ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Coral Reef Research
Improving Ex Situ Coral Culture Outcomes: Growth and Survival Responses of Galaxea fascicularis Recruits to Supplemental Feeding
Provisionally accepted
- Soneva Conservation and Sustainability Maldives, Baa Atoll, Maldives
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Nutritional supplementation can improve coral recruit performance by enhancing growth and survival, two key metrics for the success of sexually propagated coral restoration. We investigated the effects of three feeding regimes (Control, 1 feed/week, and 2 feeds/week) using powdered commercial coral feed on Galaxea fascicularis recruits over a 23-week period in land-based nurseries. Growth was assessed weekly as budding polyps per recruit, and survival was analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier method. Log-rank tests revealed significant differences among treatments, with the twice-weekly feeding group consistently exhibiting higher survival rates than the Control and once-weekly groups. A generalized linear mixed-effects model (Gamma, log link) showed significant main effects of Treatment and Week, and a significant Treatment × Week interaction. Twice-weekly feeding yielded the greatest survival after 23 weeks (41.3%), followed by once-weekly feeding (29.2%) and no feeding (24.7%). These findings suggest that frequent supplemental feeding promotes both improved survival and accelerated growth in G. fascicularis recruits, offering practical implications for optimizing coral propagation and husbandry in restoration strategies.
Keywords: Coral restoration, Galaxea fascicularis, coral recruits, Heterotrophic feeding, Feeding frequency, ex situ coral nurseries
Received: 19 Oct 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cooper, Kyprianou and Leonhardt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jarrod Michael Cooper
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