Why are Acanthastrea spp. So poppular now-Coral-3reef Forums

Jason McKenzie · 08-02-2005, 03:01 PM

Anyone know why they have become the hot new thing?

More importantly anyone shell out the cash for one?

Jason

fletch · 08-02-2005, 04:55 PM

I Just like the look of them.

I have a small Acanthastrea Lordhowensis 4 Polyps $50.00
Here is a Pic.

Jay · 08-02-2005, 05:32 PM

The price is dropping on them quite a bit. Birdlady also has one. I would like some...they are very colorful. The reason they are expensive is they are very rare coral, Only growing in limited areas.

Jay

Birdlady · 08-02-2005, 05:41 PM

Gresham could likely answer that question better, but I believe the extraordinary colors that some have, there is a heavy demand on them. Demand drives price

Prices for Acans are coming down, while prices now for micromussas are getting out of control

I paid $30 to a fellow reefer for a very healthy 2 polyps!!! LOL!

Gresham · 08-02-2005, 10:50 PM

Ah, just read the article Anthony Calfo wrote on fad corals

Acans aren't all that "limitted" in the wild, but CITES makes them such to us as they only allow 1K wild a. echinatas and 2,304 maricultured a. echinata. They've been a non item for as long as I can remember as we've only gotten the semi nice looking ones for years. The internet turned US reefers with time and money onto the Japanesse reef tank sites and BAM, the fad begun. The limitted amount that is allowed to be imported, and the lack of species on CITES allowed, has driven a black market on smuggled corals unlike anything this industry/hobby has ever seen. That coupled with EBAY, and you get some major $$$$ players wanting to out do the next.

The market is getting FLOODED with acans from the Soloman Islands and Tonga as both aren't CITES members and don't adhear to their quotas. They do abode by their own fisheries quotas though.

Another reason for their sudden increase on the market is, many are brough in VERY large and fragged into many colonies that the hobbyist frag down even further. They do grow pretty quickly, so I doubt they'll hold the high price much longer.

Yah, micros are getting the same attention, but they go the same route. Scolymia was the last fad, and will be so again shortly IMO. They tend to run in cycles, just like fashion. I hear clam diggers are gonna make a come back

Many corals come from a much more limmitted area, and have even less amounts being brough into the US, but they don't commend the price of either a micro or acan. Their price is purely fad driven, nothing more, nothing less.

Birdlady · 08-02-2005, 10:56 PM

Gresh, since you are here..

could you expand a bit? I know Japanese Acans are illegal..right? But obviously they are here. How can a buyer tell? Is an acan listed as a "non-indo lord" a japanese acan in reality?

I , for one, do not wish to participate in black market anythings...let alone animals. Thanks!

Gresham · 08-03-2005, 01:52 AM

Fortunalty, the smuggling of these items doesn't equate to any negative enviromental outcomes really. Once removed from the reef, all things are considerred dead to it, regardless of how the were shipped (with or with out papers) The corals were harvested for consumption in SE Asia, not Japan per say, that's just thrown around to aid in the Jap Acan craze (referred to in my post above). Since they were harvested prior to and not for the act of smuggling, I'm not inclined to feel negative towards it, not that I'd do it though. Really, only a few(double digits) large colonies make it thru that way, and are divided into many smaller colonies and yet divided again.

I'm not so sure that some legal Japanesse stuff hasn't it our soil. I know a large importer that had some Jap Acans, I'll have to inquire just how they were brought in.