New wild Australian Acro colonies
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scuzy
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The colonies I had were doing great until I killed all 8 by accidently changing water and topping off tank with chloramine breached rodi water. They were vivid colored and encrusting on my rocks.
Wow 100 bucks per colony is crazy cheap for Aussie pieces. Around here they go for 200-300 for small colonies.
OP
OP
Ya, even thoroughly analyzed them with a magnifying glass, no signs of pests.
OP
OP
Ya, I was ready to pay more, especially because of the size and colors.
OP
OP
Sorry to hear that but the 1st part is good news.
Punchanello
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Most of what we buy here in Australia are wild colonies. SPS are pretty cheap here. Fragging is becoming more popular but mostly for "high-end" corals that are trending in the US. The frag scene certainly isn't what it is in the US or Europe.
I've actually found wild colonies easier to keep alive than frags in a lot of cases. In my limited experience I've found less issues with pests on wild colonies. I mean, the ocean is large. A tank full of multi-generational frags and constant new additions from who knows where in a shop is surely going to have a higher chance of having pests introduced and well fed. In that regard dipping is pretty common here but not quarantining.
Two things I will say though is that wild colonies can vary hugely in colouration and appearance from ocean, to shop, to DT. They can be hard to identify and therefore not easy to know where they would be most happy and you might be disappointed when they settle in. They will take a while to settle and start growing but when they do they seem to explode. I tend to see growth at the tips befoe they even base out (which can be aproblem (see below)
When I have lost colonies, it has been because of a stuff up on my part (alk spike) or, from stressing them out by repeatedly moving, re-gluing, bumping etc to find a good spot. They are big and heavy and take a while to encrust on rock so they can fall, get stung etc. Make sure they are secure.
I've actually found wild colonies easier to keep alive than frags in a lot of cases. In my limited experience I've found less issues with pests on wild colonies. I mean, the ocean is large. A tank full of multi-generational frags and constant new additions from who knows where in a shop is surely going to have a higher chance of having pests introduced and well fed. In that regard dipping is pretty common here but not quarantining.
Two things I will say though is that wild colonies can vary hugely in colouration and appearance from ocean, to shop, to DT. They can be hard to identify and therefore not easy to know where they would be most happy and you might be disappointed when they settle in. They will take a while to settle and start growing but when they do they seem to explode. I tend to see growth at the tips befoe they even base out (which can be aproblem (see below)
When I have lost colonies, it has been because of a stuff up on my part (alk spike) or, from stressing them out by repeatedly moving, re-gluing, bumping etc to find a good spot. They are big and heavy and take a while to encrust on rock so they can fall, get stung etc. Make sure they are secure.
OP
OP
Might have to look that up in the future if theese do well, but seeing them with my eyes and not from a photo on the internet I know exactly what I’m getting. Not to mention I don’t have to deal with shipping and I have 2 great lfs’s 2 miles from my house which would order anything I’m looking for. I’ve bought Acro frags a couple times from live sales on here from big vendors and well let’s just say I wasn’t really excited once I got the actual pieces, add to that here in SoCal with so many stores the price of Acro frags are much less than online. I will say if I did purchase online Acro frags again they would be from Battlecorals, even though I haven’t bought from him before his reputation and true to life pics on his website.
OP
OP
Thanks for that great info, if they work out I would probably get some more, but would need to clear out a bunch of corals to make some room. I really enjoy my fish more and I really don’t care for having the latest and greatest 1 inch sticks for crazy$$$, I really just like all corals and the challenge of keeping them alive and growing with a full tank of fish to boot. Got them centered and secure, some of the fish are camera shy.
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ca1ore
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Tank looks great. I've had mixed success over time with ostensibly 'wild' aussie SPS colonies. A few have done really well, and are amongst my favorite colonies. Others have quickly gone RTN on me.
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OP
Thanks, today is day 5, they seem to have settled in for now, regarding the ones you had quickly rtn, how long were they in the tank before the rtn?
Dr. Dendrostein
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So I’ve always bought my corals as small frags, then on black friday I went with my daughter to one of the lfs to buy some new Acro frags, but as she was scoping things out( she always finds the nicest stuff) she says hey come check these out, she points out 2 large wild Australian colonies, one is a bright neon yellow around 8 inches long with many branches( I’m contemplating cutting it into 2 pieces) and the other is multi colored with yellow polyps around 4 inches long with many branches too. They had them laying down on flat rocks and as I was analyzing them closely I noticed where some branches were touching the rocks they had already been encrusting onto the rock, great sign in my book. So I find the owner( place was a zoo) as I wanted to get “my price” from him , I couldn’t pass it up as it was great plus he said I would also get the 25% off. So instead of buying 6 small Acro frags at 30$ each minus 25% I got the wild colonies instead for the same money. They were up high under 360 Kessils, and since I have Kessils I went ahead and placed them in the center of my tank up high, the larger one standing up and the other laying down. So I really only have one question for some of you pros that have experience with Australian wild colonies, what is the success rate of having success keeping them alive and thriving? My current tank at the moment is the healthiest it’s been since I started it 34 months ago. I attached a couple pics I just took with my cell phone of the 2 corals although the pics really don’t show there exact true colors compared to the naked eye. Thanks for any advice someone might provide.
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OP
Hey checked those out, quite a few to pick from prices are good but the ones that caught my attention where from 150$ to north of 200$. Thanks for the tip, might just setup in the future a 50gal I have in the garage and fill it up with a bunch of those wild colonies and see how they turn out.
OP
OP
Ya, the smaller one with the yellow polyps, seems to be changing colors with about a 1/4 inch of every branch tip turning blue, being 5 days in I feel they are gonna be fine.
maroun.c
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While usually aquaculture frags purchased locally can of course have a better survival rate I have seen multiple arrivals in LFSs of wildncolonies and it's very clear that wild coral shipments from Australia arrive in much better shape than indo ones most of the times simply because of the better chain of custody from sea to LFS and to reefer. Of course some good vendors in Indo provide great quality corals and these usually color up very nice when they settle, Aussie colonies simply arrive looking better, brown up less and color up faster in good tanks. They are a bit more finicky and require better quality water to pop up simply cause they come from cleaner water. I also appreciate the more controlled coral collection from Australia VS the less controlled practice in Indo for both fish and corals.
Make sure you have plenty of water flow/movement.
ca1ore
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OK, from memory ….. last year I bought around 10 colonies locally that were ostensibly wild harvested aussie; 6 of them I still have, and are growing well (many of which came with commensal crabs); 2 went RTN almost immediately; 2 others just kind of hung on for a couple of weeks before going south.
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OP
That's exactly what I noticed between these and the maricultured indo colonies at the lfs, the mari indo ones look ok at first but I notice a good % of them start to stn/rtn within a week or so, as I always study the corals when I visit the lfs.
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