With the variety of aquacultured and maricultured specimens and products available in our hobby today, I would say we can stock a successful and beautiful tank with mostly aquacultured and maricultured specimens if we choose to do so. However, I would say it's difficult to be able to build a tank with completely aquacultured/maricultured livestock because there are components required for a successful reef tank that are still wild collected like hermit crabs, snails, and shrimps. Has anyone attempted building a 100% aquacultured/maricutured specimen tank? or is this still not possible in our hobby today? What's your opinion?
100% aquacultured/maricultured specimen tank. Is it possible?
- Thread starter johnnytmc
- Start date
I think we are pretty close. I was thinking of setting up my nano this way. I would only use captive bred fish and corals that were aquacultured. I already used dry rock and sand to start up so why not go one step further. I like the idea of not taking animals/habitat from nature to put in my tank. I do think we could easily aquaculture snails for our tanks, but there doesn't seem to be a need. I don't think that part of the hobby has a big impact on the reefs (snails, crabs and shrimp breed like mad). Obviously we don't have everything figured out, we aren't breeding tangs yet... but who needs tangs when you have a nano!!! :lolspin:
jdhuyvetter
SWFMAS Event Coordinator
I am actually in the process of setting one up now. I was going to start a build thread in this forum in a couple weeks.
To date, I have a pile of coral frags that are all aquacultured. Many are 5th generation or more.
All the fish will be tank raised (already have the clowns, working on the cardinals from club members....others will be ORA fish)
"Rock" is a mix of ceramic or ceramic type products from The Alternative Reef, Cerameco and Aqua Mags. Some of the pieces are already in other tanks "curing". Others are sitting on my kitchen counter.
Lighting is T-5's, from Sunlight Supply (already have it).
Tank is a 5 feet long 120 XH. Already have that too. Currently a FW plant tank. Currently in the process of relocating the plants and fish (a little bit each night after work) to a new tank in another room.
To date, I have a pile of coral frags that are all aquacultured. Many are 5th generation or more.
All the fish will be tank raised (already have the clowns, working on the cardinals from club members....others will be ORA fish)
"Rock" is a mix of ceramic or ceramic type products from The Alternative Reef, Cerameco and Aqua Mags. Some of the pieces are already in other tanks "curing". Others are sitting on my kitchen counter.
Lighting is T-5's, from Sunlight Supply (already have it).
Tank is a 5 feet long 120 XH. Already have that too. Currently a FW plant tank. Currently in the process of relocating the plants and fish (a little bit each night after work) to a new tank in another room.
AquaticFins
Premium Member
It's certainly very possible.
Seems like every trade show I've been to for the past few years, ORA has had a 100% maricultured/aquacultured aquarium set up.
Several snail species (Trochus, Cerith, Strombus, Stomatella, etc) are definitely available as captive-bred individuals...not necessarily on a commercial scale, but you can probably source some from local hobbyists without too much trouble. I've certainly given more than a few away...they generally breed like rabbits.
Shrimp will be harder to acquire. I've seen aquacultured shrimp occasionally available from a couple of venders, but they're uncommonly seen in the commercial trade at best. Your best bet would probably be looking for some at MOFIB or another marine breeding organization.
Seems like every trade show I've been to for the past few years, ORA has had a 100% maricultured/aquacultured aquarium set up.
Several snail species (Trochus, Cerith, Strombus, Stomatella, etc) are definitely available as captive-bred individuals...not necessarily on a commercial scale, but you can probably source some from local hobbyists without too much trouble. I've certainly given more than a few away...they generally breed like rabbits.
Shrimp will be harder to acquire. I've seen aquacultured shrimp occasionally available from a couple of venders, but they're uncommonly seen in the commercial trade at best. Your best bet would probably be looking for some at MOFIB or another marine breeding organization.
jdhuyvetter
SWFMAS Event Coordinator
I've got Stomatellas. Not the others. Willing to ship any south for the winter?
alton
Well-known member
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2062633
This tank is about as close as you can get. All corals are frags from frags, fish are from eggs, although I am not sure about the cardinals, if he got them as babies or eggs. Anemonies are clones from other anemonies
This tank is about as close as you can get. All corals are frags from frags, fish are from eggs, although I am not sure about the cardinals, if he got them as babies or eggs. Anemonies are clones from other anemonies
Looking forward to this build thread. I will be learning from this as I am thinking about upgrading and definitely want to start a tank with the same goal.
jdhuyvetter
SWFMAS Event Coordinator
How do you figure the variety isn't there yet? I've got 40 to 50 corals that I've been collecting for a while and no two are the same. Nearly all are 4 or 5 generations removed from the wild.
Agu
Premium Member
I came close to an aquacultured tank doing my last setup, tank has 12 of 15 lps corals that are captive propagated (the other three were gotten from LFSs with frag trades) and fish are ORA captive bred Bangaii. 20# of rock is cured base rock with only 5# of real live rock (which I already owned).
Sadly, captive bred CUCs are hard to come by so I had to get most of it wild caught. I did however catch a few bristle worms from another tank to add to the new tank.
To take it one step further equipment was chosen for energy efficiency. Running the 30 gallon tank uses about the same electricity as a 100 watt light bulb.
Sadly, captive bred CUCs are hard to come by so I had to get most of it wild caught. I did however catch a few bristle worms from another tank to add to the new tank.
To take it one step further equipment was chosen for energy efficiency. Running the 30 gallon tank uses about the same electricity as a 100 watt light bulb.
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