southafrica.frags.org - The Reef Keeping Frag Network for South Africans!

Browse by:

Set Criteria:

More Search Options...

About this Service

Photo Credit: Corals of the World (Veron, 2002)

southafrica.frags.org is the place to buy, sell, and trade propagated coral fragments for reef aquariums in South Africa. It is completely free and provided as a community service. The website was developed and is maintained by hobbyists in the reef keeping community.

Our mission is to foster an environment accessible by anyone around the world to buy, sell, and trade propagated coral fragments, while at the same time increasing the understanding that aquaculturing corals is important for preserving coral reefs.

southafrica.frags.org is brought to you through the joint efforts of frags.org and SA Reefkeeping, the leading discussion board for reef keeping in South Africa!

southafrica.frags.org is able to exist through exclusive sponsorship from Kent Marine. Kent Marine is a household name in the reef keeping industry for their quality reef supplements. We could not deliver southafrica.frags.org without their generous support.

Why Propagators Should Participate in southafrica.frags.org:

southafrica.frags.org offers a number of benefits to commercial and individual coral propagators. The three biggest benefits are:

Increased awareness and distribution for your frags; southafrica.frags.org acts as a new sales or trading distribution channel for you, in addition to your existing website or other Internet efforts. Did you know over 10,000 people visit southafrica.frags.org every month?
Easy ways to publish and maintain your frag inventory; Publishing and maintaining your frag inventory on the Internet is finally simple. With southafrica.frags.org, you can easily add and modify frag listings. If you choose, you can even link from your website to your southafrica.frags.org Member Profile and display your available frags to your own website's visitors. Since our publishing tools are web-based, you no longer have to use complex website authoring software to maintain webpages of your inventory.
We host your frag images for free; southafrica.frags.org provides storage for your images at no cost to you. Currently, our system enables one image per frag listing, however you are more than welcome to link to additional images or webpages in your frag listings.

southafrica.frags.org does not handle any transactions for you. Your email and/or phone information is provided to any Member interested in your frags. Members can also directly access your website from southafrica.frags.org.

southafrica.frags.org's success depends on advocates of coral propagation to add their frag inventories to the community. If you take a moment to browse southafrica.frags.org, you will see the site is powerful yet easy to use. You will find that it is easy for Members to search and locate their desired frags in various ways -- by coral type, Genus, Species, common name, color, location, and more. We hope to see your frags on southafrica.frags.org!

Why Hobbyists Should Participate in southafrica.frags.org:

Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, their only rival - the rain forest. As time has progressed the hand of man has not been too kind on the fate of either. Of the approximate 600,000 km2 of coral reefs worldwide, it is approximated that 10 percent have already been degraded beyond recovery and another 30 percent are likely to degenerate considerably within the next 20 years. In addition, unless functional integrated coastal zone management is employed, more than two-thirds of the world's coral reefs may become seriously exhausted of corals and associated biota within the next two generations.

Photo Credit: Corals of the World (Veron, 2002)

Coral reef ecosystems at highest risk are in South and Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean, however people have damaged or destroyed reefs in over 93 countries (IUCN, 1993). Anthropogenic stresses such as dynamiting, cyanide fishing, and tourism afflict even the most pristine of reefs. Outflow from city sewers overloads a system which has such tight nutrient dynamics that excess can spell disaster.

So, where do we as hobbyists fit in to this picture? We are right there, part of this whole scheme. We are sold creatures which are removed from their habitats for resale to us. But what can we do to stop this? A lot! In this day and age we are more than able to remove the wild caught specimen from wholesaler and local tanks and replace it with captively farmed animals raised specifically for the marine aquarist.

Success with the farmed coral is so improved that most intermediate hobbyists find themselves overwhelmed by enormous corals which need to be pruned. Aquacultured corals are hardier than wild caught specimens because they are already used to tank life. Whether you sell your fragments or give them away, captive reproduction is the only means of sustaining this hobby. On every level from the wholesaler and collector to the local fish store (LFS) owner, to the hobbyist, captive propagated corals must be demanded.

We have the power to stop our contribution to the destruction of the magnificent coral reefs. Anyone can do it and everyone must. There really is only one way to aid in the preservation of our coral reefs. Stop buying wild caught specimens, start farming your own. Help out a newbie, give them a frag. Tell your LFS that you won't buy from them unless they sell aquacultured corals, sell them your frags, and make them frag their overgrown corals to sell to you and others. The point is, do everything you can to keep the trading going. Save a reef... frag your corals!

Acknowledgements:

Some images on this site reproduced with permission from Corals of the World (Veron, 2002).