Galaxea, Journal of Coral Reef Studies 12: 47（2010）

Photogallery

Transplanted Acropora tenuis (Dana) spawned first in their life 4 years after culture from eggs

Kenji IWAO*, Makoto OMORI, Hiroki TANIGUCHI, and Minoru TAMURA**

Akajima Marine Science Laboratory, 179 Aka, Zamami-son, Okinawa 901-3311, Japan

* Corresponding author: K. Iwao E-mail: [email protected] ** Present address: Japan International Cooperation Agency, 5-25, Niban-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8012, Japan

Communicated by Hiroya Yamano (Environment and Conservation Editor)

Keywords coral culture, spawning, transplantation, reef restoration

About 2000 juvenile colonies of Acropora tenuis had been cultured in cages from eggs in June 2005. They were transplanted with concrete plates onto bommies at Akajima Island, Okinawa, in December 2006 when they had grown to an average diameter of 5.8 cm in the horizontal plane (Omori et al. 2008). The corals grew smoothly until they were deadly damaged by typhoon- driven waves in July 2007. Some survived colonies were seen to have mature gametes when they had grown to 20-25 cm, and more than seventeen 4-year old and 5-year old colonies out of about sixty colonies had spawned on June 8 and 9, 2009, synchronizing with other colonies, the first time in their life. Age at first reproduction of some species of Acropora has been estimated to be 3-5 years from their minimum size of matured colonies (Wallace 1985); the present results are consistent with this. To our knowledge, complete coral culture in open water has been reported twice in the temperate waters of Fig. 1 First spawning of Acropora tenuis in open water, 4 Japan (Misaki 2008; Hayashi and Iwase 2010). This is the first record of years after egg culture. (Photo by Y. Itayama; courtesy of the successful culture in the subtropical reef area. Although for only one species Yomiuri Shimbun) as yet, it shows a possibility of using this culturing technique to assist local coral reef restoration.­

Acknowledgement The coral transplantation could not be done without cooperation of mem­ bers of the Aka-Geruma Diving Association and Tokashiki Diving Associa­ tion. We would like to express sincere appreciation for their help. This work was funded by the Nippon Foundation.

References Hayashi T, Iwase F (2010) Growth and maturation of the artificially bred Acropora hyacinthus in Shikoku, Japan. Kuroshio Biosphere 6: 15-26 + 2 plates (in Japanese with English abstract) Misaki H (2008) Growth and breeding of the scleractinian coral, Acropora japonica, in the aquarium. J Jpn Assoc Zoo Aquarium 49: 29-36 (in Japanese) Omori M, Iwao K, Tamura M (2008) Growth of transplanted Acropora tenuis 2 years after egg culture. Coral Reefs 27: 165 Fig. 2 Acropora tenuis colonies that are spawning were trans­ Wallace CC (1985) Reproduction, recruitment and fragmentation in nine planted onto bommies in December 2006 with square concrete sympatric species of the coral genus Acropora. Mar Biol 88: 217-233 plates Received: 25 October 2009/Accepted: 30 January 2010 Ⓒ Japanese Coral Reef Society