As aquarists, our goal is to provide a stable enough environment that our fish and corals feel comfortable enough to carry out their day-to-day activities that they would normally exhibit in the wild, and of course, spawning in captivity is one of those. To us, this is the ultimate sign that you’re doing things the right way. A lot of hobbyists get to capture these precious moments on camera, especially when it comes to fish breeding, but coral spawning is rarely seen in captivity, let alone caught on camera. Fortunately for us, this latest video clip from ORA is of one of those rare moments, as they had a recent coral spawn event in one of their growout tanks.
The coral spawnig event at ORA seems to have taken place in the hard coral growout tanks only, with large amounts of gametes being released into the water column by Acroporids. Depending on the species and certain environmental cues, the material being released by the corals can either be unfertilized eggs that would normally mix with sperm that was released by a neighboring coral, or they could be internally self-fertilized eggs that the coral is releasing to the world. Either way, it would be of value to collect the eggs and attempt to grow them out. Regardless of the status of the gametes, this is a cool sight that many people never get to see, and we’re glad ORA has shared this with us.
