I got that TDF, Mother of Pearl and Pink ****** frag about a decade ago (or more?) from Dan, just before Tyree made them LEs. I wish that the MOP did as well for me as the TDF did. I do worry a bit about being able to get a legit piece again, but I have had it for so long, it is time to move on. i did struggle with this one for a few years before it just exploded - it was one of my nemesis corals. I wish that Wet Thumbs was still in business. There are a lot of TDFs out there...
Have you ever had colonies that get this big and have to make the hard choice? Smashing them up can break your heart even more than giving them away. You can only frag them so much before you cannot get the clippers down in there to grab ahold of something - the best thing to do is to just drop them onto a hard surface and let them break as they will. Both are hard, but it gets easier when you know that you can grow them all back again. Besides, even if you frag 1" all the way around a colony the size of a dinner plate, that just buys you a month or two.
...so you gotta choose... get rid of them or destroy them. I can tell you that just giving away one coral is a lot less work than having dozens of people come over to your house during a pandemic (if you don't saturate the local market with people who can keep it) or trying to sell and ship this stuff without being picky and getting some of the worst type of customers who want a refund after letting their packages sit out overnight because they forgot about them (which is why I like to trade). It can be a logistical nightmare to clear out a tank of large stuff. Everybody thinks that it is easy selling 3/4 inch frags off of their golf ball sized "colonies" but larger stuff is much harder to deal with and ship. I marvel at Copp's ability to trim and ship large hunks of stuff, but nobody is as good as he is and there is no shame in that.
This makes donations to a NFP look downright easy and reasonable... and every once in a while, they return the favor with some nice stuff (more precisely, the guys who do the maintenance return the favor).
When I get 5 teenagers off of the payroll, a bigger tank will come so that I can keep some of these longer.
