BTA Propagation Tank

[Eric Boerner]

My motivation has been increasing with the rising prices for some of our BTA morphs here in Australia. Rose Bubble Tips retail around $350 on the low end - $550 for decent size ones. I've only seen anything equivalent to the Sunfire BTA over there in America a couple of times, which got bought with a private bid of ~$1000 I think. Crazy.

Holy crapatolly... Those are 1990 prices for RBTA's here in the states. How about starting an import business instead of propagating? I was having a hard time selling my clones for $25, and they were some of the most beautiful RBTA's available on the west coast (I am biased, but still).

 

[Eric Boerner]

The best thing I would think to do is have one big tank.

That is how I was cloning when I was in full swing. I was up to 38 brood mothers in a 120. I force fed propagation twice daily to get monthly "healthy" splits. I was cut cloning for awhile before that, but did not get the same turn around as feed cloning.

However, that said, I basically saturated the local market because I was so efficient, I didn't have anyone else to sell them to. I'd sure be willing to transship them to Australia for $200 a pop though.

 

[Ad Meliora]

Holy crapatolly... Those are 1990 prices for RBTA's here in the states. How about starting an import business instead of propagating? I was having a hard time selling my clones for $25, and they were some of the most beautiful RBTA's available on the west coast (I am biased, but still).

I wish but as I said before, you can't import. Would have to be a smuggling business I wonder if I had 10 posted, what the chance of one coming through would be

What's the reasoning behind one big tank? Purely just cost efficiency?

 

[raythepilot]

<<I wish but as I said before, you can't import. Would have to be a smuggling business >>

I was looking at the distribution of E. quadricolor and I think they are native to western Australia. You should check that out.
I don't think you can smuggle something into a country that is already there?

 

[Eric Boerner]

What's the reasoning behind one big tank? Purely just cost efficiency?

Both cost and stress relief for the new splits. Forced splits take around 2-3 months to recover for both clones. They typically wander the tank for awhile. With a larger space and ample rockwork, they'll settle and recover a lot faster. I was able to turn around a new 'very' healthy clone in less than a month from a forced split. They survive transportation a lot better that way.

 

[gouws_riaan]

any need feedback on this ?