Buying Wild Sps is it a hit and miss thing?

Survival rate is just shy of 100%. It is rare for me to lose one.
The color shift can be a little unpredictable though. Sometimes the color improves, sometimes they lose color.
 
Wow...bought 4 wild expensive aussie pieces one year and 3 RTNed and the last one half of it died. They all looked good to at so me point. I havebetter luck with maricultured though....still not 100% plus they have a tendency to change color.
 
honestly, its the type of coral that matters ... not where it was raised ...
while wild caugth have higher chance of carrying pests, they are no different than maricultured ones.

some corals do well in our tanks, like stags ... they grow fast and color up fast as well. due to that, there is alot of mariculture frags available, now the same species, coming from wild or someones frag tank, will have the same survival rates ! its the same coral.

some corals do not do well in our tanks, those are available mostly in wild, and they dont do well in most tanks, till someone comes along and keeps one and frags it and puts his name on it .. I mean .. start mariculturing it. ... lol

I have bought some aussie corals like the ICe fire ... which I just suck at keeping ... they dont do well in my care ... but my overall success with wild pieces that do well in captivity has been great ... so I see nothing wrong with them. [except extra crabs ;)]
 
now the same species, coming from wild or someones frag tank, will have the same survival rates ! its the same coral.
I dont agree and it hasnt been my experience at all.
 
I dont agree and it hasnt been my experience at all.

well I dont see how u can not agree that for example a stag from wild or my frag tank are the same when they have the same DNA, color, carolite growth and .... but everyone has different experiences :)
 
For one how do you know it came from the exact same colony in the wild. Unless you collected both yourself you wont know that. Second I do believe that SPS will adapt over time to live in our aquariums (this one may be debatable). Third unless we can fully understand why some acropora thrive in aquaria but others fade away or RTN I dont think we can make statements like that.
 
Wow...bought 4 wild expensive aussie pieces one year and 3 RTNed and the last one half of it died. They all looked good to at so me point. I havebetter luck with maricultured though....still not 100% plus they have a tendency to change color.
You are not alone in experiencing colour changes in maricultured species.

I have had a few pieces do exactly that - some for the better and the rest worse.

I have always been curious why this is so.
 
For one how do you know it came from the exact same colony in the wild. Unless you collected both yourself you wont know that. Second I do believe that SPS will adapt over time to live in our aquariums (this one may be debatable). Third unless we can fully understand why some acropora thrive in aquaria but others fade away or RTN I dont think we can make statements like that.

I dont even see the relation of this post, with your last post LOL

scientists name species, like lets take XY apple. they give that specie [fruit in this example] a NAME, based on what it is ... in apples case probably taste and color and so on :)
why do they do this ? so if I buy a XY apple seed and grow it, I can sell mine as XY apple, and a scientist can come along, test my apple and conclude it is the XY apple :) and to also prevent some one like you saying " if you didnt bring the seed over yourself, how do you know this is XY apple's seed ?" then we can answerr that question easily, buy providing what the scientists look for while naming a specie .... and the characteristics.

same goes for our corals, if you have a blue Acropora abrolhosensis, then that is what you have ! you do not need to follow its blood line to find out if this is the true Acropora abrolhosensis or not ... that is why we have names, and I am sure you know better than me maybe how the naming goes and how to ID corals ;) so again, your first point is prety meaningless :)

about ure second point .... YES, I do agree as well that SOME SPS will adapt to life in captivity ... so do some fish ... and some will not do well. In my opinion, that is related to the DNA of the specie of the coral in question, and NOT where it was raised. moving a coral to an aquarium does NOT change its DNA ....

about ure third point. which species are you wondering about ? some species do not do well in our tanks, cause we can not provide what they need. maybe due to lack of science .... but how does that fit in the wild VS marculture argument ? NPS corals do nt do well cause we cant feed them that much .... it can come from ocean, my frag tank, or someone elses .... it will still need food and if not provided, it will die ...

about color change ..... nutrition, flow, lighting, ionic balance, and element concentration change is the answer :) feed me Vit A, and I will look darker ...
 
I have bought maricultured sps and they all are doing great. With my tank it seems the wild sps are stronger then the aquacultrued.
 
I dont even see the relation of this post, with your last post LOL

scientists name species, like lets take XY apple. they give that specie [fruit in this example] a NAME, based on what it is ... in apples case probably taste and color and so on :)
why do they do this ? so if I buy a XY apple seed and grow it, I can sell mine as XY apple, and a scientist can come along, test my apple and conclude it is the XY apple :) and to also prevent some one like you saying " if you didnt bring the seed over yourself, how do you know this is XY apple's seed ?" then we can answerr that question easily, buy providing what the scientists look for while naming a specie .... and the characteristics.

same goes for our corals, if you have a blue Acropora abrolhosensis, then that is what you have ! you do not need to follow its blood line to find out if this is the true Acropora abrolhosensis or not ... that is why we have names, and I am sure you know better than me maybe how the naming goes and how to ID corals ;) so again, your first point is prety meaningless :)

about ure second point .... YES, I do agree as well that SOME SPS will adapt to life in captivity ... so do some fish ... and some will not do well. In my opinion, that is related to the DNA of the specie of the coral in question, and NOT where it was raised. moving a coral to an aquarium does NOT change its DNA ....

about ure third point. which species are you wondering about ? some species do not do well in our tanks, cause we can not provide what they need. maybe due to lack of science .... but how does that fit in the wild VS marculture argument ? NPS corals do nt do well cause we cant feed them that much .... it can come from ocean, my frag tank, or someone elses .... it will still need food and if not provided, it will die ...

about color change ..... nutrition, flow, lighting, ionic balance, and element concentration change is the answer :) feed me Vit A, and I will look darker ...
so you are saying that all apple trees of the same species are the exact same and produce identical fruit? Anyone who know anything about agriculture will tell you that is not true. Man has spent spent hundreds of years selecting and breeding plant/animals for positive traits. Just because you have two corals of the same species does not mean they are genetically the same.

Yes keeping an across in the aquarium will not change its DNA...so possibly what we see he is simply the fact that some acropora are better suited for aquaria. But another thought is it might change some traitsof the coral. Similar to human who goes from being running marathons to being a couch patato.
 
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In terms of success

1. Tank cultured
2. Aquacultured
3.wildcaught

But I think it's because of drastic changes, if you get a large wild colony it's Going to stress out as soon as it hits your tank but Ime some don't skip a beat either, aquacultured they have taken a frag and grown it out on a plug So it's a little better, tank cultured is the way to go as its allready been growing in a tank. But someone has to take a chance somewhere along the line in bringing in those fancy ultra acros for all of us sps junkies so it's kind of all hit and miss sometimes it works out great and others not so much,
Like ie: acropora abrotanoides so pretty but I can't keep it at all
 
In terms of success

1. Tank cultured
2. Aquacultured
3.wildcaught

But I think it's because of drastic changes, if you get a large wild colony it's Going to stress out as soon as it hits your tank but Ime some don't skip a beat either, aquacultured they have taken a frag and grown it out on a plug So it's a little better, tank cultured is the way to go as its allready been growing in a tank. But someone has to take a chance somewhere along the line in bringing in those fancy ultra acros for all of us sps junkies so it's kind of all hit and miss sometimes it works out great and others not so much,

This has been my experience as well, the stress level is important, shipping of maricultured sps is hard on the corals and then going into the lfs tank is a hit ot miss proposition, only a few of the local stores tanks are adequately lit and can add further stress. That frag from someone's tank has already become acclimatized to the environment and the lesser transit time keeps any stress to a minimum.
 
so you are saying that all apple trees of the same species are the exact same and produce identical fruit?

No ! re-read my example, I said XY apple, not ANY apple ;)


Yes keeping an across in the aquarium will not change its DNA...so possibly what we see he is simply the fact that some acropora are better suited for aquaria. But another thought is it might change some traitsof the coral. Similar to human who goes from being running marathons to being a couch patato.

exactly ;)

so a wild piece, will have to prove if it does good in captivity or not.
a captive grown piece, has already proved that. like most stags.

now take the same stag with same DNA from a natural reef, and it will do just as fine as the aquacultured piece .


I do agree that aquacultured pieces have gotten used to captivity foods available so that might also be anothe point ... my new corals take at least a week to respond to my feedings [zeovit stuff]
 
The main difference between true wild and maricultured, is it is virtually impossible to replicate the corals placement in terms of depth, time exposed to sun, tides, water flow, how long it has been in place after all it grew there.. etc. maricultured are placed in an enviroment where they are all at amore uniform depth with more consistent water flow, and which is more likely to be laminar, they all recieve similar amounts of exposure to the sun all ofwhich are far easier conditions to replicate in a home aquarium. And any that have bleached out in the year or so whilst growing from frags are obviously not sold, so this would imply that your inherent risk is reduced with maricultured over wilds.
 
No ! re-read my example, I said XY apple, not ANY apple ;)




exactly ;)

so a wild piece, will have to prove if it does good in captivity or not.
a captive grown piece, has already proved that. like most stags.

now take the same stag with same DNA from a natural reef, and it will do just as fine as the aquacultured piece .


I do agree that aquacultured pieces have gotten used to captivity foods available so that might also be anothe point ... my new corals take at least a week to respond to my feedings [zeovit stuff]
No ...you are saying that two apples trees of the same species are genetically the same.....when they are not. Same applies for corals. Two corals of the similar color and even the same species are not necessarily identical genetically. So unless you know the wild piece has come from the exact same mother colony as your captive piece than no you can so they will act the exact same when placed in an aquarium.

Same species does not equal the same genetics....similar yes....identical no.
 
I think its all the same. If the coral was shipped and was not held to long in transit then it should have a good chance of survival. I'd stay away from corals shipped from Tonga because there is no direct flight out of that place. Ive seen entire shippmints die because of it. Corals need food directly and indiretly. the water needs to have some nitrate in it so the corals dont starve.
John
 
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