aquacultured, maricultured, wild colonies?

[Mark75]

I see sps sold under many different titles, aquacultured, maricultured, and wild colonies. I hear that wild colonies can be difficult to keep, should I avoid them all together? What about maricultured? If you would explain the difference in these types of corals and the pro's and con's of each I would be thankful! How do I know how a coral was raised when looking at online sites?

 

[Lint_Licker]

maricultured means they are coming from the wild, but they have been farmed in the wild, same risks of parasites and hitch hikers as wild collected colonies. Aquaculture means they have been grown in a tank.

Most places that sell wild collected or maricultured do not dip or quarantine their corals. So be leary of them. Be more leary of aquacultured cause most people have stuff and dont know it.

The wild/maricultured corals go through a lot of stress during shipping. Its not that they are less hardy then aquacultured, that just have been trhough a lot of stress and have to be babied quite a bit.

 

[fishdoc11]

Maricultured and aquacultured get mixed up so often as far as what they mean. Aquacultured corals can be raised in the ocean it just means they were raised under controlled conditions ie. on a platform in the ocean.
I always say tank raised when referring to frags that are raised in tanks whether they be in someone's house or in a large facility.
There was a poll in the SPS forum a couple of years ago that stated most peoples success with different types. The results were approximately as follows:
This is success rate in %:
Wild collected ~50%
Frags raised in the ocean ("maricultured") ~75%
Tank raised frags ~ 95%


FWIW I have all corals that were tank raised from frags. They are much more predictable as far as ultimate coloration IMO. They have also grown more accustomed to captivity.

hth, Chris

 

[acrodave]

ORA dose all tank raised corals that go back about 10 generations

 

[Mark75]

Sounds like tank raised frags are the way to go. Are there any corals that can only be purchased as mari or aquacultured?

 

[acrodave]

yeah we get maricultured all the time

 

[Lint_Licker]

Aquacultured is farmed in a controlled enviroment, not the ocean. Mariculture is farmed in the ocean, hence the real name is marine cultured, meaining ocean raised.

 

[fishdoc11]

From Saunder's Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary:

aquaculture - cultivation of plants and animals in water. Called also mariculture.

 

[Lint_Licker]

From American Heritage Dictionary

Mariculture:
Cultivation of marine organisms in their natural habitats, usually for commercial purposes.



Aquaculture:
1. The science of cultivating marine or freshwater food fish, such as salmon and trout, or shellfish, such as oysters and clams, under controlled conditions.

2.See hydroponics.

 

[fishdoc11]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11105916#post11105916 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lint_Licker
From American Heritage Dictionary

Mariculture:
Cultivation of marine organisms in their natural habitats, usually for commercial purposes.



Aquaculture:
1. The science of cultivating marine or freshwater food fish, such as salmon and trout, or shellfish, such as oysters and clams, under controlled conditions.

2.See hydroponics.

So you see as I stated in my first post that the definition of the words have different meanings to different people and so it's best to use other modifiers to tell what you really mean

Chris

 

[Lint_Licker]

From Encarta

Mariculture:
The cultivation of sea animals and plants in their usual habitats, generally for commercial purposes.

Aquaculture:
Farming of aquatic organisms in fresh, brackish or salt water. A wide variety of aquatic organisms are produced through aquaculture, including fishes, crustaceans, mollusks, algae, and aquatic plants. Unlike capture fisheries, aquaculture requires deliberate human intervention in the organisms' productivity and results in yields that exceed those from the natural environment alone. Stocking water with seed (juvenile organisms), fertilizing the water, feeding the organisms, and maintaining water quality are common examples of such intervention.

Most aquacultural crops are destined for human consumption. However, aquaculture also produces bait fishes, ornamental or aquarium fishes, aquatic animals used to augment natural populations for capture and sport fisheries (see Fishing), algae used for chemical extraction, and pearl oysters (see Oyster) and mussels, among others.

 

[Lint_Licker]

The ocean is not a controlled enviroment.

 

[fishdoc11]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11105963#post11105963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lint_Licker
The ocean is not a controlled enviroment.

What do you want me to say......duh!
I'm not going to argue minutia(is that a word?) here
My whole point is that the words have different meanings to different people and so "enforcing" a meaning (which has been tried many times from what I have seen on these boards) doesn't have any value

Chris

 

[cee]

From Merriam Webster:

minutia: Latin minutiae trifles, details, from plural of minutia smallness, from minutus

Sorry, couldn't help myself

 

[Lint_Licker]

The general understanding from the popular definetions are...

Aquacultured=tank raised (controlled enviroment)
Maricultured=ocean raised (uncontrolled enviroment)

 

[fishdoc11]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11106179#post11106179 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cee
From Merriam Webster:

minutia: Latin minutiae trifles, details, from plural of minutia smallness, from minutus

Sorry, couldn't help myself

I knew that was a word!

And it means what I thought it meant

 

[Mark75]

Do you feel it is ethically wrong to purchase wild colonies? Why are wild raised corals still available with mari and aquacultured corals so popular? I want to understand better where and how I should purchase corals, I am not wanting to start a debate. LOL

 

[Lint_Licker]

most are maricultured now days.

 

[fishdoc11]

I don't feel that it is ethically wrong to purchase wild collected corals per se but their longevity makes me think twice about that. Buying corals raised by native people's from frags in the ocean, like those programs implemented by Walt Smith and others, seem to be the be the way to "support the reefs" IMO. The people that collect or grow corals on or around reefs depend on those things for their livelihood and will find other places to sell the resource, typically dead, if the reef community doesn't doesn't provide a market. That being said, large and medium sized colonies are much harder to treat for parasites(mainly AEFW's) than frags because of he presence of more places for eggs to escape the aquarist's eye in larger pieces.
hth, Chris