we need to but aqua corals! - Page 3

I agree with you, it is a good thought being able to say " Save the reefs" but the thing is that my neighbor is not killing the reefs, me and the many other hobbyists are by buying coral. So we are for the most part the only ones really interested in saving the reef, while we are the ones that are killing it.

Trading is the best way to save the reef u get something new and so does the other person, but if u do sell for say 5-10 bucks a 1/2 in frag then u made some money and helpped someone else get something new for a good price. for those fast growers u should only need to sell for 5-10 bucks because ur selling them fast and they grow fast. say you sell 10 frags for 10 bucks, thats 100 bucks you now have for salt or test supp, im not saying you cant sell and make some money but y sell something for 40 bucks jsut because thats what you paid i mean it will grow and you can frag more off so sell for less and ull still make back what you paid, I mayself hope to get back what i paid for my coral but not off of one frag, my goal is to frag and when i sell a few that will make up the cost, say 40 bucks, ill buy a new corall and do the same, you goal should not be to make money to pay off ur tank but to use that money to buy new coral and frag to sell it to others in the hobby to that they may injoy what you have. the market of corals should be in the hands of the ppl in the hobby and not the stores but the only way to have that happen is to sell frags for cheap and buy only from others in the hobby

can a mod PLEASE change the title of this thread? its been bugging the crap out of me. I cant take it I'm about to snap and go postal. PLEASE change the BUT to BUY.

agreed... +1

I purchased one of the fake coral because of this thread (you know save the reef) and this is a little out of the subject of this topic but, they LOOK HORRIBLE :(... I was super excited to get a fake one and was extremely disappointed with it very quickly...

just thought I would say something about my experience

yeah, every single fake piece i have seen look like crap, there is no way to come close to re-creating something as beautiful as coral!

I can imagine the fake live rock looks even worse

ok so LOL i bought some fake live"dead" rock HAHA and you were super right it looks like dog poop when you put it in your tank. it also looks like that dog got into a lot of vegies :)

HAHAHAHA, That stuff is pretty expensive isnt it? i say take it back and get some real live rock.

I have all the live rock I need now, I just bought it becuase I had never heard of it before so I thought I would test it :).... no worries!

I think I would be cool to get some man made live rock but it seems to be so damn expen$ive

everything in my tank is captive propagated, i only have one dull coral, and have never payed more than $15 for any coral, and that was frogspawn.

Same for me i buy frags at MY LFS $15 A PLUG for a wide range of different color zoas and other soft corals. My frogspawn also cost 30 dollars for 2 heads (rather big).

bump it up. in case a mod is looking it still says but


(bob doncha love typos that you cant edit?)

So if I buy a frag from someone for 5 dollars. Then I grow it out for a year. I get 10 frags out of it, can I sell those ten frags for 5 bucks a piece? Or should I just give 'em away? This is the logic, and it's crap logic. I have some AOG zoo's I payed 25 bucks a polyp for. They have been growing for a year or so now and I probably 30 of them. If I wanna sell them for 25 a polyp, why shouldn't I? As long as there's someone there that will buy them for that, why not? It's not dirt bag, it's not being in it for the money. It's recouping some costs so I can afford to have a better setup. The dirt bag thing is to get offended because someone is selling for what the demand dictates. It wont save the reefs to sell frags cheaper, it will only discourage people to go through the time and effort to frag them off. Why go though all the trouble to only get 3 dollars for it? Less frags will see new tanks that's a fact. Also, it costs money to obtain, keep, grow out, frag off these things. Lets look at ORA for an example. They captive raise everything they sell. They sell their frags for a pretty penny, they are not large colonies, and people buy them all the time. They sell them for this price because that's what they need to sell them for, to keep producing them. Now there's someone who is making a difference to the reefs. I believe that buying captive raised is the best thing to do. I look for better deals whenever I can. I don't get mad because someone wants more than I can afford for something. I look for it elsewhere, or get something I can afford. But I'm willing to pay more for something that is captive raised than what is wild caught. You see it's mentality, instead of why would I pay you more when I can get the same similar for less. I understand it's the only mechanism that will encourage more captive grown species. I also have had much greater success with corals that have already adapted to tank life and that's worth something to me. So if you have the mentality of buying wild caught because its cheaper then you need to look at your self before you point fingers. Believe it or not, it costs more to raise something in captivity than it does to just go catch it.

That said, some of those prices are really ridiculous.

Want to give me some ;p

Ok on the money issue as some people said its a ego trip. It comes down to the haves and have nots. For all of history the haves and have nots have played a roll in human society.

Basically it goes

"The haves have what the have nots do not have
The have nots want what the haves have.
The haves will do anything to keep the have nots from having what the haves have
The have nots will do anything to get what the haves have.

This is the reason for human conflict"

Basically saying this

I have this piece of coral that is really rare. I dont want someone else to have one like it, so i will put an extreamly high price on it so no one will buy it. Now person B (the have not) wants this piece of coral, he wants to be a "have". So he will pay outstanding amouts to get this coral and be a "have".

This is how our society is, and it will never change. We must one up everyone else so we can feel superior to others. And it wont stop when we feel superior, because now we like feeling superior and dont want anyone to make us feel inferior. This is why it can never stop. There will always be over priced corals, even if you have aquacultured frags, someone will say "well mine is from the ocean so its better" and the natural corals will still be in demand.

Im not trying to say aquacultured corals are bad. I would prefer to buy them, but i dont think its going to save the reefs.

(on a side note, my have and have not quote is from the 7th grade. Its sad that i remember that.)