commercial production of reef corals

[Joseph S. Jones]

Hi,

	My name is Joseph S. Jones. Along with my wife I own a company called 
Mountain Corals.  We started our business a little over two years ago based 
on a small coral propagating operation that we ran out of our home.  We 
were quite successful growing a variety of hard and soft corals and selling 
them to the local aquarium stores. While we were attending a conference we 
lost our propagation grow out system along with most of our brood 
stock.   We have not restarted our operation yet.   But, that is not the 
question.  I was only trying to give a little history of my experience to 
address this question of commercial production of reef corals.   I know 
that it can be done as I have done so on a small scale.   I have observed 
LeRoy Headlee of G.A.R.F.  teach many people both basic and advanced 
techniques for propagating various corals.  I know that virtually all soft 
corals can be successfully  propagated and grown as can almost all SPS 
corals.

	The real question that Mr. Zakai is asking is not if reef corals can be 
grown but would there be a possibility of getting larvae from the imported 
corals into the Red Sea.  What Mr. Zakai seems to not realize is that there 
is no commercial growing  of corals through sexual reproduction.  There has 
been very little successful research  done on this aspect and as far as I 
know  no-one has advanced to this stage commercially.  In any propagation 
facility there may occur spontaneous, unexpected reproduction via 
spawning.  To prevent this from getting out of the facility would be a 
fairly simple procedure.  Just empty all water into a well and treat it to 
kill any larvae. To get foreign larvae into the Red Sea would virtually 
take a deliberate act of  eco- terrorism.

	As to whether commercially growing reef corals can be done, my answer is 
that yes it can and has been being done so by many different groups all 
over the world for several years.  Whether it can be done safely is just a 
matter of following simple precautionary procedures.

		Joseph S. Jones
		Mountain Corals, The home of Velvet Green and Rotifers,
		Nature's Premium Planktons