Throwing coral away....say it isn't so!

[NY_Caveman]

I get this and I have done it too. If you think about it, though, would you throw away an anemone split? Would you buy a Tang for your Nuvo 20 and throw it away when it got too big? Isn’t buying a fast growing Montipora capricornis for a nano as irresponsible as adding a Hippo Tang? Corals are carnivorous animals, yet we treat them like plants. Not judging, not saying anything is wrong, just playing devil’s advocate.

 

[homer1475]

Where are you again homer? I'm between Syracuse and Rochester. I'm an hour away from the stores, but for free, I could take a Sunday drive for a rescue.

I'm still about 3 to 4 hours north. Old forge, NY. I frequently travel out to the rochester, buffalo area to go to your LFS's. ARC, and Carribean Forest are 2 of my favorite.

 

[Laith]

You guys are all missing the perfect solution: GET A BIGGER TANK!

What better excuse can one have?

 

[that Reef Guy]

Sadly, I have thrown out a lot over the years. I used to try to sell stuff... but then only to get either scammed by someone who turned around....fragged the piece and then resold it for stupid prices.... or in a couple of cases... offered to sell it to someone... but then the person demanded "free shipping".... I kid you not. I have even stopped giving stuff away...again. I saw some pieces being resold. I had one guy ask me to drive an hour to "drop off the corals to him and place it in his tank"....otherwise he didnt want it. Again.... I kid you not.

Perhaps as you get your new marketplace running here on R2R... we will have the opportunity to trade and sell amongst ourselves a bit more / better. I hate throwing stuff away....

So how exactly did you get "scammed" ????

You set the price.

Somebody paid it.

What they do after that is their choice.

That is not a Scam.

 

[that Reef Guy]

I’ve got an anacropora colony that’s approaching beach ball size, at some point some of it is going to end up in the trash.

Why Kill an Animal.

Take it to the LFS instead.

 

[Waters]

I throw away monti cap frags almost weekly.......LFS stores in the area won't take them because they already have a ton of them in their stores. At some point I want to set up a small frag tank and grow them out to be given away or sold.

 

[McPuff]

I've thrown out some huge pieces of capricornis, some birdsnest, some digitata, and probably a few other types. Generally this is when time is of the essence or there's just way too much to sell/give away. Luckily my LFS likes [and trusts] my corals and will take my frags for trade. I've posted corals for free in the local forum and had little success. Facebook might be better nowdays though. I find that nobody will take big pieces, but if you cut them and mount frags they sell pretty quickly. The key is to prune often enough that you don't ever have to really do a chop job.

 

[Bpb]

I've thrown out some huge pieces of capricornis, some birdsnest, some digitata, and probably a few other types. Generally this is when time is of the essence or there's just way too much to sell/give away. Luckily my LFS likes [and trusts] my corals and will take my frags for trade. I've posted corals for free in the local forum and had little success. Facebook might be better nowdays though. I find that nobody will take big pieces, but if you cut them and mount frags they sell pretty quickly. The key is to prune often enough that you don't ever have to really do a chop job.

+1. I’ve never tossed anything just because I’m staring at it for weeks and hate it and say, meh, to heck with it I want it out. It’s always at 7 pm on a week night when a big colony will fall and cannot be re attached and I can’t exactly load up 3 toddlers in the car at bedtime and race 1-2 hours down the road to try and catch an lfs before they close and get the kids to sleep at midnight on a work night. Sometimes it just works out that something has to go immediately and without notice.

 

[Initialr]

All these generous reefers w free corals need to be in the north east Just saying

Personally, I’ve only dumped gsp

 

[Mr.Asbury]

I can properly dispose of some corals in the OH-WV-PA area if anyone needs help with that haha

 

[Sod Buster]

. I frequently travel out to the rochester, buffalo area to go to your LFS's. ARC, and Carribean Forest are 2 of my favorite.

Love ARC, that is 2 hours for me. I see that he and TCK have live sales on this site. Saturday the 30th is the Rochester frag swap. They will have a booth. Old Forge is a ride to Buffalo, that is dedicated. I visit the mountains in the summertime to Cranberry. I bet the waterpark traffic gets old though.

 

[Nep2n]

My first coral was the Hollywood stunner, have many frags that nobody wants not sure what to do with them.


I have thought about throwing them out

Too bad that's such a long drive. I'd certainly take a piece off you hands!!

 

[Flippers4pups]

Where are the St. Louis people who have so much coral they must trash the cuttings??! We can make a deal

I've got you covered! Free candy canes, green monticap, German blue digitata, birds nest.... Pest free. Pm me.

 

[Nep2n]

@revhtree what about making a special section of the for sale section devoted to coral give away? make it free, and local pickup only? then people can peruse it to see if anyone close is donating anything interesting?

Really not a bad idea. I have a small frag tank that I keep all clippings in. Usually give away or trade locally. Would be nice to know who in my area might want/have animals they would rather give away than kill. Of course the seemingly obvious side to this is that most of what would be for give away would be pretty basic stuff. Premium pieces would be easy enough to sell.
North Central NC btw.

 

[jd371]

Ugghhh, hate to hear these stories! If anyone is throwing away frags in the LI New York area let me know !

I'll keep you in mind. My GSP is starting to spread onto the back glass again and I will be cutting sheets off soon if you're interested. I also plan on moving my RBTA's from the main to an anemone tank I set up once it is more stable and might give one or two away.

 

[saintsreturn]

Thankfully our market is saturated with LFS and hobbyist. I have not intentionally thrown away anything, including mushrooms, xenia and GSP. There is always a market for it here and those three actually paid for a lot of what i have now. My GSP overtook three large rocks and i traded it in for store credit, enough that i upgraded lights off the deal. Hoping my newer, higher end stuff grows enough to pay for the new return pump i want.

It sucks to hear that some of you have this problem. I see folks around here tossing some things, but every time i bring up going to one of the two major lfs, i always hear "I didnt know they took in corals."

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

Ive been thinkin about doing this with some of my GSP. I have one huge head that's great but it has spread to a few other places and keeps on going.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Why Kill an Animal.

Take it to the LFS instead.

No local fish stores that can keep it!

 

[fish farmer]

I used to bring in softies to one LFS years ago, he got overloaded with xenia on occasion.

All of the stuff I toss are softies. I did feel bad chopping my nepthia down( it is still growing from frags). It was shading/blocking flow. For me it doesn't attach well to rocks. I've considered bringing some into the LFS which are either 1 to 1.5 hours away, but I rarely shop at either.

I've connected with a couple of newer reefers in the area to load them up with weeds, but they are still in the planning stages. Most of the old timers around here are the ones who unloaded the same weed corals to me.

Not many reefers in Vermont, but local pickup can get you red/green mushrooms, nepthia, colt, gsp and maybe a hammer frag! But I would QT/dip/inspect, I have things like vermatids, aiptasia and some pesky red algaes.

 

[Rick.45cal]

Why Kill an Animal.

Take it to the LFS instead.

Just so we are clear! I have and will continue to give every bit of it away that I can, there will come a point when the entire colony must be trimmed and there simply isn’t going to be a way for me to give it all away. The same is unfortunately true for my ORA blue digi. I’ve filled all my reefing friends tanks with it. It grows faster than I can get rid of it. I realize you do lots of frag swaps and etc. that’s great. It’s not part of the hobby that I enjoy or logistically can do. I don’t enjoy throwing corals away, but the reality is at some point I am going to have to. If you were closer I’d gladly bring you a bucket full of it!