I would like to hear from our members, exactly what influences your coral purchase?
Do you think about the terrible conditions that exist in the coral reefs of the world and how certain corals will be endangered species. And therefore only try and purchase frags from grown out colonies, whether from a LFS or fellow hobbyist.
Or, do you believe that quantity is better than quality. Therefore you will look for the deal that has more frags for less money, regardless of where the corals come from.
Are the chop shops here to stay? Or do you think that because of the deteriorating of the coral reefs, that in the future of this hobby, only shops that grow out frags form their own colonies, and not removed from the reefs, are the main stay.
I think these questions will bear some varying answers and maybe change some peoples minds.
All in all, should make for some very interesting reading.
Perosnally I prefer to purchase from stores and hobbyists that are growing and culturing their own corals.
i think over the next few years it’s there’s going to be a great shift in the industry that only the suppliers that are aquaculturing or mariculturing their corals are going to be in business. Too many governments and agencies are working to limit the destruction of the coral reefs, mother nature and big industry are both certainly diong their part to limit naturally grown corals.
I think we owe it to our grandchildren to make an effort to preserve what we have now so they can have the opportunity to SEE the great barrier reefs instead of just reading about what used to be on the internet.
I do occasionally think of the damage we are doing to the planet as a whole and what the future would be for the generations yet to come. Look at how much fishing has been affected by it being to commercialized because population = demand. When you go out in the bay for flounder you are lucky if you can catch just 1 keeper flounder. Then think what the corals and all the other stuff in the ocean do to affect the future… its a endless battle that our generation will not see the big consequences as we will be dead before the big problems hit.
I prefer to buy from a hobbyist and prefer to sell to them also.
I like buying tank grown frags. I find that many interesting coral species can be found in various reefers tanks. lots of diversity out in tankdom already. With the rise in popularity of reef keeping, more new wild caught spieces are being harvested from the sea for sale in the hobby. this will bring more species into the aquaculture trade and hobby.
There are 7 billion people in the world who like to eat fish, and crustateans, that is a really big depletion pressure on the edible varietys of fish, clams, and crabs. There are 14 million americans with some sort of fish tanks. but only about 800,000 who have coral reef tanks. I dont believe we put that much pressure on the reefs for coral livestock. and maybe half what we do buy is already aquacultured. that is good.
What is bad is the rising CO2 in the atmosphere, runoff pollution of the oceans and formost ocean warming and acidification. I feel these do much more harm on a global scale than isolated local collection. With the exception of a few popular species found only in very small local habitats.
I can’t think of any speciecies of coral that reefers cant propagate. If we can get one, we can usually frag it, clone it, divide it or even spawn it. Reef fish and critters are a different case. we can spawn and raise a few spieces. but not most of the pelagic spawning species. thats where we can do some more hobby work. Larval rearing tanks of phyotoplankton and zooplanton to raise fishe larvae in. Thats the ticket. It requires rasing a wide variety of live foods for the morphing larvae to feed on until they become little fishies.
Seems like so far everyone is in agreement, that they like getting their frags aquacultured .
It’s like an unwritten pledge we take when we become members of a reef club. To enjoy the hobby of collecting corals and saltwater fish, while envisioning that in this way, because of the effect our environment is having on the natural coral reefs, we are doing our part to preserve the reefs by captivating, maintaining, growing and sharing our frags with other hobbyists.
But let’s be honest, it is very tempting to place an order, when we see some vendor selling frags really cheap. Especially when we know that the frags were just cut from wild colonies.
We can only hope that through education and experience, we find the knowledge to make wiser choices when it comes to buying our coral frags.
I agree with everything ken said. I have bought from the chop shops and have seen the survival rate which is bad. But I have a lot from them that are doing well and when they are big enough if someone wants a frag I’ll share it. I want so have a large setup so I can grow mother colonies huge and trim when needed and make clones to frag. Just think of it this way if the coral reefs die which would be horrible. I could repopulate about 100 species with what’s in my tank. So I believe keeping reef tanks we are helping. Or will help if something terrible happens.
I am in agreement with most of what has already been said. The biggest destroyer of the reefs on many pacific islands is the sediment runoff from clear cutting to make room for farms, housing or other stuff. Blocking the suns rays has a devastating effect on the reefs. Since they are all part of a life cycle if you remove one thing it all breaks down rapidly. Reef keeping hobbyists are likely not the major cause of the declining worldwide reefs but a contributor none the less. That being said, I do try to get most of my corals from a captive grown source. That goes for fish too. I nearly bought a bunch of Banggi cardinals last week when I found them at a great price. They are easy to breed in captivity since they are also mouth brooders. Then I found out they are wild caught, probably with cyanide. Deal breaker. They are becoming endangered since they are found only in a small area of Indonesia and extremely over collected with dangerous methods. So I will wait until I find captive bred ones and pay more money for them, but feel much better about it. ;D