I'm in the process of setting up a 40 breeder, and I was at the LFS today picking up some "live" rock (live only in the sense that it got wet for several months in their curing tank) to get things started. I figured I'd ask them what their opinion was on the Florida aquacultured stuff.
They seemed to not like it, mostly because it's "too alive" in that you can't really control the hitchhikers. Surprisingly to me, this seems to be a pretty common sentiment lately; everyone wants to start with dry "live" rock and cycle it up just for bacteria.
I'm just getting back into the hobby after 15 years or so, and this seems very strange to me. I remember the days where Fiji rock was really alive and came to the states on a plane wet and loaded with all kinds of life. Part of the fun of the rock was seeing what kind of hitchhikers you'd wind up with. The mantra in the late '90s and early 2000s was "biodiversity = stability," so the more alive the rock, the better.
Nowadays this is apparently anathema and people are calling dead, dry rock "live" and seeking sterile tanks where the amount of hitchhikers (and thus diversity) is minimized.
Sure, Florida rock is more likely to have undesirables, but the way I see it, that's just a sign of how fresh it is. Bad hitchhikers can be dealt with, just like in the olden days of wet Fiji rock (aiptasia, mantis shrimp, and bristleworms were just as much a worry then). My only concern is that most of the animals we keep in this hobby are from the Pacific or Mediterranean, which are very different biomes than the Caribbean, so there is definitely a question of compatibility between the rock and our animals. But given that you can't really get truly alive rock from the Pacific anymore, it seems Caribbean rock is the only way to maximize biodiversity in the tank.
Given all of this, I'm considering getting some of the Florida aquacultured rock to finish filling out my aquascape. What are everyone else's thoughts on this subject? Do you guys prefer starting with sterile rock or going for as much variety of life as you can get?
They seemed to not like it, mostly because it's "too alive" in that you can't really control the hitchhikers. Surprisingly to me, this seems to be a pretty common sentiment lately; everyone wants to start with dry "live" rock and cycle it up just for bacteria.
I'm just getting back into the hobby after 15 years or so, and this seems very strange to me. I remember the days where Fiji rock was really alive and came to the states on a plane wet and loaded with all kinds of life. Part of the fun of the rock was seeing what kind of hitchhikers you'd wind up with. The mantra in the late '90s and early 2000s was "biodiversity = stability," so the more alive the rock, the better.
Nowadays this is apparently anathema and people are calling dead, dry rock "live" and seeking sterile tanks where the amount of hitchhikers (and thus diversity) is minimized.
Sure, Florida rock is more likely to have undesirables, but the way I see it, that's just a sign of how fresh it is. Bad hitchhikers can be dealt with, just like in the olden days of wet Fiji rock (aiptasia, mantis shrimp, and bristleworms were just as much a worry then). My only concern is that most of the animals we keep in this hobby are from the Pacific or Mediterranean, which are very different biomes than the Caribbean, so there is definitely a question of compatibility between the rock and our animals. But given that you can't really get truly alive rock from the Pacific anymore, it seems Caribbean rock is the only way to maximize biodiversity in the tank.
Given all of this, I'm considering getting some of the Florida aquacultured rock to finish filling out my aquascape. What are everyone else's thoughts on this subject? Do you guys prefer starting with sterile rock or going for as much variety of life as you can get?
