Coral Farming

[JoJo2011]

Hey! Ok so i'm new to this whole online community but I would like to ask anyone who it applies to and who has time a few questions. I am doing a research project on private coral farming as a way for the hobby to advance itself and at the same time promote awareness about the precarious position of the worlds reefs today. If you can help me out, please respond here and I will try and put my questions up by tomorrow evening.

[Roy G. Biv]

Welcome to RC.... I'm sure many will chime in to contribute to your cause. Well depending on how new you are to this, you can do a search on fragging corals. Basically taking one coral and splitting it into parts. Then each part will be full grown one day.

[JoJo2011]

Thanks for the help, but my research is for writing a series of papers and I'm looking at it more for asking people on their opinions about coral farming and whether they do it and how farming helps the natural reefs. Thankyou again by the way. I'm really happy that things are so prompt here.

[JoJo2011]

If you actively fragment your corals to give to friends or sell then Id love to ask you questions. Let me know, i'm interested in getting information from as many people was possible.

[Roy G. Biv]

Here's some stuff

http://www.frags.org/
http://www.fragoutpost.com/
http://altisreef.com/index.html (NJ coral farm)
http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com/liverock/index.html (Live Rock Farm)
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/scateg.cfm?pCatId=1500 (Tank bred fish)

[JoJo2011]

wow. thanks.

[Tennsquire]

Probably the best way that it can help "natural" reefs is by taking some of the pressure off of them. If you obtain a coral that's been aquacultured, that's one less coral that comes out of the wild. And yes, I have a separate system where I frag and grow out both hard and soft corals. It helps defray some of the expenses of the hobby.

If you want to look at something on a much bigger scale, google ORA Farms. They're a commercial coral facility in Ft. Pierce. I think it's orafarm.com, or something like that. They supply alot of stores with captive raised corals.

[JoJo2011]

thanks.

[michaeldaly]

You should also have a look at the coral propogation forum, there is more info on this topic there.

[frags on a rock]

coral farming is great

[victor_c3]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10752847#post10752847 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tennsquire
Probably the best way that it can help "natural" reefs is by taking some of the pressure off of them. If you obtain a coral that's been aquacultured, that's one less coral that comes out of the wild. And yes, I have a separate system where I frag and grow out both hard and soft corals. It helps defray some of the expenses of the hobby.

If you want to look at something on a much bigger scale, google ORA Farms. They're a commercial coral facility in Ft. Pierce. I think it's orafarm.com, or something like that. They supply alot of stores with captive raised corals.

In addition to what was mentioned above, tank bred species (both fish and corals) typically are healthier in a closed system (i.e aquarium). Fish that are born and raised in aquariums will readily accept artificial diets, be healthier, and less stressed in the home aquarium. I believe the same is true with aquacultured corals.

I'm sorry that I can't reference you to an exact article off of the top of my head, but there were several articles published in the Reef Keeping online magazine over the last several years where these issues have been discussed. Reefkeeping magazine is accessable from the front page of this forum in case you're totally blind :) Some articles that closely relate to this topic might have the tittle of "the conservation minded aquarists" or something along those lines....

While aquacultured fish and corals are readily available, invertabrates such as snails and crabs usually never breed in captivity and there is a movement within the aquarium community to research and develop invertabrate breeding techniques to help mitigate the impact of invertebrate collection on the natural coral reef.

From what I've read, the impact of live-rock or base-rock collection on coral reefs and the environment has never been formally studied, but many people advocate the use of a small ratio of live-rock to a larger ratio of base rock (dead live rock) when establishing a reef aquarium so as to lessen the impact on live coral reefs.

Additionally, somewhere on reefcentral is a running list of species that are available which are aquacultured or captive bred.

As an aside, I had no idea that it was possible or even legal to keep a reef aquarium as little as a year ago. I've known that collection laws are extremely strict in the U.S. and it wasn't until my wife surprised me with an aquarium that I began researching into what I could do with saltwater fish. However, after getting into this hobby my awareness of the precarious state of our oceans and reefs has widened immensely. While I don't think I'll ever have a 100% aquacultured reef tank, I always prefer to buy tank-bred livestock. If a species is "rare" or "endagered" and isn't tank raised, I'll move on to something that is more prevalent in nature.

[victor_c3]

Also, try posting in the coral propagation forum on reefcentral. There are people on there who do this for a living who might be able to help you out.

[JoJo2011]

awesome. thanks for all the great information guys.