Most Overrated and Underrated "CORALS!"

Do you feel like a lot of corals within the hobby are overrated or underrated?

  • Overrated

    Votes: 489 77.6%
  • Underrated

    Votes: 48 7.6%
  • Yes and No (please explain in the thread)

    Votes: 93 14.8%

  • Total voters
    630
When i hit the lottery , i will buy all the expensive corals , grow them .. frag them and sell them dirt cheap. Flood the market and decrease the value, making the hobby fun again.
 
It's not that I feel some are over rated but rather the people selling them for insane prices are making some seem over rated. $200, $300, or more for a 3/4" frag? Get real.
Giving them a fancy name and knowing Photoshop doesn't change the real value. The more a coral is in popular demand should help the prices come down instead. But it doesnt. Those are the ones I find to be some what over rated. Not the corals fault.
 
Rated by whom?

To be overrated or underrated, it'd have to be rated, right? Who rates corals? Why would anyone listen to them, whoever 'they' are?

It's your aquarium. Buy what makes you happy, and a price you can afford. I'm much more worried about health of the critters I'm adding than I am about price, or even color, for that matter. I know, the 'show' quality tanks are full of breathtaking colors... but so what? There is NOTHING wrong with a tank full of more affordable, easier to keep corals.

Don't like where the industry is pushing us to be? Don't go there! It's YOUR tank, do with it as you will. Buying hundred dollar quarter inch sticks is _NOT_ something I'm willing to do. Haven't done so, and won't be doing so, thanks.
 
yes and no. overrated we all know, $250-$1250 1/2 inch acro frags that look amazing in pics and in 1 out of 25 tanks color up and look great although quite often still not as great as in the pic, and in 24 out of 25 tanks just never color up as we'd hoped. I am not hating on anyone though as nobody I have heard has bought these frags at gunpoint and its exactly the same in every hobby, you can spend relatively little and have nice but common stuff or you can get serious about collecting and seek out rare pieces and spend crazy money. art, golf, guns, electronics, etc etc etc all the same and as long as your kids are fed and your bills are paid its your prerogative to spend your money where you want.
as far as underrated I definitely see gorgeous pieces that are not the current hot "got to have" pieces that don't get the props or bring the coin they would with a cute designer name lol but are just as beautiful as some much more expensive pieces.
it's all supply and demand really if a currently hot piece is hardy and grows fast the supply will increase and demand and therefore price will drop. good example is speckled kraks, they grow fast and well for most reefers ime and we have seen the price go from $300 a polyp down to $75 a polyp and sometimes less in a relatively short amount of time. a good example of the other side of that coin is the strat, they seem to grow for almost no one and melt most of the time when fragged and I have never seen them go down in price. supply stays down, extremely hard to find, price stays high. just like anything supply and demand. just my opinions, no more valuable than anyone else's. thx!!!
 
most overrated is that disney one

Am I the only guy who likes Leptos lol.
I’m bored of jack o lantern but I have this really cool dark red lepto I absolutely love, with certain lighting (time of day) it has this really interesting holographic effect. Super under rated compared to the thousands I’ve dumped into sps.

I like leptos. My wife calls it the ugliest coral in the tank. I just keep telling her to wait :)
 
Hmm...trying to see if this thread is a trap.

Overrated: Cut shops, boutique or designer corals. Example from yesterday Electric Daisy Stylocoeniella (sp).
Underrated: soft corals. Example Sansibia
 
What is over rated now will become under rated in a few years in most cases. Other then the fad of the week / month / year, I would say most soft corals are underrated especially pom pom xenia. While you may not want an entire tank full of it, most people and all people not interested in the hobby will be amazed at watching it pulse. A lot of people don't like to admit they like "invasive" corals, but they continue to be good sellers and popular despite their bad reputations. I know Than at Tidal Gardens has said on more then one occasion that pom pom xenia is his best seller when he has 1000s of other corals.

I do like bounce mushrooms but not enough to pay for them. I do think it's funny that people will pay for them but won't put a regular rhoadactis or discasoma unless it's some crazy ultra named one, when you can or at least could get all kinds of nice colonies for reasonable prices.
 
I think that many new releases start off overrated, as their price is a bit inflated due to hyper rarity rather then looks. As they become more prominent, price is based more so on the coral and and less so on rarity.
 
Ok I could have agreed with the first a year ago but I was traded a WWC Bounce and I love it now. HA! I actually hated the look of them. Now that it's huge and multiplying the orange color can't be rivaled.

At first I wasn't too interested in them because most specimens I had seen were juveniles. However, once these specimens mature, the adult forms for the bounces, especially that wwc OG bounce and the biohazard bounce, they look pretty insane and the color intensity on the bubbles is pretty high.
 
Most overrated are acros and zoas due to their coloration which you can't blame. Acros are beautiful but they are priced ridiculous across the board for the sized frag you receive.

Underrated has to be soft corals. Some are just beautiful but some do spread or grow fast.
 
I would say both because my opinion of overrated is some corals are priced extremely high. Underrated corals are some that people don't see others with or talk about as much.. It seems that what's being talked about more cost more these days as well as a new name for a coral that's similar to another coral. Actually it's all a person preference.
 
Most overrated are acros and zoas due to their coloration which you can't blame. Acros are beautiful but they are priced ridiculous across the board for the sized frag you receive.

Underrated has to be soft corals. Some are just beautiful but some do spread or grow fast.
I really wish price correlated with the species fragability. Like I would understand paying 300 for a scoly because it’s near impossible to frag. Acros on the other hand grow like crazy in most mature systems with good lighting, which it frustrating because the consumer realizes they are buying from a business that is a straight up gold mine. I don’t know many advanced reefers that don’t want to set up a coral farm/online store at some point. It’s like the new gold rush, but coral, and more fun.
 
Underrated is fox coral, does anyone have one of these?
 
I really wish price correlated with the species fragability. Like I would understand paying 300 for a scoly because it’s near impossible to frag. Acros on the other hand grow like crazy in most mature systems with good lighting, which it frustrating because the consumer realizes they are buying from a business that is a straight up gold mine. I don’t know many advanced reefers that don’t want to set up a coral farm/online store at some point. It’s like the new gold rush, but coral, and more fun.

Collecting and selling rare sand is where it will be at in 2-3 years. $50 per lbs I have already started loading up now so I have enough to start selling when the time is right lol
 

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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