Cynarina lacrymalis spawning project & setup.

[Mr_Knightley]

I went ahead and put together an instagram page for the project, check it out if you get a chance.

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[Lost in the Sauce]

#2

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Day 5, everyone looking better except Dayglow. She was the farthest gone when I started, so I'm not too surprised. Fingers crossed that she pulls through, she's one of a kind.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

No update today, my MicroSD decided to fry itself. Attempted to shoot some video twice now and the card glitches every time I put it into my PC.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Update, day 11. almost done with the whole Cipro cycle, about to get the main tank gutted and cleaned.
Saturday there was a frag swap in town, so I brought some stuff to give away and ended up getting four more new Cynarina for the project! Two are more typical brown specimens, one is a cherry red one with glass-clear vesicles, and the fourth one is a coveted four headed specimen! Nothing too fancy color-wise, though she has some wonderful leopard spots. I went ahead and threw these into the Cipro tank to clear out anything they may have been carrying.

Cola and Dayglow are looking better than ever today. Dayglow's mouth is starting to shut and she's finally inflating, and Cola is almost totally healed over her exposed skeleton!
Makes me happy to be able to do this, whether or not I make a living from it. It's such an amazing reward to know you brought something back from the brink of death to live another day.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Quick, pictureless update.
I can't seem to catch a break with this tank. After medicating the corals for a month and deep cleaning/hard resetting their system, everyone looked great for a while until a massive bloom of hair algae took root. It's incredibly weakly rooted, but it grows fast and was clearly irritating some of the corals. After this, Dayglow, Fritter and Cola, as well as one of the new ones I'm calling Thimble, have started going downhill. Seriously downhill. They went from full color, puffy with tightly closed mouths to a thin layer of ripped flesh stretched over a skeleton. I think the long Cipro treatment was unwise, I fear it actually hurt their microbiomes and immune systems beyond what I can repair.
I visited the Aquatic Expo in NC last weekend and got three more Cynarina in hopes that their healthy slime will innoculate my sick corals and help them recover. Cola and Thimble are looking absolutely amazing now, so I suspect it worked. Fritter is doing some weird thing where her central growth point has split, so she is essentially three polyps now. I've noticed some improvement in her, so she will most likely heal up.
My biggest trouble is Dayglow, yet again. She looks incredibly bad right now, so I'm pretty much just crossing my fingers and hoping she bounces back. She would be an incredibly tragic loss.

The new additions are named Iceberg, Doom and Celery.
Photos are imminent! I just got my new cards and reader this morning, and have begun filming for the YT channel as well.

Thank you all for tuning in! This project has been a mess, but I've learned enough through it that I'm confident I'll get a spawn next spring.
have a wonderful day and God bless.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I got a video-capable microscope yesterday, and I put together this short little video for the channel. I'll do one for each of my broodstock animals and eventually dive into the project itself on YT.

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

Wow this is interesting!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Quick photo dump, all corals are recovering from the mini crash in my main tank, where the CUC can handle my generous feeding every night.

We've had our second casualty, this time it's Fritter. Something ate her from the middle out, and no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't regrow her mouth. It happened during a vacation in April, so I didn't catch the culprit, though I suspect it could have just been shock from moving.

She will be dearly missed. Her and Dayglo are my absolute favorites, ironically both of them are/were C. macassarensis, which is the wrong species. Dayglo herself isn't looking better, restricted to a tiny ring of flesh around the central cavity of her skeleton. Still alive, just not loving it. I noticed today that she's regained some turf, so I've not lost hope.

Other than that, I took in another sick Cynarina, this one is Celery. she's been inflating really well every day, except of course for photo day...

This one is Iceberg, with her adopted children Gooseberry (left) and Thimble (right). I'll get back to that later.

To the left is Cobbler, right is Doom. Peeking from the top is Cola, who has 100% recovered, and from below is Angie, who was never sick.



And then there's this girl. Still don't have a good name, perhaps Medusa. Still kicking, however some hair algae has landed between her polyps, preventing her from opening all the way.


And everyone's favorite, Big Pickle. She's slowly regaining her former glory, but is no longer sick which makes me more than happy.

Celery, Doom and Iceberg were acquisitions from The Aquatic Expo in NC a couple weeks ago, purchased for a microbiome swap experiment. Suffice to say, the three sick Cynarina that I exposed to the new ones (cola, Gooseberry and Thimble) all rebounded within a week, supporting my theory.

Doom was a purchase from @RiptideAquaculture (Thank you Mitch, your baby is in good hands!).
Celery and Iceberg were bought from @Oceanic_Gardens for a very reasonable price (220 for both!). Thank you Gabe!


My multi-species theory has also begun developing a bit more. I've noticed three distinct 'genotypes' with my corals:

1-Many rows of vesicles, wrinkly, prefers laying out on the sand. large, rough oral discs (often of a different color). Tight, short septa and skeletons that come to a point. This type follows the description of Cynarina (=Indophyllia) macassarensis.
(Cola, Dayglo, Thimble, {Fritter RIP})

2- double or triple rows of long, irregular vesicles, no wrinkles, boomerang or figure eight shaped polyp. Large, slightly grooved oral discs. Large, tightly packed septa. Skeleton comes to a straight point, as opposed to a rounded point. This type slimes excessively when disturbed, unlike my others.
(Big Pickle, Iceberg)

3-Single or double rows of large, uniform vesicles, which are all translucent. Smal, smooth oral disc. Large, thick, sparse septa. Skeleton comes to no obvious point, almost always attached to coral rubble. This type is true Cynarina lacrymalis.
(Angie, Cobbler, Doom, Gooseberry, Medusa)


So we have three 'species' at play here. Two of which are formally described, one of which is not. I'm going to refer to type 2 as Cynarina f. "slimer". Perhaps we can get a formal description some day.
The goal of this project is to spawn Cynarina lacrymalis, which means the non-lacrymalis specimens will be left out of the project. They will stay in my possession, of course, but the last thing I want is hybrid spawn.

The tank is ugly right now, but it's stable again. I need to do some serious work on it, as I did the whole drain system wrong. This process will be filmed for Youtube.
I plan to get a young rabbitfish for the tank, which will be moved to the main display when it gets too big. I need to adjust the spectrum and photoperiod very badly, however the controller for my Noopsyche died and I can't find the charger... Might have to get a different light if I end up unable to edit it.

On my to-do list:

Swap overflow
Add Kreisel or similar larval collection tank in-line with overflow
Work on better controllability

Thanks for tuning in, I appreciate it greatly.

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

Quick photo dump, all corals are recovering from the mini crash in my main tank, where the CUC can handle my generous feeding every night.

We've had our second casualty, this time it's Fritter. Something ate her from the middle out, and no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't regrow her mouth. It happened during a vacation in April, so I didn't catch the culprit, though I suspect it could have just been shock from moving.

She will be dearly missed. Her and Dayglo are my absolute favorites, ironically both of them are/were C. macassarensis, which is the wrong species. Dayglo herself isn't looking better, restricted to a tiny ring of flesh around the central cavity of her skeleton. Still alive, just not loving it. I noticed today that she's regained some turf, so I've not lost hope.

Other than that, I took in another sick Cynarina, this one is Celery. she's been inflating really well every day, except of course for photo day...

This one is Iceberg, with her adopted children Gooseberry (left) and Thimble (right). I'll get back to that later.

To the left is Cobbler, right is Doom. Peeking from the top is Cola, who has 100% recovered, and from below is Angie, who was never sick.



And then there's this girl. Still don't have a good name, perhaps Medusa. Still kicking, however some hair algae has landed between her polyps, preventing her from opening all the way.


And everyone's favorite, Big Pickle. She's slowly regaining her former glory, but is no longer sick which makes me more than happy.

Celery, Doom and Iceberg were acquisitions from The Aquatic Expo in NC a couple weeks ago, purchased for a microbiome swap experiment. Suffice to say, the three sick Cynarina that I exposed to the new ones (cola, Gooseberry and Thimble) all rebounded within a week, supporting my theory.

Doom was a purchase from @RiptideAquaculture (Thank you Mitch, your baby is in good hands!).
Celery and Iceberg were bought from @Oceanic_Gardens for a very reasonable price (220 for both!). Thank you Gabe!


My multi-species theory has also begun developing a bit more. I've noticed three distinct 'genotypes' with my corals:

1-Many rows of vesicles, wrinkly, prefers laying out on the sand. large, rough oral discs (often of a different color). Tight, short septa and skeletons that come to a point. This type follows the description of Cynarina (=Indophyllia) macassarensis.
(Cola, Thimble, {Fritter RIP})

2- double or triple rows of long, irregular vesicles, no wrinkles, boomerang or figure eight shaped polyp. Large, slightly grooved oral discs. Large, tightly packed septa. Skeleton comes to a straight point, as opposed to a rounded point. This type slimes excessively when disturbed, unlike my others.
(Big Pickle, Iceberg)

3-Single or double rows of large, uniform vesicles, which are all translucent. Smal, smooth oral disc. Large, thick, sparse septa. Skeleton comes to no obvious point, almost always attached to coral rubble. This type is true Cynarina lacrymalis.
(Angie, Cobbler, Doom, Gooseberry, Medusa)


So we have three 'species' at play here. Two of which are formally described, one of which is not. I'm going to refer to type 2 as Cynarina f. "slimer". Perhaps we can get a formal description some day.
The goal of this project is to spawn Cynarina lacrymalis, which means the non-lacrymalis specimens will be left out of the project. They will stay in my possession, of course, but the last thing I want is hybrid spawn.

The tank is ugly right now, but it's stable again. I need to do some serious work on it, as I did the whole drain system wrong. This process will be filmed for Youtube.
I plan to get a young rabbitfish for the tank, which will be moved to the main display when it gets too big. I need to adjust the spectrum and photoperiod very badly, however the controller for my Noopsyche died and I can't find the charger... Might have to get a different light if I end up unable to edit it.

On my to-do list:

Swap overflow
Add Kreisel or similar larval collection tank in-line with overflow
Work on better controllability

Thanks for tuning in, I appreciate it greatly.

Glad the corals are doing better

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Here's an idea of what I need to do. Currently, the overflow is just a pipe plumbed into the back wall with cone grate on the end to keep out algae. This leaves zero room for the addition of a catching bucket in the middle, and is incredibly loud. I intend to patch the hole in the back & replace it with an overflow box on the right side of the tank, which can flow directly into a larva bucket or flat frag tank for the babies.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Glad the corals are doing better

Me too. It was really sad to see them all angry.

 

[leemont]

Definitely watching and hope you have better luck going forward

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Definitely watching and hope you have better luck going forward

Thanks man. I actually have a fairly big update coming down the pipe soon.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Disaster strikes when you least expect it, at least that's what they say.
I am now down to four of my original 11. They have one by one stopped opening, started receding at the edges, then died to brown jelly. No amounts or combinations of dips did anything to slow the progress. All of my true C. Lacrymalis are dead, I now only have members of the cryptic species noted above and two C. macassarensis.
From here, I'm not sure where to go. Medusa, cola, gooseberry and Iceberg are my survivors, and Iceberg has begun to show the same signs on illness as her sister Big Pickle did before her.
So I'm not sure what to do at this point. I hate to shelve this project entirely, but their dedicated tank has to be entirely rebuilt due to a plumbing oversight and actually needs to be moved to a different room of the house for lighting isolation.

In good news, the remaining three healthy animals are growing and coloring up rapidly! Gooseberry went from brown dregs to a wonderful green and blue Indophyllia (=C. macassarensis) and has seriously grown in size. Medusa has gained some pink undertones, and Cola is just spectacular with a deep wine red body and a slight green metallic sheen over top. These three have been through a whole lot, and I'm amazed at how far they've come!!
Also good news, I have begun prototyping a standalone moonlight unit for reef aquaria! It would be controlled independently from any existing brain, using analog time zones and dates to determine the phase of the moon at any given point. This will make the project dramatically easier to execute, and I hope to have the first prototype finished by January!


Now for a plan moving forward. I may switch gears and instead focus on C. macassarensis, which seems to be far harder in captivity then the more delicate C. lacrymalis. They are becoming far more readily available and the prices are dropping, so it's a lot more realistic then it was at the start of the project. With the new moonlight, I hope to get actual gamete production as opposed to the dry runs the past two seasons, and I will totally revamp the system to include a lot more water volume and capacity to rear the pips in the same aquarium.

Disaster strikes when you least expect it, however disaster brings with it opportunity for growth and improvement that would otherwise never come. If nothing wrong had ever happened, and I still had every single animal I started with, I would still have the problem of actually getting them to spawn in my current crappy setup.
I hope this wasn't too much of a downer! I'm still full in on this project, I just need to pull back and plan the next phase. I will absolutely keep both this thread and the YouTube channel active through that process! Have a wonderful day and God bless.


TLDR: lost most of the animals, prototyping a moonlight, building a new system.

 

[Brittanyjo]

I’m interested and following. So sorry that happy

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Fairly large update is in the works. What I will say for now is that I have been amassing equipment with which to build a more robust setup, mimicking @Thales (Rich Ross) home setup. I'm in the process of moving my new equipment to a more light-tight area.
Over the past year, the old spawning tank has somehow become a phyto tank... I don't know how. It's been a thick green soup for months, and it hurts to drain & clean it but I can't in good faith use the phyto for anything since it may be contaminated. I have to get off my **** and get it done because I have been procrastinating way too much on this. People have spawned Acanthos now (congrats ACI!!) and it won't be too long before they spawn indos and Cynarinas with their higher budgets and dedicated teams.

So I have a game plan. I have to clean out the tank this week, sterilize it since there are aiptasia, and set it back up with some clean, cooked live rock. I have to get new gravids in from an importer, with as little down time in a retailer tank as possible. I have to get a blackout curtain and finish my moonlight prototype. Then I can confidently say that I will have pips this year.
I hate to leave you with no pictures, so here are some shots of the collected equipment and the phyto soup currently blooming in the 40b. This project is part of my college, so I absolutely have to update it weekly and keep far stricter notes & criteria than before. Hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!

 

[gastone]

Impressed by your fortitude. Please keep us updated as you continue making headway.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

New broodstock inbound!
Huge thanks to Gabe of Oceanic Gardens @Oceanic_Gardens for setting me up with these. They are Aussies (and likely all the 'big slimer' subspecies) and are fresh imports, so they may very well be gravid for their spawn in April. The main tank is set back up (lights are off so I'll get a pic tomorrow) and the polyps will be going in tomorrow or Saturday.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Settled in to their new homes! Last night was their first simulated full moon, with any luck April's full moon will be the trigger. They've been eating quite well & and the largest one is huge! I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up stretching past 7".

Still looking to add some reds or pinks to the gene pool. I'm totally devastated that I lost Doom from @RiptideAquaculture and Cobbler from TRSC. All of my losses have been tragic and I do not plan to lose these ones any the me soon.