I'm hearing this from an awful lot of people my friend. Some who never bought into the whole naming, per polyp sales, sky high pricing, hype introductions and photoshopping, as well as some who did. Charles I wrote almost 6 pages when I saw your first thread the other day, but I felt, why bother to post it. I also wrote a very long article which was going to be published somewhere else entited, "From Reefing to Retailing, the demise of Zoa keeping as we once knew it" . But again, I chose not to publish it. I mean, I see a lot of things in this forum that I don't like or agree with, but it's not my forum and everyone is welcomed and entitled to speak their mind. So I read those threads and reply, or I will read and not reply, or I won't even open the thread based on the title of the thread, again, as everyone is entitled to their opinions openly and freely. So I'll share my very brief opinion here now and save the rest for another day.
To be very honest Charles, what is happening to you and many others is a long time coming and it's sad to see.. It's not fun for you anymore and I agree with you 100 %. I have only told 1 or 2 people this, but a year ago, I became so angry with this hobby and what I was seeing, that I took out all 80 of the most covered, stunningly colorful and beautiful colonies, with thousands of polyps, NOT FRAGS, and gave them all away to my friends. I have never lost my love for them, so I gave my stuff away and traveled for a year. Someone will say, "you're stupid for allowing someone to do that to you". I'd say, you don't know me at all. Reefing is not nor has it ever been just a hobby to me, it is a way of life and a major part of it. I got sick of seeing the prices every time I drove an hour to buy something and nothing with color was affordable, or should I say logical or reasonable. I too became frustrated with names, lineage, rarity and limited edition, remember that one.
Like yourself, I would make my rounds to all of the stores in a 100 mile radius once a month and sometimes twice a month. The last time I walked into a store, someone tried to get me to buy a 3 polyp frag of something that has been around since Moses parted the Red Sea. The price, $ 30 a polyp, for what I use to pay for an entire colony of them, and I walked out of that store and haven't been back to a single store since. I use to give a lot of corals away on another site long before naming began, that was until one of those people whom I gave zoas and palys too, tried to sell me some polyps for a $ 100 a piece. Then I saw what was happening here and all over the net and with every LFS I visited, I'd had enough. I could go on for days, but I became so disappointed and angry as I refuse to pay anyone large amounts of money for a polyp which was shopped, hyped with a price tag which covers a car note, so I gave everything away. Like someone said the other day, quit complaining and just don't buy them. Well, that’s exactly what I did, and I didn't, but that's me. I have kept my tank running and just started to refill it last month 1 colony at a time. What you are feeling is what I felt a year ago and nobody loves zoas and palys as much as I do..
All of this began in 2005/2006 and it has increased exponentially to what we are seeing today. Zoa keeping ( Reefing as a whole ) is a hobby. That was until someone got the idea to start naming polyps which coincided precisely with the dramatic rise in price from $ 30.00 to $ 50.00 for just about any colony of anything you are seeing today, to $ 30 to $ 300 for SINGLE polyp of something that might die tomorrow. To this day, many newbies aren’t even aware of that. One newbie was shocked when he saw a 5 x 6 inch colony as he never knew they could grow that way which was the way they are brought up from the ocean by divers and not as 1,2 and 3 polyps frags on a round or square plug. Zoas and palys are one of the fastest growing corals in the ocean or our reef tanks. I could go into this Supply & Demand lie that has been told for years and cut it into pieces. Demand is not setting the price...DAH-MAN is. Then there is the, "naming is good for the zoa hobby", no it isn't, it's great for IDing something you want to buy, sell or trade. The hobby thrived for many years without ID's as I sold frags all over the country with just a picture. When prices went up, you now need a name and a complete database. Why? So you know what to call them when you sell them for those sky high prices. I had thousands of stunning polyps which grew like crazy. So much so that I had to break down my entire TOTM and start all over again. And I didn't know the name of a single polyp in my tank, so where and how was naming benefiting me and my thriving reef tank?
I just wished we talked more about the things which will keep our polyps alive, thriving, testing, QTing, health, do's and don'ts and husbandry, etc etc yadda yadda yadda, as we do names. Many of the reef boards are slowing down as well and it kills me to see that. I want them all to thrive, but topics with all the interest are, yep, you guessed it, names, pricing, ID's and you guessed it again, "Introducing the NEW Jimmie Crack Corn polyp, just hitting the market". If you're into names, that's great, if you're into what's rare or lineage, that's great, if you're into just looking at pictures, hey that's great too, but there is so much more that's going to have a direct impact on how those polyps look and survive then those topics. That's all I'm saying and again, I force it on no one.
So now you have a hobby that is saturated with sellers and buyers who either don't care about these pp prices, agree with them and feel it's ok to charge these amounts, and those like you, I and many others who are simply tired of it. Many are tired of the shopped photos that look nothing like what you saw on line or in a LFS under saturated actinic lighting. I have photo shopped many times, but it's because i took a horrible picture and I shopped it to make it look like it really is. So what happened? A lot of people are now tired of spending hundreds and thousands of dollars just to set up a tank and fill it with live rock, but can't afford to buy enough 2 and 3 polyp frags to cover a 70, 90, 120 or 300 gallon tank. And if you try to do it with frags instead of affordable small colonies which pre-date the naming/high priced/hyped inferno, your polyps would look like a BB in a box car with those tiny frags in those huge systems. It seems it was fun for some in the beginning, but then the price hikes begin to trickle down to just about everything with color. If you go on line, you can’t find a colony with any color anywhere. Names and pricing, set by the consumer, not the supplier, is what caused this to happen. Many are leaving for other reasons unlike you Charles. Some were in it for the money the entire time. They follow the fad and change with the wind...or the current. Things have to change. See the link below, it's not just a few of us who are asking for the change.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-02/ac/index.php
Reefing is no longer fun for you, me and many others Charles. Reefing as an affordable hobby for all, has been relegated to those who can get a hold of full colonies and frag them down to tiny frags for the rest of us who must pay through the roof to have them. I'm sorry to hear you say this as I know you are a diehard zoa lover and keeper as I am. If we can just get away from everyone being a collector, and go back to reefing, and focus more on what it takes to keep them alive, then knowing the name of every polyp posted or on an ID forum. Then and only then will the all inclusive fun of keeping zoas and palys return for all of us, and not the fortunate few.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to anyone, it's my opinion and I would hope you can respect my opinion as I do yours. If anything I've said is offensive to anyone personally, please let me know. I have one hour to delete, edit or correct it if I'm wrong or otherwise.
Keep your head up Chuck, better days are ahead. We may have to just wait it out, I didn’t want to totally hijack your thread, so maybe one day, I will post that 6 page reply myself.
Hang tough my friend.
Mucho Reef
BTW, I have had polyps worth big money on the street, but I didn't just sell them cheap....I gave them away. I was told one time that I had $ 30,000 ( street value ) worth of zoas, palys, protos and mushrooms in my tank. Wow, was I smart, stupid, or just a reefer?
