Huge Anemone

[MillerLite]

Hey cornstar, great anemone man. What kind of filtration you have? I would be sure to remove anything that reaches down like a HOB filter tube or a long powerhead tube. Wandering anemones have a nasty habit of ending up in filter tubes polluting your tank, making it dangerous for all its inhabitants. Great anemone though and good luck with it. Try not to listen these people on this thread telling you that you are not a responsible reefkeeper. To answer your question, no I would say a majority of the coral sold in this country is not aquacultured. I think that the people that say they buy exclusively aquacultured coral may only be buying first generation frags (frags from corals taken from the wild) that someone sells back to the petstore or that the petstore frags itself. Then they usually rape the buyer in price by telling them its aquacultured. Such bullcrap. There are however several very respectable vendors that do sell only aquacultured stuff however it usually tends to be slightly more expensive. Some people do buy exclusively from these vendors but I would think that most dont to save a buck here and there. I just spent a little money to set up an additional 10 gallon frag out tank so that I can trade with other reefers instead of buying corals taken from the wild. Nothing against people that buy their corals caught from the wild but if us nano-reefers can trade fragged corals with each other, that may be one less coral taken from the wild. Any more thoughts?

[cornstar]

Thanks MillerLite

 

Where i live we are not lucky enough to have access to aquacultured corals. Of the three LFS that i use, 99% of the coral stock is from the ocean. I have not known any different untill now, i just assumed that it was the same over there. If i had a choice i would by aquacultured corals.

 

You make a very valid point:

 

"I think that the people that say they buy exclusively aquacultured coral may only be buying first generation frags (frags from corals taken from the wild) that someone sells back to the petstore or that the petstore frags itself".

 

I am sure that this is a common occurance, buying these corals is the same as buying wild specimens.

 

I know i will get flamed for having wild stock on this site, but at least i really care for my tank and research before i buy...i dont post a threads like "Look at my new anemone kept under 14w Fluoros."

 

Cheers

 

P.

[ZIGGY]

im new to this(well sorta)im just starting up a little reef tank 2foot but plaing on doing a 4 foot tank any way im in australia and if you talk to any lfs the wil tell you why should we buy any one elses baby coral/aneimeis when we can get the from the reef a hell of a lot cheaper what im trying to say is where i live and folowing towns only stock wild caught stuff.

 

so its bit of a problem ova here (thanx ziggy)

[cornstar]

Thats what you get when you live in a country surounded by reefs with LFS out to make a profit.

 

Thanks Ziggy

[MillerLite]

Man I do agree with you guys. I think if the price were similar, everyone will agree that buying aquacultured corals would be the way to go. Unfortunately in trying to get ahead of the profit game, many stores will try to maximize their profits selling corals at top end price claiming they were "aquacultured". Not an authority on this at all, but I think this is probably the case with many vendors. Again, shout out to all those respectable vendors out their selling truly aquacultured corals. Lots of respect also to places like seacrop that sell rescued coral frags, small frags that people with larger tanks wont necessarily purchase.

[Kelpie]

I pay extra so that I'm not part of the problem. Cornstar why not start your own fragging business down there? Do you think enough Aussies are environmentally responsible enough to by aquacultured? You may start something big if they are.

[ZIGGY]

salt water reefs here in aust are a big hit. yes what we need is tank bread/fraging corals and that will stop people(lfs) from takeing them from the wild its a big problem over here..i all so have to blame FINDEING NEMO for this because alot of pople dont know that its illegal to take coral/fish from the wild and they dont relise the damage they are causeing to the reefs.

 

me personly i would by my coral/fish from tank breed stock but its way to esey for the lfs to get it from the wild and tell peple with tank breed croals/aneimes/fish to #### of.

 

hopefuly it will change one day and i hope what i said made sense to yous/sorry cornstar for hi jacking your thred.

 

thanx ZIGGY

[Cesar]

Hey Cornstar I was actually making plans on taking my family to Australia for a vacation. I say this cause I just realized that you are so close to the great reef. At work I met a lady that is from Australia and she was telling me to go see the great reef before it was gone and I told her "I know and it's all in my tank". Well she was somewhat bothered by my comment I guess, hehe. Never thought that would sound rude, hehe.

[MillerLite]

Hey kelpie...its great that you are willing to pay extra not to take corals from the wild. I really give props to those on this site that try and buy aquacultured and also that try to trade frags. Where do you go for your corals? Is there any guarantee that they are aquacultured?

[SeaSide]

It is great to buy aquacultured. That's pro-life kinda mindset. I like the way you think.

 

I think they will sell anything labeled aquacultured if they know its more profitable than wild caught. So, we may end up with paying more for the "label" not for actuall aquacultured.

 

Oh.. BTW, cornstar. Yours are great. take a good care of it.

[cornstar]

Cheers guys

 

Sounds like a good idea Kelpie, i wish i knew some other people into marine reef aquariums so i could trade frags .

 

Cesar

 

The reefs are amazing down here. The is the huge barrier reef in Queensland (Eastern Australia) but it is very commercial. Over in Western Australia we have some magnificent untouched protected reefs, Ningaloo reef is the largest at 260km long (Pic) Snoorkeling on these reefs is what got me interested in aquariums.

 

Cheers

 

P.

[jbird]

Wow. Great anemone cornstar. Keep us updated on his progress.

 

BTW - What's whitebait?

[cornstar]

Cheers jbird

 

Whitebait are small fish. They are about 5-10cm long and are also refered to as sand whiteing because they hang around the sandy shallows. They are often used as bait by fishermen.

 

P.

[Newby-Reefer]

I may be taking a trip down there in the summer to see clowns in their wild habitat that anemone is awsome dude. Love it.

[SoCal Reefer]

i spent more on my clowns because they were aquacultured. all my corals are frags. Question to all australians here, are they laws against collecting corals, fish, inverts and is it enforced...well?

I saw some people taking stuff from a local tide pool by my house and chewed them out for stealing wild life(enen though it was a bucket of hermits and urchins) then i called the cops and they got a $2000 fine !!

[EtOH_is_good]

when i was in charleston, i used to see ppl taking out huge number of sand dollars from the beaches. i wonder how much the fine would be for them.