<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6982862#post6982862 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jay24k
If I may ask, at what point does wild become aquacultured? If it is in you tank for 3 years and was wild at one point, wouldn't that now be aquacultured? Everything at one point was wild. I would just think the stability of the coral is now better for aquriums.
IMO, in a sense, aquacultured means multiple people have kept it in aquariums and failed to kill it
Honestly, I guess I would say having all skeleton/polyps grown in-tank would change the coral to aquacultured IMO. Such as, if I get a wild colony - when it grows a brand new branch, which I eventually frag + give to a friend ... that 100% in-aquaria grown part would be aquacultured. I'm unsure if the original base I would call aquacultured ... just everything that grew in my tank from it.
Personally, that's the bare end IMO - when frags they then cut would be aquacultured for-sure ... a generation/tank/keeper away from the wild coral.
It's a weird dividing line ... but like the definition of colony as being something you can cut a frag from without any significant visual difference ... it's a grey line. I haven't heard a `generally agreed upon' rule that I remember.
IMO, if all the polyps/skeleton were grown in aquaria - it's aquacultured. Cutting up a wild coral + stabilizing it [even if for months] I wouldn't call `true' aquaculture ... but that's just my definition. Others work on different definitions.
Others I'm sure will disagree, and have validity to their arguments too I bet. Heck, in time I'll likely have a different definition.