Keeping wild colonies

[toothman]

I have purchased about 10 colonies from live aquaria.com, as far as their part the corals came in excellent condition and I could not have been happier. Looking back a year later, I only have 5 of the colonies still around. I would like to hear from some keepers of acros how successful they were at keeping the colonies long term.

I regret posting that the following colonies died in my system.
1. Gomezi
2. Cytheria
3. Gemmifera
4. Loripes.
5. Microcladus


The following are doing well.

1. acro. Mille
2. acro Tenuis
3. acro granulosa
4. Stylo
5. birdnest.
6. tort.

The dead colonies were some of the nicer corals and I would like to try to keep some again.

HOW IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING WITH WILD OR MARICULTURED CORALS.

 

[rigleautomotive]

I have purchased about 10 colonies from live aquaria.com, as far as their part the corals came in excellent condition and I could not have been happier. Looking back a year later, I only have 5 of the colonies still around. I would like to hear from some keepers of acros how successful they were at keeping the colonies long term.

I regret posting that the following colonies died in my system.
1. Gomezi
2. Cytheria
3. Gemmifera
4. Loripes.
5. Microcladus

The following are doing well.

1. acro. Mille
2. acro Tenuis
3. acro granulosa
4. Stylo
5. birdnest.

The dead colonies were some of the nicer corals and I would like to try to keep some again.

HOW IS EVERYONE ELSE DOING WITH WILD OR MARICULTURED CORALS.

What you are experiencing is very common.I may buy 4 wild colonies and after 5 years for instance 2 would survive.Now i must mention,when one does survive it becomes a hardier and more colorful coral then when recieved in most cases and sometimes you end up with a LE look alike coral for a fraction of the cost.I have about a half dozen wild/maricultured corals that have survived for many years and are now truly gems and comprable to any LE or aquacultured coral.What i do if a wild coral starts to recede from the base up i will frag above the necrosis and reglue,sometimes 5 or 6 times before the coral actually catches and starts to encrust and grow.once this happens you are generally over the hump and your colony will survive providing your husbandry is good to excellent.

 

[Laurier]

i have bought probably 10-12 in the past year and only lost 3. Sold some off to make room and most of them died in the new owners tank. The one i am mostly disappointed about was this amazing green table acro. My rule of thumb is to wait 3 days after the LFS recieves them, you can see which ones will kick and which will survive at that point.

 

[luvdiving]

I think the key to wild pieces is high flow..

 

[NeverlosT]

I have a few maricultured acros, some colored up, some didnt, it is a roll of the dice. One interesting thing, I recently re-glued one neon green piece and must have handled it too roughly because it ejected all of its polyps. I thought it was a goner for sure, but left it in high light and high flow, and sure enough, about a month or so later it has re-grown polyps! I guess some of these wild corals have some fight in them after all!

 

[Amphiprion]

In the past, I've had great luck with most maricultured colonies by fragging them. If you can split the already (usually) reasonable cost of some maricultured colonies with one or more people and then divide it, it should yield much better results for you. I know it hurts a bit to cut up some of the nicer ones, but the end result may end up for the better, at least in some cases.

 

[MATT CLOWNS]

Out of 7 i only have 3 not even 50% but now i am getting butter 1 for 1 that is 50%

 

[kevorkian]

Perfect parameters and 20k bulbs.:eek2:

 

[Logzor]

A couple of years ago I bought several frags from the LFS. They were definitely not aquacultured, probably just chopped up from some wild colony. Two were acros, one was a montipora.

One of them looked nice immediately, it is still a nice looking coral. The other two took a year and a half to color up. The wait was well worth it, they are very unique and have adapted well.

I have since bought aquacultured corals, so this is my olny real documented experience. I agree with the above posts, rock solid parameters vigorous flow, etc.

 

[Amphiprion]

Perfect parameters and 20k bulbs.:eek2:

What makes you say this and why? What exactly are "perfect" water parameters? Why only 20K lamps? I don't understand at all.

 

[Terra Ferma]

For what its worth I've never had great luck with Fiji Acros long term, color or health wise. They used to come in really bleached (vibrant pastel hues if you are selling them) and from what I can tell looking at today's Fiji offerings they still come in bleached and probably don't do that well.

 

[crsaz]

I have 2 maricultured colonies and both have been doing well, at first one receded about 1/4" around the base so I placed it in a higher flow area and it stopped receding and has recently begun to take off, the other has been growing slowly but at a nice steady pace.
here are some pics of the first colony that receded at first. now all the short nubby branches are nearly twice as long.

 

[panic]

I have had a couple wild by accident, and I didn't have very good luck with them. I choose tank raised if possible because they do better and more importantly (IMO) it's more eco friendly. It is a little more difficult finding tank raised fish, so I can't really preach about that one... I'm guilty there

 

[serpentman]

In the past, I've had great luck with most maricultured colonies by fragging them. If you can split the already (usually) reasonable cost of some maricultured colonies with one or more people and then divide it, it should yield much better results for you. I know it hurts a bit to cut up some of the nicer ones, but the end result may end up for the better, at least in some cases.

+1. Whether maricultured or captive raised, I find colonies don't really adapt well to being moved. A colony grows to the specific conditions (light, flow, etc) its exposed to. Moving it often spells trouble. By fragging or reducing its size you allow it to regrow under your tank conditions.

 

[Typhon]

I have had the same issues. I use to have 40% survive rate. For some reason, I have had better luck keeping them in my frag tank for a few weeks before introducing them to the main display. My frag tank is tied into the main display. So water parameter is the same. I haven't lost the last 3 wild colonies I picked up. Knock on wood..

Could be my frag tank has stronger lighting (250w 14K phoenix, 12"H) and stronger flow (2x 6100 streams, 48"Lx24"D).

 

[Elan L.]

i have only lost 1 so far. i have bought 5 or so

 

[rickyjai8]

yeah i have try 5 wild and all of them die on me by stning on the bottom of the coral

 

[agsansoo]

Only one of many wild corals that I have purchased survived. I stopped buy then.

This is it when I first brought it home.

This is it now. It's about 12" across. (center top - the red planet is covering the right side of it up)

 

[rickyjai8]

yeah i think the wild sps survive rate is very bad so i just buy frag and grown them out

 

[sjfishguy]

I have always said the same thing as serpent man: acros grow to adapt to specific lighting/flow conditions. I have had similar issues with colonies from other tanks that were grown from small frags. The were grown from a small frag in a certain environment, albeit another person's tank. Even moving to my tank they don't last as well. Similar results with the wild colonies. Although I have never done this, my guess would be if you attempt to grow a small frag of that same wild colony, it would do as well as any other frag because it will grow into specific conditions. Acros are the worst when it comes to this, montis, birdsnest, etc don't seem to be as much of a problem moving an entire colony.

I try to stay away from colonies now and just grow acros out from frags, although it is nice to fill a big hole in with a colony overnight