New additions...

[RandyFolds]

I went to the wholesaler today to pick up a couple fish and ended up with way too much coral. They were selling all the broken bits of colonies for five dollars, as well as a ton of five dollar frags.

Jake got down on what is perhaps a branching porites that will hopefully color up, and a super purple acropora frag. I got an acan, a BTA, a couple acros, a couple montis, two hydnophoras, a caulastrea and a couple mysteries...merulina? pagoda cup? pavona? leptoseris? I added a few photos below.

The last pic is my new aquascaping on my 55g. It went through quite the crash/unstoppable algae bloom and is just getting back into shape. I mostly use it for storage so I figured the eggcrate build into the rockwork wouldn't be such a big deal.

Bill - that is the gorgonian I can cut for you. When I first stocked it, it grew a huge encrusting base, and then died back about an inch up the axis, and is now re-encrusting as you can see from the picture.

[psykokid]

lol, i just dug up the old wholesaler thread you started and posted it up. I got that little acro mounted and it turns out that it has a nice purpley base and blue polyps. The branching what may be a Porites cylindrica is pissed off due to the fact i mounted it on the LR with aquamend and my clown decided she didnt like it there and moved it before it had a chance to harden. I remounted it and the woof woof moved it again.  Its chilling in the sand bed till the lights go out then i'll mount it and the auqmend will have a chance to cure fully..

[OCtrackiepacsg1]

since when does coral cost 5 bucks? Have I been missing out on the savings train?

[RandyFolds]

The savings train is a slow one... the right place and the right time. I have an aquarium service so I shop at a lot of the local wholesalers. Every once in a while, there are crazy deals. All these corals, the anemone, a BTA, a 6" yellow tang and a sixline wrasse for $104.  I wish I wasn't so damned poor because I would be back there tomorrow. There was still quite a bit of cool stuff for cheap. Damn electric bills and rent...

Man, I hope that acro survives and flourishes. I want a piece! The other acro is pretty sharp as well, sort of a rust colored base with purple polyps and purple calycies. The mystery merulina/leptoseris thing is pretty popping under good light as well. I have been reading up on them a little more and apparently they are slow growers, and all sorts of finnicky. We will see. Baby that acro so we can give away nice frags...

[psykokid]

Flipped the halide back on and took some quick snaps:
Acro

Porites?

Mandarin sneaking in

[Bergy]

sorry i miessed out on the fun train... I was in the shower then never checked my messages till way late last night...

I would have gone but not been able to afford much

It is funny that they are seeling bits and pieces.. I guess i might have spoiled it, as it was about two years ago and they were throwin that stuff away and i asked if i could have a handful or two and they said no problems...

I guess they found a market for those bits and now are making money on stuff they used to throw away...

good for them, and i guess not too bad for you and others at $5 a piece

[RandyFolds]

It is funny that they are seeling bits and pieces.. I guess i might have spoiled it, as it was about two years ago and they were throwin that stuff away and i asked if i could have a handful or two and they said no problems...

I guess they found a market for those bits and now are making money on stuff they used to throw away...

I think it is mostly a volume thing. There were a lot of things they were clearing out, despite the fact that they have expanded their tanks by several thousand gallons since the last time I was there. I am sure you reach a certain volume of bits and bobs and then need to sell them or toss them.

They had 4"+ fungias with mediocre colors for $10, gonionpora the size of a women's basketball for $15, all sorts of ridiculous clearance specials.

[psykokid]

Picked a big frag of green slimer and a med sized frag of blue tipped stag from a guy in south pasadena tonite. Both are pretty browned out at the moment but the chap i got them from said the polyps of the slimer and the tip of the stag had already started to colour up in the 4 days they've been in his tank. The slimer frag is huge, im probably going to cut it down to a more manageable piece and put the rest on frag plugs and grow them out a bit. If anyone thats local wants a piece LMK..

[Just_Greg]

sweet stuff guys!  this is one thing i miss about not having a reef ATM...the frag swapping, altho i never really did a full-blown SPS setup.  Bill has always been SUPER generous in that dept.  we actually met thru a local nanoreef club BBQ, but even tho we no longer frequent that site, our friendship continues.

for those who may not know, there are indeed many LFS that have frag tanx, and you can pick up some sweet deals fairly cheaply, but as Lanny sez, it's often a "right place at the right time" kinda thing.

[Bergy]

actually there are many lfs that have frag tanks, IN THIS AREA...

(actually in OC, which is about 30-45min drive away)

but for many, lfs are few and far between and then they probably never heard of frags...


which is why many of our friends get the idea they can become resellers and sell corals to everyone for $100 for a fingernail clipping sized piece of sps

[Just_Greg]

shameful...both about the LFS as well as the peeps trying to make money off of a few frags.  i'd rather share things with peeps, which means there's a chance of replacing things if a tank goes south.

[psykokid]

Exactly. When i was over at lanny's the other day he was commenting on how he was amazed that i have set up my tank as it is while spending well less than a grand total. Id much rather trade frags than sell them. Of all the stuff in my tank i've only bought 5 pieces that are in there at present. The branching sun coral, my lone surviving acan, my elegance my big toadstool and the small green based millipora colony. Everything else i've got by trading or been given. Of the pieces that i have bought I have never paid more than 20 dollars for anything..

[Bergy]

this is a big issue...

seems lots of folks either capitulate and buy into the coral selling scene as a way to save money or offset thier expenses...

which i can kinda understand, but if EVERYONE would buy into the understanding that we are in it for our own enjoyment and that we had no clue about selling small peices when we got into the hobby in the first place

[Just_Greg]

oddly enuff, one of the places in the hobby i see peeps thinking they'll go into biz and make oodles of money are novice SH keepers thinking they'll breed them and go into biz.  i'm tight with the person i consider to be THE top SH breeder in the US, and i can tell you he still does a PT job to help make ends meet, and this guy is super successful at breeding SH.  it's always funny to see what happens when peeps try their first broods and find out how tuff it is and how much time and money it takes to get them to marketable size, but usually, they just kinda disappear...kinda like all the "know-it-all" nano-weenies (i'm not knocking everyone who keeps nanos, just the "type" we're discussing).

it always amazes me how little those guys really know about the nuts and bolts of the hobby, nor do they get the fact that keeping a plug-n-play or AIO setup for a few months and having everything die only to reset everything up and start fresh is NOT successful reefing...heck, 90% of them can't even plumb a simple tank.

i'm not trying to be snotty or elitist, but i'm sure you all know what i mean...

[RandyFolds]

I will give anyone a piece of anything from my tank. The more people out there growing it, the more likely it is that I can get it back if my tank crashes.

My current issue is that there are very few people out there with the same mindset. I want to get my hands on some of these frags that are selling for $200/booger so that I can grow them out and give them away for free. The problem is, the people who dropped the big bucks on them aren't giving them away, they have the mistaken notion that what they paid for it is the actual value, which is laughable. If I could afford the initial cost of them, I would buy them just to crash the market by giving them away.

Look at Green Slimer or one of these corals that was HOT 5 years ago. Now, everyone has a piece, and they will give it away because the market has dissolved. How sweet would it be if we could do the same with all these "jedi-mind-trick/lakers/sunset/dragon's ejaculate" fancy corals?