Does WAMAS practice conservation?

[zygote2k]

Isn't it nearly a fact that Goniopora always dies in captivity? In over 20 years of collecting this coral, there have only been a handful of people worlwide that have been able to keep it alive in a captive aquarium. It's one of the most over harvested corals in the trade. It's easy to collect in lagoon type areas where it lives.

It has a 99.9% failure rate, yet pet stores keep buying and selling it. Maybe it's just marketing- it's a loss leader. It'll eventually die and you'll come back to the store to buy remedies and so on...

With all the talk about the looming species ban because of reasons like this and other reasons too, it's time to take local action.

I think it would be fair to impose a ban on the sale of Goniopora.

 

I know- you've heard me rant about this before, but the nearly zero chance of survival in captivity should be enough reason to support this idea.

What do you think?

[flowerseller]

If you notice, we never have it at the frag fest extravaganza.

[lanman]

Is your 99.9% number based on recent research? Based on only anecdotal evidence, it seems to me that more recently people have been having fair success. I avoided this coral for a long time, but finally picked up one about a year ago, and so far it is doing quite well. It is very slowly encrusting over the edges of the cut frag, so for the time being at least, it is growing, rather than dying. Of course, maybe I'm that 1 in 1000 that will be lucky. I don't consider a year to be 'long-term', but I know people that have killed corals in a lot less time.

 

bob

[F&Fmgr]

"In over 20 years of collecting this coral, there have only been a handful of people worlwide that have been able to keep it alive in a captive aquarium."

 

I know of several people that have kept/are keeping them for years now in their closed aquariums. I think a handful of people in the world is an overstatement.

 

"It's one of the most over harvested corals in the trade"

Consider the harvesting of zoanthids and acroporas. When I first started our shop, I always saw the Green Plowerpot Gonioporas for sale on distributors, tranship lists, but I never ordered them b/c i had remembered a talk with Dr. Mac about their poor success rate. Eventually i started to see those dissappear from stocklists probably from a lack of ordering an the storefronts part. which is a good thing. I rarely see the red gonioporas available, and when I do i order them. I have never had a problem with one unless it was shipped poorly. Ive had some get stung by a falling zoanthid and survive, and b/c i wouldn't sell it it sat in the tank for a while only to regrew portions of the lost tissue and polyps.

 

The first thing I tell someone is that they a "naturally plankton rich environment". What do you mean? some ask. I politely say " if you have to ask that question than this isn't the coral for you". This coral really does need nutrient rich water with alot of copepods, amphipods and mysid shrimp larvae available as natural food. Without it they only last so long.

 

I wouldn't however be in opposition of a ban of this genus, because they are so hard to keep. I just know that there are people who can care for them and those are the people I want to sell them to.

 

I also see where youre coming from because they have not been successfully propagated in the trade.

 

Sean

[Coral Hind]

Rob, I think this is a very good topic. There seems to be a lot of new members lately and this information needs to be out there. I think education and responsible retail are more vital then some kind of a ban. If all LFS operators would be responsible and inform customers as Sean mentioned above, the corals would have a much better chance of survival. The only reason I do not want a ban is that once it is banned it might never be able to be unbanned, even if reefers find that magic combination to make it thrive. Just think if they would have banned BTAs back in the 80's when rarely anyone could keep them alive.

 

I don't think this is a "loss leader" item as I rarely see it offered below wholesale price.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Coral Hind

[ctenophore]

I think this coral will magically become "easy" as the advent of azoox/non-photosynthetic systems and methodologies takes hold in the coming years. Look at the number of successful azoox tanks starting to appear on the various reef forums. We are finally figuring out that corals need to eat something other than light, and once provided with enough food and water quality maintained, they thrive without much effort.

[paul b]

Isn't it nearly a fact that Goniopora always dies in captivity?

 

It's also a fact that every animal we remove from the sea dies in captivity.

[lanman]

It's also a fact that every animal we remove from the sea dies in captivity.

 

And those that we don't remove from the sea eventually die outside of captivity.

 

bob

[SkiCurtis]

I have tried to keep this coral years ago and with-in the last 3 years my knowledge and my systems have improved substantially. so over the last year I bought one frag from DR.Mac,one from,Mr.coarl and even rozzens. to date I have fragged about half and sold some and now I have about 25% less.and some have died. I'm a heavy feeder and like I said I thought I would be able to do better with it. but like 2 to 3 weeks ago I said to myself wow it's almost like the old days. so this is a good post. even the Justin the rocker..robot frag guy that was at my first Wamas frag meet years ago has done well and continues,but he might be one of the guys that are in the 1% group.just my experience to share.

 

 

Curtis

[GaryL]

It's also a fact that every animal we remove from the sea dies in captivity.

 

 

And those that we don't remove from the sea eventually die outside of captivity.

 

bob

eventually everything dies....eventually.since nature has balance it will out maneuver no matter what we throw at it. but its up to us to educated each other so we have the know how to have the proper husbandry for any "advanced care" animal, and to voice it to the vendors only to sell to an advanced aquarist who has the ability.

for whatever reason i was reminded of an "extinct woodpecker". i think we as humans think we can have control over everything...when nature itself is the one in control.

[gmubeach]

What is the real issue here? I don't think wamas should ban any coral... but the seller should be responsible to make sure his or her corals go to a good tank... if simply put you'll sell to anyone then your going to get a tang in a 10gallon... anyway I hope people will release that corals are alive too... anyway I was told not to get a mandrin in my 24 and he lived for 3 years... anyway hope it helps Troy

[Sharkey18]

What about a pinned list of really hard to keep corals?

 

Laura

[treesprite]

What about a pinned list of really hard to keep corals?

 

Laura

There is a post of hard to keep fish somewhere - maybe we need an easily visible list of difficult livestock with a note after each item explaining why it is difficult and what it needs to stay alive.

[GaryL]

here is a starter list that i found.

 

hard to keep corals

[Brian Ward]

WAMAS absolutely promotes conservation. If you look at the things this community does, it reflects the conservation ideals. While we cannot ban members that keep corals certain people may consider to be irresponsible, we can and do educate people about corals that are difficult to keep.

 

Groups like and including this one educated people and slowed the trade of goniopora - until more recently when keeping goniopora has become more possible. But we deter all but the most experienced aquarist from attempting it. We actively promote aquaculture by trading frags within the club. We inform our members of the plight of our reefs and the need for aquaculture - as well as the durability of aquacultured corals as opposed to wild-caught corals. We help educate hobbyists how to keep corals and what corals are appropriate for what tanks - based on tank maturity, tank size, and experience level of the aquarist. We help people understand what fish are appropriate for their tanks - keeping many fish from being purchased and placed into tanks that are entirely too small.

 

Reef clubs around the country contribute to the conservation of reefs every day - it's the people not in reef clubs that don't educate themselves that we need to continue to reach out to in order to continue promoting conservation.