Gauging interest in large acro group buy

[cflow]

I'm thinking of buying some coral colonies from livestockusa so I can get some medium to large colony acroporas in my tank. Basically it cuts out the middle man and we can get baseball to softball size colonies for about $45 each. Check out www.livestockusa.org ... there's several packaged available from Fiji or Bali. They ship to LAX, then so another local airport (Sacramento ) for about an extra $60-$100 depending on how many boxes we buy. I'm interested in the Fiji medium or maybe XL package, but the Bali prop is tempting because you can choose species or color. I'm good for about $250-$300. Some packages come with about 20 corals so it's a good opportunity to fill a tank without paying more than a couple hundred bucks. Look at the species lists for each package. There are some pretty nice species on the lists. Let me know.

 

[Sleepy22]

Are they all wysiwig?

 

[FishGuy5]

Can fish be ordered too?

 

[cflow]

They are not wysiwyg. They are hand picked. Some are wild caught. One of the packages you can choose color and species so if you wanted say a red acro hyacinthus aka red planet, you could get a nice colony for about $45. I'm not sure if they have fish.

 

[cflow]

So it looks like they do have fish but that would be a completely different package. They're wild caught from various places.

 

[toky916]

Well we can order any corals ? Or just acros

 

[cflow]

Well we can order any corals ? Or just acros

Check out the website I listed above. They have just about any coral you can possibly find, but they have different packages. I'm interested in the acro corals but some of these packs can include montipora, stylos, birdsnest, ect.

 

[TOM BLEVINS]

group buy

group buy

Well just my 2 cents but if you ask the veterans in the SPS
world locally you have a 80% chance of maricultured corals surviving
you might just hit the vets up locally and be money ahead maybe not
3" colonies but maybe mini colonies for sure that are thriving in their tanks.


Tom

 

[cflow]

Well just my 2 cents but if you ask the veterans in the SPS
world locally you have a 80% chance of maricultured corals surviving
you might just hit the vets up locally and be money ahead maybe not
3" colonies but maybe mini colonies for sure that are thriving in their tanks.
Tom[/QUOTE

Are you saying the mini colonies have the highest survival rate? The Fiji packages come in nano, medium, and XL. The nano pack comes with 40 silver dollar sized colonies. The medium comes with about 10-15 baseball to softball size colonies, and the xl comes with 8 bit they're big colonies. These are all wild caught, not maricultured. I understand maricultured and wild corals are hit and miss but even if only 20% survive it still beats buying tiny frags for the same cost. Most LFS chop maricultured corals anyway and make a profit.

 

[toky916]

Well he's saying if you visit Tim you could get mini colony's and see what your getting and tim has stuff that's top notch.

 

[79chopperdr]

Well just my 2 cents but if you ask the veterans in the SPS
world locally you have a 80% chance of maricultured corals surviving
you might just hit the vets up locally and be money ahead maybe not
3" colonies but maybe mini colonies for sure that are thriving in their tanks.
Tom[/QUOTE

Are you saying the mini colonies have the highest survival rate? The Fiji packages come in nano, medium, and XL. The nano pack comes with 40 silver dollar sized colonies. The medium comes with about 10-15 baseball to softball size colonies, and the xl comes with 8 bit they're big colonies. These are all wild caught, not maricultured. I understand maricultured and wild corals are hit and miss but even if only 20% survive it still beats buying tiny frags for the same cost. Most LFS chop maricultured corals anyway and make a profit.

I believe Tom is saying that there is no guarantee that mariculture colonies will adapt to aquarium life. They can just die, completely change colors and turn into brown turds or turn into amazing gems. Buying pieces from the local gurus will at least guarantee your getting a coral well acclimated to the aquarium.

I used to gamble on wild pieces too, I believe the success rate is pretty low, 1 out of 20. Now I pony up and pay for proven pieces, it just up to me to keep it alive :eek1:

Good Luck

 

[FoothillCorals]

Many of those Acros on that site are wild and will have even less chance of adapting to aquarium life than the Maricultured ones. IMO you are better buying from a local hobbyist or a good online vendor that sell captive bred stuff like Battle Corals.

 

[cflow]

The problem I have with aquacultured corals is you pay by the inch. It is crazy to pay so much for a tiny little piece. Ya their color is less likely to brown out , but there's still potential for color changes regardless of their origin.

 

[powderhound]

Leave the wild colonies in the ocean and buy out of someone's tank. Might cost a few dollars more but your seeing what it will look like and saving the ocean.

 

[cflow]

Well, some others have PM'd me wanting to join. If people still want to do it, please let me know. I might just do the Bali pack that we can choose species and color. It's also cultured, not directly harvested from the ocean. Thank you everyone for their opinions. I've made several postings looking for specific corals and have not found most of them. I buy corals based on species, not crazy names. If I can't find enough people interested, I may just buy from live aquaria. They're a little more expensive, but often have Australian corals which are hands down awesome. I was actually specifically looking for an acro spathulata and was why I wanted some more corals in the first place.

 

[TOM BLEVINS]

Thanks Gang for chiming in and all on point!

All I can say at this point is good Luck and I always
listen to good word from fello reefers been there and done that
way to many times just trying to save you guys some bucks...


Regards
Tom