Corals are fragile skeletons of coral polyps, an expensive raw material for jewelry and souvenirs. In many countries where corals grow off the coast, exporting them abroad is prohibited. Scientists predict that by the beginning of the next century, most of the coral reefs may disappear from the face of the Earth.
To begin with, it is almost impossible to grow corals at home. Coral cultivation in natural conditions is practiced on special underwater farms, for example, in Indonesia in Bali, in Thailand on the island of Ko Samet and in many other tropical countries.
Corals reproduce very slowly. In many species, breeding occurs once a year - in the spring during the full moon. Coastal waters become thick and sticky from the many larvae (planules) of coral polyps, which then settle on the reef and begin to build new colonies.
Coral reefs grow unevenly. Somewhere a reef can add 20 cm in a year, while another does not have time to overgrow the resulting holes. To help the reefs recover from collisions with tourists or boats, scientists collect planula and sow the destroyed areas with them.
Collecting larvae in the sea is not difficult. But it is not so easy to grow them in the laboratory. Dr. Andrew Hayward, a biologist at the Marine Research Institute in Dampier, Australia, has managed to get 5-10% of the coral embryos harvested to mature in his nursery. The hatched larvae are settled on artificial brick reefs. They take root there better than on old, corroded natural reefs.
German architect, Professor Wolf Hilberz, came up with a different way of growing corals. A wire is attached to the buoys with a source of electricity. It quickly becomes crusty with brucite and calcium carbonate, which contain magnesium and calcium. On this basis, corals and molluscs easily multiply.
In Thailand, since 2005, corals have been grown in PVC tubes that are submerged to a depth of 4-5 meters. Corals grow 20-30 cm per year and have beautiful spreading branches.
If you want to have a coral in your aquarium, you need to contact a specialized company. Corals grown in the sea, firstly, are more difficult to get, and secondly, they require more care and are less likely to take root in an artificial environment. For aquariums, purchase aquarium-reared corals.
In order to grow a cedar, you need to take seeds - pine nuts. It is best to select varietal and quality seeds that have been tested for germination. If you decide to sow store-bought nuts, you should be aware that their germination rate is very low.
For sowing pine nuts, it is worth choosing spring - from April to May. It is necessary to germinate nuts in advance (three months in advance). If you sow seeds that are not germinated, they will sprout only the next year, if they do not die. You can sow nuts even in autumn, without pretreatment. However, you should choose a period just before the frost, so that rodents do not eat them. After planting the seeds, they need to be covered with leaves, protecting them from frost.
The most reliable planting is considered a spring planting with preliminary germination of seeds. The procedure is as follows: first, you must kill all bacteria by treating the nuts with a weak solution of manganese (immerse the seeds in the solution for two hours). This procedure will protect future seedlings from various diseases.
After that, the pine nuts are soaked in hot water for about three days. The water should be changed every day. Then the seeds are thoroughly mixed with peat or first-class river sand. In this case, peat and sand must be pre-moistened.
Now the resulting mixture of nuts with sand or peat must be placed in a wooden box with a layer of 10 to 20 centimeters. To ensure good drainage, small holes should be made in the side walls and the bottom of the wooden box, and a small block should be placed under the box itself. This will ensure breathability. As a rule, it is recommended to mix the resulting mixture well every two weeks and water to its original state. Germination of pine nuts must be carried out at temperatures from +4 to - 60C in a cellar or refrigerator. A decrease in temperature is allowed, but not more than two or three days. If germination has been done correctly, many pine nuts will have germinated by the time they are planted in the ground.
Once your cedar seeds are visible, they should be planted outdoors. You can grow cedar on not too dry sandy loam or moist loamy soils. Seeds should be planted two or three centimeters deep. The seedlings must be covered with a layer of sawdust and peat chips. In this way, you can retain moisture in the soil, slow down weed overgrowth and at the same time eliminate soil compaction after rains and watering.
Attention, only TODAY!
Corals are fragile skeletons of coral polyps, an expensive raw material for jewelry and souvenirs. In many countries where corals grow off the coast, exporting them abroad is prohibited. Scientists predict that by the beginning of the next century, most of the coral reefs may disappear from the face of the Earth.
Instructions
To begin with, it is almost impossible to grow corals at home. Coral cultivation in natural conditions is practiced on special underwater farms, for example, in Indonesia in Bali, in Thailand on the island of Ko Samet and in many other tropical countries.
Corals reproduce very slowly. In many species, breeding occurs once a year - in the spring during the full moon. Coastal waters become thick and sticky from the many larvae (planules) of coral polyps, which then settle on the reef and begin to build new colonies.
Coral reefs grow unevenly. Somewhere a reef can add 20 cm in a year, while another does not have time to overgrow the resulting holes. To help the reefs recover from collisions with tourists or boats, scientists collect planula and seed the destroyed areas with them.
Collecting larvae in the sea is not difficult. But it is not so easy to grow them in the laboratory. Dr. Andrew Hayward, a biologist at the Marine Research Institute in Dampier, Australia, has managed to get 5-10% of the coral embryos harvested to mature in his nursery. The hatched larvae are settled on artificial brick reefs. There they take root better than on the old, corroded natural reefs.
German architect, Professor Wolf Hilberz, came up with a different way of growing corals. A wire is attached to the buoys with a source of electricity. It quickly becomes crusty with brucite and calcium carbonate, which contain magnesium and calcium. On this basis, corals and molluscs easily multiply.
In Thailand, since 2005, corals have been grown in PVC tubes that are submerged to a depth of 4-5 meters. Corals grow 20-30 cm per year and have beautiful spreading branches.
If you want to have a coral in your aquarium, you need to contact a specialized company. Corals grown in the sea, firstly, are more difficult to get, and secondly, they require more care and are less likely to take root in an artificial environment. For aquariums, purchase aquarium-reared corals.
How simple
Hello!
Our aquarium is average -120 liters of juvel
Built-in equipment (filter, heating, lamps)
The whirring thing for oxygen supply was bought separately.
In short, a complete set!
And the story happened like this:
We ordered the aquarium. In the meantime, we climbed the sites (in order to keep abreast of the latest aquarium trends and trends). Since the last aquarium (aka the first) I had ... ... ... about 25 years ago, the decoration of modern ones made me in awe.
I was especially struck by the sea - on a blue background, corals, shells and so on.
But I was not going to start the sea (that is, with salt water) and therefore, sighing heavily, I aimed my thoughts at the freshwater one with snags, plants and mustached catfish ...
With such thoughts, I arrived at the store to receive the aquarium that had been brought.
And then a rare luck! The saleswoman asks me a question: "Would you like to make a pseudo-sea aquarium, dear?" What follows is the decoding of the mysterious term.
Naturally my reaction is not difficult to predict. Freshwater, but like the sea! O! THAT'S GREAT!
Not only am I desperately happy about the proposal, but I also commit another rash act - I buy a hefty and terribly beautiful coral !!!!!
And only then, having come home, I begin to properly study the information about the pseudo-sea aquariums ...
And here it turns out that corals, as well as shells, make the water hard!
And only cichlids love to live in it! I read about them and have nothing against them,
BUT my son wants to have all the fish immediately from the pet store!
Now we have nightly arguments about who to settle there!
He wants catfish and other peaceful creatures (and many of them love soft water)
And you need to plant cichlids or rainbows next to corals ...
And the aquarium was actually bought for a child ... and not for me ...
I do not know what to do…
Hard water aquarium (theoretically - we didn't actually measure it)
and fish want different, as for the usual.
Please tell inexperienced aquarists
WHO CAN BE PLANTED IN HARD WATER ?????? (except for cichlids)
Thanks in advance!
Probably, every aquarist has a desire to decorate his artificial reservoir with various and original representatives, which include corals for an aquarium. But it is worth noting that breeding them is associated with certain difficulties that an experienced aquarist, let alone a beginner, cannot always cope with.
It is worth noting that the first enthusiasts who wished to place corals in their vessels had to find out on their own experience about all the intricacies of their content. But years passed and by trial and error, it was possible to get a certain empirical idea about both reproduction and breeding of these invertebrates. But although certain types of corals remain out of reach, a certain group has formed that is available for breeding in an artificial reservoir. And it is about these types that will be discussed in today's article.
Corals in the aquarium
As a rule, when planning the creation of an artificial marine reservoir in their premises, almost every aquarist has the idea of recreating a real coral reef. But before embarking on the implementation of your plan, you need to determine exactly what a coral reef is and what corals themselves are. So, on a global scale, the basis of any reef is madrepore corals, represented by various coelenterates. In addition, other colonial coelenterates that do not have a rigid skeleton are often called corals.
Madrepora corals
But in an artificial reservoir there is a fairly simple division of corals into soft and hard corals, which differ in both nutrition and content. That is why it is so important, before settling new species of coelenterates, for example, madreporous corals, into the aquarium, it is necessary to clarify their belonging to one of the above types so that their further maintenance does not cause any difficulties.So, soft corals are quite easy to care for, which cannot be said about madrepore corals.
Soft coral species
With the proper skill and, of course, the desire in the aquarium, you can not only get an analogue of a reef from corals, but also surpass it by using special decorative ornaments. So, beginning aquarists are advised to start with zoantariums, as the easiest corals to care for and to breed.
Zoantarians
The appearance and color shade of these coelenterates largely depends on their habitat in the natural environment. It is also worth noting the well-developed tentacles of zoantarians, due to which coral nutrition may not depend on photosynthesis, but completely manage by eating plankton. It should be noted that this feature is very important for novice aquarists, as it greatly facilitates their maintenance, without requiring additional installation of expensive metal halide lighting, which is simply necessary to care for more serious species of these coelenterates, such as, for example, madrepore corals.
It is also worth emphasizing that feeding of zoanthouses can be carried out with a special homogeneous mixture, which includes:
- Shrimps.
- Fish.
- Vegetables.
- Various supplements and vitamins.
But remember that feeding this mixture should only be done using a syringe, releasing it into the aquatic environment near the coral location. If the maintenance of zoanthouses does not cause any difficulties and they do not die but they actively reproduce, then this means that you can try to breed more complex types of soft corals.
Alcyonaria and mushroom corals
As a rule, caring for alcyonaria requires more intense lighting. It is also considered ideal if coral chips are used as soil. The high popularity of these coelenterates lies in the rather quick (1-2 months) creation of a magnificent coral landscape of the reef. In addition, it is especially worth noting their high unpretentiousness in care. All they need is an excellent quality of the aquatic environment, the presence of activated carbon in the filter and, as mentioned above, good lighting.
Mushroom corals
Mushroom corals are also considered a good option for placing in an aquarium. So, by placing them on the current, they, with their constant stirring, will create a fascinating in their beauty, a picture of the deep underwater world. It is worth noting that the owners of brown-brown colors are recommended to be placed in well-lit areas, and multi-colored ones in shaded areas.
As well as for alcioarias, special attention should be paid to the presence of living soil in an artificial reservoir, or as it is also called coral chips. In addition, there are special recommendations for the placement of the substrate in the aquarium with soft corals. So the coral chips should be located in a rather thick layer, thereby forming a deep bed of sand, in which important microbiological processes will take place in the future. A good solution would be to place near corals and so-called living stones, the number of which should not exceed 25% of the total volume of an artificial reservoir.
And only after breeding and caring for this type of coral becomes commonplace, you can think about breeding hard corals, a prominent representative of which are madrepore corals.
Madrepore stony corals
Breeding and reproduction of this type of coelenterates cannot be mastered by every experienced aquarist. The thing is that they require a completely different approach to themselves than soft ones. As a rule, they must be placed in an already matured artificial reservoir, where the level of nitrates and phosphates is extremely close to 0. It is also worth paying special attention to:
- water quality;
- lighting brightness;
- flow intensity;
- the correct ratio of calcium to magnesium.
Madrepore stony corals
Today in the aquarium, madrepore corals are represented by various species, but the most popular are:
- Coral the brain
- Montipores.
- Acropores.
Important! The reproduction of stony corals is directly dependent on a high level of environmental comfort.
It is also worth remembering that the coral crumb used as soil is a prerequisite for the placement of these coelenterates.
Fire coral
Those who, at least once diving in the Indo-Pacific region, were probably amazed at the incredible beauty of the fire corals growing there, or as they are also called, distichopore. But although they have a rigid exoskeleton, they are not madrepore corals. In artificial reservoirs, fire coral is a very rare guest due to its high demands on care.
Fire coral
In addition to the fact that they need coral chips as a soil, they also need to constantly monitor the temperature regime, the presence of necessary trace elements in the water and carry out additional feeding. Madrepore corals breed in organic debris at the bottom of the vessel. Therefore, it is so important to periodically stir up the soil.
Artificial coralsArtificial corals
The beauty of corals is so amazing that it is not surprising that they are actively used as a decoration for artificial reservoirs. But, due to the complexity of maintenance, many aquarists begin to use artificial corals in order to recreate the natural habitat for most of the vessel's inhabitants in their own premises.
In addition to being easy to care for, artificial corals have other benefits. So made of synthetics, they are able to remain in their original form for many years. And that's not to mention:
- high environmental friendliness;
- soft structure that does not damage the glass of the reservoir;
- practicality;
- durability.
Also worth noting is the wide selection of all kinds of colors and shapes. So, thanks to the combination of several types, you can create simply incredibly exciting compositions that will leave an indelible mark on everyone who pays attention to them.
The only thing worth noting is that before purchasing artificial corals, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with photographs of living reefs, paying special attention to their shades and shapes. Also, do not oversaturate the aquarium with such decor. The ideal solution would be their dosage.
Tips for purchasing corals for the aquarium
When you think about purchasing corals for your artificial reservoir, the first step is to take care of creating an appropriate stable ecological balance in it. So, coral chips are best suited as a soil, and not clay or sand. The corals themselves are recommended to be bought in specialized pet stores and complete with small particles of the substrate.
Practice shows that this approach will significantly increase their viability. Further, after purchasing this coelenterate, it is best to place it on the pebble where it grows. In many stores, you can often find corals sold with cut off substrates. Such a purchase will bring significantly more difficulties for both the beginner and the experienced aquarist. Thus, the purchased coral must be immediately attached to the pebble in order to make it possible for its further reproduction and significantly increase its survival rate.
It is advisable to attach coelenterates with special glue. But even this approach cannot guarantee the further successful development of corals. That is why it is strongly discouraged to make hasty purchases from unverified sellers.It should be borne in mind that corals require a special reverent attitude towards themselves, and only after receiving it, they will reciprocate.
