Darth Maul Porites...what happened?

[Nanofins]

Whatever happened to the Darth Maul porites? I know of a few people who got some besides me but I haven't heard anything about it in probably a year and it's not the kinda coral that should just drop into oblivion. I had a piece and it colored up and grew great for me for the first 6 months, then mysteriously slowly began to fade and die, like it got sick or something. It slowly got paler, almost not noticeably at first, then finally noticeably, and over the course of 3-4 months went completely white, then began to recede. It took probably 5+ months to completely die off. Never could figure why. I talked to a few others who had similar experiences. It would be a shame if it completely disappeared. Does anyone still have it, and if so, how is it doing? I'd love to give it another try some day if I could, but can't seem to locate any. Like I said, it grew great at first. Went from about a 1/2-3/4" frag to 2" over the course of 5-6 months, then turned and did a 180 in about the same amount of time.

 

[Gamble]

I saw frags available from a vendor at the Mountain West Reef Fest. A friend of mine got one and I agree..... it is a sick piece. Let me know if you are looking for a piece, maybe I could point you in the right direction.

 

[ychan]

I still have a frag from Soccerbag. The color faded to light pink, but growing well.

 

[soccerbag]

Yeah, I've still got mine and it's been thriving for a couple of years now. Have sold / traded a few frags of it. Mine does best in lower light these days and grows very quickly. If you want to trade some stuff, just let me know and we can work something out via pm.

Mine still looks as deep red as it did the day I got it. I'm with you, not sure why it's not more popular.

 

[CJO]

Never heard of it until now. That's nice!

CJ

 

[swannyson7]

Never seen it either, but now I want a piece!

 

[emerald525]

I had one. It is a great piece. Very slow grower. I gave it to a fellow reefer for building a sump for a local school.

 

[Laird]

I saw frags available from a vendor at the Mountain West Reef Fest. A friend of mine got one and I agree..... it is a sick piece. Let me know if you are looking for a piece, maybe I could point you in the right direction.

Which vender was it?

 

[cdness]

I want one now...lol.

 

[SaltWaterDave]

What a nice piece. I've never heard of or seen it until today. Now I need to get it. Who wants to sell me a frag????? :wink:

 

[emerald525]

I got mine from Fantastik frags

 

[Acropora52]

oh, very pretty. craig, i think i need to visit your tank again and get some frags

 

[therman]

Mine faded and died too. Couldnt get it to grow.

 

[Madreef]

I think a lot of people treated it like it was a monti/SPS and lost theirs. They are higher nutrient and lower light corals IME, I think popularity has everything to do with ease of care, how fast a coral grows, and how it looks. For the porites it only gets one out of the three. So thats why its receded into the background IMO.

 

[darryl_v]

Someone once tried to convince me that I should pay more for a coral that grows slow.......but If I have the choice between two equally nice corals and one grows slow and the other fast...well I would pay more for the fast grower. Because lets face it...fast growing SPS is still slow.

Still can't follow his logic.....pay more for something that grows slower. Its exactly like madreef explained.....you have weigh how it looks, the rarity and the speed of growth (slow being negative) to come up with what something is worth IMO.

Anyway....man I always loved seeing pictures of the darth maul porites.....never seen a big mother though and this is probably the reason.

 

[secretreefer]

i've always liked it. just never acquired one.

 

[emerald525]

I didn't pay very much for mine. I got a one inch frag for 30 dollars. I had mine in higher light and it did fine. It is a very cool piece.

 

[secretreefer]

lol now everyone who has one will be selling frags. lol. whoops Frank already sold 2 frags.

 

[tnyr5]

While I agree with Madreef philosophically (the three points he mentioned are what should determine popularity), I doubt that's the reason. By that logic ( and again, I think he's using ACTUAL logic instead of obsessed-reefer logic lol), the purple monster shouldn't be popular at all. I think the reason it never became popular is because the right person never slapped their name on it.

 

[soccerbag]

Someone once tried to convince me that I should pay more for a coral that grows slow.......but If I have the choice between two equally nice corals and one grows slow and the other fast...well I would pay more for the fast grower. Because lets face it...fast growing SPS is still slow.

Still can't follow his logic.....pay more for something that grows slower. Its exactly like madreef explained.....you have weigh how it looks, the rarity and the speed of growth (slow being negative) to come up with what something is worth IMO.

Anyway....man I always loved seeing pictures of the darth maul porites.....never seen a big mother though and this is probably the reason.

You make some good points here. Mine grows very quickly but corals grow at different rates in different systems so we have to take that into consideration. I have constantly fragged mine so it hasn't had a chance to get big. I've easily sold or traded at least 15-20 square plugs that were pretty much covered. That would be a pretty big colony....if it weren't for fragging....lol.

lol now everyone who has one will be selling frags. lol. whoops Frank already sold 2 frags.

lol...I saw that. Good timing! I doubt we'll see too many more for sale as it sounds like not too many folks have it. And some that do haven't had the best of luck with it unfortunately.