Why Buy Tank Raised Frags?

When you go to your local fish store (LFS), or purchase from a web site that has full colonies of live corals for sale, typically the corals they carry are all wild corals imported from the ocean reefs.  These corals travel half way around the globe to get to your LFS, go through numerous holding tanks with different water parameters, get handled over and over, sometimes very harshly, and are very stressed out from the long trip in a box.  You then walk into your LFS and purchase a coral, not knowing that it is stressed to the max. and sometimes on the verge of death.  No LFS wants you to know that their coral is not very healthy, because they want you to purchase it quickly so they don't have it die when they still have it in their tanks.  These are the true and hard facts, that not many will tell you about or even want you to know!

The two main problems are the long trip through several different tanks before it gets to your LFS or that colony selling web site, and the attempted acclimation process that the new coral has to go through before it's stress is relieved and it starts to thrive in your reef tank aquarium.  I say attempted, because many think that once they drip acclimate the coral and place it in their tank after purchasing it from the LFS, that the acclimation process is complete.  Just the opposite!  This is where the acclimation process starts!  That stressed out live coral is just beginning the process of trying to adapt to you giving it artificial lighting instead of the sun, and synthetic saltwater instead of water from the ocean.  This represts one of the biggest obstacles in your new corals attempt to cope with the multitude of large and small differences between your reef tank and life in the ocean under rays of the sun.  

Enter, the tank raised alternative...  With this "green" option, corals are grown out in a large reef tank.  Then, frags (fragments or starts) are taken from the coral that has lived in a reef tank it's entire life, and offered for sale.  Because the coral has only known artificial lighting and synthetic saltwater, it just goes from one reef tank to another.  Virtually no acclimation process at all!  Many reef tank owners, don't acclimate their new frag at all, simply placing it directly into their reef tank.  That's because most reef tanks have very similar water and lighting parameters, so there is almost no acclimation for the new live coral frag.  So, you get a coral that almost immediately adapts to the new tank, no ocean involved, so easy acclimation equals a live coral that starts to thrive virtually immediately!  Very few die.  Hence lies a great advantage for the reef tank owner!  Not to mention, that most live coral farmers grow corals that are exceptional in color or rare and exotic.  Why would they farm a coral that is common and abundantly available?  Most don't!  Farmers tend to choose extremely colorful or rarely seen colors of coral varieties that are often not as commonly seen.  That way they can say they have a coral that is uniquely there's, sometimes naming it after the name of their live coral farm.

So, next time you go to your LFS, or visit a web site, why not choose to look specifically for tank raised corals?  Not only will you be helping the ocean reefs slowly recover from the devastation that we've all heard about, but you will be getting a coral that is healthier & heartier, with typically better color and something you may not have seen as often.  Sure, the tank raised frag will not be as large, but which would you rather have in your reef tank?  A common coral of mediocre color, or an exotic coral with exceptional color?  I've heard many say that this is one of the joys they experience in reef keeping...watching a very special coral grow out in their reef and become a prized part of their reef tank that they have many visitors gasp oooh's and ahhh's when they first see it!

Happy tank raised coral reef keeping!