Reef Discussion

MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
this is most likey true, but insted of an individual, the reefuge has the ability to display and sell to 500 odd people in the one hit, so even if they sell at retail or higher price to us, if all 500 jump in then it will probly be more benificial
problem is most people wont want to pay 400$ for a hammer the size of a golf ball,
and whos going to store the stock? the suppliers wont ship to single people.
also whos going to pay the price to get all the coral in stock :P
 

Meller

Member
Aug 13, 2011
240
219
Canberra
MTG is absolutely right.... the Reefuge, despite being a great community, will have no sway or buying power when it comes to outcompeting the OS market. His quoted reply is nearly verbatim the same as i have had from multiple exporters/collectors, unless your able to buy 500 boxes at a time every month, then you wont get an A grade piece. Some of these coral importers for the US buy 1000 boxes a month, and the exporter told me they may only get 1 or 2 A grades in that time and he never guarantees that they will. They still buy it anyway....

Jamie is also correct though, and the quality of stock is improving within AU and will continue to improve over time.

Aquaculture is also having a positive effect, as the true A grade stuff is successfully grown and fragged. This is only the start people. When enough people can frag and share the love, eventually everyone should end up with something amazing ;) Practice your husbandry, do an extra water change and join the coral donar program when its running..... this is the way forward for us :)
 

Agent M

Member
Oct 21, 2011
3,536
1,586
Melbourne
I agree with Meller that currently the best chance we have of getting the A-Grade coral we are referring to is to culture them - the two biggest hurdles are learning how and having the balls to make the first cut to half a week's pay sitting in your tank :eek

Granted a few of us know a bit about how the exporters work but hear me out for a sec before anyone shoots down The Reefuge's offer to enquire for us.... the exporter's are a business. Yes they may laugh at our enquiry and yes, we know there is a good chance we will get knocked back, but we don't know that because we haven't asked. What's the worst that can happen by asking? They laugh? I'm ok with that.... businesses get casual enquiries all of the time. The more enquiries they get about something, the more obvious a niche in the market is going to become to them so its not for us to assume they won't be open to selling to us, and as parrdog said, things have been coming our way in recent times. A small business owner I know always has big ideas that people poo-poo and say can't be done - he got it in his head that he wanted Al Gore to come to Australia and launch his new business venture. So he contacted him and asked.... you finish the story!
 

MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
I agree with Meller that currently the best chance we have of getting the A-Grade coral we are referring to is to culture them - the two biggest hurdles are learning how and having the balls to make the first cut to half a week's pay sitting in your tank :eek

Granted a few of us know a bit about how the exporters work but hear me out for a sec before anyone shoots down The Reefuge's offer to enquire for us.... the exporter's are a business. Yes they may laugh at our enquiry and yes, we know there is a good chance we will get knocked back, but we don't know that because we haven't asked. What's the worst that can happen by asking? They laugh? I'm ok with that.... businesses get casual enquiries all of the time. The more enquiries they get about something, the more obvious a niche in the market is going to become to them so its not for us to assume they won't be open to selling to us, and as parrdog said, things have been coming our way in recent times. A small business owner I know always has big ideas that people poo-poo and say can't be done - he got it in his head that he wanted Al Gore to come to Australia and launch his new business venture. So he contacted him and asked.... you finish the story!
in theory it sounds good but essentially who is going to fork out the thousands and thousands for each order and who will store it without sending the corals brown? :P
 
Totally agree with your post MTG with the prices they are getting, but some people will spend thousands just to get a tank. Others spend thousands or hundreds on equipment. It make's sense they would pay $600 or more for a coral. Admittedly not buying hundreds of pieces, but it would nice to have the opportunity to do so.
Make's you wonder where Australia is heading, we import billions of dollars of cheap Chinese, Taiwan & third world country's goods every year. Then we turn around & export some of the best stuff in the country overseas lol. :confused:
 

MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
Totally agree with your post MTG with the prices they are getting, but some people will spend thousands just to get a tank. Others spend thousands or hundreds on equipment. It make's sense they would pay $600 or more for a coral. Admittedly not buying hundreds of pieces, but it would nice to have the opportunity to do so.
Make's you wonder where Australia is heading, we import billions of dollars of cheap Chinese, Taiwan & third world country's goods every year. Then we turn around & export some of the best stuff in the country overseas lol. :confused:
if you willing to spend the big bucks then shops can order it in, they just wont order it for no reason run the risk of it dieing or going brown and loosing a huge amount of cash!
 

Salty

Member
Jun 6, 2012
642
406
After reading this topic I would agree with most of the points discussed or made however some I disagree with and may be interpreted as a little rough. Com'on fellas, If you want something you need to go and get it. OK there are some great things overseas that come from Australia but note, we see them n sites that have them for sale (Marketing) so as previously stated, Actinic lighting, Great Cameras and Good old Photoshop; of course they look great (I would love to think how many people who bought that chalice listed in this post, purchased it, unpacked it and shed a dry tear thinking "$90 for a 12mm frag of this???" as they stare at a non fluorescent bit of coral.

As Parrdog stated above, It is by all mean NOT all doom and gloom you just need to hunt for it. This is why (what works for me); I believe it all begins by having a good relationship with your coral/fish supplier, it is going to be worth its weight in gold. If anyone, these are the people that are going to be able to get the ULTRA (lol, hate that word) stuff so..........you first need to keep a few things in perspective:
- these people (LFS or online) are there to make a LIVING by suppling us with equipment, fish, corals, etc.
- a retailer is not going to be excited by the fact that you purchased a fluro green hammer from another LFS that you state is heaps nicer and cheaper than their specimens.
- they are not going to be excited about helping you resolve issues that you have with a new faulty item that you purchased online overseas that you now want warranty on.
- they are not going to give you a frag of their prized coral from their personal display tank/s if you never purchase things from them. (Im sure we can all agree that best supplier relationship we each have, is with the one with the supplier we most purchase from!)

FWIW I was chatting to Ernie from Reeflections on thur night (hense this post) while he' was unpacking and guess who got a chalice almost identical to the one at the start of the thread. As I, you might thing of course he does, he gets first pick. Well apparently not. It sat in the coral system for several week with a price tag of $70-80 and he took it home as not to let it perish (Pic added, Ernie was nice enough to take a shot for me to post). We all know the US get a lot of great Aussie stuff, but so do we and like anything else, u get what u put it. If u want something you gotta get out and look for it, ask for it, find it and get it, but remember; It most likely will not be fluro at the LFS, hey, it may even be brown.

As for my opinion and my experience. My LFS is Reeflections. I am bias but heck' I'm allowed to be, but I like most like most I also go to Willies (Jack), Keysborough (Ming), Mentone, among others. Each have their strengths and weaknesses (I could prob go on for ages but IMO:
- Reeflections - Apart from not being to far from me, Ernie knows his S#!T, Ok he may not butter it up with icing and sugar but he is rarely wrong. Service & advice is No 1. Best quality fish (Individual systems to isolate issues), constant volume of stock (prob about 5-20boxed (if not more) most weeks with 20or more not nessaceraly being BBQ night) and as per this discussion, because of this, I guess he has better chance of getting, wait for it; ULTRA!!! stuff than what some others might.
- Willies - Not my local but number 2 in my book.
- Keysborough - Ming can get his hand on some nice stuff but you have to work on him to sell it to you and prob cost a penny or two. Most things will look better in your system.
- Mentone - I don't go there for the advice or the service but you may find a special piece once in a while.

Again as I stated, list above is my opinion. Yes, there are many other great LFS but I aint gonna list them all for the purpose of my post (Which in case I began to ramble is about..... Wait for it....... ULTRA!!!! corals and getting our hand on them).

I have listed some photos of corals that I have that I think are special (to me anyway) together with where I got them and a little bio about how I got them. I firmly believe that I got these items, NOT by flashing cash, NOT by sucking up, def. NOT by hovering over foam boxes as they are unpacked; but by chating with, asking, being polite and respecful to LFS's. (Most pics taken with iPhone)

OK so it not a catalogue system in AUS as it may seam in the US. My point is though, they're out there, u just need to go an get'em

Chalice.JPG

Ernies Chalice, was on sale for $70-80 and no bids so he took it home. I'm glad hes got it cause I might be able to convince him into giving me a 12mm frag. LMFAO ;)

Fungia.JPG

Red Fungia from Ming's little marine display. Cost me but gald to have it.

Acan.JPG

Acan - Ernie got about 8 of these a while ago. I bought one and another 3 or so sold, but the others sat there for ages Priced $60-90. I never understood why they didn't sell, I actually asked Ernie and he just shrugged his shoulders.

RareMorph.JPG

Pseudocorynactis Sp. How about this for a morph? Purchased for $32 as a Misc Anemone
 

Salty

Member
Jun 6, 2012
642
406
Guess you CAN get corals like this ... just have to be damn fast off the mark, or know the LFSs that get them in well. parrdog knows too well how easy it is to miss out =0)

[Broken External Image]:https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/599247_10151045256826077_1172424850_n.jpg

Just looking through my phone and saw this pic taken at Reeflections on friday . OK photography is no where near as good but hey. Still on sale as of friday FWIW.
photo.JPG


Just went of his facebook page to see if he had another photo of it and presto $50 bottom left corner.

295298_444786412228661_461960299_n.jpg
 

chimaera

enjoy the little things
May 13, 2012
5,473
2,295
Sandringham
Good points well made, Salty. I guess you just need to keep an eye out for such items and be willing to pay for them when you do see them.
 

shane_h

Member
Feb 3, 2012
209
26
Also if they sell to the reefuge, then there are local growers of there Ultra grade corals...
Work out a buy back scheme for frags? I dunno, never been good with business, But that could work couldn't it? AND the corals would be better acclimated to tank life.