When did frags become microscopic?

MadCityReefer · Nov 2, 2016

Crixus said:
I've (all of us?) been noticing that people are sellingg "half" sized frags for crazy money? When did this all start?

In my opinion it started when some hobbyist started forking out ridicules amount of money for corals.

ahiggins · Nov 2, 2016

Being fairly new to all of this...Im used to buying a 1" size lepto or 1-2 head acan or even 1-2 polyp paly.
When you say "small"- is what I buy small? lol I guess whats normal in terms of heads or inches?

Willz · Nov 2, 2016

ahiggins said:
Being fairly new to all of this...Im used to buying a 1" size lepto or 1-2 head acan or even 1-2 polyp paly.
When you say "small"- is what I buy small? lol I guess whats normal in terms of heads or inches?

Back in the good old days you could get a whole bin of Florida rics for a dollar and still have enough money to buy a newspaper and a cup of coffee.

ahiggins · Nov 2, 2016

Well, tbh, rics arent my thing lol so I wouldnt even pay that...
but i see where youre going. they go for like $40 now for smallerish ones

rock_lobster · Nov 2, 2016

I've had more success with small frags. Two scenarios, I buy a colony of a nice acropora for very pricey or a small frag for a fraction of the cost.

What most of you are not realizing is that it is much much more difficult and expensive to ship a colony. They often break off pieces and the whole colony moves around with more weight in shipping. Second colonies have a much lower survival rate after shipping or even picking up from the LFS because simply the larger surface area there is a greater chance that any part of the colony will get stressed, infection and RTN the whole colony. Some of the colony will be shaded as it was not in the previous system.

With a frag it grows specifically for the condition and lighting of the tank it is placed in and there is a lower chance of 100% loss, cheaper shipping, much cheaper purchase price.... All around way better deal. plus who wants to just set a full grown colony in their tank.. There is no success in that, I love seeing my acros grow from 1" frags into beautiful colonies.

coralfarm123 · Nov 2, 2016

I don't mind getting a small frag from someone if they don't have a big colony to start with and just want to share to keep a back up with someone. The tiny frags that vendors are selling these days are ridiculous and only show how greedy they have become. If a vendor is truly an aquaculture business, then they should have the patience to grow nice frags, but most here are just chop shops trying to maximize profit at our expense. IMO, the worst vendors are the ones that offer the fresh wild colonies and say they will cut them up and if you want to PM for price. They will even sell you the whole colony for no less than 20x markup. NO THANK YOU!!!

rock_lobster · Nov 2, 2016

Willz said:
Back in the good old days you could get a whole bin of Florida rics for a dollar and still have enough money to buy a newspaper and a cup of coffee.

Not sure how old days you are talking about. I imported these form florida 15 years ago and the cheapest price i was able to get was 750$ for 1000 polyps(insanely cheap). That was after negotiating with almost all of the licensed collectors down there and there arent many.

Willz · Nov 2, 2016

rock_lobster said:
Not sure how old days you are talking about. I imported these form florida 15 years ago and the cheapest price i was able to get was 750$ for 1000 polyps(insanely cheap). That was after negotiating with almost all of the licensed collectors down there and there arent many.

It was supposed to be a humorous take of the old "Back in my day you could get a loaf of bread (bottle of milk, gallon of gas, whatever) for a dollar and still have some money left over" trope. Wasn't serious.

cb684 · Nov 2, 2016

It depends what you are talking about. In my experience small (1/2" or less) SPS frags are more likely to die. Now, 1" frags tend to do better than bigger frags. It may be only me, but about 1/2 of my frags grow from the part they are encrusting rather than from the stick itself, so the length is not very important.

kalare · Nov 2, 2016

I'll say it...I think it started with Tyree LE frags...

Everything costs more nowadays due to designer names and such. People find a nice color, slap a cool name on it (which apparently every single coral vendor does now), and suddenly it's a $200/0.5" frag. Gone are the days of "blue tipped green stag" @ $20, they have been replaced by the days of "super apple slimer lime in the sky dragon claw stag" @ $150.

Most of the newer reefers pack their tanks full of frags cause they're small and there would otherwise be large expanses of rock, and leave no room to grow. Three inches has turned into a "colony" when as said above, is what a normal frag used to be. When I started keeping SPS 15-20 years ago, you could buy a beautiful teal/purple tenuis 5" colony for $50 bucks...more like $500 now.

I personally love to go to the bargain bin and take chances on cheap SPS and see how they color up and grow. If they stay brown, 10 bucks down the drain, if they color up...maybe name it "kalare's radiant purple hairy bigfoot milli" at a bargain $80/.25" frag!

Willz · Nov 2, 2016

I think bottom line the reason the frags are so small is that name brand vendors get dibs on the best colonies being imported. They throw a cool name on it and frag up the whole colony into microscopic frags. Sell them at a profit, and then find something better to release just about the time they run out of the last frags of the last "it" coral.