What do you look for

[buzz1ightyear]

So since I’m getting into sps where as in the past I really only bought soft corals what all are you looking for when you go to the Lfs to buy a sps frag. For me some of the stores I go to the person doesn’t know more than it’s a acro or monti. So I’m still trying to learn how to identify corals to see if I have a spot that the coral will thrive. If I have the luxury of knowing exactly what it is I can research. But recently I bought a mariculture acro not knowing what that ment at the time. It’s been 4 days and hasn’t immediately shown any signs of stress. But some people here were able to identify it as mariculture just by looking at it. So one thing I’m asking is how can you tell it’s aquaculture/mariculture/wild just by looking at it. And second question is what do you look for to determine if it is healthy. Me personally I look for it to start encrusting the plug a little bit. I figured if it’s growing on the plug it’s survived being cut and has stabilized on the plug so it’s off to a good start. Obviously that’s not always an option but it makes me more comfortable buying a drag when I see that.

Bonus question after how many generations of fragging a wild or mariculture coral can you start calling it aquacultured. And does that mean you give it some fancy name and act like you discovered some new color of a acro?

 

[Tahoe61]

So since I’m getting into sps where as in the past I really only bought soft corals what all are you looking for when you go to the Lfs to buy a sps frag. For me some of the stores I go to the person doesn’t know more than it’s a acro or monti. So I’m still trying to learn how to identify corals to see if I have a spot that the coral will thrive. If I have the luxury of knowing exactly what it is I can research. But recently I bought a mariculture acro not knowing what that ment at the time. It’s been 4 days and hasn’t immediately shown any signs of stress. But some people here were able to identify it as mariculture just by looking at it. So one thing I’m asking is how can you tell it’s aquaculture/mariculture/wild just by looking at it. And second question is what do you look for to determine if it is healthy. Me personally I look for it to start encrusting the plug a little bit. I figured if it’s growing on the plug it’s survived being cut and has stabilized on the plug so it’s off to a good start. Obviously that’s not always an option but it makes me more comfortable buying a drag when I see that.

Maricultured are typically tight squat branching, busy like, encrusted not newly cut.
It's my experience it's a mixed bag regarding which do great and then suddenly RNT or STN after 6 months. Millepora is common.

Bonus question after how many generations of fragging a wild or mariculture coral can you start calling it aquacultured. And does that mean you give it some fancy name and act like you discovered some new color of a acro?

Aquacultured means if you frag a mariculture successfully the frag is aquacultured, raised in a captive marine system.