Lets talk about wild caught colonies

[postaldave]

that is an interesting theory on breaking them up helps them survive. i know of one shop that buys large colonies, chops them up and has a lot of luck with wild coral.

 

[Acronic]

I always start wild pieces high up, even deep waters. I find they do not like the constant adjustment of the normal acclimation. If I buy a wild granulosa for instance, i place it high and after a few weeks will move it down to where I want it. On the other hand if the coral is bleached, I will start it on the sand but I usually stay far away from bleached wild corals. This has given me the best luck overall, Ive probably killed about 5 wild acros out of a couple dozen.

 

[dvanacker]

I will start it on the sand but I usually stay far away from bleached wild corals. This has given me the best luck overall, Ive probably killed about 5 wild acros out of a couple dozen.

Acros from Aussie come in bleached all the time........especially strawberry shortcake for some reason.

Like I said 1 for 4 on Aussie wilds.....but are we counting maricultured as "wild" too? Overall I would say my record with wild is pretty bad....a little better with maricultured but still not great...I find the maricultured have a better chance to live but colour can be an issue. I've been through a ton of these corals too since we regularly see shipments around here. Interesting enough I have had the best luck with wild and maricultured indo deep water acros. Finding nice ones can be tough though.

Never lost one captive grown frag though......swear to god.

 

[dvanacker]

Could be the long shipping that gives them a hit, our LFS are full of wild caught and most reefers here purchase colonies and do well.

Definitely part of it....

 

[SeanT]

I don't think it's so much the size as it is the developmental stage where the coral begins to take on its' growth form. For instance, sometimes you'll see someone's Green Slimer shoot out into odd staghorn forms that stretch toward every side of the tank. Then in other tanks you'll see it actually table out a bit and grow somewhat like a bottlebrush. Aside from lighting, I believe there may be a link to the flow pattern provided after the coral has established its' form that may help cause its' demise. Sometimes I've seen the same instance when I wanted to add one more frag in the path of a well established colony and then all of the sudden seen the new frag take off while the other one developed a problem from being blocked by light, change in flow,

The reason I asked the size is due to past, personal observation.
There used to be a dealer called reefermadness.
They sold a lot, mostly all, wild colonies.
There was a 50/50 survival rate over 6 months IME.
However, we noticed that if we fragged the colonies into chunks, not small frags, that the survival rate went up dramatically.
The only thing we could reason was flow.
In the wild the flow is tremendous, in our tanks not nearly the same.

For an animal that eats, breathes, and poops out of the same hole...flow is important.

When fragged down, the corals would grow into their environment.
Eight years later I still have a stag from reefermadness.

Hth,
Sean

 

[dvanacker]

I have noticed the same thing.....a frag from a wild or mari-cultured doing better than the colony.