Mods, feel free to close this post if you believe it might start another flame fest. But to bring back an interesting discussion, I wanted to defend people who sell frags. I think both sides of the argument are valid. I just don't understand why you can't have both.
First off, an introduction.
Many of you probably don't know me. I rarely, if ever, post in here. I almost never go to meetings anymore. I was around in 2000, when the club started. I used to go to every meeting, and developed a lot of friendships. I have seen people come and go in this club. Some of them were close friends(I miss ya Rick!). Various people have led this club both administratively and socially since then. My 'social' involvement in the hobby has diminished quite a bit in the last couple of years. And since then, old members have left and new ones have shown up. So I'm pretty sure there aren't many in the club that recognize me. I still love reefkeeping, but I enjoy it a little more privately(still keeping in touch occasionally with friends I developed in the club). I'm a staff member at Reef Central and help with reefkeeping.com when I can. For me, that's enough time to contribute to the progression of the hobby right now. That said, I'm really impressed at how much this club has grown.
To be honest, the reef aquarium scene sucked when I first moved here. It was hard finding any sps. Coming from the west coast, this was a disappointment. BUT, now, the hobby has grown to a great level here in Atlanta. And we have the world's largest Aquarium to boot. I believe this club played a large part in this positive change.
Ok, hope I haven't bored ya yet. Back to the original point. I'm a rare coral nut, like Melissa, and others. I have spent hundreds of dollars on 1/2 frags or single polyps. I try not to buy into the hype of the latest "hot coral" trend, with flashy names. But I do like stuff that is unique. I don't collect rare corals just to grow and sell them. Believe me, tearing down my tank and eliminating the reef bug would put more money in my bank account that selling the occasional rare frag. But I can't seem to get over the reef bug, so I guess I'm out of luck. I've tried for 12 years!
I'm happy to trade with whomever has something that interests me. Problem is, it's rare that anyone has anything I want to trade for locally. When I have frags of a coral that cost me a couple hundred dollars, I don't want to trade for something that doesn't interest me. When a complete stranger asks me for a frag of something rare and has nothing to trade for it, they often offer cash. And I'll admit, I'll gladly accept it. That said, I never charged anyone the ridiculous prices I see online, even though I regrettably sometime pay those prices myself. If I grow to be friends with that person, I usually just start giving them corals. If you become my long term reef buddy, you become that person I want to share corals with, in hopes of safeguarding that particular coral from any tank crashes I may have. I don't mean to come off sounding elitist, but I'm not really in this hobby to make new friends. I do it because I like growing corals. Indirectly, I've gained a lot of friendships through this hobby, but that isn't my 1st objective. That said, I'm always willing to help a reefer out, and I have given large amounts of corals to complete strangers who had total tank crashes.
Now, to reiterate, a lot of this relates to 'rare' corals. There are numerous corals I give away for free without hesitation as well. I think the acts of selling frags for a couple of bucks and also giving away other frags for free are not mutually exclusive things. People can do both. People can help others get started with free corals or donate corals to the club for frag sessions, and then still make a couple of bucks to buy some fish food with other corals they own. The difference is what particular coral are we talking about. Back in 2000, I used to show up to meetings with buckets of green slimer acro, hence it is now in almost every Atlanta reef club member's tank. I've given away whole tanks, lights, pumps. Ask some of the founding members of this club, I'm a generous person. But there are going to be corals that I can't grow in bucketfuls. And these are only free to close friends, sorry. Let's keep it real here. If it's free corals you want, come have a beer with me and I'll show up with a bucket of corals. Just don't expect to open the lid and see corals that cost $200 online, or frags that have 3 year wait lists with some vendors. If it's THOSE corals you want, either buy the beers, cough up a few bucks, or wait a few years till the coral isn't so rare anymore. There was a time when orange capricornis was extremely rare, back in the late 90's. I remember getting my first piece. Boy that was exciting. Now it's a weed and it's everywhere. Heck, you may not believe it, but xenia use to be rare!!! That's the great thing about corals, they grow and grow and propagate easily. If you want the cool and unique stuff right now, pay for it. Otherwise, enjoy the bucket of corals that are common and free, which are honestly just as pretty and fun, and then wait a few years till the other stuff becomes common.
I have never had a problem giving a guy locally $20 for a frag. It's money well spent IMO. I guess that's why I've never had a problem asking a couple of bucks sometimes. It's one thing if the person is in it for the money, yeah that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But if it's another guy, just like me, just having fun, then no worries.
First off, an introduction.
Many of you probably don't know me. I rarely, if ever, post in here. I almost never go to meetings anymore. I was around in 2000, when the club started. I used to go to every meeting, and developed a lot of friendships. I have seen people come and go in this club. Some of them were close friends(I miss ya Rick!). Various people have led this club both administratively and socially since then. My 'social' involvement in the hobby has diminished quite a bit in the last couple of years. And since then, old members have left and new ones have shown up. So I'm pretty sure there aren't many in the club that recognize me. I still love reefkeeping, but I enjoy it a little more privately(still keeping in touch occasionally with friends I developed in the club). I'm a staff member at Reef Central and help with reefkeeping.com when I can. For me, that's enough time to contribute to the progression of the hobby right now. That said, I'm really impressed at how much this club has grown.
To be honest, the reef aquarium scene sucked when I first moved here. It was hard finding any sps. Coming from the west coast, this was a disappointment. BUT, now, the hobby has grown to a great level here in Atlanta. And we have the world's largest Aquarium to boot. I believe this club played a large part in this positive change.Ok, hope I haven't bored ya yet. Back to the original point. I'm a rare coral nut, like Melissa, and others. I have spent hundreds of dollars on 1/2 frags or single polyps. I try not to buy into the hype of the latest "hot coral" trend, with flashy names. But I do like stuff that is unique. I don't collect rare corals just to grow and sell them. Believe me, tearing down my tank and eliminating the reef bug would put more money in my bank account that selling the occasional rare frag. But I can't seem to get over the reef bug, so I guess I'm out of luck. I've tried for 12 years!
I'm happy to trade with whomever has something that interests me. Problem is, it's rare that anyone has anything I want to trade for locally.
When I have frags of a coral that cost me a couple hundred dollars, I don't want to trade for something that doesn't interest me. When a complete stranger asks me for a frag of something rare and has nothing to trade for it, they often offer cash. And I'll admit, I'll gladly accept it. That said, I never charged anyone the ridiculous prices I see online, even though I regrettably sometime pay those prices myself. If I grow to be friends with that person, I usually just start giving them corals. If you become my long term reef buddy, you become that person I want to share corals with, in hopes of safeguarding that particular coral from any tank crashes I may have. I don't mean to come off sounding elitist, but I'm not really in this hobby to make new friends. I do it because I like growing corals. Indirectly, I've gained a lot of friendships through this hobby, but that isn't my 1st objective. That said, I'm always willing to help a reefer out, and I have given large amounts of corals to complete strangers who had total tank crashes.Now, to reiterate, a lot of this relates to 'rare' corals. There are numerous corals I give away for free without hesitation as well. I think the acts of selling frags for a couple of bucks and also giving away other frags for free are not mutually exclusive things. People can do both. People can help others get started with free corals or donate corals to the club for frag sessions, and then still make a couple of bucks to buy some fish food with other corals they own. The difference is what particular coral are we talking about. Back in 2000, I used to show up to meetings with buckets of green slimer acro, hence it is now in almost every Atlanta reef club member's tank. I've given away whole tanks, lights, pumps. Ask some of the founding members of this club, I'm a generous person. But there are going to be corals that I can't grow in bucketfuls. And these are only free to close friends, sorry. Let's keep it real here. If it's free corals you want, come have a beer with me and I'll show up with a bucket of corals. Just don't expect to open the lid and see corals that cost $200 online, or frags that have 3 year wait lists with some vendors. If it's THOSE corals you want, either buy the beers, cough up a few bucks, or wait a few years till the coral isn't so rare anymore. There was a time when orange capricornis was extremely rare, back in the late 90's. I remember getting my first piece. Boy that was exciting. Now it's a weed and it's everywhere. Heck, you may not believe it, but xenia use to be rare!!! That's the great thing about corals, they grow and grow and propagate easily. If you want the cool and unique stuff right now, pay for it. Otherwise, enjoy the bucket of corals that are common and free, which are honestly just as pretty and fun, and then wait a few years till the other stuff becomes common.
I have never had a problem giving a guy locally $20 for a frag. It's money well spent IMO. I guess that's why I've never had a problem asking a couple of bucks sometimes. It's one thing if the person is in it for the money, yeah that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But if it's another guy, just like me, just having fun, then no worries.
