What's your opinion? At what point is a coral considered aquacultured?

[John Robbins]

Commercial or research? Care to provide links?

AFIK its only been a controlled spawn in labs and then more just coincidentally in the occasional hobbyist's aquarium.
Here are three examples that i am aware of. There are others.

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Florida Aquarium Successfully Spawns Pillar Coral

Utilizing greenhouses, LED lighting, and advanced computer control systems, The Florida Aquarium has induced the first captive spawning of Florida

www.reef2rainforest.com

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

@Battlecorals im sure Adam could do a whole article on this.

My view is so you get a wild colony in that’s colorful well most of the time it’s gonna change color that could be dramatically different to artificial light. I feel once it has changed and is growing it’s aquaculture but with that it has to prove it’s hardy Enough to survive in the home aquarium too so I’d say 2 years is a good measure.

 

[hart24601]

My definition is aquacultured is 100% growth in captivity. It can be growth off a wild if the skeleton and tissue has been grown in a tank - aka the mother grew a branch you fragged. I would go one step further and say it’s artificial seawater and artificial lighting it needs to be grown in.

We are not to captive bred yet. Maybe soon but I suspect even if we can do that frags, aka clones, will be more popular as you know what you are getting from the “parent”. Breeding means no clue. It’s like grating a honeycrisp apple tree = more honeycrisps. If you plant fertilized apple seeds you are mixing genetics and no clue what you will get.

 

[jccaclimber]

<snip>
If two corals are the same coral, how can one be wild and one be aquacultured? That is my thinking on it.

if I have a pair of chickens that are identical twins (assuming this is possible) and raise one in a pen and the other in a field is one free range and the other not?
I see this as a question of where/how the coral was grown, not what it’s genetics are. I can see your argument, but then it would, for almost all cases, be meaningless as it would never apply.
I consider a coral to identify to where it was grown. In order to qualify ideally it would only be tissue and skeleton grown in the new location. An easier close enough near the date it was moved is for there to be at least as much healthy parent colony after the fragging as there was when it was moved. If it is in the ocean that makes it maricultured, if it is out of the ocean that makes it aquacultured. It’s a fine line, but I’m inclined to say that in a concrete tank under the sun with pumped seawater on a tropical island is still aquaculture.
I also have an underlying expectation that mariculture be conducted in a way that does not decrease the coral growth of the mariculture field. For example if you strip an area of the native acros then grow your acros there it shouldn’t count because that harms the natural reef, which I see as the opposite of the point of mariculture.

 

[ScottR]

If it takes a human to care for the coral, then IMO it's no longer wild and its aquacultured.

This includes this on leased parts of the Ocean floor:

This mariculturing. This is my Indo monti with its mariculture tag still on it.

 

[rocsec1]

In my mind I consider it to be so once the frag I've bought is from a frag of the original piece. Although that really isn't true in one sense. The coral if from a piece that grow originally in the ocean. All of the coral we grow is from the ocean at one point. Many people spend a lot of time, effort, and money growing out the original pieces. If I understand the process someone goes out to the ocean and collects the coral. Then someone like WWC, or Jason Fox grows out the original piece of coral to the point that they can frag it and sell the frags. The original piece are often never sold since they are source of the growers income and product. The original piece of coral continues to live in their grow out tanks.

 

[Dvanlier05]

I thought that mariculture corals were corals grown in the ocean under human watch and care. Aquaculture corals are one that are grown in an artificial environment. They tend to be hardier corals bc they have already acclimated to synthetic lights and water.

 

[motortrendz]

So my opinion is once a coral goes though a few generations of fragmentation and regrowth in an aquarium setting, meaning there is nothing left of the original wild colony, that's when I call it aquacultured. Maracultured is a similar thought but instead of in the aquarium they're raised in the ocean in farms on racks... I find that maracultrued usually are very hearty but also tend to have alot of pests on them. Assuming bc they're in waters where the abundance of fish are not there to handle the parasite load. (Doesnt mean they're not healthy or nice corals., just means be extra careful when you get a coral on a cement base with a tag on it.)

 

[EMeyer]

if I have a pair of chickens that are identical twins (assuming this is possible) and raise one in a pen and the other in a field is one free range and the other not?

Thanks for engaging my picky definition for the sake of discussion

I raise chickens, so its a good example. If one of my hens escapes, it would still be a domesticated chicken, like its clone back in the coop. (We'd call it 'feral', but domesticated is part of the definition of feral). If it was a pair of cloned wild chickens (called a 'Red Jungle Fowl', I think they are from southeast Asia somewhere), I'd call the one in my coop a wild chicken in captivity and the escapee, a wild chicken returned to the wild.

Perhaps for dog lovers a dog analogy would be better. If I clone a poodle and one of them escapes it does not become a wolf (the wild animal from which dogs were bred). If I catch a wolf and clone it, and put one in a kennel while the other runs free, the one in the kennel does not become a poodle.

I am trying to draw the distinction between products of a breeding program and versus natural products. Livestock, crop plants, cats, dogs, even captive-bred clownfish - these are different animals than the wild populations, and you cannot find their match in nature. Corals in the aquarium trade, on the other hand, are just pieces of wild corals. Literally genetically identical to a wild coral.

I can see your argument, but then it would, for almost all cases, be meaningless as it would never apply.

Well, only until someone actually raises captive bred corals. It happens in research and restoration projects now. Its not impossible a coral aquaculture facility, or even hobbyist, could pull it off. Just very very challenging.

At that point we will have corals that are products of a breeding program. Like the case now with clownfish etc.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

IMO there's a major difference between corals that have just come in off the reef (wild) and those propagated through aquaculture. I think the idea behind aquacultured corals makes sense when you think of it as conditioning/acclimating a coral to captivity, and I think survivability rates of wild vs aquacultured frags bears this out. I thought there was a general rule of thumb out there somewhere for what was considered aquaculture. I thought it had to do with generations of frags (like 4th generation of frags it's considered aquaculture). In any case, it's the acclimation of a coral to captivity that makes it "aquacultured."

 

[sfin52]

imo aquacultured is done in tanks out side of the ocean.

Aquafarming is done in the ocean.

 

[Rilo]

I believe the proper definition would be a coral that has not been harvested from the Ocean.

 

[MTBake]

If it was bred, or grown in an artificial environment and then harvested(fragged). I would consider that aquaculture myself.

 

[MartinWaite]

To me it's all in the name, once a coral is fragged and placed on something (tile or rock) with it's tag then that growth if in the ocean is maricultured (marine cultured) but if that frag is placed on the same something then placed into an aquarium/aqua tank (aquatic culture) the growth of that frag is Aquacultured. In other words it is what it says it is a wild coral is a larger coral taken from the sea and not cut up but placed into aquarium and left to continue with its growth same as if in the wild. I think people are over thinking it.

 

[ldolor2]

This is maricultured corals... different topic

If it takes a human to care for the coral, then IMO it's no longer wild and its aquacultured.

This includes this on leased parts of the Ocean floor: