Online Coral?

[freshy&salty]

Am i the only one around who thinks its weird to pay crazy online prices for sight unseen corals?

Im lucky enough to have multiple local shops in my neighborhood but i feel like if i didnt, id be willing to spend a Saturday (or more) mini roadtripping to a shop where i could pick up coral i could actually see first.
I also use the local saltwater community forum/clubs to find frags from other local reefers.

The gas spent driving to a shop or fellow reefers to buy or trade for a new piece is generally less and since im driving, i know it isnt thrown around during shipping.

I always see amazing pics of coral online and wonder, does anybody ever actually get what theyre seeing?
I can take some pretty nice photos of pretty plain corals and with the right light and filters make them look incredible. The pics i posted show the same hammer but in 2 vastly different ways with just my cell phone. The 1st shot is with enhanced light and extra close up, the 2nd is the same coral in its everyday setting.
Now im not saying the corals online never look like they do in their photos but, how often do you crank your blues and uvs and then stick your eyeball to the glass?

Another concern i have with unseen coral, is there really is no way of knowing the conditions they are being kept in.
They could be coming out of a tank completely filled with bubble algae or worms or any other number of things one wouldnt want in their tank.
Before you say it, yes, i dip all my corals but like many condom disaster parents can tell you, nothing is 100% and i would not want to chance eggs or anything else that couldve been easily avoided by seeing where its living.

Thirdly is price. I thinks its really weird to pay more for shipping then the product youre ordering. A $20 coral ships for $40.
To me thats the same as "its free, just pay shipping". Doesnt paying for shipping mean its not free?

Im just curious as to others opinions or reasons why they do or dont order online.

I know this has probably come up in other discussions already but im tired of reading through them trying to find it.

 

[Dennis McGrath]

I have thought the exact same thing! I will only buy corals at the LFS.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Even in areas with good LFS's there is a limit to what they can stock. Once you get used to online shopping, especially reputable vendors and WYSIWYG, then you can spot the enhanced photos and visualize what they look like in daylight or normal lighting.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I do both. Tip When buying online buy enough the shipping is a wash.

There are times the lfs will be more expensive than online for less common corals and vice versa.

Its also about getting what you want in a reasonable time. This is also true of fish and motile inverts. Online my have, but your lfs may have it stocked in 2020.

 

[BestMomEver]

We have three LFSs. One deals really only in fish. No quarantine and if the fish are healthy then it must have one heck of an immune system. The second has beautiful stuff and a lot of it but doesn’t really order stuff too often. He grows his own colonies and frags them. Subsequently, I’ve seen all of his stuff over and over. The third LFS has beautiful zoas, lps, and softies. I have plenty of those but most of my tank is SPS. For me, getting something new and different means ordering. I’ve only ever ordered coral from Jason Fox and World Wide Coral and I’ve been pleased with everything I’ve recieved. And after time for acclimation, they look very much like they do in the pictures. I wouldn’t hesitate to order again.

 

[norfolkgarden]

It is impossible to tell 100% how coral is going to look in your tank compared to another tank, just due to the lighting differences.
Never mind parameters.

Most of your better online retailers will describe the type of lighting they use to take those pictures and most of them won't photoshop.
Some of them will show you 2 pictures, 1 under white lights and one under mostly actinic.

After some experience you have a pretty good idea of how things might look in your tank.

 

[vetteguy53081]

That's where feedback from others play a role. I have bought many corals and even some fish online for the last 5 years and can say for the most part, I have been lucky but had a couple of occasions where the specimen was dime size but looked much larger than the photo.
Best bet is to ask vendor what size a specimen of interest is.