1/2" frags? Cmon.....

[GARFVolunteer]

The majority of corals in my tank were 1" or smaller frags when I got them... I seldom get frags over1-1/2" even when I trade. I really don't worry about it because they usually grow fast and need to be trimmed within a year or so.

Thanks,

Scott

 

[rigleautomotive]

IMO>>>i think evervthing is getting smaller and more expensive.that said i would have to say half inch is too small unless you are the farmer and you wait some time to the frag to attach and grow.i start half inch frags for a pet store and grow them out for a year or so then the survival rate is in your favor.some frags i bought from GARF 10 years ago are the biggest and fastest growers i have.i bought a couple of colonies from dr mac that are being outgrown by frags i started after the purchase of the colony.some sps corals grow and aclimate quickly and others do not.i have a pile of brown with green tip acro,very fast grower,that i am culling from a old reef.if it is not to time consuming for me i would part with some.

 

[cwegescheide]

Frags frags frags... Thats all I have.. I don't really have a problem with them I guess but I sure wish they would grow faster. I've ordered them from numerous places and my advice is to find a place that has healthy corals. Normally they are not the cheapest but I think you get what you pay for. some grow quicker than others and i still think the fast growers are not growing fast enough. I love seeing a reef with large mature corals. It will probably take another year or two before my tank is close to grown in. I guess thats half the fun but when friends come over and look at the tank I wish I had something to really show them.

With all that said I think I'd still prefer frags over colonies. For some reason my luck with wild caught colonies is not good. Frags seem to adapt much better. Plus I also feel better about not being a part of the pillaging of the worlds reefs.

 

[Philwd]

I like cultured frags better than wild. I have a 50% survival rate on wilds but 90% on captive frags no matter the size. I have one particular sarmentosa that I got locally was 1/4" and is now a 3"x3" colony. I love that piece.

I have paid the $$ to get frags mail order from other reefers mostly because here in Phoenix few people had more exotic corals. By being picky I have been able to find good sized frags at resonable prices. I give kudos to fishdoc here because he exemplifies this ideal. The scene here is getting better so now the best course is frag trades.

I agree on the online sites the prices seem to be going up and the size down. That's what high demand does. I know I will not be frequenting those sites any longer and only get frags from fellow reefers.

 

[Eric Boerner]

If money isn't an issue, you can always contact the seller and ask for a 2" frag of that purple monster and tell them you'll pay 4 times the price ($400).

You have to expect to get small frags of LE coral morphs, unless you want to pay out the nose for that frag. The seller is going to maximize their ability to sell that piece.

I've seen PM broodstock "colonies" that never got larger than 2" because the guy was constantly trying to sell it as soon as it got a new nub on it. Thats just how it goes with the LE stuff.

Now regular, run of the mill frags.... I've seen people begging to get rid of their prunings. 5" blue tip Stags for $10. Full 200 polyp colonies of tan zoanthids for $20. Its all relative to rarity....

 

[jmcmahon66]

Eric Boerner-I completely agree, I was looking for a large purple monster and was willing to pay the price. I wish it was that easy. I couldn't find a seller. I eventually picked up the biggest frag I could find,a 3/4" frag that came to me DOA. I do not have a big tank at 150g, but a 1/2" frag gets lost in my tank very easily. I always pay more for bigger frags if possible.

 

[poknsnok]

I agree. there is noone willing to part with larger hard to find colonies like that.. they make more money just selling the frags

 

[murphreef]

here u go im guna show u some of the frags i picked up from a local reefer here on RC in my area....

heres what i got....

first pic....

lower left corner is a green slimer frag about 2" then splits into a Y and each of those tips is another 2" long... price $10

middle is a sour apple green milli frag about 2" tall with multiple branches

then u can see in the upper right a blue sps frag.... he said it was a shawn bennet cali tort its a super deep dark blue.... $30 and its about 2"

then in the back u see an orangish pinkish monti that was one of the free frags he gave me

next pic is of the frag of a neon green birdsnest he gave me for $10

next is a purple/pink pocci mini colony for $20

then an orange cap this piece and another piece $10

there was a few more things but i didnt have a good pic of them right now

so u can see u can get some nice stuff from fellow reefers try that route i put a looking for frags in the local thread and he replied...

thanks again terry

 

[imtopora]

I always get frags either from local reefers or a lfs(helps when you know the head of SW). I got a frag of a red polyp cap that cost me $15 for a 1in by 1in frag off of a $160 peice. It helps to be in a reef club because I met a couple that owns about 75% of tyree's stuff and makes orders from every big name on the web and they are willing to frag. :strooper:

 

[Nataku]

Reefermadness has frag packs 30 frags for $270 including shipping. That's $9 per frag delivered to your door. Now tell me why a 1/2 inch frag is worth $80 again.

I picked up one of these packs. They pack 4 extra frags. Most were at least 2 inches long and multi-branch. Unfortunately i lost 11 of the 34 with in the 7 days( got credit for the next order ). I believe they were are all wild colonies. The surviving 23 are doing well. About 2 months now all start pretty brown now purple, red, blues, greens.

 

[johnnstacy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7962710#post7962710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Nataku
I picked up one of these packs. They pack 4 extra frags. Most were at least 2 inches long and multi-branch. Unfortunately i lost 11 of the 34 with in the 7 days( got credit for the next order ). I believe they were are all wild colonies. The surviving 23 are doing well. About 2 months now all start pretty brown now purple, red, blues, greens.

I just bought this pack tonight. I have ordered from Reefermadness a couple of times. Once for rock which was awesome. The second time was for corals but the main one I placed the order for, turned brown. I mentioned that to them when I placed this order and am hoping that they might throw in something nice to make up for the brown one that I still have to this day....

 

[Mchava]

Just as and FYI most of the online frag packs are from wild colonies that the online retailers have fraged from large colonies. I was shocked once when I walked into one of the wholesalers here in CA and they took a 6" red milling and frag the whole thing up before it had the chance to even acclimate from shipping. So I would also go with local reefers. Most will be verry giving when it come to corals that have grown to fast. I think the most I paid for a coral was $120 and it was for a med size colonie of A. Tort about 5" tall and 3-4 3" branches.

 

[clkwrk]

and you complain about one brown one for the price :lol:

 

[Eric Boerner]

Justin, I don't want to sound like Im degrading your corals that you picked up for cheap, but in truth those are some of the most common SPS's out there. A dime a dozen so to speak. Aside from teh Cali Tort, which doesn't look like a bennet tor unfortunately, most of those frags would be given away pratically free at a large frag swap. Common SPS's you should be trying to hound locally. Most of the people who are trading/selling 1/2" frags are dealing in extremly rare, hard to find/slow growing LE frags. If anyone is pawning off common red montiporas at 1/2" frags for more than a $1, then yea stay the heck away.

 

[MCary]

Rare, com'on, we're not talking about a Picasso here. The creator is not dead. We're talking about living growing corals. Unless you have some special inside knowledge of the place they were collected from, you have no idea if they are rare or not. Most likely its a marketing scheme. And those that have a nice colony certainly don't want to let the cat out of the bag, because they want to sell some $80 frags themselves. Keep in mind, anything that can be grown and sold for big profits, will eventually become common. If you have a $1000 Acan, guess what, its now worth $200.

Now there are some legitamate collectors. They know what they want, they know what they are getting, and they know what they will have to pay. Its still about as stupid as paying a huge price for a limited edition beenie baby, but hey, we all get to have our little quirks. At least these people are educated. A quick scan of alot of the coral sites will show you that they want to market to the average hobbiest. They sell common corals for uncommon prices. Since some are sponsors of this site and like everyone have the right to make a living, I won't out them. Buyer beware, not my responsibility. But they are selling common corals for $80-100 for 1 to 1 1/2 frags and hyping them like they're something special.

Mike

 

[Eric Boerner]

MCary, though you are correct in a lot of respects, you have to admit that there are certain coral morphs that you simply don't see very often. When these morphs are consistant in color and growth patterns regarless of who's tank they go in, that is a truely rare coral.

Now I agree that the 'superman' monti for instance is all hyped up BS. This is a coral morph that can easily be found on most sellers websites daily @ $100 per 1" square. It is also being pulled from the sea on a constant regular basis right now. At some point, the suckers of the world are going to get the hint and stop paying that price for it.

But you can't say the same for something like a Purple Monster or a Tyree Ponape Seriatopora. Those have not been seen since they first came out of the sea and probably never will. They also grow slow as heck and will be fairly rare to acquire. The frenzy over the PM is the only thing that has made it any less rare than it was 6 years ago, because its in 1000 tanks now. Whereas the Ponape Seriatopora is not and probably wont be for several more years, since it isn't a frenzy coral.

There are Mona Lisa's in the coral world, you just have to have a distinctive taste for fine art to see them that way.

Here is the Tyree Ponape Seriatopora

 

[MCary]

MCary, though you are correct in a lot of respects, you have to admit that there are certain coral morphs that you simply don't see very often. When these morphs are consistant in color and growth patterns regarless of who's tank they go in, that is a truely rare coral.

I agree that there are some oddities and rarities. I accept that there are folks who enjoy collecting rarities and oddities, whether corals, coins, stamps, antiques whatever. I would think that if it is truely rare, then the best place to find one is from another collector or a specialty dealer. You are not going to find a flawless diamond at the Wal Mart jewlry section. I question when an average retailer offers something unique and rare.

Mike

 

[toccata]

I think this is a good general topic for those looking to populate a tank with some nice corals but don't have a lot of experience finding or them. I fit into that mix as I am just getting into more interesting SPS/LPS corals and just refuse to pay 100.00 for a frag. Now some of the corals that murphreef posted are nice, common or not I think if it appeals to you then that is all that counts. Labels are nothing but labels. But, I think the true topic is kind of getting lost here. What are good sources for finding corals? For example some of the corals that murphreef listed I have seen at my LFS where this guy wants 80.00 for a 2-3 inch piece of coral. Just plain nuts.

There has to be a better way. I have not reached a level of frustration yet, but I find myself being very cautious. Now I have seen some really great tanks on this site that say the tank has been up for a year or less? Where all the corals in the tank are very mature and large in size. I find it difficult to believe with my limited experience that tanks such as these have grown into these tanks in year or less from frags.

Colors of corals is another matter because even though I have bought a few SPS corals from the before mentioned LFS, most of his SPS corals are brown, anything with any color to it, forget the price because I think he is out of his mind.

So I hope to learn enough here to find some decent sized corals of different colors for reasonable prices. Again, the LFS don't seem to be a real good source. This would be a valued discussion.

Thanks..

 

[murphreef]

Eric...

i wasnt looking for expensive frags my friend.... just ur run of the mill long lasting pieces.... these were meant to fill in the tank some what... i understand the whole so called LE thing and if there was something rare i really wanted then i would buy it for $80 ....

however i was on the search for a few common low maintenace specimens....

to me $10 a frag is not a big deal i unerstand that fellow reefers have to charge something for the coral and im fine with $10 for gernerous sized frags

 

[AcanLord]

Toccata
If you are looking for common, nice size corals, look into buying Bali colonies from LFS. These you can have for $40-60. Most of them will color up if you have good husbandry. However, if you are looking for rare items. $80 and up per small frag is the rule. Some the these once grown out will will amaze you. You may never going to buy that common green slimer again.