are there any colorful Caribean SPS ?

[KCombs]

I'm asking because I was wondering why there isn't any large scale commercial coral farming operations in the Caribean...
is it because the Caribean acros like elkhorn & staghorn are brown and ugly?

or is it because the local regulations prohibit non-native coral production ? (and understandible so)

from a business/logistics standpoint I could see such a venture being competitve over the Asian operations IF someone could raise colorful hard corals.

 

[Digitalelectric]

Well when I went to Pennekamp park in Key Largo, and the beaches in Key West, there were really only a few SPS species. There was a yellowish brown encrusting brain coral. There was the endangered Elkhorn which was brown. And there was this finger montipora looking coral that was.....brown. The colorful stuff around those parts is the coralline, purple sea fans, ricordia, the fish, sponges, etc. For some reason the sps are just brown.

Oh and at pennekamp they had some staghorns in the aquarium exhibit that apparently were native, but I never saw them on the reef dive.

 

[dvanacker]

For some reason the sps are just brown

The reason is poor water quality from my understanding.

 

[Digitalelectric]

I would agree with you but this is 10 miles out and further. Into the carribbean currents. Not just near land.

If you Google "Caribbean stony corals" youll see the colors I mean.

 

[WillM]

I've heard that off the shore of Cuba is amazing for diving and much more colorful. Cuba doesn't allow collection at all and there is less pollution, so it's what FL used to be like before all the mass acropora bleaching and browning.

 

[jdhuyvetter]

There are a few, but not many. The two I can think of are both Porites

Mustard Coral is bright yellow and very common in the Keys

There is also a blue to purple porites finger coral that I saw a lot of in the Caymans. I've heard that it is also in the Keys, but very rare.

 

[Frick]

A few reasons;

The Caribbean Acros got hit with a flesh eating virus last year. So they will be hard to find even in the wild.

Many of the corals especially the sps are protected.

There are some organizations that are farming palmata http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0899/view# and cervicornis http://coral.aims.gov.au/speciesPages/species_metadata/0898/view# but these pieces will all go back into the wild to reestablish the reef.

As for color, it just doesn't seem worth the hassle when there are many other species that are far more interesting that are already in the hobby.

 

[shark boy]

Fire coral comes in several colors and can be very beautiful. Unfortunatly collecting is not allowed.
I read a little on the Staghorn corals of the gulf and they are supposed to be harder to keep because of water parameters.
1 stoney coral that I understand can be collected from the right places is Sun coral.

 

[KCombs]

I recently came off a Caribean Cruise...
from what I observed I could not make out any actual living corals other than large brains ...the reef was obviously made up of coral skeletons but living stuff appeared to be mostly sponges and sea fans....

I guess my question is given the proximity to the large market, seems coral farming close by would be profitable on some level
So I take it the answer is lack of species or the species there are just aren't colorful..

 

[Charley Diesing]

Here's a website with many of them... Not exactly an Oregon tort.

http://reefguide.org/carib/index26.html

 

[keegoaz]

The reson we don't have any large scale operations for coral farms in the carribian is because we have destroyed up to 90% of carribian reefs. It started with overfishing and bottom trawling in the 60s & 70s. People began removing vital species from reef ecosystems. Parrotfish we extremely overfished up until the 90s that combined with a disies spreading throu sea urchin species took away the majority of herbivores on the reef. Algae overtook many of the reefs surrounding Florida. There are only a few hot spots left in the carribian for reefs like Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Belize witch is home to the world second largest barrier reef.

 

[M007]

I've done extensive diving in Cozumel, on protected reefs, and there are really no exciting SPS to be seen. Fish are abundant, some LPS, lots of nems and sponge, numerous fans. That's about it.