Culture Suitability of Selected Coral Species for the Ornamental Export Market

Abstract

Coralfarming for home and public reef aquaria, is a sustainable alternative toharvesting them from the reefs which are increasingly threatened by human andenvironmental factors, has received increasing interest during the last decade.This study assessed the culture potential of thespecies Pocillopora damicornis, P. verrucosa, P. eydouxi, Porites rus,Acropora humilis, A. selago and A. verwei by monitoring the survival andgrowth rates of fragments transplanted from the Mombasa Marine Reserve toculture tables deployed about 3m deep in the Mombasa Marine Park for 12 monthsbetween April 2010 and April 2011. The results show that almost all thebranches of the colonies from which culture fragments were cut showed full tissuerecovery after months. Percentage survival after six months of culture for A. humilis, P. eydouxii, P. rus, A. selago, P.damicornis, A. verwei, and P. verrucosa, were 91%, 88%, 80%, 79%,62%, 56% and 29% respectively. Survival increased with the size of the fragmenttransplanted and axial length of more than 2cm was considered to be ideal fortransplanting. High variations of growth rates were observed within the speciesand radial growth (branching width) was higher that axial growth for all thespecies. Standardized annual growth rate determined for healthytransplants was highest for A. selago (29.6±4.1mmand 68.3±8.3mm for axial length and branching width respectively), while thegrowth rate for A. verwei and A. humilis were similar (23.0±7.3mm and52.6±12.5mm and 23.3±8.2 and 53.3±16.5) and P.damicornis had the lowest overall growth rate (13.5±4.7 and 33.8±7.7mm).However, only the growth rates for A.selago and P. damicornis weresignificantly different. The monthly percentage increase in weight for A. selago, A. verwei, A. humilis, P. darmicornis and P.verrucosa were 6.4%, 5.2%, 3.1%, 1.6% and 0.9% respectively. Themain results of the study include biological information on growth and survivalof coral transplants, demonstration and basic methods of establishing mothercolony which can be used as a source for second generation seed for commercialculture. Culturing coral has the possibilities of providing alternativesustainable maritime economic activity to fishing communities.