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Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Published (Version of record)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open
Journal article
Culturing coral larvae with food supplements enhances larval size and settlement
Aquaculture, Vol.603, 742392
15/06/2025
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Abstract
Maximising coral larval health is important for scaling larval production for restoration initiatives with aquaculture systems playing a vital role to support these efforts. Increasingly, research is focusing on optimising larval rearing protocols but larval feeding during ex situ culture remains under explored. Although feeding larvae can enhance settlement in Acropora species, an optimal feeding regime has not been determined. Therefore, this research aimed to quantify the effects of supplying different amounts of food on larval survival and settlement of Acropora cf. kenti larvae. During rearing, larvae were supplemented with one of three doses of homogenised Artemia (5 mL, 50 mL, or 100 mL) or an unfed control. Larval survival, larval size, settlement, and settler size were measured. There was a significant effect of feeding on settlement for medium (50 mL) and high doses (100 mL), resulting in a 2.5-fold increase in the number of settlers in these doses compared with the unfed control (17.1 ± 1.26 SE, 16.8 ± 0.78 SE, 6.9 ± 0.46 SE settlers per plug, respectively, p < 0.001). Feeding medium and high doses of food significantly increased the size of larvae (0.31mm 2 ± 0.008 mm 2 SE, 0.30mm 2 ± 0.007 mm 2 SE, respectively) compared with unfed larvae (0.26mm 2 ± 0.004 mm 2 SE). Feeding did not significantly affect survival which ranged from 73.3 % (±2.4 % SE) in the high food group to 82.8 % (±2.7 % SE) in the medium food group. These results demonstrate that feeding Acropora larvae during ex situ culture can increase settlement and settler size, providing a practical approach to enhance coral settler production for scaling up restoration initiatives.
Details
- Title
- Culturing coral larvae with food supplements enhances larval size and settlement
- Creators
- Colleen Rodd - Southern Cross University, Faculty of Science and EngineeringSteve Whalan - Southern Cross University, SciencePeter L Harrison - Southern Cross University, Science
- Publication Details
- Aquaculture, Vol.603, 742392
- Publisher
- ELSEVIER
- Grant note
- Paul G. Allen Family FoundationSouthern Cross University
We acknowledge the Bindal and Wulgurukaba People as the tradi-tional owners of the Sea Country from which the corals were collected, and the land on which this research took place. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging and acknowledge their continuing spiritual connection to their Sea Country. We acknowledge essential funding the support from Paul G. Allen Family Foundation to PH. CR acknowledges funding support from Southern Cross University in the form of a postgraduate research grant. We thank K.L.Kaposi and J. Tarte, for their assistance in conducting the experiment. The authors are grateful to the staff of the National Sea Simulator for assistance during spawning and larval rearing. We would also like to thank Dr. Matthijs Hollanders for his help with statistical analysis.
- Identifiers
- 991013266003402368
- Copyright
- © 2025 The Author(s)
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article