Finding Probiotics for Coral Reefs

Probiotics promise all sorts of benefits for the coral in our reef tanks - and in the ocean itself. We've found types of bacteria that can produce antibiotics allowing coral to fight off infection without needing any medication - and we've found bacteria living in coral skeletons that we can use to promote faster growth. Other types reduce the risk of coral bleaching during climate change related oceanic heat waves. But how do we find these in the first place?

The world of coral probiotics is in it's infancy, and papers are being published every month on the coral holobiont (the mix of bacteria, fungi, viruses and things like that which live throughout coral) and if you're interested in learning more about the advances in this field you could check out the research directly. I hope that I can excite one (or more!) of you enough to start working on this from the hobbyist perspective. The tests and such required to produce probiotic mixtures are not out of reach of a small or medium sized business.

Probiotics for coral aquaculture: challenges and considerations
Author links open overlay panel
Callaway Thatcher, Lone Høj, David G Bourne
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2021.09.009

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