Diploria Labyrinthiformis legal to own?

Grooved brain coral status

Classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1) and listed on Appendix II of CITES (2).
 
If its here and in your possession it doesn't matter either way. Those that are banned are illegal to import, not own.
 
If it came into the hobby on a piece of legally collected Florida live rock, you're gold. If you went down to the Keys and collected it yourself, then not so legal.
 
You can find some in the Caribbean. Since that's the case, it's generally a bad idea to obsess over it, and any other caribbean coral. Not only are they illegal to collect, they are illegal for a pretty good reason.

A good, valid case can be made for collecting coral from Pacific reefs, which cover a much more vast area than the Caribbean. The Caribbean is also surrounded by dense population, and not in great shape overall.

It might be possible to track down a piece of whatever caribbean coral you obsess over, but it's a bad idea. Stick with Pacific hard corals.
 
I have a tank of Caribbean-only hard corals (to be specific, from Gulf of Mexico) obtained by ordering multiple batches of aquacultured Florida live rock and putting the pieces with coral hitchhikers into the same tank. I believe this is the only way to legally obtain hard corals from the area.

I would love to find a (legal) source of Diploria myself! I don't think it's one that commonly hitchhikes on Flordia live rock.
 
I have a tank of Caribbean-only hard corals (to be specific, from Gulf of Mexico) obtained by ordering multiple batches of aquacultured Florida live rock and putting the pieces with coral hitchhikers into the same tank. I believe this is the only way to legally obtain hard corals from the area.

I would love to find a (legal) source of Diploria myself! I don't think it's one that commonly hitchhikes on Flordia live rock.

I would like to see pic's of that tank.:beer:
 
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