Re Porites coral

[bobimport]

Does anyone have an opinion if Porites coral from the Caribbean with X- Mass worms in it would sell well? I have been thinking of importing it along with ricordea from Haiti and was wondering if there would be a market?

 

[Anonymous]

Traditionally, the coral and the worms do very poorly in captivity.

 

[bookfish]

Traditionally, the coral and the worms do very poorly in captivity.

Although that hasn't stopped many thousands of purchases of "Xmas worm rock" in the past few years.

 

[Anonymous]

Traditionally, the coral and the worms do very poorly in captivity.

Hmm. Interesting. I used to grow P. astreoides at Mote and the one thing I found is that it does not like change at all. Any change. It flourishes on every reef environment in the Tropical Atlantic, but if you look, most of the colonies you'll find are not but a decade or so old, meaning high fecundity but that perhaps my observations are mimicked by wild colonies. High tolerance generally means less competitive and vice versa (in this case).

 

[JeremyR]

The porities in the pacific xmas rocks is actually quite easy to keep alive by anyone with half decent light.. it's the worms that can be trouble.

 

[brandonberry]

I have had several species of Porites going for several years and they seem to do well in my tank. They definitely don't grow very fast though.

 

[bobimport]

Yes but whats the market?

 

[brandonberry]

If they are colorful and not too expensive, I would think the market would be pretty good for them. I'd be game for a piece assuming it is legal and all.

 

[bobimport]

Here is some that i just took a quick photo of.

 

[IconicAquariums]

Probably more market for that branching type than for the encrusting type. Seems to be less & less branching from Fiji/Tonga. There is some coming from Solomons, but its fugly.

 

[Anonymous]

There has always been a market for this coral and the worms, but this may be a case of should there be a market.

 

[IconicAquariums]

Rich, how many branching Porites have you seen the past year with decent color? I concur on the worms, but that morph (it's pacific cousin at least) usually does very well in captivity.

It's not even a targeted species in the Mariculture farms in Indo.

 

[Anonymous]

Hard to see that specimen but looks similar enough to the digitate Pacific yellow porites. I've seen descriptions of lavender / purple branching porites - that would definitely be a marketable item in my opinion.

On the pacific porites + worms the coral I've kept for years but most of the worms were gone by about the 2 year mark despite targeted feeding.

 

[IconicAquariums]

Hard to see that specimen but looks similar enough to the digitate Pacific yellow porites. I've seen descriptions of lavender / purple branching porites - that would definitely be a marketable item in my opinion.

There is purple Porites porites. There might be some imported legally soon from the opposite end of the atlantic.

There is also the Purple/Lavender from Solomons. Looks decent sometimes when it gets in, but always looks awful after just a few days. Really hard to bring back some of the intense colors it seems. I recall collecting some bright Purple & Green fragments of a species in Tonga, never even got the green back.

 

[cindre2000]

I currently have some green and pink porites in my nano that where originally hickhikers. However, they are still fairly dull as compared to what you can get with monti's and acros.

As for Porites/Worm rocks, I have seen them sell fairly quickly if they are reasonably priced, even the larger colonies.