If you could not buy wild coral

[smpolyp]

If you could not buy wild coral anymore what would you do?

Would you think about diversity?

[mcgyvr]

I fail to see why anyone needs to buy wild coral anymore..
There is plenty in peoples tanks/aquaculture facilities,etc...

Plenty of diversity in captivity already..

[billdogg]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

I fail to see why anyone needs to buy wild coral anymore..
There is plenty in peoples tanks/aquaculture facilities,etc...

Plenty of diversity in captivity already..

With a very rare exception or two - I agree 100%.

I buy only frags, mostly at swap meets.

[Misled]

I haven't bought a wild coral in years. Most of my corals come from local frags.

[smpolyp]

Sweet answers. I think I have only bought 1 wild one in the past 15 years.

The next question. Would you help the hobby by increasing your current coral tanks?

[billdogg]

Originally Posted by smpolyp

The next question. Would you help the hobby by increasing your current coral tanks?

Yes, if I had the space, financial means, and the time needed to do it right. Sadly, all three are in short supply.

[ReefsandGeeks]

Originally Posted by smpolyp

Sweet answers. I think I have only bought 1 wild one in the past 15 years.

The next question. Would you help the hobby by increasing your current coral tanks?

Already working on it. Just getting into fragging as a way of spreading the joy of the coral I have, and using that money to add a new tank, and to buy new, different coral than I already have. Seems fragging will add a whole new dimension to the hobby.

Plus, in my area, reefing is not a huge hobby so having one more person offering frags will help those who do not want to pay for shipping every time they want a coral, and can see them and their mother colonies in person before buying.

I've never bought a wild coral. Not sure the point really when frags of aquaculture coral are proven to grow well in home aquaria.

[Uncle99]

Where practical I would buy mariculture or aquaculture.
When it comes to things like Scolymia and the like, it just not possible as they do not frag, well, they frag, then either die, look funny, or take 100 years to grow.

I try and be responsible, but not the posted boy.

[AlexR]

All coral I get are frags from aqua cultured colonies.
They are more hardy and carry less undesirables with them. Plus I’m leaving the wild alone.

[smpolyp]

I love all the post. I asked this type of question 15+ years ago and some people didn't give a crap.

ReefsandGeeks Love hearing that you are expanding.

Finding a way to distribute the coral is next. If your not going to do it commercial think about a wholesaler of LFS that is willing to do trades.

[Systemwizardinc]

never buy a wild coral anymore back 20yrs you had to but not today the fish i buy are tank raised

[Michael Hoaster]

Anyone else getting bored with reef tanks? I have no interest in corals at all! I'm all about the weeds…

[Misled]

I like crabs.

[ThRoewer]

Technically, 99% of all frags in the trade still have to be considered wild. Much of what you find on frags in stores are just cut up colonies or frags from wild colonies.
There hasn't really been much actual successful coral breeding (=sexual reproduction).

Generally, I prefer to buy frags from "domesticated" (=well-acclimated) coral strains over frags from recently wild harvested colonies.
But I would also buy frags from recently wild harvested colonies if no domesticated alternative exists.
And in some special cases where frags just not do it, I would also buy wild colonies, like for example Porites with Christmas tree worms.
I would however never buy large wild harvested colonies of corals like Acropora and the like that can be easily grown from small frags.

[smpolyp]

Micheal Hoaster I hope we do not get to this being the most popular tank. Sorry.

For those that are ready the time is NOW!!! After going through 120+ miles of aquarium stores Euphyllia prices are 3 times what they had 2 years ago. All of them said it was do to no availability.

[ThRoewer]

Originally Posted by smpolyp

Micheal Hoaster I hope we do not get to this being the most popular tank. Sorry.

For those that are ready the time is NOW!!! After going through 120+ miles of aquarium stores Euphyllia prices are 3 times what they had 2 years ago. All of them said it was do to no availability.

I think it may be a good time to get into commercial coral farming...

[Michael Hoaster]

smpolyp, I don't think we're in danger of seaweed tanks taking over the hobby. I just wanted to point out an alternative. I don't want to hijack an interesting discussion!

I was shocked to read above that most frags are still from wild colonies. I would have thought everyone was buying 2nd, 3rd, even 10th generation by now. It would be good to see frags advertised with their respective generation removed from the wild.