[SlamaJama]

What is the "real" difference....I have lots of questions about this subject, and in light of the "RC Drama" and the fact that some of us are making some large purchases from different suppliers, I was thinking...are we being immoral hippocrates by looking and ordering from wholesalers who are possibly stripping a depleted system from these far off places, to feed our need to fill our tanks. Considering all the nice aqua cultured pieces out there now, and to subject the already deteriorating reefs to more erosion.

Now, I have limited information about the subject line of this post. I have not formulated an opinion on whats wrong or right, i would like to find out more.

Lets not get hostile over this...i just want to get better informed as a new reefer
ty
mike

[Alfredo De La Fe]

In most cases the colonies that we get from the wild are small ones. Coral, as with every other renewable resource has to be collected responsibly. That is why their are CITES limits as to how many corals can be collected, and that is why we see corals come in cycles. (One year we see more of one coral than another)

More than a decade ago it was a real problem when coral skeletons used to be collected as curios. Now the collectors realize that they depend on the reefs for their livelihoods and jealously guard them.

-Alfred

[zahner]

my goal for my tank is to have as much aqua-cultured livestock as possible, so I plan to only get fish bred in captivity and frags fom others. It's only 30G so this shouldn't be that difficult to do.

[Alfredo De La Fe]

Having slept very little I did not complete one of my thoughts above. ;-)

In most cases the colonies that we get from the wild are small ones. If you notice, they come attached to coral rubble, or a small piece of live rock. very seldom do we find bases that have been broken away from a larger base. These are colonies which would not have survived long anyway. (In the case of SPS corals) Just the mere fact that our colonies are small indicated that they are new colonies which are perhaps a year old. These are not colonies that if removed will affect the actual reef. The real question is what the numbers are, are there more colonies left behind than collected? From several of the reports I have read the answer appears to be yes.

As for soft and LPS corals, we are all witnesses to how quickly they grow in our tanks. Now imagine in the wild! With full sunlight, excellent current and natural "fragmentation".

-Alfred

	SPS Small Polyped Scleractinians - Sometimes known as Small Polyped Stony corals. These are hard corals that have extremely small polyps. They are typically on the difficult side and require Metal Halide lighting or dense Power Compact or T5 arrays. These corals are prized for their rareness and ability to be easily fragged into multiple colonies.

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.

[lfsmarineguy]

Wild Vs. Aquacultured is a huge deal right now. CITES actually shut down almost all Red Sea collection recently due to a lot of false collection information. A lot of the guys over there were recording only 1/2 of what they were taking. This was due to a largely corrupt system over there becoming even more corrupt. There was one group in charge in the red sea that everyone had to pay fees to in order to collect. However, in recent months that group decided to pass on responsibility for "monitoring" collection to all the local people in charge. So now you have everyone who controls part of the red sea with their hand out if you want to collect in their area. So now instead of one guy you have to pay 15 in order to collect from there. This is what was told to me by a friend who has been in the business since I'd assume most of us were drooling on ourselves and throwing food or even conceived. As for impact on wild reefs, the responsibility falls on the different collectors. I can honestly say that even over the last year I have noticed a huge increase in Maricultured corals available on numerous companies order forms. Maricultured corals are essentially the same as Aquacultured with the only difference being that Maricultured is still grown in the ocean but both are from a fragment. I personally see better color and size (for what you pay for it) on the Maricultured stuff but it is by no means as hardy as aquacultured. It is marginally hardier than a wild colony but again, you're not taking directly from a reef.
I have personally been fragging a lot of the nicer wild/ Maricultured colonies we get and trying to grow them out. The small frags I have have been doing well with a few exceptions. For the most part the Maricultured ones need a lot of light to maintain color but not growth.

[Chiefmcfuz]

I buy Tank bred and aquacultured animals first then wild caught after that. But this is my pref not everyone feels the same way. Somethings tou just cant breed in captivity. Some things you can. One day everything will be aqua-cultured and tank bred so that there is no shortage in supply when that happens I think we will only be able to buy those items and wild caught will not be an option.

[noodleman]

But when your in the lfs, how do you guys differentiate between the wild and tank bred corals? Alot of people wants to be environmentally friendly going with tank bred, how can you be positive the coral your buying is actually tank bred and not just some story the sales associate made up to get you to feel better when your buying it.

[Alfredo De La Fe]

You can usually tell by the base the coral has.

-Alfred

[noodleman]

how so? And what if its a free colony thats not attached to anything like most lps come in as?

	LPS Large Polyped Stony corals – In the aquarium hobby this is a common division of the species of stony corals based upon the visual assessment of the size of the polyps. Corals in this category were among the first stony corals to be kept successfully in captivity and include many very beautiful species. Commonly kept Genera include Euphyllia (hammer/frogspawn coral), Favia (brain coral), Plerogyra (bubble coral), Lobophyllia (meat/tooth coral), and Caulastrea (candycane coral). LPS corals also include the popular solitary non-colonial stony corals such as Fungia (plate coral), Cynarina (button coral), Trachyphyllia (open brain coral), and Herpolitha (tongue coral). Like their SPS counterparts, LPS corals require good water quality, intense lighting of the appropriate spectrum, adequate water movement and regular supplementation of calcium.

[Dmitry]

This is why sites like this one are great: when we trade corals, we're trading aquacultured! The only corals in my tank that I bought from a store are some green shrooms. Everything else I got from members of this site. So I feel pretty good about not depleting a coral reef. Let's keep trading and do our part.