All yuma's equal???

[kinerson]

I have a nice yuma with orange tips. You can't kill it. I can frag it like theres no tomorrow. The thing is amazing.
I have heard however that the hot pink yuma's are very challenging to keep and frag. Is this true? What's the scoop on the different color morphs and there relative hardiness?

Thanks guys,
Greg

[currentking]

some are tank raised and some are wild. The wild ones are harder to keep

[anguswu]

Yumas are not equal. Indonesia yuma is easier than other place. I have some Indo-yuma. The following class is my experience.

Easiest



Easy


Normal



Hard


Most hard
(I am still working)
(I never succeed)

[get-r-done]

Anguswu

that last one is super may I ask where you got it from?


Jim

[chillman]

nice collection you have there angus

[kinerson]

Angus- Thanks for the breakdown.

[Travis L. Stevens]

It depends on how you look at "equal". There is only one Ricordea yuma, so therefore all Yumas ARE equal. They are all the same species, and they all come from the same Indo-Pacific. Tank raised, wild caught, low light, high light, whatever. A Yuma is a Yuma is a Yuma. Now that's the technical side of it.

On the other hand, R. yuma seem to have difficulty adjusting to changes. Wild caught Yumas often don't fair well simply because you can't recreate the environment they were caught in in your home aquarium without knowing where they came from (we're talking relation to reef placement, not geographical location). If they were picked up from a heavily shaded area and you put them under a 400w metal halide, they won't do well. Same thing goes for amount of water flow. Ones that are taken out of lower lagoonal type flow aren't going to do well with high flow aquariums. Luckily, captive propogated Yumas tend to fair better because most people have generally the same types of tanks in regards to light intensity and flow amount. With all that said, I can tell you that the color of a Yuma has absolutely no bearing on its hardiness. On the other hand, it can be an indicator of the conditions it has lived in. But the story of the relationship of pigmentation to ocean depth, temperature, and bleaching habits are stories left for a different thread.

[kinerson]

Not to start up a "different thread" but I remember reading in Calfo's book of coral propagation that the more brightly colored ricordea like the pinks and oranges come from shallower water then the darker/duller rics. He was speaking in general terms but it is interesting.

Greg

[Travis L. Stevens]

Not a problem at all. Quite frankly, collection location and color can be difficult to determine and can be a heated debate.

Often animals that are collected at lower depths tend to have more of a red tone to them. It's been theorized that this coloration is for "invisibility" to the naked eye. To explain further, the deeper you go underwater the more red spectrum fades from the light. By the time you get fairly far down there is little to no red spectrum light to reflect off of the animal, therefore making them "invisible" to more primative eyes. With that said, the theory would stand that the deep pinks, oranges, and reds of corals would be found deeper down.

On the other hand, coral pigmentation can be a benefit to the animal. A red pigmented animal can "reflect" red spectrum and absorb the yellow and blue in order to increase photosynthesis of its zooxanthallae algae. Therefore the brighter the light, the more is absorbed. But then again, this could be a light collection mechanism for deep water to produce energy from zooxanthallae in the most efficient way possible.

So, now you see both sides of the story. Just picking up a "red" toned animal can't determine its collection location based on the theories of the debate alone. You'll actually need someone to say where it was collected. Then you can place them in the most appropriate spot in your tank for maximum potential survivability of your new arrival.

You can counter the problem and kill two birds with one stone by purchasing captive propagated livestock though. For starters, the obvious is that it wasn't taken out of the ocean if you're the environmental cautious hobbyist. The second is that you know the general water parameters, flow, light intensity, and so on that it was housed under so you can attempt to match it in your home.

That's it in a nutshell.

[kinerson]

Yes I would agree with you that tank raised is for sure your best bet. Very interesting post, thank you.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Not a problem. In the end, and this is strictly my opinion, do NOT rely on word of mouth for the hardiness of an animal. While it will eventually be determined what relationship there is with collection location and color, I'm sure, there are other more reliable sources to indicate health of placement of a coral. Bleaching and growth forms being the most predominant. Bleaching is rather obvious; either too much light or not enough (with other factors not helping). And growth form. For example, Acropora, Montipora, and other branching corals tend to grow different depending on their environment. Take Montiporas for example. In a low flow area, they will grow long, thin branches. In high flow areas, they will grow short, thick branches. If you got a thin, bleached Monti from a store that kept them in a HOB filtered tank with PCs lights. You would know that it needed more light to keep its color and it would need little flow because of the branch thickness. You wouldn't want to put it in a high flow spot and risk breaking the branches. Same thing goes for Ricordea, but it's just harder to tell and even explain those differences.