Colonies vs. Frags...Long term success...

[Clouded]

Ok...I am not discussing aquaculture or wild caught...that is not what I want to discuss....

I have pruchased both wild caught colonies and wild caught frags and I am having much better luck with the frags...I also have fragged some of my coral colonies that were starting to die and those frags are doing awesome...

My thoughts on this is that the colonies grew from "frags" in the wild and got used to that spot (with relation to lighting and water movement), but then they are collected and placed in our tanks...then tend to do worse...I am thinking that since there are more shaded areas with a colony so some places on that piece do not do well....But with a frag more light and water movement can get the all areas of the frag and the frag can grow accordingly.

Does this sound pluasable?

 

[bogg]

It's kind of weird I have had good luck sometimes with full colonies doing great not even browning out at all keeping their natural color and thriving. Other times not so much I have had full colonies rtn and frags rtn quick. I have read that if you place a frag in your system it has a better chance of survival because it's able to grow into your conditions. I am assuming that the luck I had with the full colony was possibly recreating somewhat of an environment that it was in.

 

[CalvinC4S]

I believe it has a lot to do with flow. Some systems just don't have the proper current to support the needs of a large colony.

If you have frags from the mother doing good and the colonies are RTN'ing then flow IMO is the likely culprit.

If it was a light issue, I think it would be a slower process then a RTN event.

Water quality issue would kill the frags as with the mother colony.

 

[Cody Ray]

Agree with flow but lighting could also contribute.

 

[fishdoc11]

Most people have better luck with frags...particularly tank raised. There was a poll on here a couple of years ago and from what I can remember sucess with frags was around 100% while sucess with aquacultured was around 70-80% or so and wild colonies was around 50%. IMO corals are genetically set to adapt to changing conditions when they are broken off so they can "take root" easier at another location. That's just my personal hypothesis though.
FWIW, Chris

 

[Frankysreef]

buy from other reef hobbyists...

Our corals are used to the more captive environment.. And will grow to suit your tank.

look at my avatar.. all grown from frags... from other reefers...

 

[Clouded]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8262214#post8262214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Frankysreef
buy from other reef hobbyists...

Our corals are used to the more captive environment.. And will grow to suit your tank.

look at my avatar.. all grown from frags... from other reefers...

I understand this...That was not my question...

 

[Frankysreef]

the answer to your question... "yes"

 

[Clouded]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8260794#post8260794 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by fishdoc11
Most people have better luck with frags...particularly tank raised. There was a poll on here a couple of years ago and from what I can remember sucess with frags was around 100% while sucess with aquacultured was around 70-80% or so and wild colonies was around 50%. IMO corals are genetically set to adapt to changing conditions when they are broken off so they can "take root" easier at another location. That's just my personal hypothesis though.
FWIW, Chris

I agree with that...I have the same mind set...My luck has been ok when it comes to colonies...I have some that are growing like weeds while others are not doing so well and then tend to be the bigger colonies, with areas that are much more shaded...There is a ton of flow going over them, so I do not think my flow is the issue...I think it is light not being able to get the the shadowed areas as well as light was able to in the wild...

because the colonies that are doing well are branching types and light can hit all the places on the coral, unlike the other colonies that have lots of shaded areas that are not doing so well. This is also why I think frags do well, because they can grow accroding to how the lights and flow hits them and then match their growth patterns to that...combine that with what was discussed about frags being more adaptable then an entire colony.

 

[poknsnok]

i bought a couple wild colonies ... an a sarmentosa and some unidentified green acro... and a 2" blue tenius frag all bought at the same time 18 months ago. the tenius frag is now about 5"tall and nearly 6" inches across and the wild colonies have grown about 2 inches ..maybe. Frags are much faster growing and hardier and best of all.... cheaper

 

[sfsuphysics]

The theory sounds good, something grows a particular way because of it's environment, you all of a sudden removed that environment and changed it (usually drastically) some areas might not like it as much.

That being said, I bought a light blue millepora one of those indo aquaculture mini-colonies (you know the ones on the little half-dome mounts), and that thing just would not encrust for squat. So I decided to "liberate" it from the mount, I ended up breaking it into 3 large pieces and about half a dozen small frags (1/4" to 1.5") glued them all to rock, within a month the small frags are already encrusting, and the 3 big pieces have polyp extension more so than before. (I mounted 1 sideways and one vertical just to test an idea). Also the base of the original mini colony seemed to be turning green (not algae) this could have something to do with lighting conditions changing (or a tricolor millepora ).

Now this might just be empirical evidence but seems to hold some merrit. If you think of frags, how do tend to grow? They encrust first as they're doing it they grow branches, well if you have a colony that is already spread out and grown the base doesn't get much light as a result won't tend to encrust since there's less photosynthesis occuring there.

 

[fishdoc11]

FWIW I have also seen where wild colonies were kept for many months and never grew or colored up...just didn't seem happy in general only to start growing and coloring up when fragged....the frags that is and sometimes the regrowth from the severed section. Similar to what you experienced sfsuphysics.
Chris

 

[Cody Ray]

I would agree that frags do better however once a frag starts to decline there isn't much to frag