from my perspective, 90 percent of the names out there are scams, intentional or not. Unless there is some validation, like they do with autographed memorabilia, then it’s all he said she said. I have seen someone buy regular green indo torches, hold on to them for a while, come up with a reidulos and and sell those $60 torches for 400, from there someone feels bad, they turn around and frag it, and do the same thing and the chain goes on. If this industry has a shred of regulation aside from fish and game at the airport , the industry would be in trouble. People go to court over AkC dogs, because they paid 2500 vs, 600, imagine the scale of corals under that microscope?
I would venture to say there is 100x the amount of coral sellers now than there was 15 years ago. Was a new ocean discovered that created and influx of corals? People have been fragging since the 90s as i recall, difference is then they called them broken or fragment and usually have them away or tossed them, today, there sold as something there not or were not acquired as. I love messaging Facebook sellers and asking how long they’ve been in the hobby, typically they say a long time, 2-3 years, or flat out lie and say 10 years, yet if you look at there post history, they were asking the most rudimentary questions not but a year ago. Stuff like how the nitrogen cycle works, and why did my flame angel shred my zoas etc. There is a super corrupt store near my house, been there at least 25 years. The shadiest place you can think of, we’re talking employees selling after hours then telling the owner that particular fish jumped or died, chlorine tablets being throwing in the sumps to get back at someone else, selling 400 pound of live rock to someone with a 90 gallon, and I’m sure a host of other issues. Well, some of those employees, some summer help, saw what the cost is for a coral and what the mark up is, and would set tanks up in there house, and under sell the store to their customers. Well, now they make a living off of it importing basic corals, taking good photos, and literally selling them days after import in order to mitigate the inevitable losses. Ever see the raffles guys run? Say you got a coral that retails for $100, you put a post out, $20 a ticket, 15 spots, (net $300 for something that is $100 retail) , if it doesn’t ship right or dies, you refund that person who won it $15 , the amount they put in, and you still made $285 on a coral that died, that should have been $100 to begin with.
droves of people are entering it to do this. Quality marine used to be strict with who they sold to. I knew some legit tank maintenance guys who couldn’t get accounts, now, there are tons of people who have 3 seventy-five gallon tanks in their Home basement.
Call it what it is, a Wild West atmosphere where people are looking to cash in, and when you can’t do that with reputation or quality home grown stuff, how else do you stand out? Create the illusion you have something nobody else does and this is the ticket for it.
reefprostore.com
are beautiful marine fish that deserve an equally beautiful and classy name. But somewhere in the past someone with a hillbilly accent said “that pufferfish looks like a dog” or “that fish looks like that rabbit i shot fur dinner” “and it has a face like a fox?” Hum? Wonder what I should name these unique and amazing creatures?
