Aussie SPS

[Mike de Leon]

So are they more resilient or difficult to keep? I know the really light coloured yellows never really stay that colour in my tank.

How are they compared to say, Indo? Talking about wild of course. I have yet to see aqua cultured from OZ. Do they even exist?

[Spslvr]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500838

Do we aquaculture..... Lol

[Mike de Leon]

God blessed Australia with the best corals!!

[Redrosetuscan]

I find oz wilds to generally be very resilient and generally pest free, the indo Mari stuff can be very hit or miss and here in the uk it's unusual to see proper wild indo sps, although I know there's been some recently.
I also,find good success with fiji,wild.

A theory I have in my case is the water temps in fiji and oz are not as warm as some indo areas, a lot of these Mari indo acros are grown in very very shallow lagoons and I imagine the water gets warm, they are also blasted with light.
My tank has temps on the lower side (under 26c) which I believ is close to fiji and gbr.

Just a theory though.

[reefmutt]

The Aussie wilds are so varied and, well, like a box o chocolates..
The Mari stuff is often pretty run of the mill except for some suppliers who go out of their way to find the high end stuff and culture them..
The problem with Aussie corals, once they get here, is that they've often been in transit so long that they are very stressed.. And around here, they end up getting chopped into tiny pieces..
Or the colonies are sold for insane amounts of money.

[33yrplus]

I used to routinely get 5" to 8" Aussie colonies into Vancouver. I've had no problems with the Aussie Wild or the Fiji Wild for that matter. I even had an Aussie Spathulata spawn after being in my system for 6-7 weeks, so they do come in very healthy... when they are packed properly and don't suffer an airline delay.

I tend to see a lot more parasites with the Indo acros. First it was hairy black crabs... now it's AEFW.

There is several reasons why Aussie colonies are so much money:
RISK!!! You will lose some colonies in a shipment.

Price of corals from supplier. One supplier told me his collecting license was $80k per year. Operating expenses(labour) are much higher in Aus than in Indo.

Freight rate is at least 50% more expensive than Indo or Fiji.

CITES permit fee is more expensive.

Shipments tend to be packed with too much water which makes expensive freight rates even more expensive.

The Indo wild colonies I have imported have been far worse than the Fiji or Aussie colonies. Typically no colony arrives unscathed.