Wild Sps Colony Success

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

How many of yall had success in keeping wild sps colonies? I bought about 7/8 colonies from a lfs a couple of months ago. Only 3 survive. After the color comes back and everything is going good, do you make up a name for that wild colony so you can sell frags? And how low did or would you start the asking price?

Kworker · Jan 9, 2015

All of the ones I have purchased that were maricultured (grown in wild) have survived. However, they lose their color and shift.. unfortunately a good amount stay at a dull purplish color without much of anything as for now, I am starting to see a bit of a green to one or two of the colonies. They are growing otherwise.

I havent fragged up wild colonies in order to sell nor am I really looking to do so. So I really can answer that part of your question.

Pixievixi · Jan 9, 2015

Collecting wild coral is illegal. You can not sell it and you can't name it. Stop doing this.

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

Really? Didnt know that. Alot of LFS sell them so how illegal can it be?

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

Btw, i would rather frag and trade for something that i dont have first before i put a price on any coral in my tank.

luke33 · Jan 9, 2015

Pixievixi said:
Collecting wild coral is illegal. You can not sell it and you can't name it. Stop doing this.

I'm sure he was just calling it wild collected when it was just maricultured. Not a lot of sps growing in NY : )

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

Umm I hope you didnt think i was collecting corals straight out the ocean, lol

Pixievixi · Jan 9, 2015

You need a permit to collect. There are times of the year when it is ok to collect. I'm saying that if someone was trying to sell me wild coral I would turn them in if they did not have a permit or collecting license. Illegal trade is a problem in this trade. All my species come from reliable and sustainable sources. There are only 3% pristine reefs in the Maldives left. I would make sure those people selling wild corals to you are creditable. After your colony grows you can frag. I would just be careful.

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

Pixievixi said:
You need a permit to collect. There are times of the year when it is ok to collect. I'm saying that if someone was trying to sell me wild coral I would turn them in if they did not have a permit or collecting license. Illegal trade is a problem in this trade. All my species come from reliable and sustainable sources. There are only 3% pristine reefs in the Maldives left. I would make sure those people selling wild corals to you are creditable. After your colony grows you can frag. I would just be careful.

gotcha, so now that thats cleared up. Do you or did you own maricultured corals and had success with it?

ingtar_shinowa · Jan 9, 2015

I got a box of 4 wild collected colonies. 2 are great, one is not happy, one rtn'd. I think thats pretty common across the hobby with numbers. that being said the 2 colonies doing well are gorgeous.

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

I guess you have to get a bunch knowing that only little to half will actually survive

Dextereef · Jan 9, 2015

I had "wild caught" maricultured coral before and they lasted about 6 months then rtn'd and died while some aquacultured sps thrived and I still have them after 2 years. It's a roll of the dice with maricultured especially if its 1st generation, IMO. My local lfs doesn't get them in much anymore because the die off is too much but I would say dip routinely at first just to be safe. I had a 1st gen montipora that had great color and grew super fast, then suddenly rtn'd and died. When I took it out a gorilla crab popped out. He had survived the original dipping and had carved a home in the center of the coral and killed it. You just never know what will come with a wild grown coral.

As far as fragging them up and naming them...this is a funny subject for me. IMO, the popular thought around this is only named corals come from the big names in the coral trade. I say ******** to this. I see so many "named" pieces show up elsewhere with no name...ex: divers den posts a ton of maricultured colonies titled only with their growth characteristics that are posted elsewhere on the web with some goofy name for 3 times the price. There might be a few rare color morphs out there that people want to charge $1500 for a 1/4" frag for but I say they can have it. Like any hobby or industry there is always a niche carved out for the "ultra high end rare whatchamacallit" that people like to buy into just to say they bought it. If you want to frag up your coral and give it a cool name like Captain Americas Star Spangled Underpants then have at it. That's the beauty of a free market in a free country. "Murica!

Dextereef · Jan 9, 2015

ingtar_shinowa said:
I got a box of 4 wild collected colonies. 2 are great, one is not happy, one rtn'd. I think thats pretty common across the hobby with numbers. that being said the 2 colonies doing well are gorgeous.

+1 on this ratio. This is probably what you can expect across the board.

electricrcplane · Jan 9, 2015

I recently received two colonies of maricultured acros, had them about a month and so far doing really well.

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

electricrcplane said:
I recently received two colonies of maricultured acros, had them about a month and so far doing really well.

do you have pix of the 2?

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

These are my 3 wild colonies

pirate2876 · Jan 9, 2015

I just picked up 5 bali maricultures. I haven't picked up a mariculture in a while, and I wanted to see if they fair better then in the past. I have pics of them post bayer dip, but that is all so far.

brick-brothers · Jan 9, 2015

Greg79 · Jan 9, 2015

Well if you transfer wild colony to your tank where levels are not close to natural seawater levels don't expect they gonna look great and all survived
Especially after shipping stress and dipping... Just my 5cents