[Social D]

Having recently lost some acros 5 to be exact all were wild colonys on their mother form, Every acro thats maricultured has been ok the same with fragged colonys so just wondering whats everybodys mortality rate with wild acropora? (be honest folks).

Having studied threads on RC in the past they always commented on how they give up the goat before pretty much anything else.

So whats the overall opinion with wild colonys long term? or doomed before too long?

[Tony B]

Tim, on Oct 12 2008, 11:11 PM, said:

Having recently lost some acros 5 to be exact all were wild colonys on their mother form, Every acro thats maricultured has been ok the same with fragged colonys so just wondering whats everybodys mortality rate with wild acropora? (be honest folks).

Having studied threads on RC in the past they always commented on how they give up the goat before pretty much anything else.

So whats the overall opinion with wild colonys long term? or doomed before too long?

Size is a important issue. Lets not forget maricultured acro are wild too (they both come from the ocean).

I mentiond size because wild acro's tend to be larger (but not always). Once a coral has grown, the shape, density, amount of symbiotic algae and many other factors have all been formed to help the coral cope with a fairly constant set of environmental conditions (flow, food, light, temperature and so on).

My guess (i've done no research) is that many of the environmental factors are vastly different in our tanks and, seeing as an acropora is a rigid form, adaption is slow to take place by way of new growth and changes to how it gets it's food (energy production may change from active feeding/predation to a bias placed on food coming from symbiotic algae being fed by artificail lights, not sun shine).

If we sit down and list all the changes and stress that a coral goes through before we get it into our tanks, there is a LOT of change and stress.

You then need to consider shipping and handling; are both the maricultured and wild corals subject to the same? I would have thought that a 'packaging line' awaits the mariculture beds close by, whereas wild acros may need to be transported to the packing line.

Honestly, ime, if they're corals of similar size I have had an equal rate of failure from both sources; I've had some great wild acros before (I tend to go for smaller wild sps for reasons outlined above) and some that failed too. Same for maricultured.

With regards to your losses from the wild acros, did they all come from the same importer? Were they all bought at the same time? Sometimes corals can hang around longer in customs at the airports or they could have been last to get packed on the beach - so many unknown variables....

Regards,

Tony

[Simon Garratt]

There is some evidence to show that the various clades of zooxanthallae that origionate from differing locations are all adaptable to captivity to varying degrees dependent on the conditions..(some prefere good water quality with low turbidity, others prefere muckyer conditions). Species that contain a clade of one type may be more robust than the same species that has a clade of another or similar type and has come from a different environment.

There is also some evidence to show a degree of clade tranference in some species, whilst it is not successfull in others.

Baring those variables in mind and the fact that we commonly house many differing species from differing locations, it stands to reason that over time, some corals may try to loose non succesfull clades in preferance for another type but be unsuccessfull in that attempt, in which case you will see a decline in the colony with little chance of salvage unless that coral is moved to a different system or placed under different conditions of light saturation/spectrum or turbidity.

I think the thing to remember with maricultures, is that they are by and large all farmed under similar conditions compared to wild colonies that are taken from all sorts of locations, and depths etc so the stresses and strains of transfere to captivity will be proportionally higher or lower in the wild colonies dependent on these criteria.

Thats not to say that wild colonies are better or worse. Imo, they just need treating with a bit more consideration and care when positioning and flow are factored in. The other factor is growth...a large colony that has grown a specific formation that meets the flow and light boundries that it has grown into in the wild, is alot more suseptable to adverse changes than a smaller colony that can grow 'into' the perameters that it is now being kept under.

Regards

Si.

[Social D]

Yeh youve described what ive seen of late from the top of my head i had around 50 SPS way too many i know but having lost 5 acros lately all WILD
Its the flow thats killed them or indeed a lack of it.
A new learning curve for me which is great looking at the positive side of things but what ive experienced seems to be the same on the biggy forum
And thats that wild's do decline slowly for no reason and in my case positioning them in less than perfect areas has been their downfall.

Whilst 2 year old frags have severed fair the wilds just dont cut it.

Knowing what i know now wilds will be treated with a little more respect or given a little more hierarchic space if i do purchase more in the future.

Thanks for your input Tony - Si

[lindsay]

Could also be the case that a lot of maricultured species are picked because they do well when maricultured ,ie keep great colour and grow quite fast with small losses .Wild acros can take a little longer to settle when they come in but with time and left alone they normaly settle the same as maricultured .Over the years i have found that small wild cluster acro's in a brown colour with only a small amount of bright colour in the tips to be a little harder to settle and often will not increase colour for a long time if they do at all .If you are going to buy a wild acro from a shop that has just come in have a close look at the rock that it has grown on as sometimes the life in and on the rock may not travel as well as the acro did .

[jason@jasonsaquatics]

Have to agree with Lindsay on that one,sometimes the rock is peppered underneath with sponges and can tip the acro over the edge due to bad water in the bag on the trip to us .

Another reason a wild acro that has been collected can take time to settle is IMO that a lot seem to be collected on a low tide rather than being dived for as this makes collection easy.

If this being the case,this makes them from shallow areas with a lot of light and this in turn makes them thin before they have even been collected.

Most acropora will thin on a trip and if already thin due to high light in the wild we usually have to hold them for that much longer than maricultured that are in lagoons.


jas