|
made sea shell, For new
aquarists, the act of cutting into living tissue to
propagate an animal is brave and formidable.
Nevertheless, it is important for all aquarists to
remember that while useful generalizations can be made
about a family or even specific genera of coral, there
are indeed exceptions where a specimen does not
conform to successful procedures for the family/genera
as a whole. A popular example "made sea shell" would be the "sensitive"
colored and/or heavily mucous Alcyoniids nestled in a
family that mostly includes overwhelmingly hardy
"Leather" corals. What I mean by the categorical
distinction of "mucous" corals are species that are
easily and conspicuously stimulated to produce mucus,
which becomes readily apparent to an aquarist, made
sea shell.
The industry of coral propagation seems to be
reaching a state of enlightenment where the knowledge
of made sea shell procedures
for the simple division of reef invertebrates is
becoming time tested and even commonplace. It is
wonderful to see so many corals in captivity that once
were thought to be impossible to keep alive not so
long ago now routinely pruned like shrubbery. In gross
terms, the captive propagation of coral may be
categorized by the action of the made sea shell event: induced passively,
naturally occurring or imposed. Passive induction
would include strategies of division that neither
result in the immediate production of a free-living
clone, nor will they necessarily occur unassisted.
Rather, such techniques are methods for spurring
budding through fission. Some examples of induced
passive division include slicing or notching the
periphery of the stolon mat of hardy soft corals such
as Star Polyp (Pachyclavularia) or nicking the exposed
and illuminated stalk of a leaning (or forcibly
tilted) stalk of an Alcyoniid, which often spurs the
budding growth of beautiful multi-stalked colonies
(made sea shell). Natural
strategies of captive coral propagation occur with
various manipulations and/or imitations of natural
dynamics of the reef environment and are being seen
with increasing regularity. They are indeed some of
the most interesting events to behold and the subject
of another discussion altogether. Indeed, harnessed
natural reproductive events like planulae harvest are
the future of our trade and specimen in out made sea
shell project.
For more than a few years of studying made sea shell, however, the most common
coral propagation technique has been the imposed
fragmentation of soft and stony reef corals through
cutting, breaking or sawing. By definition, these are
deliberate made sea shell
actions taken to asexually propagate a coral and
produce divisions that are free-living clones of the
parent/donor. They are the fastest and most popular
way to farm corals to date, and they are the
foundation of our cottage industry. Indeed, imposed
fragmentary techniques will likely dominate coral
farming until larval rearing techniques are refined
for made sea shell.
|