Cespitularia spawning in the Philippines

by | Mar 20, 2012 | Conservation, Corals, Invertebrates, Science | 1 comment

The upcoming issue of Reefs magazine will feature part two of the series documenting the Steinhart Aquarium in California Academy of Sciences role in the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition. Check out part one here, and until the new issue is out, here is something that was cut from the part 2:

http://vimeo.com/24080492

“Still flushed from our encounter with nighttime SPS spawning, we were further excited when a few days later we came upon a spawning of the soft coral Cespitularia. This spawn was very different from the hard coral spawing because not only did it take place during the day, but the behavior of the eggs was markedly different. In the hard coral spawn, the egg/sperm bundles floated up to the surface at night, presumably to avoid predation by other reef animals. The Cespitularia spawn on the other hand, was neutrally or negatively bouyant, and though we shook the the spawn into the water column, no fish would come anywhere near it.”

  • Rich Ross

    Richard Ross currently works as an Aquatic Biologist at the Steinhart Aquarium in the California Academy of Sciences, maintaining many exhibits including the 212,000 gallon Philippine Coral Reef. He has kept saltwater animals for over 25 years, and has worked in aquarium maintenance, retail, wholesale and has consulted for a coral farm/fish collecting station in the South Pacific. Richard enjoys all aspects of the aquarium hobby and is a regular author for trade publications, a frequent speaker at aquarium conferences and was a founder of one of the largest and most progressive reef clubs in Northern California, Bay Area Reefers. He is an avid underwater videographer and has been fortunate to scuba dive in a lot of places around the world. At home he maintains a 300 gallon reef system and a 250 gallon cephalopod/fish breeding system, and was one of the first people to close the life cycle of Sepia bandensis. When not doing all that stuff, he enjoys spending time with his patient wife, his incredible daughter and their menagerie of animals, both wet and dry.

1 Comment

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