Who are the SPS Veterans?

hey Steve!
How are you doin??
How was Europe? I ended up not being able to go. Bummer

Still no water in my tank but closer everyday. :)

Later
 
Here's a picture from December 1999 of some of the Mankin coral discs that I purchased from Seascapes in Mountain View. Sad to say, I've lost everything in this picture except for one of the disks. The one Mankin Solomon coral I miss the most is the pink prostrata. The two other frags in this photo were purchased from Steve Tyree when he visited SEABay a few years ago (I also purchased some sponges from him that day). I'm amazed at the variety of corals, not just sps, available today.

1199912clamsps.jpg
 
Steve,, seems like I remember Stanley's speech but Im thinking it was after Julian had came to see us in atlanta and it was all around the same time.. who knows.. None the less we were dealing with it and using the term loosely during our atlanta AQ club meetings.. I can still remember Nole Curry's comments about a few piece's RTN'ing on him on the phone..

Nathan
 
tstone,

Hope the cube tank comes along for you. You definitly want to fill it with water before you put sps in it ! Europe was very nice. Got to see the Monaco Aquarium. They had 2 to 3 very nice stony coral tanks. Also lots of stonies scattered around the other tanks. It is definitly the best 'Professional' aquarium I have seen with regards to stonies and tropical reefs. Have yet to see the Waikiki Aquarium though. From what I understand, the Monaco Aquarium has apparently drastically improved the past few years. It suffered some after Jaubert left, but he is back and is running the place now. England was also interesting. There was a very receptive group there for the mini-symposium. Also got to spend more time with Scott Michael and Charlie Veron.
 
NuclearReefs,

So there are three possible RTN coiners then; Stanley Brown, Noel Curry and Julian Sprung. Actually heard from Noel within the past year. Dont know when Stanley will get 'wet' again. Julian is obviously the most active of the three. Stanley publicly made the claim he was the coiner. Has Julian actually claimed to be the coiner in public ? At any rate I prefer to call the nasty 'RTN' we had in 1996 a malady. Or better yet, a catastrophe.
 
Steve
Catastrophe probably fits best.

I am surprised the Europeans have not experienced the same malady's that we have. You mention SPS pests but have they experienced RTN as we have?


I guess water would help. Should I add salt??? ;)

I keep trying to save for an ocean Motion but for some reason the bill collector keeps knocking on my door. Go figure :rolleyes:
 
tstone,

Bill collector ! Are you telling me you did not bet on the Red Sox when they down by 3 and were one of the longest shots ever ?

Actually, neither did I.

There was a rumor going around that when Nilsen lost or had problems with his awesome stony reef in 1996, it was not entirely due to the majano's as was claimed. Lets just say its possible they experienced some of the real nasty rtn. England was different. They were not into the stonies big time in 1996. Only a few crazied individuals scatterred around the globe were. But I asked the crowd in England if they had heard of the acro red but bugs and there overwhelming response was that they had not. Perhaps they were having pest problems but had just not connected the dots yet. When we first lost corals due to the acro eating flat worms and monti eating nudis, we originally thought the corals were just dieing. Then again, its possible that they had been very lucky.
 
I was thinking damn just another year for the Sox. Same ole, same ole.
Arguably one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

I can't believe they actually pulled it off.

anyway back to the program.

What other cool stuff from the past can we dig up. I love this history stuff.

How big was the import business back then? How many importers were there?
 
Steve, were you in L.A. in the 70's-80's? There was a store on Ventua Blvd. (not Ben's) where the owner was reportedly busted for coke and the store closed. By the way, I got my first aquarium from Ben around 1970.
Mark
 
tstone,

Actually the first stonies came in before my time. My reef days started in 1990-1993. In the late 80's you could supposedly get some real nice whole stony colonys from Hawaii. They would be attached to live rock. That was then shut down. After that the next big supplier was typical Jakarta tranship and then Fiji came online through Aquatic Depot. Then during 1994-1995 Solomons began shipping. I had two boxes of Acropora on order for about 3 months until they finally sent their first two whole boxes of acro through the 'Arts'. There were 20 small acro in each box. Of the 40 acro only 2 survived. Tapio Haaparanta bought both at $50 each. Needless to say I lost my shirt on the deal, but we finally got our first acro boxes from the Solomons. Lucky for us they have drastically improved shipping since then.

Enough history, just a little modern day internet alarming note you might want to spread around. No names will be mentioned here. This info is second hand. But we may be seeing our first strain of the Acropora red bugs that are more resistant to the Interceptor Drug. This does not concern me. But someone has reported to me that he got some acro frags from a supplier that were infested with red bugs. The bugs on those frags did not die during the first recommended treatment level of the interceptor. Everyone needs to be aware. If you dont have enough interceptor to do 2 or 3 treatments, DONT DO ANY. Wait until you get enough interceptor.

karm40,

I arrived in Los Angeles in 1985. The MO you wrote could probably be applied to a lot of failed fish stores. That was common in the 80's. Unfortunately we have lost about 50 to 60 % of our stores here in Southern California from 1985 until present day. Thats by shear total numbers. Many factors involved. For example: one store owner on Ventura Blvd. drove up to his store after the Northridge earthquake and found his 200 gallon water container out in the street. Dont know about the specific store you are referring to. I do recall there being three decent stores there. Thats east of the 405.
 
Yikes,, I remember the Solomon Islands Tranships!!!
We were getting things we had no idea what they were.... BUt we were HOOKED

hehehe..

Nathan
 
It was the solomon imports that got me hooked on sps. I remember them well, They had those little concrete disks that they were tied to with fishing line until they encrusted. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the diversity of corals in those shipments was much greater than the bali's. I had heard rumors a year ago, that the Solomons were opening up again. Any truth to that?
 
Mark,, I beleive when they got locked down it was for 7 years,, I as well had heard that they would be pruning in the spring of 2005 .. oh BTW,, I'll be in atlanta week after Thanksgiving moving stuff..:)
 
Yeah, I think you are referring to the old Aquarium Center. They had huge losses after the quake, but Phil is still around on the other side of the street; still Aquarium Center. I went in the old store after the quake, and that's when I learned that the discussions about whether to have glass or acrylic, referring to earthquakes, are moot and that if there is a quake big enough to break your tank, there are much more serious things to worry about.
Mark
 
Mark,

Before the disk came in we were getting small whole colonies and colony branches. That was 1994-1995. The best shipment I ever got was 6 boxes of exotic colonies and frag colonies from the Solomons. Unfortunately we got a lot of rubbish too during that time. As is typical for tranship it was hit or miss. I never did like the disk idea. Bob Mankin went big with it for awhile. Its simply a misnomer to call the disks 'farmed'. They are cultured. Part wild grown and part farm grown. When we grow a 100 % captive grown coral in our land locked US farms, that is farming. Solomons has not got back online with exotic sps ever since the Civil War. They need someone from the states there and it has been too dangerous.
 
Hey Steve,
Sang here. I say you and I go reopen the Solomon's again and start our own propagation facility!! A few bullets here and there don't scare me! :D Btw, are you coming up North?
 
I have a friend of mine doing a documentry right now In SI, asked me do help him out, perhaps now I will pass, I took a few rounds in the first GW no need for more holes in me.
 
invincible569,

Back in 1988 Ed from tropical Marine Paradise in PA, was bringing in Acro's in from Jakarta. He had an exclusive with the shipper and was the only person bringing in sps corals. Greg Schiemer and I use to make these hour-long trips once a month. At times we would find out when the shipments were to arrive, and we would be at the store waiting to pick out the nicest sps corals. Here's another timeline, back in 1992 Julian Sprung and Charles Delbeek visited the New York area. They both came and took photos of Greg's and my tank, which appeared in their books. Both of those systems used the Berlin method of coral keeping back then, and they are still in use today. I personally kept Acro's in 1988 under Mercury Vapor lamps, the light was yellow, but the corals survived, and did well.

Steve,

How is Bob Mankin? I would love to get in touch with him.

Tony Vargas
 
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