Super inexpensive frags?

[BigRedReefer MT]

I found this news feed last night while catching up on the days events and thought that it was worth sharing.
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/man...overs-how-to-make-coral-grow-40-times-faster/
Apparently it's a BBC story. Hopefully this can lead to not only the restoration of many reefs throughout the world's oceans, but maybe frags that are gorgeous and don't cost an arm and leg.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

Watch the video clip. It's worth it.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

Bump

 

[501Reefer]

Interesting.

 

[Gonebad395]

Isn’t this just fragging corals?

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

It's essentially what a lot of hobbysists do to frag their corals but the findings for some corals have been that the fragging has led to faster growth. It's not fully known why this is but from my understanding it's due to the "wounding" processes associated with fragging corals which seems to increase growth rates after. Whether this process slows after the coral has grown a bit more I'm not sure and I don't know if the studies have been done to show whether or not that occurs. A poster on here was actually running a little test with some of their own corals to see if they had any results from clipping a tiny amount off of their corals and documenting it. Believe they started about a month ago so hopefully we can see some updates in the coming months on whether the appeared to get increased growth. Things like this are important as rather than just growing large colonies to get larger, restoration groups can fragment down a colony and grow out a number of fragments to later outplant together which results in a greater overall surface area restored. For more info you can check out some places that work with this (in Florida as these are the groups I am familiar with): Rescue a Reef, MOTE Marine Lab, and the Coral Restoration Foundation.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

That is what I thought as well. Apparently from the story by cutting them very small they grow faster?

I certainly hope that a marine research and coral restoration facility isn't just now learning about fragging but who knows. I think it would be interesting if some fellow hobbiests with frag saws tried this out and posted updates.

Maybe micro frag some pieces they have had for awhile and compare their original growth rates with those of the smaller frags.

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

It's essentially what a lot of hobbysists do to frag their corals but the findings for some corals have been that the fragging has led to faster growth. It's not fully known why this is but from my understanding it's due to the "wounding" processes associated with fragging corals which seems to increase growth rates after. Whether this process slows after the coral has grown a bit more I'm not sure and I don't know if the studies have been done to show whether or not that occurs. A poster on here was actually running a little test with some of their own corals to see if they had any results from clipping a tiny amount off of their corals and documenting it. Believe they started about a month ago so hopefully we can see some updates in the coming months on whether the appeared to get increased growth. Things like this are important as rather than just growing large colonies to get larger, restoration groups can fragment down a colony and grow out a number of fragments to later outplant together which results in a greater overall surface area restored. For more info you can check out some places that work with this (in Florida as these are the groups I am familiar with): Rescue a Reef, MOTE Marine Lab, and the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Yes exactly this.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

That is what I thought as well. Apparently from the story by cutting them very small they grow faster?

I certainly hope that a marine research and coral restoration facility isn't just now learning about fragging but who knows. I think it would be interesting if some fellow hobbiests with frag saws tried this out and posted updates.

Maybe micro frag some pieces they have had for awhile and compare their original growth rates with those of the smaller frags.

This has definitely been going on for a while as some of the papers I've read that established techniques for this are years old and work I'm sure had been going on before that. Growth rates for some corals are definitely quite speedy depending on factors. I've done work with Caribbean coral and had pretty good success with growth rates. Techniques improve all the time and advances are being made all the time!

 

[BigRedReefer MT]

The best part of the story for me was that it worked with every type of coral found on that section of Florida reef. Maybe with luck my son and future grandchildren might get to see coral reefs with their own eyes.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

I'm not sure exactly how effective it is for corals like acropora that are already quite speedy under normal conditions but for some corals that are super slow growing it seems to be very effective way to speed up outplanting restoration work.

 

[Gonebad395]

But what I’m asking is what they are saying is.if I have a piece of coral and I cut it to frag it like many have done for years if I cut it super small I’ll get better growth then say cuttin 1” pieces? I’m not belittling this research but many people I know who frag do this and have been doing this. I’m just asking cause I’m curious.

 

[UM Aquarium Club]

But what I’m asking is what they are saying is.if I have a piece of coral and I cut it to frag it like many have done for years if I cut it super small I’ll get better growth then say cuttin 1” pieces? I’m not belittling this research but many people I know who frag do this and have been doing this. I’m just asking cause I’m curious.

For reference the sizes that I've cut brain coral species to has been approximately 1 in x 1 in. There hasn't really been enough work done across all the species so far to say exactly which size is best and weighing the risks of higher mortality at smaller sizes for the benefit of potentially faster growth.

 

[ckrausnc]

It's important to put those small cuttings so that as they encrusted they touch as they say that extra growth tends to been when they corals touch again and want to fuse.

 

[acro-ed]

Mote marine is a pretty cool place for any of you non-FL guys to check out if you're ever down in SW FL.

I agree with the micro-fragging concept. I've been doing some informal experimenting myself with different size frags and assessing the time for the colony to rebound and the time for the frags to encrust. It seems pretty efficient to make tiny frags though.