Designer corals....sigh

[Digitalelectric]

So this is my 125. If youre having a hard time seeing my corals its because the sea of frags is lost in pixelation. :/ What you CAN see if center stage, my massive halimeda forest, left is my purple stylo that grows quite fast under my radiums, and to the right my purple monti cap that eats my calcium like crazy. Seriously that thing grows fast.

Anyways as you can all see I have lots of space to fill. So I happily took a few hundred dollars to my LFS yesterday ready to bring home 10 or so frags....oh was I wrong. I figured Id grab some random acro frags, a milli, and mayble some tabling acro frags if possible. At first I saw about 5, 3 head millis and asked the guy how much they were. He informed me those are "LE" millis and are 100/inch. So 300 bucks??? I noticed then that those were the only millis he had. He pointed out to me that the frags were sectioned off by price. I about crapped myself when I realized the 20 and 30 dollar section only had generic greenish acros that were all less than an inch and hadnt even based out at all.

What the crap?? I remember when I started the hobby I could go in my LFS' stores (theres only 1 left now) and get 3 inch frags for 30 bucks. Now I have to pay 30 for a centimeter and hope it survives the xfer?

This wouldnt bug me as much if corals werent exponential growers...bigger grows faster. I have to stock my tank with little centimeter sticks? Thatll help justify the hobby to the misses.....

Anyways I got a Christmas Wrasse and a Mandarin dragonet. Saved the rest of the $$ for a nice dinner. :/

 

[Digitalelectric]

Tank

 

[franklypre]

Places like that are what puts places like that out of business. They feel they can "specialize" in high end coral. Check a few places on the net that are in FL, some offer free shipping or reduced shipping in the local area.

 

[Digitalelectric]

I'll definitely do that. I was frustrated because I just wanted "common man's" corals and all they had was either 200 frags of the same thing, or high end coral. Talk about scaring away new hobbyists! Luckily I had the experience to glare at him and say "yea no thanks."

 

[Red_Blenny]

You can always join a reef club in FL. You can meet other hobbyist they might hook you up with corals.

 

[Dog boy Dave]

Bring a couple hundred bucks to Tally and Scott at High Tide can set you up or come by and see me. I sell lotsa frags, small colonies , nice ones for 25 and up. Search my name for some for sale threads to see what i keep. I just posted some new images on another thread here as well. Also will do fresh cuts sometimes for pick ups.

On the topic of coral prices. If you don't like what your LFS has then don't buy it. I would expect that he is pricing his stuff as competitively as he can. Jacksonville is not an easy market. The fact that the places that used to sell cheap aren't there anymore might be a clue?

On a personal note, I also have the high end stuff and no, I don't give them away to strangers. If I an selling a large piece of a slow grower, for the most part I price them high to reflect my commitment and skill to grow and present quality corals to people who appreciate them. I can sell as much as I can grow of certain pieces. It takes me months, sometimes years to grow out a nice piece. When i sell a nice high end piece i price it high. I am not concerned with spreading them to the masses. If the masses want a nice coral, I sell reasonable frags, nicer and cheaper than what I paid to the masses. They can grow it out like i did. I find most people can kill a large coral just as fast as they can kill a frag. Pricing the nicer pieces high weeds out some of the people who are too casual to keep certain pieces.

All that being said, there are lots of very cheap fresh , 1 inch or larger frags on the forsale forums here all the time. I find the quality and the price to be related and both reflect the time and effort that the seller is putting into it. So, if you want a lot of cheap frags, they are available here. The time to grow them out is part of the process. Patience is one thing that this hobby rewards.

 

[sirreal63]

I refuse to pay the price demanded by most for "special" corals. Find a local reef club, most have frag swaps and many members are willing to sell frags for cheap. I almost exclusively buy frags from locals, and fresh cut whenever possible. Make some friends, it makes a difference. It is also good to have a close friend in the hobby to share frags with, that way if something happens to either one of your tanks, you can get back frags of the exact corals you had. This is a win/win for both of you.

 

[Digitalelectric]

Hmm very true. Anyone else on here from Jax? I need a friend lol :beer: