LPS Lovers Help Please...

[pinkdrink06]

My LFS is running a silent auction for one head of this "party stripper blastomussa wellsi." I'm fairly new to the hobby and if I win the auction this will be my first big girl coral. My question is... What would you all pay for a single head of this blasto?

 

[Dkuhlmann]

It's a nice one that's for sure. If you want it bid what you can afford. I'm guessing it will take $40 or so to get it. Just depends on how bad someone wants it.

 

[sde1500]

That thing is pretty cool. Idk value really but I'd be willing to go a bit more than 40. But yea, really all depends on what you're willing to shell out.

 

[pinkdrink06]

So I guess my follow up question is how often do you see a blasto with patterns and colors like this one? I checked a couple of the WYSIWYG websites looking for prices on something similar but was unable to find any that were striped like this one. Is this a rare find or will they show up on Craigslist every so often for $20 or so?

 

[CNGH]

Down here in socal, i've never seen one like that in person. maybe i'm not going to the right places, lol.

i've been after blastos for awhile and seen some pretty nice ones. the one in the pic is a beauty and i'd take it in a heartbeat, but i'd have a hard time paying more than $100 for the whole colony or $20 for a single head, and it'd have to be an adult fat head, not a baby.

though, i'm a cheapskate now having learned many expensive lessons after buying pricey "designer" and "named" corals.

 

[sde1500]

Can't say I have extensive knowledge of blastos, but I haven't seen one like that before.

 

[pinkdrink06]

CNGH, that's kinda what I ment by "first big girl coral." Up until now I've only purchased $10 or so Craigslist frags to get my feet wet. I'm a little gun shy about this.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I can honestly say that's not a common blasto and it's worth a good bit more. But being an auction it's hard to say what it would go for. Personally I would be willing to pay up to $40 like I said in my other post. I have a couple of blastos and only one in my mind is really nice the others are pretty much standard but still very beautiful. My main interest is Acans :dance: I've got like 20 different ones

 

[CNGH]

well, you gotta jump into the deep end of high priced corals at some point, haha.

i mean if this piece is not ridiculously overpriced/1 month's rent, and is reasonable for your given pocket book, then go for it! but if you gotta eat top ramen for the next month, maybe reconsider.

blastos are pretty forgiving. assuming you've been keeping your $10 frags alive and growing, then there's no reason you can't do the same for these blastos.

they don't require feeding, but if you can direct feed once in a while, it'll be extra happy with that. and keep your parameters in check and don't nuke it under super bright lighting, things should go fine.

keep in mind that your lighting may be different than the seller's lighting. in which case the coloring may eventually change in your tank. find out what kind of lighting the seller is using. really, find out as much as you can about the seller's tank and growing conditions.

good luck. keep us posted if you win the auction.

 

[VoiceInTheDeser]

Definitely a very nice piece and not a common morph. I'm a bit of a blasto whore, so I'd probably pay too much for it. I'd be pretty happy if I could get it under 50, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

[Maritimer]

No expert, but I've never seen one like that.

Which has me thinking that the store probably doesn't really have a good handle on what it's worth either, so they're holding an auction to find out what someone's willing to pay.

~Bruce

 

[pinkdrink06]

The auction is in addition to a 30% off all livestock sale. They're open only for pre arranged appointmrnts tomorrow and I landed one of the first time slots. Planing on picking up a harem of flasher wrasses and a pair of cleaner shrimp. I think with everyone's input I've settled on bidding $55 but I'll probably check in one more time in the morning. Thanks for all the opinions guys. Off to freshen up my QT tanks now...

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I'd say $55 is a pretty aggressive bid, when is the auction over?

 

[organism]

To each their own on pricing, but just to make sure - the blasto is already fragged, the frag is very healed up, and they have posted a picture of the very healed up not-fresh frag right? The thing is blastos don't take to chop shopping like some other LPS and new frags can melt if you breathe on them wrong. You don't want to pay more than $0 for a fresh cut piece because it's probably going to melt on you... tbh no respectable LFS would be selling one.

On a side note ime it's most likely going to color up into the more common red with green ring blasto type. Fresh landed blastos tend to have more contrast with colors, and also are more susceptible to fragging infections.

 

[pinkdrink06]

The auction is running through next weekend. The mother colony in the picture has been in a personal tank of one of the employee's for about 4 years.

Organism, thank you for the extra tidbit on how blastos respond to fraging. I will be sure not to put any money down/pick it up until it's healed for a week or two.

 

[organism]

The auction is running through next weekend. The mother colony in the picture has been in a personal tank of one of the employee's for about 4 years.

That's a little weird... A 4 year old blasto would be inflated, have clearly visible tentacle tips, uniform colored mouths, the list kind of goes on and on... The colony would be about 3x the size too. The brownish blobs in that picture are from where it scraped against the bag during shipping. Not a bad piece at all just what they're saying and what I'm seeing isn't really adding up.

Good plan on holding off until they have a 2-week healed frag for you, that's a good baseline for knowing it's going to be ok

 

[wetpets9]

Did not know that anout blastos healing..thank you!!

 

[pinkdrink06]

UPDATE: The winning bid was $301! Certainly out of my price range. I guess it's for the best though. My heater malfunctiond and nuked my tank last week. I caught it soon enough the only casualty was a sand sifting goby (RIP Sand Man). Bet a freshly fraged coral would have bit the dust too. Thanks to all for your awsome advice! Happy reefing.

 

[VoiceInTheDeser]

Holy crap, that's a lot. I mean, it's a nice piece, but I've seen more rare morphs go for less.

 

[organism]

Holy crap, that's a lot. I mean, it's a nice piece, but I've seen more rare morphs go for less.

True, but the hype of "it's totally been in a tank for 4 years we swear it didn't just come out of a bag" was a nice touch.