Is anyone aquaculturing Carribean Corals?

[texman]

There are a few Carribean coral species which I like a lot, mostly closed brains and some of the unique SPS. I think that it is illegal to harvest carribean corals and sell them in the USA, but is anyone captively culturing and/or fragging them to be sold in the US? I have noticed that, although the reefs around Cancun and Cozumel are supposedly protected, there are lots of small streets, paved with small coral heads. Considering the amount of destruction of the corals in Mexico (and probably other countries bordering the Carribean) for use as ornaments or building materials, it is rediculous that small pieces cannot be harvested for sale to aquarists. I have noticed that Ralphy in Puerto Rico has some in his tank. Maybe he can let us know about the legality of collecting them there.

 

[SAT]

I've been watching the boards for this topic for a while. The few people who have Caribbean hard corals in the US either have permits which restrict them from distributing frags, or collected their corals illegally in the first place and aren't anxious to get in trouble.

It's actually not illegal to harvest and import corals if you have the right CITES permits. None of these species are officially listed as endangered and there's no federal law which distinguishes between Atlantic and Pacific species. However, Florida won't issue collection permits, neither will most Caribbean countries, and you'll go to jail if Fish & Wildlife catches you harvesting or importing corals without them.

 

[texman]

I will have to check with Texas Fish and Wildlife. There are some corals growing on the offshore oil rigs here, and it would be easy to grab a few, but I would like to know about the legality here first. Thanks for the info!

 

[SAT]

BTW, there are a few species available on aquacultured live rock from TBS or GulfView. They're not the major reef-building varieties, but maybe similar to the ones on your off-shore rigs.

 

[Mac1]

... or collected their corals illegally in the first place and aren't anxious to get in trouble.

I know a guy that did this... kinda funny, actually. He's a diver, and he picked a few frags off the seabed one trip down to ....Belize I think? Grabbed a drinking bottle of fresh ocean SW the day he left, and carried the coral(s) in film canisters on his person through the airport. On the plane, he did water changes in the bathroom w/ the seawater in his drinking-bottle, and dumped the stuff out of the film canisters. Got 3 corals back this way, only one is still alive today... I'm high on his list of frag-friends, and haven't seen hide nor hair of the one he's got left. They didn't do well for some reason. This fellar's got a really successful reef, too, so I'm confident it's not due to his husbandry skills.

I would like to see some of these corals coming into the trade too, however, if nothing else, for some variety. I'm actually kind of surprised nobody like GARF or InlandAquatics, or ORA, Tropicorium, or... hasn't applied for permits to collect, grow and frag, some of these organism's that are specific to those regions. I can understand the ban on collection, but in the cases mentioned above, I think exceptions should be made. I mean, if you can get the coral harvested from a pond in Indiana or Michigan, it's a heck of a lot more responsible than some guy stuffing film-canister's in his pockets through custom's.

- Mac

 

[Ken2001]

At least for some of the carribean staghorns, the difficulty of getting these is compounded by the fact that they are extremely difficult to culture and raise. For some reason, they are not at all easy like many Indo-Pacific SPS such as acros and monti's. The appear to want different conditions from your typical Indo-Pacific tank. So even those people that do bring back frags from their vacations find the mortality to be pretty high on these. Don't know whether this holds true for corals like the brains, etc.

Regards,

Ken