Why Wild?

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Oceanic

Aquaculture whether by the basement enthusiast or business is the future of this hobby, plain and simple.

Well said!

[howdy20012002]

i personally would love to see aquaculture in every aspect of this hobby.
however, until that day, where do you think it is going to come from if not the ocean??
there is certainly not enough aquacultured stuff out there to sustain this industry as of yet.
consumer's individual choice and requests for aquacultured stuff and the willingness to pay extra for said stuff will dictate how quickly the aquacultured aspects of this hobby develop.
I would like to say none of us can preach on the holier than thou aspect....the nature of this business really doesn't give us the soap box to do that.
I personally am spending large sums of money currently to set up a few different systems for coral propagation, fish breeding etc...
however, realistically in Canada..the few setups that I am striving to create would be part of a very small small group of hobbyists who are trying to do this. I am not aware of companies who are breeding on any sizeable scale in Canada. Until this happens...the ocean is where we turn.
and consumer beware, aquacultured will cost more money as it is extremely labour intensive
my 2 cents
Neal

[trilinearmipmap]

I think it depends on the coral and the location it is taken from, just like fish.

There are some species and habitats which would be very vulnerable to collection. Other species and locales would withstand some harvesting.

Kind of like our B.C. forests. For me to make a judgement on some guy in Indonesia collecting corals to support his family, is like some European who thinks all of B.C. is raping their forests.

I go with frags from other hobbyists rather than wild collected corals because I am a casual hobbyist and I figure there is less chance of introducing unwanted pests.