Colony vs. Frags

[neyugn0w01]

Here the situation. A local shop (I don't want to name names) has a wild collect coral that has potential, that I would like to buy. They are not interested in selling the whole colony that is about 3" in sizes, but would rather cut it into 1" sizes. My offer was equivalent to the sizes of the 3" coral, however the owner still rather chop it up. I understand stand that the store needs to make money to keep the lights on, but why are they chopping up the coral to make the same amount as if they would selling it as a whole. Anything have experience anything like this?

 

[northbay-reefer]

When they chop it up they can make more money. I see this all the time. If they sell the whole colony they can generaly sell it for about 80-200, but if they chop it up they can sell the frags for 40-100 per frag. Its just smart bussiness. Generaly in my own experience, Frags tend to do better anyway since it has the tendency to grow and adapt to your tank environment better depending on the direction of your flows and lightings ect.

Alot of time I wish the store would sell me a frag instead of having to pay full price on the whole colony so you can argue it either way

 

[neyugn0w01]

I understand what you are saying completely. That was why I offer for them to measure the colony and see how many frags they can make off it. I offer to pay for that number of frags, but buying it as a colony. You get what I am trying to say.

 

[nasotang]

I'm not sure if the store you're referring to does this but a lot of places like to grow out their corals and then sell frags. They keep the mother colony, grow it out, and frag and sell corals again.

I actually agree with this system, since they can captive grow their corals, rather than continually collecting from the wild.

 

[radiolunatic]

Maybe in that way a nice coral will not just go into 1 reefer hand but rather to several reefers and give the chance of that LFS to grow it themselves for future as said above.

 

[Unarce]

I can see the logic in that. Spread it out, instead of the possibility of the whole colony perishing in someone's tank.

You could also look at it as the 'chop shop' method, which I think a lot of people complain about. But it's a tough business, so it's understandable.

Personally, I like the reward of growing a frag into a colony myself

 

[rleechb]

I see the logic in it, but I really don't think that a LFS cares much about the survivability of one lineage of coral. Sounds like they're trying to make a few extra bucks, or they just don't like you

 

[neyugn0w01]

The funny thing is that they will sell me as many 1" frag as I want. They have no interested in growing out the frag and/or anything to do with wild collecting. Maybe they just do not like me since I only pick the nice looking corals and always offer to buy it.

 

[radiolunatic]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10229166#post10229166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rleechb
I see the logic in it, but I really don't think that a LFS cares much about the survivability of one lineage of coral. Sounds like they're trying to make a few extra bucks, or they just don't like you

Some LFS who want to make their own LE will care about the survivability of one lineage coral.