pavona cactus, Plerogyra sinuosa, Turbinaria<br />

reniformis.<br />

FISHES: Acanthurus leucosternon, Amblygobius<br />

phalaena, Chromis viridis, Chrysiptera hemicyanea,<br />

Centropyge acanthops, Macropharyngodon bipartitus,<br />

Paracheilinus filamentosus, Pictichromis paccagnellae,<br />

Synchiropus splendidus, <strong>Zebra</strong>soma flavescens, <strong>Zebra</strong>soma<br />

veliferum.<br />

DECOR: Background of reef ceramic, 33 lbs (15 kg)<br />

living rock, three Atoll Riff Deko reef pillars, 40 lbs<br />

(18 kg) live sand.<br />

LIGHTING: DIY LED lighting (components from<br />

www.meerwassertechnik.com); six 50-watt<br />

(16,000K), six 50-watt (blue light), eight 10-watt<br />

(12,000K), total 680 watts. Controlled by GHL<br />

computer.<br />

WATER MOVEMENT: Red Dragon 8000 as return pump,<br />

two Tunze Nanostream 6105s.<br />

WATER MANAGEMENT: Zinn Cyclon AS 1500 protein<br />

skimmer, Miracle Mud in a filter chamber measuring<br />

36 x 8 x 27.5 in. (90 x 20 x 70 cm) at the back<br />

of the aquarium.<br />

WATER PARAMETERS: Magnesium 1,300 mg/L, calcium<br />

410 mg/L, carbonate hardness 7°dKH, nitrate<br />

5–10 mg/L, phosphate 0.015 mg/L, salinity 35 ppt,<br />

temperature 79°F (26°C).<br />

MINERALS AND MAINTENANCE: Weekly 21-gallon (80-<br />

L) partial water changes using Tropic Marin Pro<br />

Reef; daily addition of minerals using the “Balling<br />

Plus with trace elements” method from Fauna<br />

Marin (around 23.7 oz. [700 ml] per solution),<br />

magnesium as required; daily in alternation: Pohl’s<br />

Coral Vitalizer and Amino Acid (Korallen-Zucht), 8<br />

drops of each.<br />

OWNER: Kevin Bittroff, Leimbach, Germany.<br />

106 CORAL


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CORAL 107


Dragon 8000 is installed in the third chamber and provides<br />

current in the aquarium. This is supplemented by<br />

two Tunze Nanostream 6105s with Wavecontrollers in<br />

the main aquarium, which create chaotic currents. I run<br />

them at just 50 percent of their output in the “pulse”<br />

mode, which avoids sediment deposits on the corals.<br />

DECOR<br />

In order to cloak the filter chamber and prevent the observer’s<br />

view being spoiled by unattractive equipment, I<br />

decided to use a background made of reef ceramic tiles<br />

from Korallenwelt. To this I added three reef pillars from<br />

Atoll Riff Deko and 33 lbs (15 kg) of live rock. I introduced<br />

just 40 lbs (18 kg) of live sand as substrate, which<br />

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I spread in just one corner of the aquarium so that my<br />

wrasses, for example, would have a place to rest at night.<br />

A major part of the bottom was left free of sand so that I<br />

could place more LPS corals there.<br />

UP AND RUNNING!<br />

The breaking-in phase passed quickly and was fairly<br />

problem-free, which is not the case with many aquariums<br />

that contain a comparatively large amount of dead<br />

rock. After three months I was able to add the first robust<br />

corals and other easy-to-keep animals. At that point I<br />

augmented the rather weak illumination used during the<br />

break-in phase with a dozen 54-watt T5s. After another<br />

two months I introduced a lot of SPS corals, all of which<br />

have grown and thrived. Within six<br />

months, an Acropora tumida grew from<br />

a branch measuring a mere 2 inches (5<br />

cm) to a stand measuring 10 x 10 inches<br />

(25 x 25 cm). Ninety percent of the current<br />

population consists of coral cuttings<br />

that have grown very well during their<br />

first year in the tank. I hope that they will<br />

all develop into large, beautiful stands.<br />

Since I started the aquarium, I have<br />

completely converted to LED lighting<br />

(see AQUARIUM Details) controlled by<br />

a GHL computer, so that I can simulate<br />

twilight and even clouds. Just six weeks<br />

after installation I thought I could detect<br />

increased growth in my corals, which<br />

all looked in even better condition than<br />

they had before. And there is no doubt<br />

that I am saving electricity by discontinuing<br />

the T5 lighting and that there is less<br />

evaporation as well.<br />

The water parameters are kept stable<br />

using the Balling method and a weekly<br />

partial water change of 21 gallons (80 L).<br />

I have had very good results with additional<br />

dosing with Pohl’s Coral Vitalizer<br />

and Amino Acid from Korallen-Zucht.<br />

I have observed that demanding corals,<br />

such as Goniopora or Catalaphyllia jardinei,<br />

look better and grow faster following<br />

this dosing.<br />

LIVESTOCK<br />

My aim is to keep lots of different creatures,<br />

but mainly corals. The fish population<br />

must be suitable for the tank size,<br />

and here I must be self-critical and admit<br />

I haven’t been successful with some of<br />

my fishes—for example, the Acanthurus<br />

leucosternon and the <strong>Zebra</strong>soma veliferum.<br />

I placed the latter in my aquarium at a<br />

size of 2 inches (5 cm), and after only<br />

108 CORAL


The reef aquarium is good for<br />

rearing coral cuttings, and also<br />

beneficial for human offspring,<br />

as long as they stay on the<br />

outside.<br />

10 months it is now 6 inches<br />

(15 cm) long. Because I can’t<br />

provide this fish with what<br />

it requires in my aquarium,<br />

namely plenty of swimming<br />

space, I have already arranged<br />

a new home for it. It<br />

will shortly be transferred to<br />

a 2,640-gallon (10,000-L)<br />

fish-only aquarium. It will<br />

be replaced by a new pair of<br />

smaller fishes, probably cardinalfishes<br />

or Pseudochromis<br />

fridmani.<br />

SUMMARY<br />

Despite all the strengths mentioned above, I have to admit<br />

that this aquarium still isn’t quite perfect in my eyes.<br />

I was a bit too sparing in the planning of the equipment<br />

compartment, and as a result there is no room in it for<br />

additional equipment. But the undoubted advantage is<br />

that this tank requires very little effort and only about<br />

$90 U.S. a month to run.<br />

I would like to thank the members of www.meerwasserforum.<br />

com, from whom I have always received support, good advice, and<br />

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CORAL 109


species spotlight | DANIEL KNOP<br />

Randall’s Watchman Goby<br />

Amblyeleotris randalli<br />

Phylum: Chordata (vertebrates)<br />

Class: Osteichthyes (bony fishes)<br />

Order: Perciformes (perch-like fishes)<br />

Family: Gobiidae<br />

Subfamily: Gobiidae<br />

Genus/species: Amblyeleotris randalli<br />

The partner goby Amblyeleotris randalli hovers<br />

near its burrow in constant touch with its<br />

crustacean mate.<br />

OVERVIEW<br />

The keeping of watchman gobies and their<br />

partner snapping or pistol shrimps provides<br />

a fascinating study of commensalism, as the<br />

close interaction between these very different<br />

creatures is constantly on display. Amblyeleotris<br />

randalli is one of the easy-to-keep watchman<br />

goby species. It doesn’t require a very large<br />

aquarium, as it is very sedentary. However, it<br />

shouldn’t be kept with very large or boisterous fishes. It<br />

will do better in a small tank with quiet tankmates than<br />

in the turmoil of a lively community aquarium—that level<br />

of activity doesn’t occur in its natural surroundings.<br />

DISTRIBUTION<br />

Randall’s Watchman Goby lives on sandy areas near<br />

reefs in the Western and South Pacific, usually in clear<br />

water on the outer reef.<br />

Amblyeleotris randalli<br />

displaying the ocellus, or<br />

false eye, on its first<br />

dorsal fin.<br />

ALL: D. KNOP<br />

CORAL<br />

111


Right: Disturbed by the flash of my camera, this Amblyeleotris<br />

randalli has automatically moved to a protective position<br />

above its digging pistol shrimp and erected its fins in order to<br />

display its false eye. Below: Outside the cave, the shrimp always<br />

maintains body contact with its Randall’s Watchman Goby<br />

as closely as possible (left), and the fish stays in contact via<br />

antennae when further away (right).<br />

SIZE<br />

Up to 3.5 inches (8.9 cm).<br />

DESCRIPTION<br />

Amblyeleotris randalli exhibits a characteristic<br />

brownish-orange crossbanding<br />

on a light background, and the large black dummy<br />

eye with a white ring, visible when the first dorsal fin is<br />

erected, makes the species easily recognizable. The whiteedged<br />

fin is gray with white dots. Both the black eye and<br />

the ocellus on the dorsal fin are integrated into one of<br />

the crossbands (bands 1 and 3).<br />

BEHAVIOR<br />

In the wild, the partner shrimp is often the Red Banded<br />

Snapping <strong>Shrimp</strong>, Alpheus randalli, which has similar<br />

crossbanding on a light background and is likewise<br />

named after the ichthyologist Dr. Jack Randall. But this<br />

watchman goby species also readily partners with other<br />

pistol shrimps, for example A. bellulus, and is equally<br />

likely to be found with them in its natural habitat.<br />

The main benefit of the symbiosis for the fish is that<br />

the shrimp protects it from invading, prey-hunting mantis<br />

shrimps in the interior of the cave (E. Thaler, pers.<br />

comm.). The digging activity of the shrimp isn’t the primary<br />

benefit for the fish; gobies are capable of digging for<br />

themselves. And the shrimp doesn’t dig primarily to construct<br />

the cave, but to search for food in the substrate.<br />

Contrary to what is popularly stated in the literature, it is<br />

also not blind or almost blind, but apparently sees rather<br />

well. But the watchfulness of the fish enables the shrimp<br />

to spend more time searching for food. The goby continually<br />

watches the surrounding area very attentively and<br />

snaps up passing planktonic organisms. When danger<br />

threatens it warns the shrimp by movements of its body,<br />

which are detected via direct or indirect (antenna) body<br />

contact. If the shrimp is some distance from the fish,<br />

it endeavors to maintain constant contact with the fish<br />

with at least one of its antennae. The goby remains in<br />

the immediate vicinity of the cave entrance, and hardly<br />

ever severs the antenna contact, even when snapping up<br />

plankton floating somewhat further away.<br />

AQUARIUM MAINTENANCE<br />

Like all watchman gobies, Amblyeleotris randalli should<br />

be purchased with partner shrimps, ideally in pairs.<br />

The substrate should be sufficiently thick (at least 1.5<br />

inches/40 mm) and have a varied grain size, with some<br />

larger rubble pieces that they can use to create a stable<br />

cave entrance. A large, flat piece of rock should also be<br />

available; they will usually choose to dug underneath it<br />

to create the retreat. A varied meaty diet should be fed<br />

several times per day, and frozen Mysis and CYCLOP-<br />

EEZE make a good foundation.<br />

112 CORAL


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114 CORAL


for novices in the marine aquarium hobby—DANIEL KNOP<br />

Phosphate binders<br />

How to use them correctly<br />

D. KNOP<br />

In the past 10 years, phosphate adsorbers<br />

have increasingly become the basis of successful<br />

marine fishkeeping. We discussed<br />

the fundamentals of phosphate and its<br />

measurement in the aquarium in the previous<br />

issue, and this time we will look at the<br />

two different types of phosphate binder that<br />

can be recommended to the beginner.<br />

First of all a question: why adsorber rather<br />

than absorber Quite simply, because there is<br />

a considerable difference between the two processes:<br />

absorb means to take in, while to adsorb<br />

is to store, or to bind. The green leaf of a plant<br />

takes in (absorbs) light energy, but activated<br />

charcoal or phosphate binder in the aquarium<br />

stores foreign material only on its structures<br />

(adsorption).<br />

Essentially, three substances are known to<br />

be suitable for binding phosphate in the reef<br />

aquarium hobby. One of them, lanthanum<br />

chloride, is recommended mainly for very large<br />

aquariums. Its use requires special equipment and a lot<br />

of experience. Iron oxide–based, iron hydroxide–based,<br />

or aluminum oxide–based phosphate binders should be<br />

used in reef aquariums of standard size.<br />

IRON OXIDE–BASED AND IRON<br />

HYDROXIDE–BASED PHOSPHATE BINDERS<br />

Iron-based phosphate binders are red-brown to blackish<br />

granulates that are porous and have a large internal<br />

surface area. Phosphate is bound all over this surface,<br />

although this adsorption behavior isn’t specific—it binds<br />

numerous other substances, including copper, nickel,<br />

cobalt, zinc, and manganese, as well. Even a certain<br />

amount of calcium-carbonate precipitation takes place<br />

on the surface of the adsorber, and observations suggest<br />

this is increased in reef tanks in which iron-based phosphate<br />

binders are used intensively. This would not only<br />

result in the loss of calcium ions, but also reduce the carbonate<br />

hardness. This material, which is also frequently<br />

Iron-based phosphate binder<br />

used in drinking-water treatment, is the phosphate adsorber<br />

most widely used in the marine aquarium hobby.<br />

Iron-based phosphate binders possess little inherent<br />

solidity, and may, if the grains rub together, crumble to<br />

a fine sediment. This colors the water reddish and, if not<br />

removed from the water by the filter or protein skimmer,<br />

settles out in areas of weak current in the aquarium,<br />

where mulm and detritus also accumulate. Here it binds<br />

phosphate, thus creating a deposit of iron oxide and<br />

phosphate. This doesn’t go into solution under aquarium<br />

conditions, but some algae are able to produce acid<br />

secretions on their root rhizoids, and this can cause not<br />

only phosphate deposits but possibly also iron to go into<br />

solution. For this reason, the creation of such deposits<br />

should always be avoided.<br />

Because of its lack of solidity and its tendency to erosion,<br />

this type of phosphate binder is not optimal for<br />

a fluidized bed filter. It is better to put it in a fixed bed<br />

filter, where the grains will remain immobile even as the<br />

CORAL 115


Principle of function of a solidbed<br />

filter (left) and a fluidized<br />

bed filter (right).<br />

Iron-based phosphate binders<br />

are more suitable for use<br />

in solid-bed filters, while<br />

aluminum-based phosphate<br />

binders work best in a<br />

fluidized bed filter.<br />

water is continually sucked or pushed through. However,<br />

the material must be very well rinsed beforehand—otherwise,<br />

any existing loose particles may form the fine sediment<br />

described above.<br />

ALUMINUM OXIDE–BASED PHOSPHATE<br />

BINDERS<br />

Aluminum oxide–based phosphate binders are whitish<br />

granulates that again bind (adsorb) dissolved phosphate<br />

from the water. The binding of the negatively charged<br />

phosphate ions to the positively charged aluminum oxide<br />

is stable, so the phosphate isn’t released again under<br />

aquarium conditions.<br />

The problem with this adsorption material in seawater<br />

is mainly that small amounts may go into solution<br />

at very high pH values, so that aluminum ions accumulate<br />

in the aquarium water, but can’t be measured using<br />

methods available in the aquarium hobby. To avoid<br />

this risk, supply the granulate with the water output by<br />

Aluminum-based phosphate binder<br />

a CO 2 -fed kalk reactor, as its pH value will be lower than<br />

that of the aquarium water.<br />

In principle, this material is very suitable for a fluidized<br />

bed filter, as it produces no eroded particles even<br />

under these conditions. But you shouldn’t use too much<br />

at once; around 1 pint (500 ml) per 1,000 L of tank volume<br />

will suffice, and to be safe you should always start<br />

with a smaller dose.<br />

CHECKING EFFECTIVENESS<br />

The effectiveness of the phosphate filtration should always<br />

be checked. This is not just important at the beginning,<br />

when it is first set up and you want to make sure<br />

that phosphate is actually being bound. It should also<br />

be checked regularly later on to ensure that the material<br />

isn’t yet exhausted. If you become aware of this because<br />

of increasing algae growth, you will already have the<br />

very problem that you wanted to avoid. Checking functionality<br />

is very simple in principle: all you have to do is<br />

compare the phosphate content of the filter outflow<br />

with that of the aquarium. But in practice this can<br />

be very difficult if the difference is slight, so that the<br />

precision of the color-comparison chart isn’t sufficient<br />

to establish the difference. Hence you should<br />

record the measurement with the date so that you<br />

will notice any further increase. You can also record<br />

the date of the addition of fresh phosphate-binder<br />

material. In this way you will not only document<br />

the measurements but also get an indication of the<br />

average “life” of the filter material and be able to<br />

estimate when it is time for a change. Alternatively,<br />

you can make each change at fixed times of the year.<br />

In the next issue, you will learn everything<br />

you need to know about phosphate deposits in the<br />

aquarium.<br />

D. KNOP<br />

116 CORAL


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CORAL 117


eginner’s fishes—INKEN KRAUSE<br />

Two Spot Blenny<br />

(Ecsenius bimaculatus)<br />

DISTRIBUTION: Western Pacific: Philippines and<br />

Malaysia.<br />

DESCRIPTION: With a maximum size of 2<br />

inches (5 cm), the blenny Ecsenius bimaculatus is<br />

one of the dwarfs of the blenny family. It can easily<br />

be distinguished from the other, often very similar<br />

species that occur in the Indo-Pacific by the two<br />

black dots on the lower flank.<br />

ECOLOGY: In the wild, the Two Spot Blenny lives<br />

in the shallow water of coral reefs, where it grazes<br />

fine algal growth from the rock, always on the alert<br />

for predators so it can disappear like lightning into<br />

rock crevices or small holes if attacked.<br />

AQUARIUM MAINTENANCE: Because of its<br />

small size and peaceful behavior, Ecsenius bimaculatus<br />

can be kept in nano reef aquariums with a volume<br />

of 8 gallons (30 L) and up, as long as sufficient<br />

hiding places are available. It can also be kept in<br />

pairs in somewhat larger aquariums, provided two<br />

obviously compatible individuals can be purchased.<br />

But two individuals should never be put together at<br />

random, as these blennies can be very aggressive in<br />

their behavior toward unwelcome conspecifics.<br />

FEEDING: As a rule, frozen or even dry food is<br />

accepted in the aquarium, but these blennies should<br />

always be given vegetable food as well for their longterm<br />

well-being. If there is no fine lawn of algae<br />

growing on the rocks, to be grazed in the same way<br />

as in the natural habitat, then dried Nori algae, for<br />

example, are an acceptable substitute.<br />

I. KRAUSE<br />

118 CORAL


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120 CORAL


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CORAL 121


Sources<br />

Look for CORAL Magazine in these outstanding local aquarium shops.<br />

UNITED STATES<br />

Alabama<br />

Aquarium Fantasies<br />

340 Eastdale Cir<br />

Montgomery, AL<br />

334-396-5020<br />

The Aquarium Shop<br />

2013 Cox Ave<br />

Huntsville, AL<br />

256-536-4367<br />

Arkansas<br />

Northside Aquatics<br />

7610 Counts Massie Rd Ste A<br />

Maumelle, AR<br />

501-803-3434<br />

Worlds Under Water<br />

2105 Creekview Ste B<br />

Fayetteville, AR<br />

479-521-7258<br />

Arizona<br />

Aqua Touch<br />

12040 North 32nd St<br />

Phoenix, AZ<br />

602-765-9058<br />

California<br />

All Seas Marine, Inc<br />

(distribution only)<br />

1205 Knox St<br />

Torrance, CA<br />

310-532-7769<br />

Amazing Aquariums<br />

& Reefs<br />

1842 N Tustin St<br />

Orange, CA<br />

714-928-5299<br />

Aqua Exotic<br />

240 Harbor Blvd Ste E<br />

Belmont, CA<br />

650-516-7333<br />

Aquarium Concepts<br />

6920 Amador Plaza Rd<br />

Dublin, CA<br />

925-829-0583<br />

Aquatic Central<br />

1963 Ocean Ave<br />

San Francisco, CA<br />

415-584-1888<br />

Coral Island<br />

1711 W Chapman Ave<br />

Orange, CA<br />

714-939-8797<br />

Natural Life Aquarium<br />

131 Southwood Ctr<br />

South San Francisco, CA<br />

415-760-9395<br />

Seven Seas<br />

647 Shaw Ave<br />

Clovis, CA<br />

559-298-4091<br />

Sierra Saltwater Systems<br />

125 Lassen Rd<br />

Tahoe City, CA<br />

530-386-1768<br />

Tong’s Tropical Fish<br />

8976 Warner Ave<br />

Fountain Valley, CA<br />

714-842-2733<br />

Trop-Aquarium<br />

1947 Main St<br />

Watsonville, CA<br />

831-761-3901<br />

White’s Pets<br />

5212 North Blackstone<br />

Fresno, CA<br />

559-438-4343<br />

Colorado<br />

Animal Attraction<br />

2518 11th Ave<br />

Greeley, CO<br />

970-353-3400<br />

Fanta-Sea<br />

16522 Keystone Blvd, Unit K<br />

Parker, CO<br />

720-484-5343<br />

Neptune’s Tropical Fish<br />

1970 E County Line Rd Unit A<br />

Highlands Ranch, CO<br />

303-798-1776<br />

Connecticut<br />

Aquatic Wildlife Co<br />

179D Deming St<br />

Manchester, CT<br />

860-648-1166<br />

House of Fins<br />

99 Bruce Park Ave<br />

Greenwich, CT<br />

203-661-8131<br />

<strong>Florida</strong><br />

Barrier Reef<br />

1921 NW Boca Raton Blvd<br />

Boca Raton, FL<br />

561-368-1970<br />

Bio Reef LLC<br />

3653 Regent Blvd #101<br />

Jacksonville, FL<br />

904-674-0031<br />

Boardroom Aquatics<br />

12795 Kenwood Lane<br />

Fort Myers, FL<br />

239-275-8891<br />

Coral Corral<br />

13510 Prestige Pl<br />

Tampa, FL<br />

813-855-3888<br />

Creatures Featured<br />

314 SW Pinckney St<br />

Madison, FL<br />

850-973-3488<br />

Eco Reef Corals<br />

2137 S. Tamiami Trail<br />

Venice, FL<br />

941-375-1397<br />

Father Fish Aquarium<br />

536 E Venice Ave<br />

Venice, FL<br />

941-266-9998<br />

Fishy Business<br />

140 S Ronald Reagan Blvd<br />

Longwood, FL<br />

407-331-4882<br />

Ocean Lifers<br />

36037 US Hwy 19 N<br />

Palm Harbor, FL<br />

727-787-4242<br />

Orange Park Aquatics<br />

793 Blanding Blvd Ste A<br />

Orange Park, FL<br />

904-375-9462<br />

Sea Life Aquarium<br />

& Service<br />

174 Semoran Commerce Pl<br />

Apopka, FL<br />

407-889-9887<br />

Ultra Corals Inc<br />

1063 Ingleside Ave<br />

Jacksonville, FL<br />

904-412-8652<br />

Georgia<br />

Aquarium Outfitters<br />

175 Old Epps Bridge Rd<br />

Athens, GA<br />

706-546-1337<br />

Creation Pet LLC<br />

8265 Hwy 92<br />

Woodstock, GA<br />

770-364-2240<br />

Premier Aquatics<br />

1801 Roswell Rd<br />

Marietta, GA<br />

678-453-3991<br />

Pure Reef<br />

12900 Hwy 9 North Ste B<br />

Alpharetta, GA<br />

770-754-7971<br />

Hawaii<br />

Coral Fish Hawaii<br />

98–810 Moanalua Rd<br />

Aiea, HI<br />

808-488-8801<br />

Idaho<br />

Fish, Aquariums & Stuff<br />

6112 West Fairview Ave<br />

Boise, ID<br />

208-377-1119<br />

Illinois<br />

Beyond the Reef<br />

205 W Golf Rd<br />

Schaumburg, IL<br />

847-885-7333<br />

Chicago Reptile House<br />

14410 John Humphrey Dr<br />

Orland Park, IL<br />

708-403-1810<br />

Fish Planet<br />

839 Waukegan Rd<br />

Deerfield, IL<br />

847-945-4700<br />

Sea Escapes<br />

1950 Silver Glen Rd<br />

South Elgin, IL<br />

847-695-9441<br />

Sailfin Pet Shop<br />

720 S Neil St<br />

Champaign, IL<br />

217-352-1121<br />

Indiana<br />

Inland Aquatics<br />

10 Ohio St<br />

Terre Haute, IN<br />

812-232-9000<br />

Iowa<br />

Aquatic Environments<br />

730 E Kimberly Rd<br />

Davenport, IA<br />

563-445-3687<br />

Maryland<br />

House of Tropicals<br />

7389F Baltimore<br />

Annapolis Blvd<br />

Glen Burnie, MD<br />

410-761-1113<br />

Massachusetts<br />

Krystal Clear Aquatics<br />

700 Southbridge St<br />

Auburn, MA<br />

508-832-2777<br />

South Coast Scientific<br />

109 McArthur Rd<br />

Swansea, MA<br />

508-678-8306<br />

Michigan<br />

Blue Fish Aquarium<br />

2939 Wilson Ave SW Ste 109<br />

Grandville, MI<br />

616-667-2424<br />

Moby Dick Pet Store<br />

3700 Sashabaw Rd<br />

Waterford, MI<br />

248-673-2520<br />

MVPets<br />

7429 S Westnedge Ave<br />

Portage, MI<br />

269-492-7387<br />

Oceans and Seas<br />

26085 Gratiot Ave<br />

Roseville, MI<br />

586-778-2223<br />

Preuss Pets<br />

1127 N Cedar St<br />

Lansing, MI<br />

517-339-1762<br />

Missouri<br />

Aqua-World<br />

16063 Manchester Rd<br />

Ellisville, MO<br />

636-391-0100<br />

Gateway Aquatics<br />

4570 Telegraph Rd<br />

Saint Louis, MO<br />

314-845-8686<br />

Seascape Studio<br />

3802 S Lindbergh<br />

Saint Louis, MO<br />

314-843-3636<br />

Montana<br />

Heights Pet Center<br />

895 Main St<br />

Billings, MT<br />

406-248-9310<br />

New Hampshire<br />

Aqua Addicts<br />

52 Lowell Rd<br />

Salem, NH<br />

603-890-0011<br />

Jay’s Aquatics<br />

10 Lawrence Rd<br />

Salem, NH<br />

603-893-8126<br />

Laconia Pet Center<br />

1343 Union Ave<br />

Laconia, NH<br />

603-524-8311<br />

New Jersey<br />

Adam’s Pet Safari<br />

19 W Main St<br />

Chester, NJ<br />

908-879-8998<br />

Aquarium Center<br />

1295 Blackwood Clementon Rd<br />

Clementon, NJ<br />

856-627-6262<br />

Ocean Aquarium<br />

6820 Black Horse Pike Rte 40<br />

Egg Harbor Township, NJ<br />

609-272-0660<br />

Pets, Pets, Pets<br />

2 JFK Blvd<br />

Somerset, NJ<br />

732-545-6675<br />

Tropiquarium & Petland<br />

Ocean Plaza, 1100 State Rte 35<br />

Ocean, NJ<br />

732-922-2300<br />

New York<br />

A Reef Creation<br />

4700 Genesee St Ste 112<br />

Cheektowaga, NY<br />

716-565-0700<br />

ABC Reefs<br />

527 Charles Ave<br />

Syracuse, NY<br />

315-882-0778<br />

122 CORAL


Ack’s Exotic Pets<br />

8107 Brewerton Rd<br />

Cicero, NY<br />

315-699-4754<br />

Eddie’s Aquarium Ctr<br />

1254 New Loudon Rd Rt 9<br />

Cohoes, NY<br />

518-783-3474<br />

The Fish Place<br />

141 Robinson St<br />

North Tonawanda, NY<br />

716-693-4411<br />

Long Island Aquarium<br />

431 East Main St<br />

Riverhead, NY<br />

631-208-9200<br />

Manhattan Aquariums<br />

522 West 37th St<br />

New York, NY<br />

212-594-2272<br />

Pet Friendly<br />

845 Manitou Rd<br />

Hilton, NY<br />

585-366-4242<br />

Tropical Fish Outlet<br />

2065 Lake Rd<br />

Elmira Heights, NY<br />

607-735-0423<br />

North Carolina<br />

Advanced Aquatics<br />

509 Woodlawn Ave<br />

Belmont, NC<br />

704-827-6648<br />

Aquarium Outfitters<br />

823 South Main St<br />

Wake Forest, NC<br />

919-556-8335<br />

Aquatic Consultants<br />

1610 US Highway 70E<br />

New Bern, NC<br />

252-638-4499<br />

Blue Ridge Reef & Pet<br />

103 WNC Shopping Ctr Dr<br />

Black Mountain, NC<br />

828-669-0032<br />

Croft Pet & Hobby<br />

Shoppe<br />

3800 Reynolds Rd, Suite 200<br />

Winston-Salem, NC<br />

336-924-0307<br />

Discount Pet<br />

100 N Main St<br />

Mount Holly, NC<br />

704-827-5859<br />

Greendale<br />

6465 Goldfish Rd<br />

Kannapolis, NC<br />

704-933-1798<br />

Mountains to Sea<br />

14 Sweeten Rd<br />

Asheville, NC<br />

828-707-1766<br />

Ohio<br />

Aquarium Adventure<br />

3632 W Dublin-Granville Rd<br />

Columbus, OH<br />

614-792-0884<br />

Belpre Aquarium<br />

1806 Washington Blvd<br />

Belpre, OH<br />

740-423-9509<br />

Salty Critter, LLC<br />

4809 Liberty Ave<br />

Vermilion, OH<br />

440-967-1634<br />

Oregon<br />

Saltwater Fanta-Seas<br />

4814 NE 107th Ave<br />

Portland, OR<br />

503-255-1645<br />

Pennsylvania<br />

Dave’s Aquastock<br />

2301 Duss Ave<br />

Ambridge, PA<br />

724-613-2782<br />

Oddball Pets &<br />

Aquarium<br />

262 Joseph St<br />

Pittsburgh, PA<br />

412-884-2333<br />

Something Fishy<br />

511 E 21st St<br />

Northampton, PA<br />

610-502-9760<br />

The Hidden Reef, Inc<br />

4501 New Falls Rd<br />

Levittown, PA<br />

215-269-4930<br />

South Carolina<br />

Aquarium Oddities<br />

1143 E Woodruff Rd<br />

Greenville, SC<br />

864-288-1191<br />

Ocean’s Floor, LLC<br />

179 Halton Rd<br />

Greenville, SC<br />

864-676-0104<br />

Sea Critters Depot<br />

1705A Edge Dr<br />

North Myrtle Beach, SC<br />

843-272-3657<br />

Texas<br />

Austin Aqua-Dome<br />

1604 Fortview Rd<br />

Austin, TX<br />

512-442-1400<br />

Birddog & Catfish<br />

Petshop<br />

115-D Old Boerne Rd<br />

Bulverde, TX<br />

830-980-8900<br />

Fish Gallery Houston<br />

2909 Fountain View Dr<br />

Houston, TX<br />

713-523-3474<br />

Incredible Pets<br />

1580 Keller Pkwy Ste 50-C<br />

Keller, TX<br />

817-753-7030<br />

Vermont<br />

Pet Advantage<br />

350 Dorset St<br />

S Burlington, VT<br />

802-860-1714<br />

Virginia<br />

Atlantis Aquariums<br />

9602 Patterson Ave<br />

Richmond, VA<br />

804-377-0243<br />

Fishworld<br />

11634A Busy St<br />

Richmond, VA<br />

804-379-2466<br />

Pet & Aquatic<br />

Warehouse<br />

2408 Wards Rd<br />

Lynchburg, VA<br />

434-239-6787<br />

Washington<br />

Barrier Reef Aquariums<br />

1717 NE 44th St<br />

Renton, WA<br />

425-277-7670<br />

Saltwater City<br />

14150 NE 20th St, Ste F3<br />

Bellevue, WA<br />

425-644-7050<br />

West Virginia<br />

Scales & Tails Reptile<br />

& Fish Store<br />

9 1 /2 W Washington St<br />

Westover, WV<br />

304-296-9218<br />

CANADA<br />

Reef Wholesale<br />

(distribution only)<br />

12 Vulcan St<br />

Etobicoke, ON<br />

613-867-8717<br />

Alberta<br />

Big Al’s Aquarium<br />

Supercentres<br />

3511 99th St NW<br />

Edmonton, AB<br />

780-435-3474<br />

British Columbia<br />

Paws N Jaws<br />

4750 Rutherford Rd #147<br />

Nanaimo, BC<br />

888-952-7297<br />

Progressive Reef<br />

110–1790 Island Hwy<br />

Victoria, BC<br />

250-478-2151<br />

Sell coral<br />

To sell CORAL in your store, contact us today:<br />

23 POND LANE | MIDDLEBURY, VT 05753<br />

Email: sales@rvmags.com<br />

CALL (800) 381-1288 | Fax (802) 388-1290<br />

Red Coral Aquarium<br />

118–3604 52nd Ave NW<br />

Calgary, BC<br />

403-338-1880<br />

New Brunswick<br />

Maritime Reef<br />

1595 Hickey Rd<br />

St John, NB<br />

506-721-6743<br />

Ontario<br />

Advanced Reef Aquatics<br />

4–18 Thompson Rd N<br />

Milton, ON<br />

905-693-6363<br />

Aquariums by Design<br />

668 Erb St West<br />

Waterloo, ON<br />

519-603-1896<br />

Coral Reef Shop<br />

1371 Plains Road East<br />

Burlington, ON<br />

289-337-3398<br />

Fish Tail Aquariums<br />

2208 Saint Joseph Blvd #101<br />

Orleans, ON<br />

613-845-0048<br />

Living Aquariums<br />

652 Bishop N<br />

Cambridge, ON<br />

519-653-5151<br />

Mail Order Pet Supplies<br />

2–558 Upper Gage Ave Ste 211<br />

Hamilton, ON<br />

888-648-6677<br />

Marinescape<br />

947 Carling Ave<br />

Ottawa, ON<br />

613-761-1743<br />

Oakville Reef Gallery<br />

579 Kerr St Unit 2A<br />

Oakville, ON<br />

905-338-2782<br />

Sea Life Central<br />

561 Southdale Rd East<br />

London, ON<br />

519-601-0062<br />

Quebec<br />

Raging Reef<br />

10227 Ave Papineau<br />

Montreal, QC<br />

514-385-5333<br />

Saskatchewan<br />

Bayside Corals<br />

501 45 St W<br />

Saskatoon, SK<br />

306-382-4222<br />

Pat’s Pets<br />

1303 Scarth St<br />

Regina, SK<br />

306-569-9070<br />

INTERNATIONAL<br />

Australia<br />

Aqua Blue Distribution<br />

17 Cairns St Unit 4<br />

Loganholme, Queensland<br />

07-3806-4255<br />

France<br />

Anthias<br />

3 Chemin de Maupas<br />

69380 Les Cheres<br />

33-437-50-29-80<br />

India<br />

Water World<br />

Ananda Dutta Lane<br />

Howrah-7111 01<br />

West Bengal<br />

91-983-022-5574<br />

Malta<br />

Blue Reefs<br />

82 Triq Guzeppi Mattew Callus<br />

Mosta, Mst 4105<br />

003-562-762-7463<br />

Netherlands<br />

Stunning Corals<br />

Wolvenlaan 285<br />

1216EV Hilversum<br />

Noord-Holland<br />

06-1569-9743<br />

South Africa<br />

Aquarium Depot<br />

#1 Mackenzie Park Capital Hill<br />

392 Le Roux Ave<br />

Halfway House 1685<br />

11-805-8899<br />

Sweden<br />

Bioted Marine Ab<br />

Korsgatan 16<br />

434 43 Kungsbacka<br />

0300-17960<br />

United Kingdom<br />

Midland Reefs<br />

Mount Rd Trading Estate<br />

Burntwood, Staffordshire<br />

01543-685599<br />

CORAL 123


advanced aquatics | J. CHARLES DELBEEK<br />

Lessons from<br />

the turf wars<br />

I<br />

n the aquarium hobby we have seen many fads come<br />

and go, some held onto so stubbornly by their proponents<br />

that they could be said to have become dogma—<br />

dogma being beliefs that cannot be doubted.<br />

As someone who has witnessed more than a few<br />

such events, in which dubious or experimental theories<br />

and ideas became enshrined as gospel, over the<br />

last 25 years, I am sensitive to all the questionable<br />

claims that have appeared again and again in our hobby.<br />

It seems as if some aquarists or manufacturers can become<br />

so self-confident in asserting the merits of their<br />

methods or products that their notions rise above questioning<br />

and become established as the “truth.”<br />

As Mason Cooley once noted: “Under attack, sentiments<br />

harden into dogma.”<br />

In fact, it could be said that many of the proponents<br />

of these methods became rather dogmatic in their defense<br />

of these methods despite often strong evidence to<br />

the contrary. By becoming so entrenched, these same<br />

people also close themselves off to alternative ideas and<br />

methodologies.<br />

When the reef hobby first began in North America in<br />

the late 1980s, it was based at first on the “minireef” concept<br />

of reef keeping pioneered in The Netherlands and<br />

Germany. This involved using live rock, stands of green<br />

macroalgae, Caulerpa, and trays of gravel or coral rubble<br />

through which tank water was plumbed to “trickle.”<br />

These gravel trays were not submerged, unlike the in-tank<br />

undergravel filters that were the norm in North America,<br />

and they served as biological filters. Thus the term “trickle<br />

filter” was coined in the aquarium hobby.<br />

Here nitrifying bacteria could find a home that allowed<br />

them to absorb much more oxygen than a submerged<br />

biological filter did, thus making them much<br />

more efficient at converting ammonia to nitrite and<br />

nitrite to nitrate. The trays of gravel quickly gave way<br />

to various inert man-made media such as Dupla’s “bioballs”<br />

and other plastic biomedia. Some hobbyists even<br />

attempted to use common household items, such as hair<br />

curlers and used shotgun shell casings, in sometimes<br />

failed attempts to avoid paying the steep prices of the<br />

imported media. An entire industry sprang up seemingly<br />

overnight, producing custom-made acrylic trickle filter<br />

chambers, sumps, and overflow devices, all designed<br />

around the benefits of trickle filters.<br />

What was interesting was that everyone became so<br />

fixated on using these filters that few questioned the validity<br />

of them. Yet, in the very articles introducing them<br />

to North America, George Smit had indicated that the<br />

live rock and the bacteria that they contained, both on<br />

their surfaces and internally, played a significant role in<br />

maintaining these systems.<br />

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Germany, a group of hobbyists<br />

had been keeping very successful stony and soft coral<br />

systems without dedicated biological filters since the<br />

mid-1970s. At the same time, a French researcher working<br />

in conjunction with the Monaco Aquarium, Dr. Jean<br />

Jaubert, had developed another system that relied on a<br />

completely different form of biological filter, namely the<br />

Jaubert Method, which employed a pervious material<br />

that separated two regions of a tank bottom: one that<br />

created a bare void at the bottom, overlaid with a thick<br />

coral sand/gravel layer. This void space was referred to as<br />

a “plenum,” and it was argued that this region of lowoxygen<br />

water not only helped to break down biological<br />

wastes such as ammonia and nitrite, but also offered a<br />

method by which denitrification could be used to break<br />

down nitrate into nitrogen gas. Of course, the system also<br />

contained live rock, again a fact that few seemed to attach<br />

much significance to as all the focus was on the plenum.<br />

In the December 1990 issue of Freshwater and Marine<br />

Aquarium Magazine, Julian Sprung and I co-authored a<br />

paper titled “New trends in reef keeping: Is it time for<br />

another change” In this paper we detailed the Jaubert<br />

and Berlin methods of reef keeping, but also championed<br />

the view that in systems with adequate live rock,<br />

no form of additional biological filtration was necessary.<br />

We argued that the live rock by itself could provide all<br />

ALL: J. CHARLES DELBEEK<br />

124 CORAL


The Smithsonian Institution’s Coral Reef Exhibit in<br />

Washington, D.C., in 1995. Connected to an algal turf<br />

scrubber system, it became notorious for yellowish water<br />

and poor coral survival, but its defenders for years resisted<br />

suggestions for improvements or change.<br />

CORAL 125


126 CORAL<br />

the nitrification and denitrification required, and that having an external<br />

trickle filter was superfluous. In fact, we believed that having one was a detriment.<br />

By being so efficient in converting the ammonia to nitrite and eventually<br />

nitrate, it effectively robbed the bacteria living on and in the rock of<br />

nitrogenous compounds.<br />

As a result, denitrification within the live rock was overwhelmed with<br />

nitrate from the trickle filter. This rapid conversion of nitrogenous waste<br />

to nitrate resulted in an equally rapid production of acids as a by-product<br />

of nitrification, which affected the buffering system in the water, specifically<br />

the alkalinity. For these reasons we felt that tanks would benefit from<br />

the removal of the biomedia from their trickle filters, a process that became<br />

known, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as “yanking your balls.”<br />

As you can imagine, such a radical suggestion rubbed a lot of people the<br />

wrong way. However, as more and more hobbyists began to do just as we had<br />

suggested, the reports of success began to accumulate and the debate shifted<br />

from whether to do it or not to how much biomedia to pull at once. At that<br />

time I was regularly lecturing at aquarium societies, and I can still remember<br />

comments from audience members and exhibitors after my lectures, questioning<br />

my recommendations and telling me that people will never go for<br />

removing the biomedia from their trickle filters and relying on large protein<br />

skimmers as the only filtration method. Today it is very unusual to see artificial<br />

biomedia filtration as part of a reef aquarium filtration system.<br />

Perhaps the most dogmatic stance I have encountered in the aquarium<br />

hobby concerned the algal turf scrubber (ATS) system developed by Dr. Walter<br />

Adey in the late 1970s at the Smithsonian Institution’s Natural History<br />

Museum in Washington, D.C. The system consisted of shallow troughs with<br />

a plastic mesh screen, illuminated by intense lighting. Water pumped to the<br />

troughs entered via a dump bucket, generating a surge that helped the algae<br />

exchange gases and take up metabolites while preventing over-illumination<br />

or over-shading. Various turf-forming algae were grown on these screens,<br />

and they removed ammonia, nitrate, phosphate, and heavy metals from the<br />

water (Adey and Loveland, 1991). The screens were periodically removed and


“harvested” by scraping off the excess growth with<br />

a plastic wedge. The algal mass was thus exported<br />

from the system. It could be discarded, analyzed<br />

for nutrient content, or returned to the aquarium<br />

as food for the fishes and other creatures to stimulate<br />

higher productivity when nutrient levels were<br />

very low. The harvested screens were then reinstalled<br />

with the still-living cropped algae adhering<br />

to them. Both Julian Sprung and I had observed<br />

Smithsonian Marine<br />

ATS systems in operation in the 1980s and 1990s<br />

Ecosystems curator Bill at the Smithsonian, Biosphere 2, the Pittsburgh<br />

Hoffman in front of the AquaZoo, and the Ontario Science Center in Toronto,<br />

Canada.<br />

Coral Reef Ecosystem<br />

display at the Smithsonian<br />

All of these systems exhibited the same problems:<br />

yellow/green water and poor coral surviv-<br />

Marine Station Marine<br />

Ecosystems Exhibit in<br />

ability. Yet no matter what critique was leveled<br />

Ft. Pierce, <strong>Florida</strong>. When<br />

at them, the dogmatic proponents of algal turf<br />

augmented with skimming,<br />

ozone, and the use of<br />

systems refused to acknowledge that these problems<br />

were due to the ATS technology and offered<br />

activated carbon, properly<br />

sized algal turf systems can other explanations, such as the one that the color<br />

work very well.<br />

temperature of the lighting was to blame for the<br />

water color. In Delbeek and Sprung (1994), we<br />

expressed that in our opinion, “Although algal<br />

turf scrubbers work quite well for mangrove and<br />

estuarine microcosms, producing model ecosystems that really look exactly<br />

like the natural environment, the results in the coral reef microcosms we<br />

have seen that rely exclusively on this type of filtration, with little or no water<br />

change, are less spectacular.”<br />

However, by the time we published our third volume we had both seen<br />

a number of successful systems employing algal turf scrubbing in operation<br />

over a long period, and had spoken with quite a few marine scientists, coral<br />

reef biologists, and aquarium hobbyists who had used them, maintained<br />

them, or observed them. It was clear that algal turf filtration could be utilized<br />

What’s black<br />

and white and red<br />

AND used all over<br />

Two Little Fishies<br />

PhosBan ® Reactor 150.<br />

The original media reactor<br />

for aquariums up to 150 gallons<br />

What’s more<br />

Top-down view of the<br />

Smithsonian Marine<br />

Station reef pictured<br />

above, showing<br />

healthy Acropora<br />

palmata colonies<br />

grown from planula<br />

larvae.<br />

Two Little Fishies<br />

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Our PhosBan Reactors are designed with the upflow<br />

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PhosBan ® or other chemical filter media. By<br />

pushing water from the bottom upward through a<br />

dispersion plate, they force an even distribution of<br />

water through the media. Mount them on the back of<br />

the aquarium or below it. Each reactor includes a ball<br />

valve for regulating flow, and flexible connection<br />

fittings that rotate 180 degrees to allow a perfect<br />

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www.twolittlefishies.com<br />

CORAL 127


ADVERTISER Index<br />

128 CORAL<br />

A&M Aquatics ............................ 17, 80<br />

www.amaquatics.com<br />

Acan Lighting ................. Inside front cover<br />

www.acanlighting.com<br />

American Marine .............................29<br />

www.americanmarineusa.com<br />

Aqua Craft Products® ................... 5, 34, 35<br />

www.aquacraft.net<br />

Aqua Medic ............................105, 119<br />

www.aqua-medic.com<br />

Aquascapers ................................121<br />

www.aquascapers.com<br />

Aquatic Life ...................................9<br />

www.aquaticlife.com<br />

Atlantis Aquariums ..........................121<br />

www.atlantisva.com<br />

Bashsea .....................................110<br />

www.bashsea.com<br />

Boyd Enterprises .............................25<br />

www.chemipure.com<br />

Breeder’s Registry ...........................117<br />

www.BreedersRegistry.org<br />

Brightwell Aquatics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22, 126, 129<br />

www.brightwellaquatics.com<br />

Champion Lighting & Supply ..................98<br />

www.championlighting.com<br />

Continuum Aquatics ...................... 18, 19<br />

www.continuumaquatics.com<br />

Coral Restoration Foundation ................102<br />

www.coralrestoration.org<br />

CPR Aquatics .................................82<br />

www.cprusa.com<br />

D-D ............................inside back cover<br />

www.theaquariumsolution.us<br />

Eco Reef Corals ...............................21<br />

www.ecoreefcorals.com<br />

EcoTech Marine .......................10, 11, 94<br />

www.ecotechmarine.com<br />

Fluval Sea ....................................27<br />

www.hagen.com<br />

Fritz Aquatics ................................83<br />

www.fritzaquatics.com<br />

Grotech ......................................79<br />

www.grotech.de<br />

Hydor .......................................20<br />

www.hydorkoralia.com<br />

Kent Marine ..................................13<br />

www.kentmarine.com<br />

KP Aquatics .................................117<br />

www.kpaquatics.com<br />

Lifegard Aquatics ............................16<br />

www.lifegardaquatics.com<br />

Lifereef Filter Systems .......................107<br />

www.lifereef.com<br />

MACNA 2013 ................................117<br />

www.dfwmacna.com<br />

Marata .....................................100<br />

www.marata.org<br />

Marco Rocks Aquarium Products ..............28<br />

www.marcorocks.com<br />

Milwaukee Instruments .......................15<br />

www.milwaukeeinstruments.com<br />

Ocean Nutrition .............................108<br />

www.oceannutrition.com<br />

Orphek .....................................110<br />

www.orphek.com<br />

Pacific Sun ...................................61<br />

www.Pacific-Sun.eu<br />

Pet Advantage ..............................121<br />

www.thepetadvantage.com<br />

Piscine Energetics ............................81<br />

www.mysis.com<br />

Poly-Bio Marine ..............................37<br />

www.poly-bio-marine.com<br />

PolypLab ...................................114<br />

www.polyplab.com<br />

Prodibio ....................................118<br />

www.prodibio.com<br />

Quality Marine ...............................53<br />

www.qualitymarine.com<br />

Red Sea ................................. 71, 101<br />

www.redseafish.com<br />

ReefBuilders ................................109<br />

www.reefbuilders.com<br />

Reef Life 2013 Calendar ......................102<br />

www.coralmagazine.com/shop<br />

Reef Nutrition ...............................113<br />

www.reefnutrition.com<br />

Reefs.com ....................................14<br />

www.reefs.com<br />

Rising Tide Conservation .....................99<br />

www.RisingTideConservation.org<br />

Rod’s Food ..................................114<br />

www.rodsfood.com<br />

San Francisco Bay Brand .....................107<br />

www.sfbb.com<br />

Segrest Farms .................................6<br />

www.segrestfarms.com<br />

Thrive Aquatics ..............................23<br />

www.thriveaquatics.com<br />

Tropic Marin .........................back cover<br />

www.tropic-marin.com<br />

Tropicorium Inc. .............................121<br />

www.tropicorium.com<br />

Tunze ........................................83<br />

www.tunze.com<br />

Two Little Fishies . .14, 21, 36, 100, 109, 110, 114, 127<br />

www.twolittlefishies.com<br />

Ushio ........................................97<br />

www.ushio.com<br />

Wallet Pen ..................................117<br />

www.thewalletpen.com<br />

ZooMed .....................................33<br />

www.zoomed.com<br />

For a CORAL Media Kit or other information, please contact:<br />

802.985.9977 Ext. 7


successfully for growing corals, contrary to our earlier opinion, provided certain<br />

operational conditions were met. It took the open mindedness exhibited<br />

by the biologists at the Smithsonian’s Tropical Ecosystems Center in Ft.<br />

Pierce, <strong>Florida</strong> to show that when combined with standard reef aquarium<br />

practices, ATS systems could grow corals very successfully.<br />

The problem was the dogmatic attachment to ATS systems that many<br />

early proponents had without acknowledging the shortcomings of the system,<br />

specifically the lack of removal of organics and inadequate maintenance<br />

of the calcium/alkalinity/pH relationships. By using means to control organics,<br />

such as protein skimming, ozone, and activated carbon, water color was<br />

no longer an issue. There was also better color-temperature lighting, and by<br />

using additives and kalkwasser to maintain calcium and alkalinity, true longterm<br />

success with stony corals was achieved.<br />

In addition, the initial size of the ATS filters compared to the system size<br />

resulted in the algae out-competing corals for nutrients. By reducing the size<br />

of the ATS filters, low levels of inorganic nutrients could still be achieved<br />

without starving the corals.<br />

While it is fine to champion an idea and promote your own, one must always<br />

be mindful of moving into the realm of dogma, where your mind closes<br />

to critique and the influence of new ideas.<br />

Perhaps Steve Jobs said it best in his much-quoted commencement address<br />

at Stanford: “Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the<br />

results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions<br />

drown out your own inner voice.”<br />

REFERENCES<br />

Adey, W.H. and K. Loveland. 1991. Dynamic Aquaria: Building Living Ecosystems.<br />

Academic Press, New York.<br />

Delbeek, J.C. and J. Sprung. 1994.The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to the<br />

Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates. Vol. 1: Stony Corals and Tridacna<br />

Clams. 560 pp. Ricordea Publishing, Coconut Grove, FL.<br />

Delbeek, J.C. and J. Sprung. 2005. The Reef Aquarium: A Comprehensive Guide to<br />

the Identification and Care of Tropical Marine Invertebrates. Vol.3: Science, Art and<br />

Technology. 680 pp. Ricordea Publishing, Coconut Grove, FL.<br />

Sprung, J. and J.C. Delbeek. 1990. New trends in reef keeping: Is it time for another<br />

change Freshwater and Marine Aquarium 13 (12): 8–22, 180–184.<br />

United States Postal Service<br />

Statement of Ownership, Management, & Circulation<br />

Filed 10/3/2012<br />

The title of this publication is CORAL (ISSN 1556-5769). It is published bimonthly, with 6 issues published annually at an annual subscription<br />

rate of $37.00. The office of publication and the general business offices are located at 140 Webster Road, P.O. Box 490, Shelburne, VT 05482. The<br />

publisher and editor is James M. Lawrence, 140 Webster Road, P.O. Box 490, Shelburne, VT 05482. The owner is Reef to Rainforest Media LLC, 140<br />

Webster Road, P.O. Box 490, Shelburne, VT 05482.<br />

Publication Title: CORAL, The Reef & Marine Aquarium Magazine<br />

Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September/October 2012<br />

Extent and Nature of Circulation Average No. Copies Each Issue No. Copies of Single Issue<br />

During Preceding Months Published Nearest to Filing Date<br />

A. Total Number of Copies (Net press run) 12,543 13,524<br />

B. Paid Circulation<br />

1. Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 5,572 5,483<br />

2. Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541 — —<br />

3. Paid Distribution Outside the Mails 3,293 3,428<br />

4. Paid Distribution by Other Classes of Mail Through the USPS 0 0<br />

C. Total Paid Distribution 8,865 8,911<br />

D. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution<br />

1. Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 463 352<br />

2. Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541 — —<br />

3. Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS 100 100<br />

4. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail 556 1,040<br />

E. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution 1,119 1,492<br />

F. Total Distribution 9,984 10,403<br />

G. Copies Not Distributed 2,559 3,121<br />

H. Total 12,543 13,524<br />

I. Percent Paid 88.8% 85.7%<br />

TM<br />

I certify that all information furnished on this form is true and complete.<br />

(Signed) Judy Billard, 10/3/2012<br />

129 CORAL<br />

CORAL 129


TK<br />

reef life | LARRY P. TACKETT<br />

130 CORAL


An enhanced, natural salt manufactured by solar<br />

evaporation of water taken from one of the richest coral<br />

seas on the planet. This results in a salt in which every<br />

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proportions including 23 which occur at less than 1 PPM.<br />

This pure base salt is then specially enhanced for the reef<br />

aquarium by the elevation of specific parameters required<br />

for growth and colour such as magnesium, calcium,<br />

potassium and dKH. The result is a unique formulation<br />

which gives you fantastic results.<br />

The ultimate high<br />

magnesium salt<br />

WHAT IS IN YOUR BUCKET<br />

Even if you can detect all of the elements that occur naturally in the water<br />

around the reef and determine the levels correctly, imagine attempting to blend<br />

these 23+ minor trace elements evenly during the manufacture of a<br />

synthetic<br />

salt when they occur at less than 1 gram to 1 tonne of salt. What is the<br />

effect of<br />

these trace elements if you get more than your fair share in your bucket With<br />

H2Ocean Pro+ we let nature be your mixing pot so we guarantee anteee you every<br />

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GUARANTEED PARAMETERS (salinity 35. 5ppt)<br />

Parameters Level Range Units<br />

pH 8.3 8.2 - 8.4<br />

dKH 9.3 8.7 - 9.8<br />

Calcium (Ca2+) 440 430 - 460 mg/l<br />

Magnesium (Mg2+) 1340 1300 - 1380 mg/l<br />

Chloride (Cl-) 19550 19960 - 20130 mg/l<br />

Potassium (K+) 410 380 - 420 mg/l<br />

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The formulation for H2Ocean Pro+ salt was developed to give you the optimum<br />

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RO WATER<br />

H2Ocean Pro+ is designed for use with reverse osmosis, deionised or soft<br />

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