EVERYONE TAKE THIS SURVEY!!

[cellowithgills]

I'm doing a survey for my WR 122 paper on sustaining the aquarium industry. Please take they time to get an accurate answer. Thank You!

[cellowithgills]

Give you answer as if it was the number or below. so 16% would be 20%, 81% would be 90%, ect.

[ReefSafari]

I know every coral I have personally in my tank is frags from other members and or local shops, so I am guessing if a shop gets in a wild colony and frags it up, and I buy it, would "technically" I be putting a wild coral in my tank? or would it be at that point propagated? and how many times of that coral being propagated would it not be wild anymore? meaning is a frag of a wild import still be considered wild? or captive propagated?

 

See in my other hobby, I have to breed two things together to produce offspring, once I get copulation and egg production and then I artificialy incubate, the first generation is considered captive bred or propagated. With corals many can be traced directly back to wild stock, as its just continueing to grow and we frag it, which means that all of our corals where not "made" by us just fragged and grown out and fragged again, so how many times does it take for a coral to be considered propagated?

[dsoz]

IMO, if I buy a frag that is 1" and let it grow so that it is 2", then frag it so that there are two 1" pieces. The one that I sell would be "captive bred" and anything that I have after the original 1" piece would also be captive bred. But that original 1" would still be wild caught.

 

If a store imports wild coral, then frags it up for sale, then each of the frags would be wild caught, but any growth would be captive grown...

 

Since most of my coral is from trades with other hobbyists, I would say that most of my coral is "captive grown"

 

dsoz

[cellowithgills]

I would specify 2nd generation propagated. So wild collected colony gets fragged, those frags grow out and then are fragged. All of those frags I would consider to be propagated. But I'm not being to picky.

[defigart]

I dont have any corals.

[cellowithgills]

I think that means you're exempt from taking the survey.

[Michael7979]

Voted 100%.....

for this reason, every piece I have gotten is from a fellow reefer or LFS and I was never told they were 'wild' so I assume they are propagated.

[LC Scott]

I'm going with 90%, most of the frags I have came from fellow reefers, Three of them came from a LFS or two and I didn't ask. probably should have.

[Frank]

Very few corals are wild any more most of them are aquacultured corals.

[cellowithgills]

Very few corals are wild any more most of them are aquacultured corals.

That's is actually the point of the paper I'm writing. Other topics in the paper are clownfish breeding, clam mariculture/aquaculture, and captive breeding cuttlefish for research labs.

[Frank]

So are you asking if they are wild aquacultured corals or propagated? Like my tank No wild lots of aquacultured and propagated.

[cellowithgills]

So are you asking if they are wild aquacultured corals or propagated? Like my tank No wild lots of aquacultured and propagated.

 

Not quite sure what your statement meant. But if you read this post:

I would specify 2nd generation propagated. So wild collected colony gets fragged' date=' those frags grow out and then are fragged. All of those frags I would consider to be propagated. But I'm not being to picky.[/quote']

 

You should get a good idea of what I'm looking for as far as numbers.

[tanktop74]

Hey Frank there are lots of wild stuff being brought in! Ruddy (golden basket) just got back from Indonesia and brought back lots of stuff pulled from the wild. Most of the stuff that comes on the trans shipements that Tim gets is also wild stuff!

 

So there is more Wild stuff out there than you are thinking!

 

Beth

[ThePremiumAquarium]

There is a ton of wild stuff out there. In fact most of what people are advertising as tank raises or propagated was either collected in the wild or is only gen 2 or 3 so is pretty close to the original wild colony. There are constant changes and discoveries around the various reefs in the world which allows for some pretty stunning pieces to hit the market on a regular basis. There has been many advances in the education of the diving and collecting community in the past decade. This is allowing for some pretty great sustainable harvesting ventures.

 

There are also a ton of corals that are maricultured in the wild for the trade. These are a great option as they are not only selected and farmed for their color, features, growth, etc., but also sustainably raised and in many cases help add back to the reef for future generations to enjoy and live off of. Techniques, quality, and quantities of maricultured corals are increasingly improving! In many tropical watered areas of the world, the ornamental fish, invert, and coral trade is a siginificant part of the economy so it is very important to consider maricultured corals as a great way to support the hobby and all of those who make it possible.

 

Aquacultured corals have been raised in captivity for several generations. They have adapted to tank conditions including more drasting temperature and elemental fluctuations, tank current/flow, synthetic lighting, and regular fragmentaion to name a few. Aquacultured corals are a great option for these reasons.

 

There are some farmers that are now hybridizing Maricultured corals into second and third gen Aquacultured corals. This is creating some pretty crazy colored, resilient stuff that of course is sustainably raised and like all maricultured corals, are really a great economical option to help support communities living off of the reef.

[stylaster]

Yes the maricultured stuff is really nice, some of the bali ones are on to the second generation. Also there are chalices and zoas that are being maricultured too

[J.R]

Difficult poll to answer with any real confidence. I will go with 100%.

[WAVES]

very few SPS are wild anymore, most frags or maricultured. At my time owning Waves I think I only brought in maybe 20 true wild SPS pieces.

[Electrokate]

44 species definitely aquacultured locally or by ORA, 9 unknown (from people tearing down tanks), 3 acans that I know were wild imports cut into frags and sold on. I did feel a bad about the acans but on the other hand they came from a nation requiring the importer to work within a very careful set of rules and limits, unlike in some places where there is no effort to determine what is biologically reasonable. I only counted zoanthids one time, if I counted each color morph that would mean another 8 or 9 aquacultured corals.

Generally I prefer local frags as they tend to be healthier, hardier and you know what color they will be under artificial lighting. And they "only" have pests we have a history with... I don't want to be the lucky one to discover a new coral eating bug. (:

 

Now if only I could get locally aquacultured tangs and wrasses, that would be awesome!

Kate

[JasonH]

If you really want to look at sustainability of the aquarium industry, you should contract Fiji and the Philippines in the collection practices and laws - and the benefit to the local people/economy. Fiji has done a really impressive of regulating the industry, and also of tying the economic benefit of the industry to the people. The local tribe "owns" the reef and receive the economic benefit of collection, and are responsible for the long term care of the reef. They understand the impacts of over-harvesting.

 

Compare that to the wild-west approach of the Philippines where pirates will devastate the reef with cyanide or dynamite harvesting, or hire/force young children to manually harvest (and frequently drown). Very little of the economic benefit gets to the people and there is no long term view of the natural resource.

 

That has far more impact on the long term sustainability of the industry, in my opinion.

[JasonH]

If you really want to look at sustainability of the aquarium industry, you should contract Fiji and the Philippines in the collection practices and laws - and the benefit to the local people/economy. Fiji has done a really impressive of regulating the industry, and also of tying the economic benefit of the industry to the people. The local tribe "owns" the reef and receive the economic benefit of collection, and are responsible for the long term care of the reef. They understand the impacts of over-harvesting.

 

Compare that to the wild-west approach of the Philippines where pirates will devastate the reef with cyanide or dynamite harvesting, or hire/force young children to manually harvest (and frequently drown). Very little of the economic benefit gets to the people and there is no long term view of the natural resource.

 

That has far more impact on the long term sustainability of the industry, in my opinion.

[cellowithgills]

Anybody have a good resource for information on current efforts being made in this area? Specifically mariculture, and the like.

[JasonH]

Another option to look at sustainability of the aquarium industry, you should contrast Fiji and the Philippines in the collection practices and laws - and the benefit to the local people/economy. Fiji has done a really impressive of regulating the industry, and also of tying the economic benefit of the industry to the people. The local tribe "owns" the reef and receive the economic benefit of collection, and are responsible for the long term care of the reef. They understand the impacts of over-harvesting.

 

Compare that to the wild-west approach of the Philippines where pirates will devastate the reef with cyanide or dynamite harvesting, or hire/force young children to manually harvest (and frequently drown). Very little of the economic benefit gets to the people and there is no long term view of the natural resource.

 

That has far more impact on the long term sustainability of the industry, in my opinion.

[stylaster]

saw this practice first hand when i was in Fiji. The local villages all have 'coral farms' in their lagoons. Most where for reseeding their own local reefs, but they did have grow out trays with smaller acroporas and montiporas. They would then sell these to wholesalers on the island, which helped earn money for the village.