Up-Close with Bali Maricultured Euphyllia

Throughout my reefing career one of my favorite pastimes [besides diving] is to peruse through the never ending pictures of reefs in nature. It’s hard to believe where some of our favorite corals grow, many times in vastly different environments than what we accomplish within our glass boxes. Over the past decade we’ve seen a surge in not only aquaculture of coral, but mariculture as well. While some people interchange the two they specify very different things to me: mariculture designates coral farmed in the ocean; aquaculture denotes coral farmed in captivity. With social media being such an easy way to connect these days, coral farmers of all types can share their work quickly. Recently I was talking with Bali coral farmer Endang Nilsari regarding some maricultured Euphyllia sp. they’re working with. Endang grows all types of corals in the ocean: Acropora, Acanthastrea, Blastomussa, Echinophyllia, Euphyllia and Lobophyllia to name a few genera. Since I have a soft spot for Euphyllia sp., these pictures of lovely mini-colonies riding the current on a metal rack in the ocean made me whimper. It came as a surprise to me that the Euphyllia pictured is grown in one of their “low water farms” at a mere 2 meters (~6-7 feet)! After mentioning that that seemed like a ton of light for this genus, Endang noted that the “special metallic” colors were grown on a “deep farm” at 8-10 meters (~26-33 feet). I’ve noted in captivity that most Euphyllia do best under simple moderate lighting, which to me is a couple overdriven blue T5 bulbs, or about halfway up in most reefers aquaria.