Thoughts on maricultured and "brand name" corals

[ksicard]

I've recently been bitten by the SPS bug and have gotten my tank to the point where it is stable and ready for me to start hunting down SPS corals that I like. But I often see statements from people that maricultured corals don't hold their color and normally end up browned out or discolored. I understand that the "brand name" corals are generally pieces that are tank raised and adapted to life in an aquarium and I was curious if there was any truth to the things I've read about maricultured corals. I just bought a nice mini colony of maricultured coral and I wanna make sure I'm not throwing my money away on something that will eventuall brown out since it isn't suited for aquarium life.

So basically, whats the deal on maricultured corals? Anything I should watch out for when choosing my SPS?

 

[Andyf30]

I've had 3 maricultured acros in my tank for around 2 months now. 1 bright yellow stag, 1 bushy green acro, and 1 blue tip tenuis. The tenuis browned out for about 2 weeks, and now has bright blue tips. The other two are still very bright, and the yellow stag has now started growing, and the best part is the tips and the newly grown encrusting parts are bright blue! They usually brown out in the beginning, so people give up on them and send them off elsewhere. The trick is keeping them in stable conditions for long enough, and they typically color back up again.

 

[animalkingdom]

Maricultureds will often end up brown and stay brown...
Some maricultureds will keep there colors or go through a brown phase and then color back up.
Some maricultureds will turn a completely different yet totally awesome new color.
Its kind of a gamble. With aquacultured corals you know they can hold color in captivity.

 

[ksicard]

Thanks for re assuring me that they can indeed color back up. Anyone else have any experince with these corals? Mine isn't showing any indication of browning out or anything and is showing rather helathy PE, but I'd like to collect as much information as I can on them because I do really like the maricultured pieces a lot.

animalkingdom is there any colors or patterns of acros that in particular that turn and stay brown? maybe I can develop an eye for corals that will do this with enough information.

 

[biggles]

There's not much if any difference between maricultured and will SPS - none of them will stay brown if you give them the right conditions to thrive in, very clean water and lots and lots of good light. My tank has nothing but wild SPS and not a single brown blob to be seen. Go for it mate :thumbsup:

 

[animalkingdom]

There's not much if any difference between maricultured and will SPS - none of them will stay brown if you give them the right conditions to thrive in, very clean water and lots and lots of good light. My tank has nothing but wild SPS and not a single brown blob to be seen. Go for it mate :thumbsup:

what about the brown ones...I've seen many brown coral in the sea

 

[animalkingdom]

Thanks for re assuring me that they can indeed color back up. Anyone else have any experince with these corals? Mine isn't showing any indication of browning out or anything and is showing rather helathy PE, but I'd like to collect as much information as I can on them because I do really like the maricultured pieces a lot.

animalkingdom is there any colors or patterns of acros that in particular that turn and stay brown? maybe I can develop an eye for corals that will do this with enough information.

cant really tell myself which ones will color up...sometimes I see one and think 'oh that has potential' but I cant really say why

 

[hobbzz]

What biggles said. These corals have been around for millions of years. They aren't going to adapt to aquarium life and actually change in the few years the name brands have been around. And a lot of the name brand stuff is wild anyway. They bring in a wild colony, slap on a catchy name, and grow it out or frag it.

They may not keep the same color, but they won't stay brown if the conditions are good.

 

[biggles]

what about the brown ones...I've seen many brown coral in the sea

Entirely correct mate, thing is the collectors only select colorful corals as that's what sells - they leave the 'true' browns in the ocean

 

[animalkingdom]

Entirely correct mate, thing is the collectors only select colorful corals as that's what sells - they leave the 'true' browns in the ocean

true true

 

[hobbzz]

Another reason some corals are brown in the wild is that the spectrum of light from the sun is much different than the typical lights in our tanks. I'm not saying that there are no truelly brown corals, there are. But Spectrum does make a big difference. Take a bright red sps out of your tank and look at it in the light of your room and it will very likely look brown.

 

[Prochef176]

I have some that have intensified in color and others that have lost some color

 

[r-balljunkie]

if you have the option, i would suggest in getting corals from vendors like ORA. not all corals from the wild are adaptable to tank life, no matter how optimal your conditions are. ORA has done a good job at selecting specimens that are conducive to being tank kept.

mariculture simply means wild corals that have been propagated in the wild. a better option than taking wild colonies, but think aqua-cultured is a much better option.

 

[CHSUB]

I got 20 maricultured corals about a month and a half ago that i flew in direct from bali, and only one has changed color so far. i have been very happy with them....i use 400 w mh, previously i couldn't keep sps' maricultured corals alive with leds for more than a week or two.

 

[ksicard]

Thanks for everyone's input. So far I have two maricultured pieces under my LED's and so far they look pretty good. No color loss or anything so far and very healthy PE. chsub where did you order them from? as in what website, I'm curious what vendor has the best selection of maricultured colonies. Maricultured seem's very affordable compared to aquacultured and offers something pretty different that I like.

and r-ball junkie, I'm very jealous of your LFS. After college I think I might look into something similar to your situation before I start wearing suits every day.

 

[trueblackpercula]

I got 20 maricultured corals about a month and a half ago that i flew in direct from bali, and only one has changed color so far. i have been very happy with them....i use 400 w mh, previously i couldn't keep sps' maricultured corals alive with leds for more than a week or two.

Nice sent to a PM

 

[joncver]

imho, i find lfs branding sps with names makes it command a higher price -- that's all...

 

[dowtish]

All that has been mentioned here is color loss. There is also the possibility of RTN or STN from wild/maricultured corals as well. I dont care how stable your tank is, and what lighting you have, they sometimes will simply not adapt to your system.

 

[akitareefer]

I've got a bunch of maricultured and wild colonies straight from Jakarta. The colors have come out fully after a couple weeks, I've had them for a month. Only one of the colonies is brownish (table acro). I don't think they would waste their time mariculturing brown coral. All pictures are night of arrival, polyp extension occurred after a couple days.

Of course the named corals from fellow reefers are always nice, you know exactly what your getting. I'm sure you cant easily find strawberry shortcake from overseas. There's also less chance of critters.