I'm wondering if there are any farmers on this board. I'm only running about 300g worth of systems now, but will double it soon. I'm able to supply lfs's with endess supplies of xenias. Thats been my focus so far, but I'm now looking to branch into other corals. Are there any other small scale farmers here? What is your focus?
Coral Farmers
- Thread starter Mikey
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Reef Junkie
Premium Member
Mikey,
I think Kirbster has some experience with coral farming. You might want to drop him a line.
Later,
Bill
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http://www.homestead.com/reefjunkie/highenergy.html
I think Kirbster has some experience with coral farming. You might want to drop him a line.
Later,
Bill
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http://www.homestead.com/reefjunkie/highenergy.html
Minotaur15
New member
Mike,
I am doing as much as I can. Xenia is my biggie as well, but I am doing every other soft coral I can get my hands on including several species of sinularia, zoanthids, yellow polyps, shrooms etc..
I am doing as much as I can. Xenia is my biggie as well, but I am doing every other soft coral I can get my hands on including several species of sinularia, zoanthids, yellow polyps, shrooms etc..
Frisco
Premium Member
I also try to do my part, but I too have only focused on xenia so far.
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http://members.xoom.com/FriscoReef/
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http://members.xoom.com/FriscoReef/
ATLANTIS
Premium Member
I have lots of xenia (seems like the biggest seller here) but have been concentrating on SPS. Most of my xenia has gone to the LFS's and the SPS is starting to move on the internet..
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brian
atlantisaquatic.com
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brian
atlantisaquatic.com
I'm doing Xenia (who isn't?), various Sinularia, Lobophyton, and Sarcophyton leathers. Lately I've been focussing on Nepthya, Capnella, and Lithophton - the "Tree" corals. Also the Zooanthids and other "polyps".
I quit supplying stores temporarily because I couldn't keep up with the demand. Actually I can't keep up with the demand from individuals for sale and trade.
I am accumulating parent stock for some LPS actuvity. That is is the future, although I already have babies from a Frogspawn, a Blastomussa, and an Elegance. LPS's are a looooooong term proposition.
I am running all of this out of 800sq ft with a basement. About 4,000 gallons, and that includes live sand vats in the basement that don't do much of anything.
My crack team of engineers (aka a guy I met at an LFS two years ago and his big, strong, weight-lifiting brother) and I are plotting the erection of a 1,000 sq ft greenhouse. I don't know how that's going to fly.
10-o-4, Good luck with that LFS. That was my idea when I first opened. Lots of problems. The idea is great, and in a large market, it might work. I was in too small a market, and I was also too vocal through our club and on the internet. There are some retailers around here very
with me.
KA
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"You must unlearn what you have learned."
-Yoda
I quit supplying stores temporarily because I couldn't keep up with the demand. Actually I can't keep up with the demand from individuals for sale and trade.
I am accumulating parent stock for some LPS actuvity. That is is the future, although I already have babies from a Frogspawn, a Blastomussa, and an Elegance. LPS's are a looooooong term proposition.
I am running all of this out of 800sq ft with a basement. About 4,000 gallons, and that includes live sand vats in the basement that don't do much of anything.
My crack team of engineers (aka a guy I met at an LFS two years ago and his big, strong, weight-lifiting brother) and I are plotting the erection of a 1,000 sq ft greenhouse. I don't know how that's going to fly.
10-o-4, Good luck with that LFS. That was my idea when I first opened. Lots of problems. The idea is great, and in a large market, it might work. I was in too small a market, and I was also too vocal through our club and on the internet. There are some retailers around here very
with me.KA
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"You must unlearn what you have learned."
-Yoda
I'm primarilly doing softies right now, mostly Sacrophytons, Lobophyton, various polyps and a purple gorgonian. I'm waiting to see what everyone says about the new blue line ballasts and then set up a couple of SPS tanks.
The idea of a LFS breeding thier own stock sounds great, but after 10 or so years in the trade I can't see it working. A breeding/propogation farm takes a lot of dedicated work and running a decent LFS also takes a lot of time and effort. However, I can see a LFS doing well by offering tank raised specimens when available.
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Bill
If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos
ICQ 56222784
The idea of a LFS breeding thier own stock sounds great, but after 10 or so years in the trade I can't see it working. A breeding/propogation farm takes a lot of dedicated work and running a decent LFS also takes a lot of time and effort. However, I can see a LFS doing well by offering tank raised specimens when available.
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Bill
If damsels grew as big as sharks, the sharks would run in fear!
My dive photos
ICQ 56222784
An LFS could run into trouble with even a small propagation effort. There are other concerns to compete for the owner's attention.
I cannot understand why US aquarists (based on posts everywhere) depend so heavily on LFS or MO sourced coral. (I have propagated what you call SPS and a few LPS corals for some years now.) US reef enthusiasts already have good equipment, spent for, in/on/under their tanks. There is an enormous quantity of well-established, harvestable coral in your tanks collectively. You should actually HAVE to harvest some, or the tank wars get out of hand.
In answer to the original post (sorry for the rant, mikey and all):
I presently focus on Stylophora spp. (a comfortably small brancher); Pectinia spp.(potatochip-like blades); and Pavona spp.("cactus" coral). I'm also killing myself over Heliopora coerulus (Blue "coral"), but given my problems (temp. related?), I might as well have NO experience with the it.
Kirbster! Either you are unmarried or have a wife as understanding as mine, hehehe. The whole basement, eh? Oooops, maybe you're sane and don't use your house..
[This message has been edited by horge (edited 01-07-2000).]
I cannot understand why US aquarists (based on posts everywhere) depend so heavily on LFS or MO sourced coral. (I have propagated what you call SPS and a few LPS corals for some years now.) US reef enthusiasts already have good equipment, spent for, in/on/under their tanks. There is an enormous quantity of well-established, harvestable coral in your tanks collectively. You should actually HAVE to harvest some, or the tank wars get out of hand.
In answer to the original post (sorry for the rant, mikey and all):
I presently focus on Stylophora spp. (a comfortably small brancher); Pectinia spp.(potatochip-like blades); and Pavona spp.("cactus" coral). I'm also killing myself over Heliopora coerulus (Blue "coral"), but given my problems (temp. related?), I might as well have NO experience with the it.
Kirbster! Either you are unmarried or have a wife as understanding as mine, hehehe. The whole basement, eh? Oooops, maybe you're sane and don't use your house..
[This message has been edited by horge (edited 01-07-2000).]
Horge,
No, I'd never get away with that at home. Actually I might...I have the most understanding wife in the world. I rent a commercial place in town. Location is bad for retail, but the rent is cheap, so it's going to be my home base until the greenhouse project takes wings.
Pectinia, huh? Interesting. That's not a coral we see a whole lot of here.
KA
No, I'd never get away with that at home. Actually I might...I have the most understanding wife in the world. I rent a commercial place in town. Location is bad for retail, but the rent is cheap, so it's going to be my home base until the greenhouse project takes wings.
Pectinia, huh? Interesting. That's not a coral we see a whole lot of here.
KA
There's a guy that goes by Kapu180 on Aqualink. I haven't been on there much lately but if you can get a hold of him, he's doing alot of xenia, sps and even some lps like candy cane. He recently moved, but last time I was at his house, he had at least 40-45 sps cuttings going.
FOX
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angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef.htm
FOX
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angelfire.com/ak3/korysreef.htm
Horge,
since u r looking into the helio. let me share this strange occurance with u...maybe u have some answers or a similar incident
a while back it looked as if my helio was experiancing some growth ...i was amzed at how steady it seemed to be growing...it was strange to me as it had not shown any signs of growth from the time i first got it(probably a year)....then voila a growth spurt...the tips of the ridges started extending and had the similar growth signs as that of many SPS coral...now i know the blue ridge is not an SPS so i was a little skeptic as y it was so similar...anyways this was going on for a while then one day i came home and saw the growth area had started to balloon...like cheese puffs, it stayed like this for a couple of days then all of a sudden the tips blew up...it looked like torn styrofoam...i can't understand what happened all the sps and other corals were fine and growing very fast...i thought that was it for the blue ridge but to my relief it slowly started to recover to the point were it's starting to grow again and now i think it might do the same thing all over again... i wonder what is causing this behavior....also the polyps seem to have gone on a vacation as i have not seen any polyps extend in a long long long time...i know they r very finicky but i ussually get some extension at least once a week.....i have thought about propping the coral many times b4..but have not done so.....
have been lucky to prop 8 species of SPS
3 species of xenia
several leathers
tried to prop yellow scroll but ended up dying on me
tried to prop hammer and anchor but i got too scarrrrrrreddddddd
i think i thought about farming corals since that first success in propagating...i don't know if i could see it as a money making idea..though i wouldn't mind
if that happened... a small scale farm would be great in the near future..where the main purpose is to help circulate various species of corals to all of our tanks...i couldn't see it becoming something like GARF...no offense to GARF but as soon as money comes to the picture thats when i would really start to lose the enjoyment...
what i'm trying to say is i'm really an idiot who is illiterate and refuse to be financially sound....hmmmm does this ramble belong in the LOUNGE
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since u r looking into the helio. let me share this strange occurance with u...maybe u have some answers or a similar incident
a while back it looked as if my helio was experiancing some growth ...i was amzed at how steady it seemed to be growing...it was strange to me as it had not shown any signs of growth from the time i first got it(probably a year)....then voila a growth spurt...the tips of the ridges started extending and had the similar growth signs as that of many SPS coral...now i know the blue ridge is not an SPS so i was a little skeptic as y it was so similar...anyways this was going on for a while then one day i came home and saw the growth area had started to balloon...like cheese puffs, it stayed like this for a couple of days then all of a sudden the tips blew up...it looked like torn styrofoam...i can't understand what happened all the sps and other corals were fine and growing very fast...i thought that was it for the blue ridge but to my relief it slowly started to recover to the point were it's starting to grow again and now i think it might do the same thing all over again... i wonder what is causing this behavior....also the polyps seem to have gone on a vacation as i have not seen any polyps extend in a long long long time...i know they r very finicky but i ussually get some extension at least once a week.....i have thought about propping the coral many times b4..but have not done so.....
have been lucky to prop 8 species of SPS
3 species of xenia
several leathers
tried to prop yellow scroll but ended up dying on me
tried to prop hammer and anchor but i got too scarrrrrrreddddddd
i think i thought about farming corals since that first success in propagating...i don't know if i could see it as a money making idea..though i wouldn't mind
if that happened... a small scale farm would be great in the near future..where the main purpose is to help circulate various species of corals to all of our tanks...i couldn't see it becoming something like GARF...no offense to GARF but as soon as money comes to the picture thats when i would really start to lose the enjoyment...what i'm trying to say is i'm really an idiot who is illiterate and refuse to be financially sound....hmmmm does this ramble belong in the LOUNGE
------------------
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Iron Lung:
No, never had my Helio popcorn out like that. Polyp extension can go off for days at a time though IME.
I'll never forget the first time I saw the polyps extended, years ago. I was scared to death that some white marine fungus was at work! Hahaha. Stupid me.
My Helio frags aren't growing even 5% as fast as the parent colony (still on the reef) that I am monitoring. I think that I might return them this Sunday: a year of trying is enough. You keep me posted on yours Ironlung, okay?
No, never had my Helio popcorn out like that. Polyp extension can go off for days at a time though IME.
I'll never forget the first time I saw the polyps extended, years ago. I was scared to death that some white marine fungus was at work! Hahaha. Stupid me.
My Helio frags aren't growing even 5% as fast as the parent colony (still on the reef) that I am monitoring. I think that I might return them this Sunday: a year of trying is enough. You keep me posted on yours Ironlung, okay?
no prob...Horge i'll keep u posted...may even frag it soon...maybe tank raised will do a little better...by the way if u don't mind me asking...are u a filipino?....i have family down there...i might be going to visit some time in the near future....would love to see where all the coral research areas r?
later,
mike
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later,
mike
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I have a few questions for all of you farmers out there.
Can you give a description of the work involved in farming?
Can you give a description of your setup?
Can you tell us what you have found to work, and what doesn't and why?
Would you recommend farming to all hobbists?
How is farming different from just reefing? (I have proped my softies, and my SPS...)
Can you give an idea of the economics involved?
It seems like this type of effort is going to be the most benefical contribution any "hobbiest" can make to the preservation of our natural reefs while simultaneously sustaining the hobby. I personallly have a small, but successful reef... I thought that I wanted a bigger reef and began collecting the necessary equipment. Now I have a 225G aquarium, sump, lights, etc. laying around the house, and have been contemplating putting this equipment to use in a farming effort.
Thanks in advance for your input.
~ignatz
Can you give a description of the work involved in farming?
Can you give a description of your setup?
Can you tell us what you have found to work, and what doesn't and why?
Would you recommend farming to all hobbists?
How is farming different from just reefing? (I have proped my softies, and my SPS...)
Can you give an idea of the economics involved?
It seems like this type of effort is going to be the most benefical contribution any "hobbiest" can make to the preservation of our natural reefs while simultaneously sustaining the hobby. I personallly have a small, but successful reef... I thought that I wanted a bigger reef and began collecting the necessary equipment. Now I have a 225G aquarium, sump, lights, etc. laying around the house, and have been contemplating putting this equipment to use in a farming effort.
Thanks in advance for your input.
~ignatz
I thought I would toss in my $.02.I have started to do a little farming and so far I guess you would say I am breaking even,at least am not spending my money anymore .I have made the best with Xenia like everybody else and the same leathers.Now I have started on Pom-Poms,Candy Canes,Sps,and Live Sand.
Derek
Ps Ignatz I still have a Ricordia you wanted.
.I have made the best with Xenia like everybody else and the same leathers.Now I have started on Pom-Poms,Candy Canes,Sps,and Live Sand.Derek
Ps Ignatz I still have a Ricordia you wanted.
Still Reefs
New member
Hey everyone,
I know this is a little off of the original topic but I thought it may help a little. I have had GREAT success propagating Heliopora courulea! If you look at my webpage, that Blue Ridge is the one I propagate. All of that vertical growth that you see was grown in my tank. I have never witnessed this "popcorning" that you all describe but I have noticed that when a growth explosion develops, the tissue and the skeleton are SUPER soft! If you touch the area it will literally crumble. With the frags I find that they spread out a foot growth VERY FAST! I am growing this in my 29 gallon SPS tank lit by NO and VHO tubes, I just moved a large frag to my friends 225 that has 5 halides and VHO and PC Actinic lighting, his is footing rapidly and also growing new branches. This frag was about 1 inch wide and 2 inches high. For more info on my success with this coral, feel free to e-mail me for more details!
Hope this helps!
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Sean Bradley
Photographer : Still Reefs Photographic Productions
Still Reefs' Homepage
[This message has been edited by Still Reefs (edited 01-09-2000).]
I know this is a little off of the original topic but I thought it may help a little. I have had GREAT success propagating Heliopora courulea! If you look at my webpage, that Blue Ridge is the one I propagate. All of that vertical growth that you see was grown in my tank. I have never witnessed this "popcorning" that you all describe but I have noticed that when a growth explosion develops, the tissue and the skeleton are SUPER soft! If you touch the area it will literally crumble. With the frags I find that they spread out a foot growth VERY FAST! I am growing this in my 29 gallon SPS tank lit by NO and VHO tubes, I just moved a large frag to my friends 225 that has 5 halides and VHO and PC Actinic lighting, his is footing rapidly and also growing new branches. This frag was about 1 inch wide and 2 inches high. For more info on my success with this coral, feel free to e-mail me for more details!
Hope this helps!
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Sean Bradley
Photographer : Still Reefs Photographic Productions
Still Reefs' Homepage
[This message has been edited by Still Reefs (edited 01-09-2000).]
Sean,
that is what was happening with my helio....except that for some reason the soft tips exploded and crumbled....now they are healed and new tiny multiple tips/branches are forming over the places where the explosion occurred...pretty weird...
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that is what was happening with my helio....except that for some reason the soft tips exploded and crumbled....now they are healed and new tiny multiple tips/branches are forming over the places where the explosion occurred...pretty weird...
------------------
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Good for you, Still Reefs! What's your tank temp? You and Ironlung keep us all posted!
Just returned my frags to the wild this Sunday (I have an anchoring system that can't be beat). Yes, Ironlung, horge is Filipino, and technically a fugitive, hehehe.
Coral propagation of any sort is illegal here, hence my reluctance to describe myself in detail. This zero-tolerance law is however made a mockery of in the light of the dried-coral and live coral export that continues unabated. (And what about dredging, dynamite fishing, reclamation, etc?)
The BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) here tried to have me jailed some time ago. So, Ironlung, there officially AREN'T any coral farms here, hehehehe. It's an underground, small scale networked thing (all Filipinos are slap-happy anarchists/revolutionaries anyway...when government ineptitude calls for it).
Just returned my frags to the wild this Sunday (I have an anchoring system that can't be beat). Yes, Ironlung, horge is Filipino, and technically a fugitive, hehehe.
Coral propagation of any sort is illegal here, hence my reluctance to describe myself in detail. This zero-tolerance law is however made a mockery of in the light of the dried-coral and live coral export that continues unabated. (And what about dredging, dynamite fishing, reclamation, etc?)
The BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) here tried to have me jailed some time ago. So, Ironlung, there officially AREN'T any coral farms here, hehehehe. It's an underground, small scale networked thing (all Filipinos are slap-happy anarchists/revolutionaries anyway...when government ineptitude calls for it).
Still Reefs
New member
Horge,
I try my best to keep my tank at around 77F but it gets as low as 76.2F and as high as 79.5F. My strain of Helipora is definitely a surviver!
LATER!
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Sean Bradley
Photographer : Still Reefs Photographic
Productions
Still Reefs' Home
I try my best to keep my tank at around 77F but it gets as low as 76.2F and as high as 79.5F. My strain of Helipora is definitely a surviver!
LATER!
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Sean Bradley
Photographer : Still Reefs Photographic
Productions
Still Reefs' Home
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