"Mariculture"?

[kevinpratt823]

There is a vast quantity of maricultured corals that come in to the hobby, and it all SOUNDS good, as an alternative to wild collecting. But when I look at a lot of these pieces, some are barely encrusted to the dome shaped man-made base rock they are on. I have always wondered what is really going on, meaning how much of the piece was actually grown out in a lagoon? Especially when I see something like an Acropora Plana, which is a tabling acro, mounted straight up and down on the rock, and the only way to make it look natural is to lay it on it's side, it can't possibly have been on that rock for long, as it would not have grown that way. Are these "Mariculture" facilities really just harvesting wild colonies, then chopping them up and mounting chunks to rocks, and using these lagoons more like a storage facility?

 

[btkrausen]

I think they are basically doing that, cutting up frags, putting them on discs, and then growing them out in the ocean. To me, this at least prevents a percentage of colonies from being harvested straight from the ocean. I'd feel better buying a maricultured piece that was fragged out then the actual colony from the ocean.

 

[kevinpratt823]

I think they are basically doing that, cutting up frags, putting them on discs, and then growing them out in the ocean. To me, this at least prevents a percentage of colonies from being harvested straight from the ocean. I'd feel better buying a maricultured piece that was fragged out then the actual colony from the ocean.

My point is that they are NOT growing them out, it appears that every piece I have seen is pretty much the exact same size/shape as when it was cut from the main colony in the ocean, they don't grow those peices out from a frag, they just collect them from the ocean, mount them to a rock, put them in a lagoon, then sell it. They're not "cultured" at all, at best they're allowed to encrust a little while they are stored in the lagoon.
Don't get me wrong, I buy them also, along with wild colonies from the ocean, but I am leaning away from it now.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

It seems the issue here is whether or not the chunks that are attached to the disks are from colonies that were grown in the lagoon or wild colonies from the reef. Either way its not as bad as taking the entire wild colonies but it does seem like a scam if their marketed as maricultured but just fragged pieces of wild coral.

This issue is not just for lagoon aquaculture corals but also for aquaculture here in the US. Most companies just frags up wild colonies for quick sale. It doesn't matter to me if its been healed for a month. Its a wild coral thats being sold not aquaculture. Being an acan collector its tough becuase the wild pieces can change color. Chalices can change color. I got a baby blue body pink rim chalice and now it has a green rim. I think the business is changing but slowly. You have to be an educated consumer these days to truly buy aquacultured.

 

[gooch Verified Sponsor]

Maricutured corals are wild corals grown is semi controlled conditions in the ocean. I would tend to guess the reason so few are coming in encrusted is they may be struggleing to keep up with demand. Just because it is in the ocean doesn't mean they are not prone to problems either. They could have had a massive die off or a storm come in and destroy racks of corals. This stuff happens. WOuld I buy maricutlured corals? Absolutely if it was something I wanted. Is it grown from a frag of a frag. Probably not. But IMHO if you are looking for true aquacutured corals on a commercial scale the wholesalers doing it are limited. I know Sea Dwelling Creatures and A&M Aquatics have big operations going on. As does Quality Marine. I am sure they all started with wild corals initially. A&M does true aquacultured at least second generation frags. I haven't seen Quality Marines set up yet so i can not comment on that any further. I believe Sea Dwelling is Mariculturing corals but i am not sure what generation they are working from. I supply these places with plugs and will tour the facilities eventually.....I hope. I plan on flying out to see them in a few months. Then of course there is ORA and a few others. I think guys like fish heads do a little of both.

Thing is if you were buying true aquacutlured corals the size of the maricultured frags you probably wouldn't be able to afford it.

 

[macawmagic]

It seems the issue here is whether or not the chunks that are attached to the disks are from colonies that were grown in the lagoon or wild colonies from the reef. Either way its not as bad as taking the entire wild colonies but it does seem like a scam if their marketed as maricultured but just fragged pieces of wild coral.

This issue is not just for lagoon aquaculture corals but also for aquaculture here in the US. Most companies just frags up wild colonies for quick sale. It doesn't matter to me if its been healed for a month. Its a wild coral thats being sold not aquaculture. Being an acan collector its tough becuase the wild pieces can change color. Chalices can change color. I got a baby blue body pink rim chalice and now it has a green rim. I think the business is changing but slowly. You have to be an educated consumer these days to truly buy aquacultured.

on this note...i'm pretty sure stuff that is truly "aquacultured" is supposed to be sold along with the certificate number so you know it was truly aquacultured. not 100% positive though as I've never seen this actually done.

as far as mariculture. it truly depends if they're fragging from the wild colony or a second colony they collected as a frag and are growing in a diff place. I agree that most stuff comes in with very little growth on the base. It also REALLY bugs me when they glue corals like efflo's etc vertical instead of horizontal!

 

[tangboy]

It sounds like they are trying to "do the right thing" on the label but who really knows in the end. I try to get my stuff that has been growing from others and they frag them, I know in a round about way it all comes from the ocean but I guess it just makes me feel better?!?

 

[btkrausen]

I don't like buying wild colonies just for the fact that it makes me feel bad...plus, they never live for me.

 

[kevinpratt823]

I find it hard to believe that these pieces are taken from a parent colonies that are in captivity, it is more likely that they are just collected from the ocean.

 

[btkrausen]

According to LiveAquaria's definition, they don't say that they are from corals in captivity. My guess is that they are wild corals that are fragged out.

"Maricultured Corals are propagated overseas and grown out in shallow protected lagoons or in outdoor raceways using natural sunlight and ocean water. "

 

[kevinpratt823]

According to LiveAquaria's definition, they don't say that they are from corals in captivity. My guess is that they are wild corals that are fragged out.

"Maricultured Corals are propagated overseas and grown out in shallow protected lagoons or in outdoor raceways using natural sunlight and ocean water. "

It does say they are propogated and grown out, but I got 3 "maricultured" pieces from LiveAquaria last month, all Acropora Planas that were mounted vertically rather than tabling out as they would grow. 2 of them STN'd by the third week(too late for a refund). These were definitely not grown out after they were propogated, they were chopped from a colony(probably wild) and glued to a rock then sold.

 

[btkrausen]

Yeah, I got a maricultured efflo from them and it was also mounted vertically like yours were. It kind of baffled me, but I ran with it to see what it would do...it died in a few weeks.

 

[ksc]

Maybe their survival rate is better mounted upright so they can receive better flow in our tanks. I'd say 50 percent of the maricultured pieces I've bought have been pretty well encrusted.

 

[btkrausen]

Mine was encrusted very well, but was mounted vertically. I don't think they mount them for whats best for us, haha.

 

[kevinpratt823]

I think the only benefit for mounting them upright is so they can fit more pieces in a smaller space. If you grew one out from a frag, it would table out, because that is the optimum way for it to recieve flow. Mounting them verticle also completely changes where the light is hiting it, which I'm sure adds some additional shock.