Abstract:
Soft corals (Order Alcyonacea) are one of the important coral reef organisms in the ecosystem. They are widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific waters. Soft corals can be used as pharmaceuticals or cosmetic value, as well as for the reef-aquarium trade. The increase in demands for these organisms has led to soft coral harvesting. The cultivation of soft corals can be one of the methods that can increase in supply while remaining the soft corals in the natural areas. In this study, suitable techniques for propagating fragments of Sinularia sp. and Sarcophyton sp. in the flow through water system were investigated. Different propagation techniques were determined. After rearing in the hatchery for 70 days, the results showed that the pegging technique provided the best technique for propagation of Sinularia sp. and Sarcophyton sp. under the nursery condition. The fragments could attach on the substrates within 6 to 13 for Sinularia and 5 to 8 days for Sarcophyton while the survival rates were 83.33 and 90.00% respectively. Then, the pegging technique was chosen for further experiments in different three water systems for six months. The results showed that the growth rates of Sinularia sp. in flow-through seawater system was highest (0.68 cm/month) and the highest survival rates was in semi-recirculating seawater system and flow-through seawater system, which were between 88.67-87.33%. For Sarcophyton sp., the highest growth rate was found in the static seawater system (0.94 cm/month), and the highest survival rates were in the semi-recirculating seawater and the flow-through seawater system (94.67%).