Wild corals SPS are they hard to keep?

[azocean]

Just wanted to know how hard wild sps corals are to keep and what should I do I get one. I was thinking a long acclimation and a coral dip and light acclimation for a longer period of time. What do you everyone think. Thanks

 

[Pyrrhus]

The issues is more with readapting an animal that grew to particular conditions on the reef for its entire life to the particular conditions that your tank has to offer. For best success look at the shape and color of the coral and see what that might indicate about where that animal came from.

 

[clkwrk]

Skips right.

Best thing is to get frags from other reefers or from the stores . Once you are confident in your skills try out the wilds they are not as forgiving.

 

[random_ryan]

wilds have a hard time with fragging them and are more prone to dying when fragged or even the adjustment to tank life is very very hard on them

 

[frontosa_man80]

my sunset milli was a wild, i lost most of it then as the coral became adjusted to the "tank life" it rewarded me with its color.

-jesse

 

[moore_rb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11685226#post11685226 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by frontosa_man80
my sunset milli was a wild, i lost most of it then as the coral became adjusted to the "tank life" it rewarded me with its color.

-jesse

yup. I had the same experience with a wild tricolor Acro colony I purchased three years ago. It was one of two identical colonies brought into town by ATR. The other colony died very quickly (sorry Phil), and mine died back over 90%. I distributed a couple frags to others, and kept a couple frags in my own tank.

The parent colony has been liverock in my tank now for over a year (RIP), and none of the daughter colonies ever held the original color of the parent, until now. The newest frag (actually a frag of a frag) that is growing in my tank right now is even more colorful and robust than the original parent. Another year from now, there might be a new "LE" on the market....

Two things you must be prepared for when purchasing a wild collected SPS colony:

1) It may be dead for no reason the morning or week after you add it to your tank.
2) It will probably lose it's color and take many months (or years) for it to come back.

These won't always be the case, but you should prepare for both scenarios as you decide whether or not to buy a wild SPS colony.

 

[moore_rb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11685066#post11685066 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by random_ryan
wilds have a hard time with fragging them and are more prone to dying when fragged or even the adjustment to tank life is very very hard on them

I think the "hard time" is more attributed to having to adjust to synthetic saltwater, synthetic sunlight and synthetic tidal water flow than to fragging.

Fragging is a natural process to a coral. Pieces of wild colonies are constantly being snapped off by conch's, snails, and Parrot fish in the wild, and new colonies grow from these broken pieces, just as they do in our tanks.

 

[Pescado Racing]

Generations of frags. Adaptation at work.

 

[Philwd]

yup. I had the same experience with a wild tricolor Acro colony I purchased three years ago. It was one of two identical colonies brought into town by ATR. The other colony died very quickly (sorry Phil), and mine died back over 90%. I distributed a couple frags to others, and kept a couple frags in my own tank.

Yep that was tough. The frag I got from you grew into a 7" colony. Last week it died back ~80%. Still holding on though. The tips have regained nearly the original color but the branches have never lightened back up.