The Other World was a coral farm I ran for several years. It unofficially 'started' around 1998 in one of my many bedroom aquariums. After keeping many different varieties of fresh and brackish water fish for many years (not to mention working in the Aquatic Retail and Wholesale trade for several years), I decided to try something new - Reefkeeping! After a period of reasonable success with this project, I decided to 'try' propagating a Leather coral. Happily the Leather coral survived it's ordeal (as did I!), and went on to produce many future generations of cuttings.

Over the next few years, I propagated most of the corals in the aquarium, and gained a wealth of experience and knowledge. Around 1999, a 'spare' 100 litre aquarium was setup exclusively for Coral Propagating. I succesfully propagated several species of Soft Coral, and Sponges in the new aquarium - all of which were used to stock my main reef tank.

My first propagation tank - a "spare" 3' tank. Photo taken in 1999.

Around the beginning of 2001 I decided to start farming corals on a larger scale, with a view to selling/trading my cuttings with other aquarists. As more and more hobbyists became aware of the benefits of farmed corals versus wild-collected animals, the demand for good-quality frags was getting stronger. I realised there was scope for setting up a small commercial coral farm, and registered The Other World as a business. I decided to run The Other World as a sole trader, alongside my existing '9-5' job.

A 34" x 18" x 24" aquarium and a small Refugium were soon plumbed into my existing 48" x 18" x 24" reef tank. Soon afterwards I built an additional system (comprising two more 34" x 18" x 24" tanks) in a relative's house, and used this for storing parent corals and "growing out" very young frags. Around this time I also wrote and uploaded a basic website (www.the-other-world.co.uk) to let people know what I was doing, and how I was doing it.

Part of my home system - photo taken in June 2003.

At the beginning of 2002 the website was improved upon and I made further additions to my main coral propagation system (this time a 24" x 12" x 12" 'settling' tank for Xenia sp. and a calcium reactor). Later that year I approached the Brighton Sea Life Centre with a view to gaining more propagation space, and raising the profile of my work. For more information on this project, please click on the Public Aquaria link on the left of this page. I worked in partnership with Brighton Sea Life Centre until December 2004, when I made the difficult decision to terminate my partnership with them.

Between 2003 and 2004 Practical Fishkeeping Magazine photographed and wrote an article about my home system, and later the Sea Life Centre system. These articles generated a lot of interest in what I was doing - both at home, and at the Sea Life Centre. In addition to these articles, PFK asked me to review a product for their magazine ("Joes Juice" - a solution used for killing nusciance Aptasia anemones in reef tanks). I was greatly honoured to join the 'Ask the Experts' panel, so I could cover any coral propagation-related queries received by the magazine.

In December 2004, shortly after terminating my partnership with the Sea Life Centre, I made the incredibly difficult decision to stop coral farming completely. It was no longer viable to run the coral farm from my home system, so I closed The Other World and removed the website from the internet. Although I no longer farm corals, I am still very interested in this vital conservation work and try and keep up to date with all the latest happenings in the coral propagation 'world'.

Coral Species Farmed

Between 1998 and December 2004, I was able to regularly propagate the following corals:

Acropora - aprox 25 varieties
Pocillipora - 7 varieties
Montipora - approx 8 varieties
Seriatapora - 3 varieties
Hydnopora - 1 variety
Gorgonians - approx 5 varieties
Pulsing Xenia - 3 varieties
'Leather' Corals - approx. 30 varieties
'Mushroom' Corals - approx. 20 varieties

Pictures

Please click a thumbnail below to enlarge - image opens in a new window.