I've read many posts where someone wants to start keeping hard corals and we advise them to start with LPS (usually open and closed brains, hammers, torches, frogsspawns,etc.) I know I've made these suggestions, too. But maybe it's time to stop.
Consider:
1) How slow they grow in our tanks, and in the wild.
2) We don't have a way to easily propogate them.
3) The learning curve we all go through the first couple years. (I know I killed more stuff my first two years than I have in the last 8)
4) The often referred to "Two year hurdle" ie:those that stay in the hobby more than 2 years are hooked for life, but the majority lose interest (usually because of dead livestock) way before then.
5) The reason many are steered to LPS's is that they haven't invested in the equipment needed for more demandng corals (intense lights and calcium reactors) I don't argue that most LPS corals are hardy, but I'll bet many are lost while people are experimenting with low cost lights and all sorts of different calcium additions, and other equipment.
We all talk about what we can do to help the reefs - well this seems like a no brainer to me.
But I'm not one to point out problems without offering solutions. And I don't want to dampen the enthusiasm of any new reefers. So, I offer alternatives to the open and closed brains, elegance and hammer corals many start out with.
Instead maybe we should suggest corals like, Blasomussa, Galaxy corals, Caulastrea, Pavona, And even Pocillopora Damicornis.
I picked these because they are hardy, beautiful, and available as captive raised frags (thru Tropicorium at least)
I'd be intersted in hearing from those with diving experience how sustainable they harvest of LPS corals is, and how plentiful they are in the wild.
And please forgive this post. You can blame it on Dr. Reef, his "Dark side of reefing" got me fired up I guess.
Dan
Consider:
1) How slow they grow in our tanks, and in the wild.
2) We don't have a way to easily propogate them.
3) The learning curve we all go through the first couple years. (I know I killed more stuff my first two years than I have in the last 8)
4) The often referred to "Two year hurdle" ie:those that stay in the hobby more than 2 years are hooked for life, but the majority lose interest (usually because of dead livestock) way before then.
5) The reason many are steered to LPS's is that they haven't invested in the equipment needed for more demandng corals (intense lights and calcium reactors) I don't argue that most LPS corals are hardy, but I'll bet many are lost while people are experimenting with low cost lights and all sorts of different calcium additions, and other equipment.
We all talk about what we can do to help the reefs - well this seems like a no brainer to me.
But I'm not one to point out problems without offering solutions. And I don't want to dampen the enthusiasm of any new reefers. So, I offer alternatives to the open and closed brains, elegance and hammer corals many start out with.
Instead maybe we should suggest corals like, Blasomussa, Galaxy corals, Caulastrea, Pavona, And even Pocillopora Damicornis.
I picked these because they are hardy, beautiful, and available as captive raised frags (thru Tropicorium at least)
I'd be intersted in hearing from those with diving experience how sustainable they harvest of LPS corals is, and how plentiful they are in the wild.
And please forgive this post. You can blame it on Dr. Reef, his "Dark side of reefing" got me fired up I guess.
Dan
