[Coral-List] Planting of propagated coral fragments

John Cubit John.Cubit at noaa.gov
Tue May 2 19:02:42 EDT 2006


Andrew --- I had good success transplating A. cervicornis pieces (~5cm long) on the Caribbean coast of Panama by inserting one end of a coral piece into soft Tygon tubing.  The tubing piece was about 5 - 10 cm long, with a diameter that formed a tight fit on the coral.  There are many ways to anchor the other end of the Tygon tubing to
something fixed (e.g., a spike, rebar, etc., driven into the reef).  Heavy-duty, all plastic, uv-resistant, cable-ties work very well for this.  Because of crevice corrosion, do not use the cable ties with metal inserts, stainless or not.

Transplants were more successful if elevated above the surrounding substratum.  Hermodice ("fire worm") attacked the segments placed at substratum level.  The coral tissue quickly grew over the Tygon tubing.

--- John Cubit
-----------------------------------

andrew ross wrote:

> List,
>
>   I'm hoping to begin replanting of propagated A. cervicornis material in June/July in Montego Bay: racing the storm season.
>
>   Any suggestions on methods?
>
>   I am planning to break up the propagated material into 5-10cm segments and wire them to masonry nails hammered into urchin grazed, clean reef.
>
>   Wire will be a vinyl coated copper (i'm having good success, it's cheap, colour coded and easy to work with) but i'm interested in suggestions on types of nail: galvanized is probably bad (?) I'm expecting partial attachment to the reef within 2-3 weeks and overgrowth of the nail within 5-7 weeks. Will nail rusting inhibit overgrowth?
>
>   Are there other suggestions in reef attachment?
>   I've looked at simple spreading, string anchoring, epoxy, concrete, drilling-and-sticking and some more. Nails seem most secure in the short-term.
>
>   Andrew Ross
>
>
>
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--
John Cubit, Ph.D.
Injury Assessment Coordinator, Southwest Region
NOAA Damage Assessment Center
Suite 4470
501 W. Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90802

tel. 562 980-4081;   fax 562 980-4065





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