作者：Vincent Chalias
For the second year in a row, Ultra Coral Australia (UCA) managed to sexually reproduceEuphyllia glabrescensin their facility in central Queensland. They are currently growing colonies from last year’s spawn.
UCA研究团队为在水族馆贸易中受欢迎的大堡礁（GBR）的性传播珊瑚物种做出的努力，由UCA的主要研究科学家Ciemon Caballes博士和辅助研究研究员Ciemon Caballes博士领导。詹姆斯·库克大学的珊瑚礁研究卓越。
This initiative was inspired by UCA’s managing director, Nic Dos Santos, who has realized the need for the industry to be more proactive and adopt sustainable practices, after several years of diving and collecting coral all around the GBR.
金火炬孵卵器,这意味着他们占用sperm from nearby colonies that subsequently fertilize eggs internally. Mature colonies of gold torch were collected a week prior to the October full moon and were allowed to acclimate to tank conditions at UCA’s outdoor spawning system, where the colonies were exposed to natural sunlight and lunar cycles.
幼虫释放通常发生在11月下旬或12月初满月之后的8天左右，并且可以持续几天。日落后不到2小时，可以看到幼虫沿着触角游泳，然后是一系列收缩。然后，完全形成的幼虫通过嘴释放，或通过触手墙刺穿。
幼虫已经包含Zooxanthellae，并准备在48小时内立即定居和变形。随着坦克中的流动停止，大多数幼虫都掉到了底部，并在父菌群周围定居，这可以解释野外发现的大肠杆菌的广泛田地。但是一些幼虫长时间漂浮，增加了更广泛的分散的可能性。
Larvae were collected and placed in settlement plates to study the substrate preference and metamorphosis of this species. Most of the larvae were placed in the coral hatchery system to settle on coralline algae encrusted substrates. After settlement and metamorphosis, larvae are moved to a grow-out coral system.
尽管这种方法仍处于发展的早期阶段，但最初的结果是有希望的，它为我们的行业开辟了一个全新的方面。黄金火炬的大规模繁殖可以满足该物种的高市场需求，同时最大程度地减少了野生收藏。
UCA研究正在继续他们的研究，以确定这些珊瑚是否可以在随后的几个月内释放幼虫。鸡蛋的发展是珊瑚的时间和能量消耗，但可以通过在理想的条件下将育雏杆保持在良好的食物，适当的温度和适当的月球周期中来帮助。增加这种备受追捧的物种的生殖产量将是该行业的革命性方法，是正确的方法。
作者：Vincent Chalias
