Farmed or nonfarmed fossilized coral?

[hollow_dimm]

I read on the Internet that Buying fossilized coral or sponge coral that is not farmed is damaging to the environment because it rapes marine life of their necessary habitats.

Is this an issue in the the marine biolgy world?

Should we boycott nonfarmed coral?

 

[Anonymous]

Welcome to RDO!

I don't understand the terminology here. What is a fossiled coral (you mean "live rock")? How can one farms something that is fossilized (dead)?

 

[Len]

:welcome:

Hi. If you're referring to coral skeleton often sold for decoration, yes, it is a deleterious practice to sell skeletons of wild colonies. It is advisable to avoid even skeletons of farmed corals (I haven't seen these available). There are many man-made recreations that look nice, but people really could live without using coral skeleton as decoration altogether

 

[hollow_dimm]

I am referring to sponge coral often found in jewelry. I am a jewelry beader by hobby and a naturalist by heart and I heard that there are quite a few harvesters of jewel coral that strip the sea of coral to sell and that there is farmed coral that is cultivated in pools with less impact on sea life.

I was just curious if anyone had heard anything about this.

Like coral that's sold online at www.silverrosebeads.com that claims to be farmed. If this is something I should look into when shopping for coral or is it not a real concern of the marine life protection community?

 

[Anonymous]

The coral in those beads (the rose ones at least) is only found in deep waters (100ft or more) and is non-photosynthetic. There is not any way currently (that I am aware of) to farm these corals. However, you can learn a little about these coral species from wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_(precious)

Fossilized coral skeleton may or may not be a sales term to get around the import/export restrictions on coral skeletons. The stuff i saw on the site you provided looked similar to real fossil coral, but I am wondering if it was really dyed, contemporary coral skeleton filled with an epoxy and polished.

 

[Anonymous]

I don't know any source of farmed precious coral. Due to its requirement, it is very difficult to farm and harvest it.

Where in teh silverrosebeads.com does it says they have farmed precious coral? I can't find it with quick scan....

Fossled coral are usually not precious coral. Due to the nature of fosslization, the coloration is almost never preserved. There are ways to dye the mineral (both fossled and not), however, and you can find may precious corals bead at bargain price due to dying process compare to those that have a natural color.

 

[hollow_dimm]

Good point cknowito about bottling life;

I would never want to deal in some product that kills off live coral, or is damaging to the eco system.

Fossilized is another matter.

We deal in insects fossilized in amber in the beading world all the time; a bit of preserved history.

Or fossilized ammonites and other multi-celled organism from the cambrian period.

I don't see any harm in displaying and preserving something that is long gone of beauty.

I saw the farmed coral bit off of a google add of theirs.
It said Support only farmed coral.

I see a phone number; I will call them, dupaboy1992, and ask if they are dyed and coated.