TOP 5 Corals I WISH We Could Aquaculture at the Coral Farm 

Your such a amazing speaker thank you so much for everything you have taught us

What a treat to wake up to see a new tidal gardens video. Thanks Than always enjoy listening to you. Love it thanks for the show

I know that monsoon aquatics in Australia 🇦🇺 has a system for torches. They get them all to spawn then collect all the spawn and put them into a low flow tank with tiles. My lfs owner went there when they were small the 3 months later they were ready to sell.

I love how the usual personality in this hobby results in everyone suggesting the usual "tricks" for these problems in the comments without realizing everyone already knows the trick in question

I have been a huge fan of your aqua culture content for years. Thank you

For the toadstool cuttings you can simply place them in a small bin with rock rubble and a mesh top. The frags will attach themselves to a random piece of and boom, glue that to a plug and you’re golden

Great video as always. I gave up on corals months ago and now am keeping an anemone tank. 8 mini carpets and 6 rock flowers, obligatory clown fish and I know that these anemones do not host due to mutualism. All are staying put in the sand-bed, you need more anemone videos. Wishing you all the best from Canada.

Great video. I’ve got a tip for propagating leathers - using a thin (and already sterilized) sowing needle and ultra thin fishing line pierce the leather and repeat a second time making an “X” shape. You can either use - few drops of super glue underneath to adhere it until the leather heals. Once it grows, you can use scissors to trim away the fishing line from the rock. Hope this helps.

What are your top 5 corals that DO make for good aquaculture candidates?

Great video! Sustainable Reefs Coral farm in Cairns Australia, they are successfully propagating all of these corals with their innovative “cutting edge” techniques.

The best marine hobby channel 👏👏👏

I learned a trick Anthony calfo's book titled, book of coral propagation with soft corals. Cut the soft coral, throw it in a Tupperware filled with rock chunks, and cover the top with a net. Wait a week. All the coral frags will be attached to rocks and ready to be glued to frag plugs.

Get in Contact with Sustainable Reefs in Australia by far leading the industry in propagating and spawning coral.

Tidal Gardens has come so far. How did you go from a greenhouse to this? You just need to get the leathers get large and once they are they have pieces that just break off and float around and attach themselves in a corner somewhere haha.

@Tidal Gardens, Elegance Corals sounds like something you need to grow from larvae stage. So, rather than trying to cut them. You have a separate system with different light sources where you can simulate moonlight/daycycles a lot better. Adjusts the perimeters and simply get them to spawn like crazy somehow. Then afterwards, try to capture the larvae and propogate them onto plug or similar in smaller container that are designed like a Betta aquarium display (Aquarium Co-Op have one of those). Where the aim is to isolate the larvae into smaller container to more effectively encourage them to attach to the plug.

Quite simply the best marine RU-vidr by a mile. Love your videos.

Interesting and informative video! Some thoughts : Sacrophyton - You just need more and the right kind imo. Without cutting anything other then dangling pieces occasionally I probably produce close to 30 or 40 frags a year. That is with 2 or 3 "colony sized pieces". Sometimes the frags get big enough to drop their own if I don't sell them. I agree about over inflate the growth rate but they do drop babies a lot if you get the right kind - 'the neon tyree" ones what I have. Obviously some just get huge and rarely if ever drop babies. If you could store 50 or more mother colonies they would probably produce enough for you. I suspect mine have even spawned as I occasionally find specs tiny tiny babies with just a handful of polyps on eggcrate. In a bare bottom tank you can let them attach to the glass, then easily scrape them off. With the flat base they are much easier to glue and won't be anywhere near as slimy as a fresh physical cut. Surprised Acanthophyllia was #2 and not #1. The resale value is much higher for them :) - So if they internally fertilize the eggs does that mean you only need 1 to produce viable spawning? Have you or anyone for that matter seen them spawn in tank? Obviously your goal both to remain commercially viable and as a brand is to aquaculture as much as possible, but if not for political reasons wild imports of these large polyp corals would be fine for the foreseeable future - for instance Acanthophyllia seem to be coming in at a reasonable rate these days. Other corals not on your list would be some weird NPS corals but limited market and high labor cost for them make them a non ideal choice for your operation. I have a single rhyzotrochus typus for I don't know lets say 7 years or so, more than 5 for sure and it just started spawning this year. It requires frequent target feeding and I'm not even sure if it's physically grown much at all in the time I've had it other then being puffed up after a big deal. You could probably do more Dendrophyllia and other "faster" growing NPS since you have the manpower to frequently target feed, plus those ones tend to be popular in mixed reef environments.

Hey Than, I've personally had great luck with propagating toad stools buy inserting the cut edges in a low flow spot in the sand bed. After a week in the sand when you pull them out they will have adhered to a good portion of sand which you can then easily glue to a plug 😃 Thank you for all that you do for the hobby.

I have had leather coral cut into a few pieces and used rubberband to secure them. One last stub piece (all white with no green polyps), I was about to throw away thinking it would not grow but after 3 months, it became a full fledged frag of green polyp leather.

With leather frags, I tie them down loosely with thread and have good results.

I work for Sustainable Aquatics, off topic from this video but thank you for promoting our pellet foods! We recommend your videos for our customers who are just starting. We also have a large number of thriving Acans and Micromussa in grow out

On leather propagation: instead of trying to glue them to a substrate, you can either place them in a submerged tub of substrate and allow the clippings to attach over time or you can choose the substrate and lightly secure the clipping to it with a rubber band. Either way, the time it takes the clippings to heal is usually the time it takes for them to attach to the substrate. You’re not going to sell it until it shows signs of being healthy (growth and polyp extension) anyway. Also, have two to three, maybe four. mother colonies and stagger the propagations. While one is just healing, one has almost healed and one is ready to propagate.

Leathers are easy! They may be not do fast growers but to fix them just tie them not to thigh to a stone, not plug (apparently they hate the texture), and leave them in a low flow space. In a week or a little more, they have already attached to the stone

Branching aussie euphyllia like you said readily spawn and bud/ grow new heads, I believe a combo of that method is an option for long term aquaculture as I seen people tanks over run in a matter of a year thanks to this.

I produced quite a lot od sarcophyton frags for a while. Also found that attachment was the biggest problem. However, I found that the absolute best way was to take a needle and stich the frag onto a rock or plug. Pretty brutal but since they heal easily its no problem.

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about with the euph infections. I lost a new torch colony to it. One day it was there, the next day it was gone with a weird white slime on the skeleton.

Euphyllia are highly variable, and I've made more money selling them than any other coral - as low as $3 a head for branching frogspawn a few years ago. They do die off do to bacteria, but if you have one that grows fast enough, they sell well and overcome this. Sacrophytons are a bad candidate because they are hard to sell - any frag swap will have dozens large mounted ones go unsold even at low prices. If you disagree, buy out my Sacrophytons next swap. I agree on the other 3, the high price of rarer elegance might make them worth growing, but the ordinary ones are just too slow. Cutting very large elegance into large pieces is very low risk.

Got a beautiful red Xenia delivered from TG this week and boy is it beautiful 😍

Acans, Favias, chalices and some others are great to frag

Thank you for sharing!

I Always love your video .. Without music make us more focus to the topic ..

Scolys are one of my favorite corals but I have yet to find a cool warpaint i can afford. Wish they could be aquacultured because I know a couple people with nice ones

I'm still trying to learn all the basic types of corals. I think my favorites are torches. And the SPS acros

In Australia, quite a few farms are breeding Aussie gold torch through sexual reproduction, the baby colonies are super cute!

I'm surprised to hear you class Cataphillia corals as risky to cut, I frag them very regularly & I'd honestly say I have around a 99% success rate with them. These days I take the usual precautions of using a decent aquasaw, iodine & superglue etc on the cuts but even back in my early fragging days before I knew what I was doing & fragged them with an old chisel in my garage I can't remember loosing any so always considered them one of the hardiest corals to frag.

Merci pour ta vidéo !!!👍👍👍

Great video! I'm really passionate about aquaculture and my dream is to do this for a living one day.

Great. All "beginner" corals that I was excited to purchase from Tidal Gardens for my first tank😔

I gave up on euphyllia for that reason. I cant tell you how many gold torches i have lost over the years.

I don’t know if I’d agree with euphylia, I guess torch corals and wall hammers/frogspawn can be a pain, but branching hammer and frogspawn? Those I think are among the easiest to grow and frag....

get one of those plastic mesh aquatic plant pots, fill it halfway with rock rubble, and leave leather coral frags in there. guaranteed attachment in less than a week. works like a charm :)

Thantastic 😎

Well Than, what about making your display tanks softie and euphyllia tanks? Grow them for pleasure and kicks, and then once in a while you use them as broodstock and get frags to sell? That would circumvent the business voice holding you back on them.

I have a fool proof way of attaching leathers if interested. I’ve never had one not attach. Great video btw

I used to have this leather. And propegated them by making them think they are going to die by raising the nutrient to levels where it simulated a big fish has died nearby. This was a bad idea. They like melted but. All the little.flakes got stuck all over the tank in a week and they. Grow to 100s of new colonies in 2 months time. ON THE ROCKS... everywhere.

Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing :)

great info

How about the trachyphyllia's I was told never to cut them. But that was about 10 years ago.

Great video thanks Than

I am surprised Gonioporas are not on this list.

I would put Liam's Clove Polyps to the list.

Love your videos Than!

Would it help with some of the slower growing stuff to make a species specific system and have the lighting set to exactly what they like and dial in a feeding regiment for them? Not sure if that would actually speed stuff up enough to make it viable but I would imagine it would help the speed somewhat.

Well a friend of mine here in Germany is splitting elegance and scolys with success. He splits everything and something barely dies. Australian hammers 'ancora'. Home-coral.de

I grow out my tyree leather in a personal tank and the zip tie it to a plug and works 100% of the time. I frag it every year for $400. That bright green sinularia is a nightmare to attach. I have to glue a bunch of small rubble rock together that slightly pinch the coral and then I get an attach rate of 15%. Rubber band go straight through and the tooth pick one doesn't seem like it would work but I have not tried.

good morning Than. Thanks for the informative video as always. have a great weekend

man prob. my top 5 corals too. boo SPS are nice and all but I am an LPS/softie guy at heart.

Just watched someone use a piece of thread through the flesh, then glue the thread to a disk. And eventually the foot takes hold on the plate. Pretty cool idea

What bacteria issues happen to hammer, torches frogs. As iv had it happen a few times and what could be done to help

1080p 60fps is awesome

So I have never had a frag tank before, but I bought a 22 x22 x8 in tank have I wasted my money?

Hey, awesome video.. I missed your intro music. Add it back please

Maybe growing a coral farm in an ocean could solve some aquaculture issues?

That honorable mention Favia is absolutely amazing! Anyone with the market name for it?

what if your frogspawn has budded off new heads and gone through fission also

Trachyphyllia was one I thought would be on the list .

I can't get my finger leather to extend its polips fully pain in the butt it is 5 times its size think my water too clean

Is it really common to lose whole colonies of euphyllia over night. They’re my favorite and is what got me into the hobby. I’ve been taking care of softies and easier LPS until i was ready for euphyllia. Was literally gunna make the plunge this weekend until i saw this lmao.

Has anybody tried placing small plastic circle cutters on these corals and letting them grow through the the circles therefore cutting them self into small circles as they grow I hope somebody understands what I mean this is just a thought of an outsider that knows little about coral

Than check out Reefgrrl she done a video on her solution for attaching toadstool frags

This may be wishful thinking, but would employing a euphyllia only/dominant system with UV be viable for aquaculture?

Hey where do you get your info on coral science? I haven't seen any magazine or source that deals with the science side of coral growth. Any recommendations would be great

Hi Than! Haven't watched it yet but I'm guessing Acanthophyllia is on the list somewhere. Edit: called it.

Great vid, these slow growers all sound great for nanos or am i wrong?

What IS that? 9:08

Wait what’s the difference between an acanthophyllia and a acan? Aren’t they both the same thing?

what is the Euphyllia at 9:20?

Would you be able to do your favorite corals to aquaculture

So no corals that take to long to grow..! Its really is all about 💰. Understandable after taking so many yrs to build that new spot. Pump out the sticks we'll worry about the rest later.

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

How about clams?

you could give me some samples and I will see if I can find a solution :)

DENDRONEPTHYA.... LEPTOSERIS.... BALANOPHYLLIA

Elegances are sloooooow. Mine with two years is barely reaching fragging size.

cynarina

than youre so elegant

Just ask a wealthy rich person that throws that kind of money away to frag a acanthraphilia

Fungia

I was expecting to hear a lobophilia

Time to invest in sexual reproduction investigation!

Than. Sorry but your videos are so much better when you just do the voiceovers. Thought you were the only guy to realise people want to see corals and equipment etc 100%. Not people if it can be avoided...