Whats the difference b/t maricultured and aquacultured???????

[slukach]

I was on the Live Aquaria Diver's Den and they have sections of corals that are maricultured and aquacultured. I was just wondering what the difference was.

Thanks,

Steve

[Scythanith]

From my understanding maricultured corals are essentially frags from a mother colony grown in the sea usually in frag cages designed to allow water a light to penetrate and nourish the corals. Let mother nature do all the work without actually harvesting the frags (aside from the mother colony) from the ocean itself.

Aquaculturing is to grow the frags out in a full artifical system (i.e. greenhouse frag operations, our own reef tanks, etc.)

They are both better on the environment than collecting directly off the reefs and both posses their own pro's and con's for buyers and sellers alike.

Mariculture: pro's- quick grow out times, not paying for power for pumps lights, heaters, chillers, etc. Get to live somewhere tropical!
con's- essentially a wild raised coral, can have all associated bugs and nasties. Most go and cultivate corals somewhere offshore.

Aquaculture: pro's- tank raised, should readily adjust to tank conditions, no nasty bugs from the wild (just from someone else's tanks haahaa), easy to do in your own home/backyard. con's- usually slower growth than in the wild, you have to pay for the power to grow that frag.

There are many, many more pros and cons to each. Someone please correct me if I am wrong!

All in all they are the future methods of reefing.

Cheers,

Scott

[sherm71tank]

My experience with maricultured agrees with "all associated bugs and nasties". You can get quite large frag/colonies but you had better be ready for close inspection and treatment.

[slukach]

Thanks guys.