Coral Recommendations For My Research Project

[Cody Geoffroy]

This is quite an interesting question I would hope one of you can answer! I am going to compete in the Intel ISEF (International Science and Engineer Fair) and need help picking out the easiest and most cost-effective coral to keep - multiple different types of species would be appreciated. My study is gonna be on the effect of re-inoculating heat-tolerant symbiodinium into the polyps. First, wild-type symbiodinium will be put into a culture, exposed to warmer-than-normal temperatures, and then spread out into the surrounding water to be taken up naturally - this is the idea at least. From there I would raise temperatures and see how the coral reacts with the new, heat-tolerant symbiodinium based on color and growth. If there is a positive reaction, meaning the coral did not bleach, then the experiment succeeded. However, I would want to try this across multiple different species. Regardless, thank you so very much for your forthcoming response!!!

 

[hijinks7]

The first two big ones are xenia and green star polyps. If you post in a local group of what you are trying to do people might give them to you for free. They grow like weeds and can survive extreme conditions.

 

[FishingLovingSons]

@Cody Geoffroy

Hate to bring up an old thread but thought the OP might like this link:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...f_the_Andaman_Sea_-_An_integrated_perspective
Scroll to page 186 at the bottom through 187.

I was researching abnormal biotopes for an upcoming build and came across info about the corals from the Andaman Sea because of the higher sea temperatures; and came across this research. The Symbiodinium Phylotype-D is the one they have noticed has the best tolerance to higher sea temperatures. If anyone reads this post; and more importantly has the time, please read the research linked above. I am nowhere near a Marine Biologist at all but found a lot of the information here fascinating.

I have listed out most of the corals referenced in the research and most all are extremely common species surrounding the Indian Ocean- from East Africa, Great Barrier Reef, and Bay of Bengal. The main differences in each species from different regions is the symbiotic algae that is with each coral in each location. Most all other areas have the phylotype B and C. More educated people may be able to chime in on how we can utilize this information but lets just say after half a bottle of Crown last night I was feeling I could somehow populate my future tanks with corals with this phylotype D; run tanks hotter than usual; frag my babies and you know... save the world!!

Here is the list of corals studied in the Andaman Sea- very common right?
Porites lutea
Porites rus
Flaviid
Acropora intermedia
Acropora muricata
Pacillopora damicornis
Montipora digitata
Goniastrea retiformis

Hopefully somebody reading this knows somebody to tag who knows somebody....... yada yada yada....... and can provide a little clarity to IF we can find corals that have this particular symbiotic algae phylotype. Regardless, I love knowledge and info like this is just cool to me.

EDIT: If the OP or Mods wish me to take this to a new thread since it is not Soft Coral specific please lmk and I will do so

 

[FishingLovingSons]

Pertaining to the link I posted above, an excerpt at the end of the section I was speaking of:

"It is interesting to note that although there has been marked coral bleaching in years with anomalous sea temperatures such as 1991, 1995 and 2003, the intertidal reefs around Phuket, Thailand, have shown no significant mortality (Brown & Phongsuwan 2004) — a result which is testimony to the fact that these corals are well endowed with effective environmental defences and have the potential to acclimatise and adapt to varied environments."