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Fluorescent labelling of cultivated corals as a sustainable management tool in coral trade and reefs conservation

Scleractinian corals are part of an important growing lucrative market trade, which is primarily focused on wild-caught corals. Improving trade regulations and developing asexual/sexual reproduction programmes in aquaria to decrease the pressure exerted on wild populations may require labelling systems to certify coral origin (cultured vs. wild-caught). We investigated a simple labelling method based on calcein incubation using 81 coral fragments of six cultivated coral species of two different growth forms (branched and foliaceous). We tested two calcein concentrations (0.01 and 0.02 g l-1) and three incubation times (12, 24 and 36 hours) to determine optimal labelling conditions. The labelling visibility on fragments was assessed 8, 12 and 16 weeks following the incubations. Respectively 59, 61, 79, 96, and 98 % of the calcein incubated-fragments were successfully labelled for S. caliendrum, Echinopora sp., T. reniformis, P. damicornis, and S. pistillata and Montipora sp. While the quality and the durability of the label varied between species, both were significantly improved at the longest incubations for both calcein concentration tested. The relevance of the calcein technique in labelling cultivated corals is discussed in relation to other potential labelling methods and as a sustainable management in coral trade and reef conservation.