An excellent article on LPS collection and natural habitats.

[RandyO]

I heard a rumor today that Euphyllia species may be banned in June of this year. While searching the net, trying to find more information, I found this article dated back to 2002. It talks about how and where many common LPS are collected. This information can be vital to aquarium care of these corals.

It's a long read, but it was worth it.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/3/aafeature



I noticed one of the pictures of Blastomussa looks a lot like a lordhowensis. I wonder if the author would change his mind about the ID of that piece if he looked at it today.

 

[goulashriot]

i agree, excellent article. esp the section about elegence. thanks very much for sharing.

 

[zeppelin]

Nice find.

Did you find anything about the euphyllia collection banning?

 

[chrisstie]

that is scary to think about. Maybe I ought to get a torch in my tank while I still can, and yet... I wonder if this will affect peoples mindsets and make a new popular "rare" coral =\

 

[Fliger]

Good article, thanks for sharing. So soon we're going to see "Tyree LE" on hammers and frogspawns. :lol:

The entire island of Sulawesi is beautiful, above and below water.

 

[porky]

Thanks Randy-O!
You're a gentleman and a scholar :thumbsup:

 

[Riona]

Hm. Ditto on the maybe about getting a torch while I can. . .

I've got a question though. Would they going to ban sales on them too? I want one for my tank, but would, eventually, have to keep it fragged back. So say I have one now(I don't) I eventually frag a few heads off of it. What do I do with them now? Throw them away since I can't legally sell them, or get up another tank JUST for them since I would kick myself for having killed a beautiful living creature?

Since they are sorta common in tanks now, it seems like it would be really hard to ban them. If they didn't catch someone smuggling it into the country, all they'd have to do was make sure their piece was huge to begin with, wait until it was healthy enough to frag, then say that all they are doing is selling existing heads off of a coral they'd had for years. Even if someone decided to check it out, unless they were stupid and didn't wait for it to become established in their tank first then there would be no way of telling, I'd think. Sure if the coral is still stressed from shipment, or is still showing freshly cut base or something. . .

 

[RandyO]

Riona,
The ban would be for wild collection. I don't want to speculate too much, but I would guess because Euphyllia are easily grown in captivity, and their wild populations are diminishing, it's an excellent candidate for being the first of many corals that will banned. I also heard that Bangai cardinals will be banned. Another one that is easily raised in captivity.

It's a scary thought, but there could come a day when most of the corals we see today in the trade are no longer collected. But if it happens, then it was all for the best.


Again, this is just hearsay and I have no facts to back it up.

 

[porky]

That totally makes sense, why continue to diminish wild populations of Euphyllia when they are so easily grown in captivity?
What do you think about banning some of the corals that have a miserable track record in our tanks? Cataphyllia comes to mind...
It seems to me like those corals are the ones that need protecting and would likely be the first ones banned.

 

[zeppelin]

C'mon Jason. That makes too much sense.