Rotterdam Zoo breeds own corals

04oktober2006
Source: NOS/AD
A team of biologists from Rotterdam Zoo, the Netherlands and American researches have succeeded to multiply threatened coral. They have discovered how to make corals breed on a large scale.
World wide, coral reefs suffer from pollution, fishing and climate changes.
"We have been researching the sexual production of corals for years. Up till now with fluctuating success,” according to Jan Klapwijk of Rotterdam Zoo. “But now in Puerto Rico we managed to breed elkhorn coral under artificial conditions. This is something we could not do in Rotterdam, as it concerns a protected species, which for this reason we were not allowed to import."

The researchers discovered how the fast growing elkhorn coral can reproduce on a large scale. “the corals only breed one day a year,” Klapwijk says. “This only occurs a few days after a certain position of the moon. Biologists have been catching eggs and spermatozoids in butterfly nets and put them together in an aquarium.”
Rotterdam Zoo wants to repeat the method in its own aquaria behind the Oceanium. If it will proof successful, the corals can be placed back in nature.