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Originally Posted by Loverotties
Wow you want all that for free!
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He never said he expected any of it for free. He asked if people would sell him frags of these things. (oops. I see now that TG already pointed this out).
Nonetheless, I'd be happy to share bits of the things I still have with you Pete, though others have already replied with their offers for many of the things I could give you. I don't think anyone mentioned gorgonians or leather corals though. I could give you a gorgonian and a leather, though the leather may or may not be the particular type you are looking for. I also have Galaxea, Pavona (2 types), and other things.
Now I am going to get up on my soap box again (I've posted similar rants in the past, several years ago)....
It makes no sense for any of us to be stingy with corals we have in our tanks. OK, if you have nicely mounted frags that took some labor to get started, or larger colonies, then it can make sense to try to sell these to help pay for upkeep of your tanks. I have sold mounted frags and some large colonies to a shop in the past to try to pay a bit of the expenses of our lab tanks. Maybe if you have something really really expensive it might also make some sense to try to sell them. And if this is how you make your living (or part of how you make your living), then obviously selling makes sense.
But really...think about this: If you have a coral that you really really like, that is really special, what is the very best thing you can do to help to ensure that coral's long-term perpetuation in reef tanks, and to increase the chances that you will have access to the coral long-term (say, 5 or 10 years from now)? The best thing, in my opinion, is to give frags away right and left to as many people as you can. I did this with the wonderful hot pink birsdnest I used to have (which in turn I started from a free frag that was only about an inch long). And I would not be surprised if all the Larry Jackson's Purple-tipped Monster in the club came from my Augsburg tanks (I bought a tiny frag from Inland Aquatics about 7 years ago and then gave away dozens of frags –in fact, I think I gave away several dozen in just one afternoon when I hosted a meeting a few years back –and I also sold some big ones to Something Fishy). Ditto for most of the
Red Sea Xenia in the club...I gave away dozens of these (which were all descended from about 4 polyps that I bought on a tiny bit of rock). Ditto for a number of other things.
Why give things away like this?
Well for one thing it is the responsible thing to do. If I had not done so a lot of nice corals would have been completely lost when I had my tank crashes, and their collection from the wild would have been a total waste. I would say that this is in fact not just the responsible thing to do, but also the ethical thing to do from an envrionmental standpoint. I never planned to have tank crashes, but any of our systems could easily crash tomorrow or next week for any number of reasons.
Sharing corals is also the selfish thing to do, since if you lose your favorite corals there might be some chance of getting frags of them back again if other people have them in their tanks. But even if you never get them back, it is nice to know that they are still growing in other tanks and did not die completely.
It is also simply a really nice thing to do. Keeping reef tanks is so outrageously expensive, and unless you have a much greater income than I have (or a bigger budget than I have to work with for my lab tanks), it is pretty hard to afford to have a really well-stocked, diverse tank. But if everyone shares bits of what they have to spare with anyone who shows an interest, then everyone will have much more interesting tanks. (though we probably do need to be careful to not spread pests to all of our tanks in the process).
Given how expensive reef tanks are, it is understandable that people might want to recoup some of their expenses. For people with really extensive collections and huge really expensive systems it might make sense to do this. For example, I can think of one member who had a very large tank and loads of different corals who charged a little bit for frags, but he charged very little. Compared to retail, it was almost like he was giving the corals away, but he had so many corals that this small fee for frags was a nice supplement to the funds he had available to keep his big system going.
But for a lot of us, especially folks who don't have giant tanks or grow out tanks set up to produce large numbers of new colonies, the reality is that the money you get from selling a few corals here in there is pretty trivial. Suppose you manage to sell 20 frags at $10 each. The $200 you get is not a trivial sum, but just think how fast that would go if you used it to buy a few new corals, zooanthids, etc at retail prices (especially if you had to pay shipping)? Now compare the total return (in terms of really nice new corals for your tank) from selling those 20 frags to what you could get if every other reefkeeper you know gave you a few frags of their favorite corals?
I really think that for most of us, the potential return from giving frags away to everybody and anybody, and having others do the same, is much greater than the return you will have if you get too hung up on money.
(Incidentally, I really think that getting too hung up on money can be a really bad thing for clubs like this. I have seen cases in the past where it led to lots of problems between people, and the near destruction of clubs. OK, clubs like the Minnesota Aquarium Society do pull this money thing off very well (lots of money changes hands at monthly breeders award program auctions, and at several VERY large auctions each year), but that club has a lot of people who are amazingly dedicated and put lots and lots of time into making the club run smoothly. It is a very complex operation compared to TCMAS.)
And here is another thought regarding sharing frags: If you give frags away, do so without expecting anything in return. The most greatful recipients are often people who have nothing to give you in trade because they are just getting started. The only expectation should be that they will gladly share whatever they can spare with others in the future.
If everyone does this, everyone will benefit, and I firmly believe that everyone will come out ahead. I have given away many more frags than I have received, but the wonderful diversity of corals we used to have before my tank crashes would not have been possible without the free frags I got from others. Most folks with thriving reef tanks can easily spare lots of frags from their tanks and hardly even notice that anything is missing. If you have an establisehd tank it is no big deal to give away frags (for me, the biggest problem of doing this is just finding times during my busy days to meet with visitors). But those little frags are precious to someone who doesn't have those corals already, and if the recipient is just starting out, the little frags you give away will
dramatically transform that person's tank, as well as the tanks of others who recieve frags from that person in the future.
OK, I got carried away here. Sorry.
And I was not trying to pick on anyone here. Honest. I just think it is nice to remind ourselves of some of these ideas once in awhile.
Stepping down from my soapbox now.
