Where do our coral come from?

[SAWFISH]

Oh one other point for those interested. According to this page on WWC's website they are a 100% aquaculture facility

Wild-Caught vs. Aquacultured Corals

Designing a new reef tank comes with several choices. Learn the differences between wild-caught and aquacultured corals and why you should decide wisely.

worldwidecorals.com

The same is also true about ORA

https://www.orafarm.com/about/ora/

 

[SAWFISH]

Also for those of you who are answering that yes you have bought wild caught corals, please in the comments explain how you knew it was wild caught, where you bought it, and if you felt like it was harder to keep than any of your other corals!

KEEP THE RESPONSES COMING!

 

[PicassoClown04]

Hi there! A lot of my corals are aquacultured (especially my acros, zoas, and clams) but I do have many pieces I know 100% are wild caught. Like my scolies, the only way to aquaculture those are to cut them into pies and I guarantee that’s not what happened to mine. My lfs gets shipments in on almost a biweekly basis of corals direct from indo. They don’t even price em all separately because they don’t know the difference between a ‘hellfire torch’ and a ‘21 tails torch’ to them, they are all indo torches and get the same price. So going off of that knowledge, I know that about 1/3-1/2 of the stuff in my tank is wild caught just because of that one lfs because I love it. They seem to do just fine in my tanks and I’ve been able to ID almost all of them to the closest available match (like an indo torch that turned out to be a hellfire).

 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Never bought a coral that I knew was wild caught, only aqua and mari cultured BUT I did recently come back from the US Virgin Islands(St. Thomas) and when I got home there was a decent size “frag” of branching finger coral in my suitcase. Don’t know how it got there but I didn’t want it to die obviously so it’s currently chillin in my Californian Reef

Just as a general note, i would not be bragging about breaking international laws designed to protect endangered ecosystems. Not cool and also incredibly stupid. You never know when somone has an old friend that works for the customs office as a wildlife violation investigator. One coral or a box of corals, they take it VERY seriously.

 

[Opus]

Hi there! A lot of my corals are aquacultured (especially my acros, zoas, and clams) but I do have many pieces I know 100% are wild caught. Like my scolies, the only way to aquaculture those are to cut them into pies and I guarantee that’s not what happened to mine. My lfs gets shipments in on almost a biweekly basis of corals direct from indo. They don’t even price em all separately because they don’t know the difference between a ‘hellfire torch’ and a ‘21 tails torch’ to them, they are all indo torches and get the same price. So going off of that knowledge, I know that about 1/3-1/2 of the stuff in my tank is wild caught just because of that one lfs because I love it. They seem to do just fine in my tanks and I’ve been able to ID almost all of them to the closest available match (like an indo torch that turned out to be a hellfire).

The Indo coral would actually be maricultured unless something has changed in Indo. Last I knew, they were only allowed to ship maricultured coral, no wild caught. A lot of the stuff looks "wild caught" because they had been sitting in the ocean nurseries for over a year growing while Indo was shut down.

 

[Opus]

Oh one other point for those interested. According to this page on WWC's website they are a 100% aquaculture facility

Wild-Caught vs. Aquacultured Corals

Designing a new reef tank comes with several choices. Learn the differences between wild-caught and aquacultured corals and why you should decide wisely.

worldwidecorals.com

The same is also true about ORA

https://www.orafarm.com/about/ora/

That is not true for WWC. Just check out the Vic's Picks section. I clicked on the master scoly and in the description it states " It has been conditioned for over a month and is getting better and better everyday. " Unless they fragged it and it healed and became nice and round in a month it is wild caught.

I'm guessing it is just bad wording on their part because they do make it sound like they only do mariculture on the page you linked.

 

[Opus]

Oh, I voted yes to knowing I have bought wild caught coral. Since I started in reefing in the late 80's, wild caught was the only option. I remember my lfs having elegances that were so big you could only fit 1 in a 75gal tank. I could also get maxima clams for under $20.

 

[GlassMunky]

At this point in the hobby it seems as though everyone is constantly growing, fragging, and trading their corals. I wonder if anyone has any idea how this impacts the harvesting of wild coral for the hobby? Such as what percentage of hobbyist corals comes from the ocean nowadays and if this number has been increasing or decreasing overtime?

The reason I ask is because it seems like people are sometimes critical of the hobby’s impact on wild environments, which I can understand. At the same tome though I feel as though I never see any corals marketed as wild caught and I imagine most if not all frags are aquacultured or from other hobbyists.Just wondering if anyone has more detailed information on these topics.

Thank You
SAWFISH

I think EVERY SINGLE solitary polyp LPS such as Acanthophyllia, scolys etc are all wild caught, I don’t think anyone has ever fragged or bred them.
I think You’d be surprised at how many corals are wild caught still regardless if they advertise them that way

 

[GlassMunky]

The Indo coral would actually be maricultured unless something has changed in Indo. Last I knew, they were only allowed to ship maricultured coral, no wild caught. A lot of the stuff looks "wild caught" because they had been sitting in the ocean nurseries for over a year growing while Indo was shut down.

No, INDO is allowed to ship wild corals still.

this article talks a bit about how things are over there right now

The Indonesian Coral Trade is Business As Usual | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

We all know now, that after mariculture corals were re-opened at the beginning of the year, wild coral collection was also re-opened right after. We can now enjoy a complete supply of corals from…

reefbuilders.com

 

[ScottR]

My friends and I import corals from Malaysia, Australia and Indo. Malaysian and Aussie corals are pretty much all wild caught. Indo are all maricultured. I’d say from what I buy, most are from the ocean. Not many people where I live will take the time to grow and frag corals for profit. It’s so much easier getting them from a farm. I guess if you’re in the US, you’re getting that product that gets cut and cut and through middleman to middleman.

 

[SAWFISH]

Hi there! A lot of my corals are aquacultured (especially my acros, zoas, and clams) but I do have many pieces I know 100% are wild caught. Like my scolies, the only way to aquaculture those are to cut them into pies and I guarantee that’s not what happened to mine. My lfs gets shipments in on almost a biweekly basis of corals direct from indo. They don’t even price em all separately because they don’t know the difference between a ‘hellfire torch’ and a ‘21 tails torch’ to them, they are all indo torches and get the same price. So going off of that knowledge, I know that about 1/3-1/2 of the stuff in my tank is wild caught just because of that one lfs because I love it. They seem to do just fine in my tanks and I’ve been able to ID almost all of them to the closest available match (like an indo torch that turned out to be a hellfire).

Thank you for the response. I have always thought it would be cool to do tanks based on a locations natural coral population make up. It sounds like you might be 1/2 to 1/:3 of the way to doing that with indo corals

That is not true for WWC. Just check out the Vic's Picks section. I clicked on the master scoly and in the description it states " It has been conditioned for over a month and is getting better and better everyday. " Unless they fragged it and it healed and became nice and round in a month it is wild caught.

I'm guessing it is just bad wording on their part because they do make it sound like they only do mariculture on the page you linked.

Good Catch! Thank you for the correction. Their description is a misleading

 

[SAWFISH]

My friends and I import corals from Malaysia, Australia and Indo. Malaysian and Aussie corals are pretty much all wild caught. Indo are all maricultured. I’d say from what I buy, most are from the ocean. Not many people where I live will take the time to grow and frag corals for profit. It’s so much easier getting them from a farm. I guess if you’re in the US, you’re getting that product that gets cut and cut and through middleman to middleman.

Do you order through an LFS or directly from the vendors? Is there a separate vendod for each of the 3 areas you listed above?

 

[SAWFISH]

No, INDO is allowed to ship wild corals still.

this article talks a bit about how things are over there right now

The Indonesian Coral Trade is Business As Usual | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

We all know now, that after mariculture corals were re-opened at the beginning of the year, wild coral collection was also re-opened right after. We can now enjoy a complete supply of corals from…

reefbuilders.com

Thanks for the article, it was a great read. Along the lines of the article it would be really cool to see how many jobs are created around the world from the hobby and what percent of our money ends up in each carious country. Hopefully as the article says Indo will continue to move towards marculture

 

[SAWFISH]

Oh, I voted yes to knowing I have bought wild caught coral. Since I started in reefing in the late 80's, wild caught was the only option. I remember my lfs having elegances that were so big you could only fit 1 in a 75gal tank. I could also get maxima clams for under $20.

What a crazy thing to think about! 20$ maxima clams sounds like a dream. If you have any pics of some of your ild systems I would love to see them!

 

[SAWFISH]

I think EVERY SINGLE solitary polyp LPS such as Acanthophyllia, scolys etc are all wild caught, I don’t think anyone has ever fragged or bred them.
I think You’d be surprised at how many corals are wild caught still regardless if they advertise them that way

I am surprsied already bt the responses in the thread. I don’t know why but I assumed much less of our corals are wild caught. I guess it is just because of the facility near my home which is 100% aquaculture and serves quite a fee reefers in my area

 

[ScottR]

Do you order through an LFS or directly from the vendors? Is there a separate vendod for each of the 3 areas you listed above?

There are farms basically. You need a CITES permit. You can contact the farms directly. If you order enough, they will sell you. You basically get an excel sheet with all of the coral names listed in their scientific names, sometimes trade names. You choose what you want. Sometimes there’s a minimum for species, sometimes you can order singly. I think $2000 US will get you 2 styrofoam boxes. I can find pics later and post. Shipping is usually double the cost of the corals themselves however. If going to the US, I’d assume it’s way more. But it’s nice to get big colonies instead of tiny frags and at a fraction of the price.

 

[Badilac]

I think EVERY SINGLE solitary polyp LPS such as Acanthophyllia, scolys etc are all wild caught, I don’t think anyone has ever fragged or bred them.

"">

Piece of Pie Scully

Hello, Does anyone have some insight on Piece of Pie Scully? I saw one on WWC, didn't think Scullys can be fragged? So I was wonder if they grow into a normal looking scully? anything one might consider prior to purchasing this coral? also WWC dosen't recommened dipping thier corals?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[SAWFISH]

There are farms basically. You need a CITES permit. You can contact the farms directly. If you order enough, they will sell you. You basically get an excel sheet with all of the coral names listed in their scientific names, sometimes trade names. You choose what you want. Sometimes there’s a minimum for species, sometimes you can order singly. I think $2000 US will get you 2 styrofoam boxes. I can find pics later and post. Shipping is usually double the cost of the corals themselves however. If going to the US, I’d assume it’s way more. But it’s nice to get big colonies instead of tiny frags and at a fraction of the price.

That is incredibly interesting. How big of boxes are you able to get? Are the pieces usually in pretty good health when they arrive? I imagine you wouldn't be getting a 14 day arrive alive stay alive guarantee in this case

 

[SAWFISH]

"">

Piece of Pie Scully

Hello, Does anyone have some insight on Piece of Pie Scully? I saw one on WWC, didn't think Scullys can be fragged? So I was wonder if they grow into a normal looking scully? anything one might consider prior to purchasing this coral? also WWC dosen't recommened dipping thier corals?

www.reef2reef.com

Awesome links about fragging scolymia. Super interesting to watch. They are so expensive though that I imagine this process is not for the faint of heart! I wonder how fast the frags grow after being cut/how long it will take for them to reattain their circular shape

 

[GlassMunky]

"">

Piece of Pie Scully

Hello, Does anyone have some insight on Piece of Pie Scully? I saw one on WWC, didn't think Scullys can be fragged? So I was wonder if they grow into a normal looking scully? anything one might consider prior to purchasing this coral? also WWC dosen't recommened dipping thier corals?

www.reef2reef.com

Ok fine, 98% of them are wild