Wild acro frag difficulty?

[BriansBrain]

I’ve been eyeing some wild or maricultured acro frags. All are miliporas from indo, Malaysia and Solomon’s. The frags are colorful, have pe, chunky and encrusting. Ive just always stayed clear of any acro not aquacultured.

I’m curious of their difficulty, longevity, and shipping stress vs wild/maricultered colonies? My inexperienced opinion on this is they’d possibly fair better than as a colony? Is it worth trying?

 

[Rocks reef]

Really any SPS can be difficult if the tank isn't stable, parameters on point, light, etc...
If you do go the wild/maricultured route, be sure and dip them for pests/etc.

 

[386reeftrader]

They are the same as any frag, IME. I'd say 50% of acros I've kept over the years were from chop shops and my favorite pieces were all fragged off wild/mari stuff. Colonies are a different story.. wild, mari, or AC they are going to be much more temperamental than a frag

 

[billyocean]

A lot of work should go into qt for mari acros for sure.

 

[WY RecklessReefer]

Some are more resilient, some just give up the ghost. I would have a QT set up to rest them for a couple of weeks before dipping. I had a colony show up and all the water leaked out. Thought for sure he was a goner. A month later he colored back up and has good PE.

My experience is they’ll make it 6 months and that’s when the real challenge begins. If you frag, you need to be prepared to drag the entire colony as one frag may send it in a downward spiral.

Aquacultured stuff has already made the trek. Wild and. Mariculture is a TBD, so there’s a gamble there

 

[reefpanda]

I find they do well in KH around 7.2-7.6, CA 450, MG I350-1450, Temp 25 celcius. You'll occasionally find hitchhikers such as acro crabs, etc on them.

Here's a vid of my tank with mostly maricultured pieces

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I think out of all off the Maricultured corals Milli's are the hardest. They start out with lots of PE and then just decline. The green ones seem to do a bit better. That being said, mariculture can be hit or miss anyway. So if you do this, do your best but expect nothing, then you won't be disappointed. But if some of it works out, it's a happy surprise.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I agree with guy whose Speedo is blinding. I’ve changed how I introduce coral, generally speaking, into one of my systems. I don’t dip when I get them or when they arrive. I have an established coral QT tank that everything gets dumped into. It’s a small 10G that looks nasty but sustains life very well. After a few weeks of living the freshman dorm life, I take them out , put new shoes on them and go on from there.

I find that Maricultured coral’s mortality is not great. They are very very temperamental. I have a few pieces that are 4 years old, but that is the exception. Especially compared to how many I have collected over the years. Unless I know the shipper and have had very positive experience with the quality of the shipping methodology, I tend to pass. I have fragged new growth, grown them into mini colonies for them also to be as temperamental as their mother.