Lets talk about frag sizes and coral prices!

[JoshO]

So I recently grabbed hold of a few SPS frags (what I would call frags) for £5 each.
Even to me that seemed like a good deal, but it got me thinking...what is an acceptable size to actually call something a "frag" and what should be referred to as a "colony"?
I've seen a lot of people try to sell what I would consider a frag as a "mini colony" due to have multiple tips...even though they are barely 5mm in length!
Let me know below what you think of today's prices and sizes! Do you think we as hobbyists should do more to help bring the crazy prices down, and sizes back up??

Fyi this is the £5 frag I was referring to!

 

[sagee]

To me its crazy what people are buying
!! your are getting some times a corlite or 2 for hundreds of dollars.. not to mention all the photo editing. I honestly think its just part of the game. Notice when these big guys have "sales" everything sells because people feel like they are getting a deal but in the big picture they are still making their money hand over fist. I get the argument if you don't like the prices don't buy but imo i believe its getting out of hand due to greed.

 

[PicassoClown04]

I’d definitely call that at least a “chunky” frag or maybe a mini colony. It’s a green slimer, so very common but £5 for any frag that big is really good (assuming £ is anywhere close to $)

 

[sagee]

So I recently grabbed hold of a few SPS frags (what I would call frags) for £5 each.
Even to me that seemed like a good deal, but it got me thinking...what is an acceptable size to actually call something a "frag" and what should be referred to as a "colony"?
I've seen a lot of people try to sell what I would consider a frag as a "mini colony" due to have multiple tips...even though they are barely 5mm in length!
Let me know below what you think of today's prices and sizes! Do you think we as hobbyists should do more to help bring the crazy prices down, and sizes back up??

Fyi this is the £5 frag I was referring to!

Btw that is an awesome buy with that acro. you would be hard pressed to find anything that cheap in the us from a shop even something green it would be some kind of radioactive neon burst acro

 

[Sharkattackmack]

To me its crazy what people are buying
!! your are getting some times a corlite or 2 for hundreds of dollars.. not to mention all the photo editing. I honestly think its just part of the game. Notice when these big guys have "sales" everything sells because people feel like they are getting a deal but in the big picture they are still making their money hand over fist. I get the argument if you don't like the prices don't buy but imo i believe its getting out of hand due to greed.

I went out to one of the bigger coral stores on boxing day. Cant recall what we paid but it was probably close to 300$. Picked up 3-5 frags. Went to our favorite fish store and was blown away by their deals. 40% off livestock. we ended up leaving with more and much larger corals from that place just because they didnt have a fancy name. Its like buying a bmw just to tell people you bought one. weve always found shopping around for the best deal and starting a relationship with the store works best.

 

[old salt reefer]

That funny l is a sterling pound which equals $1.36 US. He got a great deal if he was here in the USA.

 

[sagee]

I went out to one of the bigger coral stores on boxing day. Cant recall what we paid but it was probably close to 300$. Picked up 3-5 frags. Went to our favorite fish store and was blown away by their deals. 40% off livestock. we ended up leaving with more and much larger corals from that place just because they didnt have a fancy name. Its like buying a bmw just to tell people you bought one. weve always found shopping around for the best deal and starting a relationship with the store works best.

I agree with you on that big time, even still I've been in the situation where some of these smaller guys will just name it themselves and slap a big price tag on it because everyone else is doing it or so it seems. I've found a great store here in NJ who runs a great store his prices can get steep but its really nice stuff and worth it I've not lost one thing from him yet and thats saying a lot when it comes to acros. Iconic aquariums I won't buy corals online anymore lol but that's a story for another time

 

[JoshO]

I’d definitely call that at least a “chunky” frag or maybe a mini colony. It’s a green slimer, so very common but £5 for any frag that big is really good (assuming £ is anywhere close to $)

This one is actually a green stag dude, very similar, but less PE and skinnier branches!

 

[JoshO]

I went out to one of the bigger coral stores on boxing day. Cant recall what we paid but it was probably close to 300$. Picked up 3-5 frags. Went to our favorite fish store and was blown away by their deals. 40% off livestock. we ended up leaving with more and much larger corals from that place just because they didnt have a fancy name. Its like buying a bmw just to tell people you bought one. weve always found shopping around for the best deal and starting a relationship with the store works best.

I couldn't agree more in terms of finding someone who'll build a relationship! I think many hobbyists are the true cause of rising prices but starting frag systems and making their frags smaller and smaller!

 

[JoshO]

I agree with you on that big time, even still I've been in the situation where some of these smaller guys will just name it themselves and slap a big price tag on it because everyone else is doing it or so it seems. I've found a great store here in NJ who runs a great store his prices can get steep but its really nice stuff and worth it I've not lost one thing from him yet and thats saying a lot when it comes to acros. Iconic aquariums I won't buy corals online anymore lol but that's a story for another time

We're all here for the stories! I feel the more we as hobbyists group together, the better prices will get!

Ultimately if we pay high, stores will decide to go a bit higher, suppliers will see this and push their prices up too. If demand goes down, then collection stops. As soon as it stops vendors drop prices to shift their current stock, which allows our lfs to stock up cheaper

 

[sagee]

We're all here for the stories! I feel the more we as hobbyists group together, the better prices will get!

Ultimately if we pay high, stores will decide to go a bit higher, suppliers will see this and push their prices up too. If demand goes down, then collection stops. As soon as it stops vendors drop prices to shift their current stock, which allows our lfs to stock up cheaper

Yeah man I wish everyone else would get on bored haha. I honestly think these sales they do are really where they are getting the bulk of their money from. I only say that because of the frequency of them and the fact that your lucky to even be able to buy something before its out of stock. I think it's really hitting people to buy on impulse rather then something they really want ya know? I mean its a brilliant marketing plan but it ends up hurting the hobby as a whole in the long run.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

Call me old fashioned but here is how I see the categories of coral sizes:

Nub/booger - less than 3/4 inch
Mini frag - 3/4 to 1.5 inches
Real frag - 1.5 to 3 inches
Mini colony - 3 to 6 inches
Real colony - 6 to 12 inches
Impressive mature colony - anything over a foot across

 

[JoshO]

Call me old fashioned but here is how I see the categories of coral sizes:

Nub/booger - less than 3/4 inch
Mini frag - 3/4 to 1.5 inches
Real frag - 1.5 to 3 inches
Mini colony - 3 to 6 inches
Real colony - 6 to 12 inches
Impressive mature colony - anything over a foot across

I'm totally on board with this!
I'd say the a size classification should become the norm in terms of description! It gives people a much fairer assessment of a frag.
Seeing ”generously sized at 10-15mm" makes me feel a little sick!

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I'm totally on board with this!
I'd say the a size classification should become the norm in terms of description! It gives people a much fairer assessment of a frag.
Seeing ”generously sized at 10-15mm" makes me feel a little sick!

Good luck getting all the vendors and hobbyists on board with the same classifications lol. I think an actual measurement is the least subjective way to go but I’m going to chuckle to myself if someone tries to sell me a 1/2 inch coral as a “frag”. That’s what I knock off accidentally when I’m doing tank maintenance! ;Hilarious

 

[JoshO]

@revhtree #reefsquad I'd love to know your opinions on this!

 

[Bleigh]

Call me old fashioned but here is how I see the categories of coral sizes:

Nub/booger - less than 3/4 inch
Mini frag - 3/4 to 1.5 inches
Real frag - 1.5 to 3 inches
Mini colony - 3 to 6 inches
Real colony - 6 to 12 inches
Impressive mature colony - anything over a foot across

I can get on board with this. I suspect there may be some way to define these using more technical aspects.

 

[Justin Cook]

For me, a 'mini-colony' is any large frag that could reasonably be cut into a few single frags. In my case it's totally subjective and I don't honestly consider teeny tiny nubs "frags" when talking about what I'm willing to label as mini-colonies. Again, this is just what I do and it seems to work out alright.

 

[Brandon McHenry]

I can get on board with this. I suspect there may be some way to define these using more technical aspects.

Unfortunately I think these will always be subjective terms. I think the fairest way for vendors/hobbyists to describe their corals would be to say an approximate size and number of heads/branches etc depending on the species. This would at least give people an idea of what they are buying if they don’t see it in person or have a WYSIWYG.

 

[JoshO]

I can get on board with this. I suspect there may be some way to define these using more technical aspects.

I think as a very base description of size there should be a guide like this.
You wouldn't buy a pair of size 5 shoes and be happy when a size 3 turn up, so why should this be any different!
It's something that I feel as a community we have the power to change, but it requires a big effort on our parts.
No doubt there are more technical aspects to describing a coral but if we are solely talking about size then the above could be a very good guide

 

[JoshO]

I also don't think description of size should be subjective as such. It's not hard to work out if there are guidelines!