Aquacultured vs wild
- Thread starter Tab28
- Start date
- Tagged users None
GlassMunky
2500 Club Member
in my experience, yes, most of the time.
Daniel@R2R
Living the Reef Life
Yep! Aquacultured are conditioned to aquarium life. Wild and maricultured are not and have much higher mortality rates.
JoeIII
Well-Known Member
For teh end user, they ought to be.
I don't thinkof it as a conditioning issue, if you buy aquacultured you are sampling only from the colonies/varieteis that are able to survive in a home aquarium, instead of taking the chance on a wild-caught that may not be able to for whatever reason.
I don't thinkof it as a conditioning issue, if you buy aquacultured you are sampling only from the colonies/varieteis that are able to survive in a home aquarium, instead of taking the chance on a wild-caught that may not be able to for whatever reason.
OP
OP
Tab28
Valuable Member
At RAP several vendors had aquacultured corals. One was a 4th generation from wild indo elegance. Elegance even aussie is a short term resident for me. So i opted for an aquacultured wall hammer.
I have had several euphyllia and some walls over the years. This one just seems healthier and more robust. Now if this is true of aquacultured. I may look into the elegance.
On side note aquacultured has to be more environmentally friendly.
I have had several euphyllia and some walls over the years. This one just seems healthier and more robust. Now if this is true of aquacultured. I may look into the elegance.
On side note aquacultured has to be more environmentally friendly.
revhtree
Owner Administrator
Staff member
Super Moderator
Reef Squad
Partner Member 2024
Excellence Award
RGB
Photo of the Month
Article Contributor
R2R TV Featured
Hospitality Award
Article Administrator
Black Friday Sponsor
Industry Professional
My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
- Joined
- May 8, 2006
- Messages
- 49,234
- Reaction score
- 98,071
You normally see more talk about aquacultured SPS pieces. Glad to see some LPS topics come up!
What you find with wild caught and maricultured pieces is that they have hitch hikers that come along with them. Coral eating nudibranchs,flatworms and spiders. So if you get pieces grown out in clean systems they "generally" don't come with baggage. They also may have morph'd their zooxanthellae to handle LED's,T5 and MH.
JoeIII
Well-Known Member
I did not mention the environmental impact, as I figured it was a given that aquaculturing helps save the wild reefs.
Of course, even being multi-generational (I would be interested how one determines a "generation" on a coral colony) captive-bred does not guarantee sucess, but in my opinion you are less likely to find yourself in a losing situation with a being that just won't take to surviving in ANY system, not just your own.
As far as hitchikers, it would depend on if the facility that did the aquaculturing mixed auquacultured specimen and wild-caught ones in the same system. It would be nice to think that they would keep them seperated, but many of these vendors have fairly small facilities and it just wouldn't make sense for them to incur thae extra cost of having a seperate system for colonies that come direct from "big blue"
Of course, even being multi-generational (I would be interested how one determines a "generation" on a coral colony) captive-bred does not guarantee sucess, but in my opinion you are less likely to find yourself in a losing situation with a being that just won't take to surviving in ANY system, not just your own.
As far as hitchikers, it would depend on if the facility that did the aquaculturing mixed auquacultured specimen and wild-caught ones in the same system. It would be nice to think that they would keep them seperated, but many of these vendors have fairly small facilities and it just wouldn't make sense for them to incur thae extra cost of having a seperate system for colonies that come direct from "big blue"
I almost always prefer aquacultured specimens. Now how long they have been in aquaculture is another issue. Did a vendor get a wild colony and just named it and frag to sell? Or maybe they have had the wild coral a year and made a few frags on and off and then you have something like ORA where some of their coral has been in captivity decades so it's not always clear cut how aquacultured something really is.
Some have great success with maricultured and wild coral, but in general you will find aquacultured will do better in home systems. The commercial process of harvesting a single coral lineage over the years naturally selects against varieties that die off in captive conditions. It also selects for coral that show and hold good colors under artificial lighting and artificial seawater compared to wild which colors can be more unpredictable.
I also think that while it looks really cool to buy large colonies and put them into a tank, colonies that were raised from frags in your system will do much better. The coral if you grow it from a frag will grow to suit the conditions particular to your tank - flow and light being the main ones. Sure colonies grown from frags may eventually need trimming if they block flow or light, but they generally give you more warning, if a large wild colony isn't getting enough flow or light in a spot the entire thing might just die.
EDIT: sorry! I thought this was about SPS, although most still holds true, I don't think the difference is as dramatic with wild LPS. I am cautious with wild LPS for spreading pathogen though since I fought brown jelly infections years ago.
Some have great success with maricultured and wild coral, but in general you will find aquacultured will do better in home systems. The commercial process of harvesting a single coral lineage over the years naturally selects against varieties that die off in captive conditions. It also selects for coral that show and hold good colors under artificial lighting and artificial seawater compared to wild which colors can be more unpredictable.
I also think that while it looks really cool to buy large colonies and put them into a tank, colonies that were raised from frags in your system will do much better. The coral if you grow it from a frag will grow to suit the conditions particular to your tank - flow and light being the main ones. Sure colonies grown from frags may eventually need trimming if they block flow or light, but they generally give you more warning, if a large wild colony isn't getting enough flow or light in a spot the entire thing might just die.
EDIT: sorry! I thought this was about SPS, although most still holds true, I don't think the difference is as dramatic with wild LPS. I am cautious with wild LPS for spreading pathogen though since I fought brown jelly infections years ago.
Last edited:
JoeIII
Well-Known Member
This is exactly what I was trying to say - thank you for putting it together in a way that actually makes sense.
OP
OP
Tab28
Valuable Member
I did not think of that. I just thought it meant it was the forth group of frags after grow out. But if there is no true definition. Then term is suspect. Even if it was stated as aquacultured. I would not buy one that had that "fresh of the saw look" to it.
JoeIII
Well-Known Member
Someone else touched on the subject of when you can start calling a colony or frag aquacultured.
I suspect people will refer to growing a frag out large enough to frag again as a "generation" so the fourth-generation coral mentioned above would have been in captivity at least four sets of frags, but again it is harder to define than it is in humans, cats, fish, etc. where we have sets of parents and grandparents to delineate a generation.
As the consumer all you can do is ask more quantifiable questions (how long has this been in your system? where did you source it? where did they source it? etc) until your personal level of comfort is reached. Some people do not feel it is a problem placing a maricultured or wild collected specimen in their system, while others prefer something that has been in captivity longer - that is a question of personal preference of course.
I suspect people will refer to growing a frag out large enough to frag again as a "generation" so the fourth-generation coral mentioned above would have been in captivity at least four sets of frags, but again it is harder to define than it is in humans, cats, fish, etc. where we have sets of parents and grandparents to delineate a generation.
As the consumer all you can do is ask more quantifiable questions (how long has this been in your system? where did you source it? where did they source it? etc) until your personal level of comfort is reached. Some people do not feel it is a problem placing a maricultured or wild collected specimen in their system, while others prefer something that has been in captivity longer - that is a question of personal preference of course.
scardall
2500 Club Member
ideas
Well in general to a degree I agree Aqacultured corals should survive longer, but that is Not always the case. For Example: Gonipora has a HIGH mortality rate,even from Aquacultered sources. Oh Yeah, as far as pests and alike, think about this? Why Dip these corals then?
Well in general to a degree I agree Aqacultured corals should survive longer, but that is Not always the case. For Example: Gonipora has a HIGH mortality rate,even from Aquacultered sources. Oh Yeah, as far as pests and alike, think about this? Why Dip these corals then?
You'll nearly always have better success with aquacultured coral. If moving towards maricultured or wild caught look for vendors that condition the coral for quite a while before moving them, rather than just moving them a.s.a.p.
While I thought this for years, the truth is that maricultured is the most environmentally friendly means of producing both fishes and corals, generally speaking. The use of natural sunlight and seawater alone are huge. Mariculturing corals in areas where they naturally occur raises awareness and creates good paying jobs for people whom would normally just collect fishes/corals for either food or our industry. There could/should be more articles written on this actually
The common definition I see used by notable coral aquaculture facilities is new tissue/skeleton grown in captivity is "aquacultured". When you take that new growth, frag it again, you've moved onto a new generation. Now of course this is a loose definition and different companies will have different specifics regarding the definition. If someone brings in wild/maricultured coral, then frags them, that's not aquacultured... yet. A place that does call them aquacultured I label as a chop-shop
Most of the good ones have a separate QT system that houses all incoming coral, no matter if it's wild, maricultured or aquacultured. Some even have separate raceways/tanks once out of QT to prevent the spread of anything that makes it through QT.
PaulKreider
Valuable Member
Aquaculture definitely has its perks and as mentioned, there are facilities that come to mind when thinking of true aquaculturing, Unique corals, Battle Corals and ORA come to mind. Each of these facilities is known for growing colonies out and only releasing true aquacultured specimens. In the long haul I've noticed these fare far better off in out systems as compared to wild caught.
As far as generations go I agree with the idea of "new growth tissue" as being aquacultured, and for things like frogspawns, torches or each other that pop out new heads I would believe those go as the new generation.
As far as generations go I agree with the idea of "new growth tissue" as being aquacultured, and for things like frogspawns, torches or each other that pop out new heads I would believe those go as the new generation.
OP
OP
Tab28
Valuable Member
Yesterday was at a LFS and they had maricultured wall hammers as well as fragged wild obtained. The mericultured looked plumper and overall better than the wild frags. Also demanding a higher price. If you are getting a coral that will not need an long adjustment period and stands a better chance of survival. The extra money is forth the price IMO.
Still think the aquacultured looks better maybe since the aquaculture facility thought enough of that particular piece to warrant it.
Still think the aquacultured looks better maybe since the aquaculture facility thought enough of that particular piece to warrant it.
