Captive Aquatics: An Aquarium and Ecology Blog

The Garden Reef: A Detrimental Trend?

Coral in shallow water, Belize barrier reef.  Notice the lack of species variety; all coral present is scleractinian in origin and requires intense lighting.  An aquarium simulating these conditions would be a poor environment for 'LPS' or 'soft' corals.  Mike Maddox

A current trend in the hobby as of late seems to be the 'conglomerate' or 'garden' reef aquarium, with many coral speces being crammed (for lack of a better word) into a reef aquarium with little to no consideration for the individual coral species' requirements.  This tendency towards an "all-in-one" approach detracts from the health of the animals within, beacuse the aquarium conditions cannot possibly replicate the ideal habitat for such a variety of animals.

Opinion: artificial price inflation

S. haddoni  ©  Mike Maddox

I'd like to write a short piece about "fad corals", and the price inflation it causes in the reefkeeping hobby.

In recent years, (mostly due to the popularity explosion of reefkeeping, and subsequently the large numbers of online coral vendors) various coral species have become the "in" coral and the prices of these corals have skyrocketed.  Law of supply and demand you say?  Higher prices benefit the reef, conservation efforts, and the poverty-stricken collectors, you say?  Nay.  Prices are driven up artificially by a combination of the consumer's "must have" attitude towards that species and vendors purposefully restricting the amount of corals they sell in a given amount of time. 

If you've been reefkeeping for five years or so, I'm sure you remember the "acan craze" (and if you don't, read on).