Recent content by morepunkthanewe

One thing that no one has mentioned regarding this endemic fish is the impact that collection for the MO trade has had upon it's geographic range. For better or for worse, there are now several satellite populations of Bangaii cardinals throughout Indonesia, which I'm sure are the result of...

Since the last thread got locked, thought I'd introduce some more pertinent information ON the subject. A good friend of mine and collector in the Keys explains a different side of the story: In my opinion we shouldn't be labelling anyone a hyprocritical criminal until all the facts come to...

I was wondering if someone could perhaps enlighten me to any universities or research instituitions that are focusing, or have the expertise to study sexual reproduction in corals, specifically in closed systems, where I could obtain my master's degree? My experience thus far in Indonesia...

Hi Mike, sounds like what you've got going in American Samoa is pretty swell. I am curious as to how CORL differentiates itself from a for-profit venture if it acts as the seller and exporter of the aquacultured corals grown in AS. How does all that work out? If a non-profit group is...

A good friend of mine that knows all of the folks at Dynasty recalled this to me regarding what happened. It's brief, but a bit more specific than the other articles. I can't imagine diving to 300 ft, I definately don't have the cohones for that. I don't even have the cohones (or lungs) to...

I started a new thread... This one was getting pretty broad in it's criticism, outside my sphere of awareness to comment on certain things. Also I find that once threads start to get too long, they usually degenerate such that the only people bothering to keep up on it are those that are busy...

Thought that maybe I'd get this off to a fresh, untainted start... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last week I embarked to the regional province of Pulau Seribu (1000 Islands) to observe established and new attempts at in-situ coral mariculture, both for profit and also for...

briefly with regards to the Mandarinfish: This position confuses me a bit. For one it seems to suggest to me that the fact that mandarinfish are so plentiful, they should continue to collect them despite our agreement that they have a poor track record of survival and accepting food in the...

These are good questions that you've raised, and I always enjoy a challenge :-) I definately agree with you that Mandarins are too often bought by people that cannot give them the proper diet and habitat that they need for long term survival. Going to the wholesalers in Miami astounded me at...

The collectors of Pulau Seribu, Indonesia have just pledged to end their use of Cyanide (thanks, mostly due to the Filipino trainer brought in that showed them that fish like mandarins, comets, angels, and eels could in fact be caught without cyanide, thus making cyanide an unnecessity). They...

I had forgot to report the other day of my experiences at the fish suppliers in North Bali. The "suppliers" are middlemen that are the direct purchasers of the fish from the fishermen. They are the folks that transport the fish from the boondocks to the exporters in Denpasar or Jakarta. I...

As I stated previously I would prefer not to get dragged down into the mud pit that so easily forms in this forum.. however...to address Steve's (Cortez Marine) remarks to me First let me address the issue of bringing Ding Dong from the Phillipines to Indo from my perspective. Ding Dong has...

Let's put a brown coral on eBay, and then let's put a bright pink version of the same species on eBay and let's see what happens shall we? Capitalism at it's very finest, and the consumers let their prioroties be known... Anyhow, I really don't want to get in the mix of all this MAC gossip and...

Those are quite good points indeed. As Mark indicated, there is already some pretty fierce undercutting going on here whan it comes to aquacultured corals, so there is a fine line between meeting the demand and having a surplus resulting in everyone suffering. From what I hear, it is too often...

Something to keep in mind is that a lot of corals, especially the SPS, lose their pigmentation very, very quickly once they start getting moved around and stressed. They even lose a noticeable color from the time it takes to move it from their racks to the shore (only about 50 m!), so you can...