A Discussion of US and European Reefkeeping

[Bruce Burnett]

Great write up Mike. I do not buy the named corals, I usually buy frags in lots of 8-12 and they will have a range of price so 1 or 2 would be considered ultra premium and 3-4 would be premium grade and the rest is what they have the most of. I have a few corals doing this that I see on the internet where a 1" frag sells for $60-$100+ that cost me $10-15. I plan on letting my frags fill-in the display and not cut to make frags until I need to thin them out. I don't like Photo-shopping of internet pictures of corals for sale as they almost all show their coloring different in everybody's tanks. As to equipment I don't think you have to buy the most expensive but you should plan on getting great performing equipment that will suit your system 5 years down the line but sometimes the hype and user reviews do not live up actual performance, equipment fails, manufacturers go out of business or it gets so old no replacement parts. But like many people I am looking to change out my calcium reactor just because there are better than the Aqua-c Rx1 purchased almost 10 years ago. I have to take the time to save up the money but my system is 300 gallon so was looking at a Geo's Reef CR624 or CR818 or open to suggestions from people with actual use on systems this size or larger.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I started a new thread on calcium reactors as I don't want to highjack this great discussion.

 

[waxhawreefer]

Completely agree with Mike, I would always buy if I can afford products that are considered high end, but I can't, they cost too much money, then these Black Friday sales start and I wonder why can't these be everyday prices?? Then they have map pricing, what a joke, local LFS has the ability to sell these products lower than BRS, marine depot etc, even Red Sea tanks at 25% off which is great for those stores but really, that sale price should be everyday low prices, why all of a sudden has shipping got so cheap?? It always should have been cheap, finally these big suppliers are catching on, now if we could only get these coral dealers to start charging low shipping, example; to get corals from California to North Carolina Vivid aquariums charges $50, Unique Corals $19, I've orders from both, same packaging, same frags??? Why???

 

[KenJ]

Keep up the travel and writing Mike its always a pleasure reading your thoughts!

 

[Deaf clown]

Loved the article so much I actually read the whole thing. Ha

But on a serious note, I wish more sellers/"hobbyists" were more passionate rather than making a buck. I get it, for some of you it's a way of living; and I can appreciate you because I don't Have the cajones to do that, but selling anything less than a 1.5" frag for over $1,000 is ludicrous.

 

[Rausch]

Thank you Mike, great write up!! Love seeing the difference between approaches in our hobby! I see this a lot in the European Bonsai community as well compared the our American approach. They seem to focus more on long term goals and patience where we try to push the limits and push things as hard and fast as we can , then deal with the results after. Both definitely have their success and failures. Like you said , I think it's all derived from our local influence and ways we have seen things done

 

[JLynn]

I think the reason why there are more female reefers in Europe is simply because Europeans, as you observed, tend to treat their tanks more as part of their furniture - a hobby, yes, but also something to beautify their homes. That's approach is going to appeal a lot more to women, because we care about how our homes look. So the lack of care that many US reefers put into integrating their tanks into the decor of their homes is very off-putting to women. And what you noticed about how European reefers tend to be better at "harmonizing" their arrangement of corals in the tank also ties into that aspect of turning the reef tank into a piece of living art work. In America, I far too often see just a random arrangement of very colorful corals, with no regards to bigger picture of the aquascape, and the overall look ends up being too busy, with no real focal point, to the point where it even detracts from the beauty of those corals. Anyways, that's my 2 cents on why Europe has more female reefers than America.

 

[Cruz_Arias]

Awesome post, @Mike Paletta !
Photo credit Julian Hechavarria @ Elegant Corals, LLC

 

[Garia666]

You deffenitly must visit the Netherlands one day. There allot of great thanks in NL .

Awsome write up

 

[Dextereef]

Great article!

 

[mort]

From a European perspective and someone who has worked in the trade, in the uk, I would say that availability definitely differs. The Asian market is where fish seem to be offered first as it is where they sell for big money. The rare fish market is bigger in the US and although there are people ready to spend big here they are few and far between. As an example several high ticket species like bandit angels or captive bred clarions stayed at the wholesalers I visited for months because no shop had a real market for them. The same goes for really high end corals, hence why they are offered to other areas first.
The phenomenon of frags you need a microscope to see has some momentum over here, especially with zoas, but thankfully our industry doesn't seem to run off them. The over inflated prices is something we believe you are welcome to keep. It does mean that LE or named species aren't very easy to get hold off and are desired by many but I'd rather not see them than be ripped off. Interestingly some shops have really jumped on the ultra, master, a grade band wagon to increase prices and making up names is more common. We do see chop shops who import corals hack them up and sell them quick but luckily the majority of the best shops offer fully healed frags or maricultured colonies.

I would say we follow US trends for corals. We too have had the scolymia, acan, chalice and zoa phases but luckily things like bounce mushrooms don't seem very popular.

At the end of the day I think the biggest difference is time and patience. A few years will show good results and a grown out reef when you aren't starting with tiny frags. The availability of cultured rarer morph frags means collecting these gives a more sweet shop looking result and there simply aren't the people doing this in Europe. It is probably because first dips of the mother corals goes to different markets and if they did no one grows them out. So in terms of aquaculture I believe the US is further ahead in some ways.

 

[Moonfruit777]

As the 2nd German to comment here - I agree with the fact that the corals that are offered in Germany are mostly not named, but the US' trend to name corals and sell them for more starts slowly happen here too.
Especially with ZOANTHIDs you notice this behavior as it is very easy to identify them and they sell for many €€€ more!... :mad:

Personally I try to get some "named" corals for my tank as I try to do it more "american" I guess... More and more often i ask sales persons for the name of a coral and the just plain answer "Acropora sp." or "I don't know"... so most of the time you don't even know if it is some special kind of coral...
But in the end a coral is a coral and as long as it looks good i can enjoy it!

I notice the different approaches to the hobby mentioned in the article... and now where it got summed up i really agree! But on the other hand not everyone can afford the best gear and sleekest tank possible - I am a student for example and had to work a lot to afford what you can see in my tank thread - so i might just be an exception

Also trading corals frags - at least where I live - seems quite hard as people prefer to order online rather than buying them cheap from a private person. This happens literally with even the easiest corals - soft coral or birds nest - doesn't matter!

 

[nc208082]

Very neat article, I am curious though why you listed a single country vs a continent? Shouldn't it be North American vs European Reef keeping?

 

[honkit]

I am neither a European nor an American (I'm Asian) and from my perspective, European tanks, in particular the Italian tanks have better aquascaping and more careful placement of corals that provide colour contrast compared to American tanks.

Is that due to the artistic nature and legacy of the Italians? Who knows.

 

[LbulletM]

So cool to see the differences between countries!