Caribbean Live Rock

[RockingCricket]

Can anyone offer any comments on Caribbean Live Rock such as that found at the following link. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=20&pCatId=1669&topcatid=393
I have been lucky enough to swim in the seas of the Caribbean several times (Barbados and Grenada) and it has always been an nagging idea to have my tank as a small piece of the Caribbean, using only species that can be found in that region. Seeing as I haven't commited to any direction yet, this is still possible. Has anyone else created a purely Caribbean tank, or has any comments. (Caribbean LR is cheaper, lighter, and less is needed, which is nice although not my reason for asking).

Appreciated as always.

 

[wayne]

No experience with I'm afraid - all the rock I see comes from the Indo Pac.

All I've seen from the Caribean has ben aquacultured, which is covered with SOME life, but not always a huge variety (and often many mantis). Aquacultured rock is very dense, so you'd need about twice as much as is normal by weight.

This looks ok - the only thing you hae to beware is that very, very light might be a bit fragile, but I would call it a pretty good bet. I think a box of this will be a good deal.

FWIW Haiti is not , I believe a CITES signatory. Thus you can get Caribbean live rock from there.

 

[Yazoo1970]

I have some in my tank that i got from my lfs it is very dense and ended up costing me about half again as much for the amount of space it filled. However it is very nice it did not have much life to it when i got it but when i aranged my other live rock around and on top of it itreally came to life. That is by the way where my mantis shrimp i have being trying to get rid of came from. It looks to me to be a great deal it is much cheaper than what i payed but mine was fully cured when i brought it home. If your going to buy over the internet and have it shipped i would definatly set up a curing tank because live rock cycling in your tank will probably kill the fish that you have in your tank and will certainly stink up your house for a few days *twirlysmi

 

[aresgod]

I have some really nice Caribbean rock, it is aqua-cultured for 7 years, then they go in and harvest it, some really nice stuff but it was pricy, the life that came on it was different, lots of sponges, some nice algaes, clams ect...

 

[RockingCricket]

I'm not convinced that the rock you have Aresgod and Yazoo are they same as that which I am contemplating. The Caribbean LR at LiveAquaria is described as being "much lighter than any oher rock on the market", and so is surely not the same as the dense rock you have Yazoo. It is also described as being "reencrusted ancient coral lettuce heads" so I'm not sure if that confirms or denies that it is aquacultured. I assume it denies.
They don't claim to sort through the Caribbean LR like they do the Fiji Premium, so the apparent good buy could be a false economy if half of the 40lb box is rubble. I'll have to give them a call or something and see what they say.
If anyone has anything else to add regarding either Caribbean LR or a Caribbean tank, I'd be very keen to hear what you have to say.

 

[Henry22]

Well they are trying to sell it so I assume they will say its light

 

[Yazoo1970]

My caribbean rock is lighter than the fiji and less dense about 20lbs of carribean rock fills the same amount of space about 40 lbs of fiji live rock covers. The reason i payed more for my caribbean is because i bought it from a lfs store fully cured and could place it right in my tank i payed 6.99 a pound for it. However i bought my fiji rock over the internet uncured and got it for about 1.99 a pound that is why i payed more for my carribean. As i was saying it is very nice rock and will work well in your tank just make sure you cure it in your garage if you can because it will stink your house up something fierce my wife about strangled me for the odor it caused in our house.

 

[RockingCricket]

LOL *laughingc Thanks for the warning Yazoo!! Oh, and $2 per lb was an awesome price!

I just found eTropicals.com, a subsiduary of LiveAquaria.com dedicated to the Caribbean biotope. Nice!!

 

[Lotus]

Yes, the stuff on Drs. Foster Smith is from Haiti and is uncured.

By the way, at the very bottom of this page, there are always ads for sites selling live rock (below the eBay ads). I can't vouch for any of those sites, but you might find a good deal.

Our LFS has offered to get us a box of LR at a discount for buying a whole box, which you might want to try if your generally sells it by the pound.

 

[Yazoo1970]

Yes it was a bad couple of weeks i love the fiji rock and wish i would have bought more at the time because around here you can not find it in any lfs in more i am not sure why but they say they can't get it and i don't feel like going through the curing process again if you can even find fiji over the internet anymore i guess the supply is getting low or something but one other warning about caribbean watch for mantis shrimp while you are curing it and if you see any try to trap them before you transfer to your tank they are nasty little suckers and will kill your other fish. I got one from my caribbean and i have been trying to get him for a couple of months with no luck

 

[RockingCricket]

Thanks Lotus. I'm gonna ask my LFS's what they could get me the Caribbean for, but judging by the prices they have quoted to me for Fiji, I don't expect them to undercut LiveAquaria. I searched around the net last night and found about a dozen or so sites that offer the Caribbean LR. LiveAquaria does offer the best price but it is dependant on how much rubble is included. If the rock isn't very dense, it suggests to me that it might be brittle and break easily and therefor there may be a lot of rubble. I'll report back what LiveAquaria say when I call them.

Yazoo: Do you have any pictures of your tank with the Caribbean in it?

 

[Yazoo1970]

I will take ome this evening for you and post them

 

[RockingCricket]

Thanks kindly Yazoo. You're a diamond!! *thumbsups

 

[RockingCricket]

Haiti is not , I believe a CITES signatory. Thus you can get Caribbean live rock from there.

Wayne, I thought you might be interested in this.

Haiti is a non-CITES signatory, and therefor they can legally export. However the US. requires that all imported live rock carry a CITES certificate and as such, Haiti should logistically not be able to export any live rock to the US. .

nb. this is all new to me, but I thought I'd take the oppertunity to sound knowledgable.

You can find more at:
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/reefslides/index.php

 

[Mushroomman]

I just recently bought 6 pounds of caribean LR from the lfs. The stuff I got was more rubble but I stacked it up nice. Being rubble I got it for cheap (2.98/lb) so I figured why not pick some up, and have more live rock at the cheaper price.

Oh and yeah it does contain some life but its not incredibly diverse, hoping the other rock will spread onto it.

 

[dbacksrat]

if you want some good rock from the carribean area, you can't go wrong with TBS--it's expensive, diverse with corals/worms/crabs/etc (including mantis shrimp)

 

[RockingCricket]

I just found a site that sells any amount of CURED caribbean live rock for $3.15 per lb. The only penalty for buying less that 25 lb is the additional cost of $5 for the box. AND they let you specify the sizes and shapes of the pieces you want, AND there is no shipping fee.
It seems a little too good to be true, so I am planning on buying just 5 lbs for $20.75 so that I can examine the rock before I commit to a larger amount. It isn't aquacultured either. It is imported from Haiti.
Here's the site.....
http://www.intmarinefish.com/caribbean_premium_table_live_roc.htm

Can anyone explain what table rock is, and how it differs from any other rock?

 

[1979camaro]

table rock is generally a slab (shaped like a tabletop) of rock. you can't really mail order cured rock per se; even if the stuff is cured when it leaves, when it gets to your place a couple days later there will have been die off

 

[tammielynz9881]

correct me if im wrong, but when they ship the rock its outta water so it basically goes back to "uncured" in a sense. So even tho it is cured there, you will have to Re-cure it.

 

[1979camaro]

tammi: most of the time that is exactly correct; some places do ship in water but it is very $$