Caribbean reef tank

[geddavis]

Hello everyone,
I really want to try and make a Caribbean reef tank as it is a bit different. I have recently found some sellers for a few corals and fish however a lot of things are unattainable due to collection laws. Because of this I am trying to find alternatives that look similar. I would really like something like a stag horn so I’m trying to find a solid orange loose branching acro. Any suggestions on coral alternatives? By the way the two sellers are kp aquatics and Gulf Specimens marine laboratories.

 

[VR28man]

Acropora cervicornis is very common in the Carribeean. It's not available for sale, but it seems very similar to the Pacific Acropora yongei in terms of looks, habitat, niche, etc. that I would not be surprised that a genetic survey of them would find they're closely related.

There are many color morphs of Acropora yongei, of course, but one specimen from Bali was imported as the "Green Slimer" acro and grows well.

Montipora monastrea is also common in the Carribean; any of the encrusting montiporas in the hobby would be a good substitute. (though, again note that the hobby only imports colorful individuals, which are a small minority of the examples of any species)

Second, photosynthetic gorgonians are more common in the Carribean than they or soft corals are in many pacific hard coral areas. Fortunately, most of those gorgonians are available from, among other places, KP aquatics.

If you're interested in distribution of these corals, check out this article. Though it's primarily about gorgonians, it has lots of info on hard corals too.

Coral Reef Project—Papers in Memory of Dr. Thomas F. Goreau...: Ingenta Connect

www.ingentaconnect.com

 

[geddavis]

Ok thank you I’ll look into that.

 

[dennis romano]

My reef tank is populated with Caribbean fish. They are neon gobies, masked gobies, peppermint gobies, rainbow blennies, yellow sided blennies and C. argi. Love jawfish but their digging hurts corals. I also have a bunch of gorgonians and sponges. Besides KP, try Foxy Corals or Caribbean Tropicals for on line sales. Live Aquaria has Caribbean fish but pricy. Ebay sometimes has Caribbean corals but you have to look hard for them, e.g. staghorns and brains. I did see what looked like Porites with fan worms while snorkeling off Miami.

 

[VR28man]

another note about fanworms (actually Christmas Tree worms): I believe Tampa Bay saltwater has them in at least some of their live rock. And yes, they usually are found in various encrusting corals, usually Porites astrea, lutea, lobata (the most common corals in the world, the first genus being carribean, the latter being pacific)