I can take photos and edit them, just don’t have the time to write any articles. If someone is going to write something just tell me what it will be on and I will come up with some nice images to go along with it. How about someone does something on Logan’s daddy’s tank?
Yay, I can make this one. I was worried that it would conflict with MACNA but its a week or two after so I’ll be there and maybe Keleigh to.
MACNA :-(" I wanna go, but I’m flat broke. 
Looks like I may be late for the DRC meeting as well, because right now I am typically working past 8:00pm
I will be there especially for the nano talk which will come in handy since that will be about the time the fishies will be going in hopefully! 
Can’t wait to meet everyone. My room mate will be with me too I hope so she can see the fun she is missing with SW tanks. hahaha
I’m going to try to figure out a way to get there. I think my classes are done by 6pm on mondays. Just procuring a car from the house while Im on campus I need to work out haha.
RBTA, I would offer a ride, but I may not get there till an hour and a half late. If you have no other option maybe I could still give you a ride and at least we could make it by the raffle and still be able to do trades. Speaking of which…
Who has any corals to trade?
I should have some xenia frags up for sale and possibly some zoas if I can get them ready in time I will post details in the for sale forum and link them here.
Jon
rbta I sent you a pm in canse you don’t see this but I can give you a ride if you are talking about UD campus. I will be able to go on time. Let me know, I’m on campus too.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:26, topic:585”]
Who has any corals to trade?[/quote]
I don’t have anything spectacular at the moment. Some cabbage leather and maybe a mushroom or 20. Best I’d have to offer is a small (2 head) hammer coral.
Craig
Put me first in line for the hammer for sure. I was just saying I need a piece of that and some frog spawn. What colored mushrooms? If it is anything, but what Ken and I have I could use some diversity, but if Ken or I gave them to you chances are I already have a good amount of them.
Who else has stuff to trade?
Jon
I have some stuff to trade but I think I’m going to save it for the october meeting.
Frags I already have:
1 - Toadstool
5 - Pink/Purple Yumas
2 - Green Palythoas
1 - 3 or 4 headed frogspawn (cant really tell how many heads)
1 - one headed frogspawn
1 - hairy mushroom with electric green tips (2 more hopefully healing now)
1 - Spotted Mushroom (if i can find it)
2 - Antheila
And frags that I plan on making as soon as I have more room to put them (ie. frag tank)
Another toadstool frag
Another green tip hairy shroom frag or 3
Some green base brown tentacle hairy shroom frags
Red skirt Zoa frags
Probably 1 or 2 more anthelia
Green Ricordea FL frag.
MAYBE a purple Tonga mushroom frag
Another spotted shroom frag
Red shroom frag
Red sea Xenia frag
10 more Pink/purple yumas probably
[quote=“Gordonious, post:29, topic:585”]
Put me first in line for the hammer for sure. I was just saying I need a piece of that and some frog spawn. What colored mushrooms? If it is anything, but what Ken and I have I could use some diversity, but if Ken or I gave them to you chances are I already have a good amount of them.
Who else has stuff to trade?
Jon[/quote]i have some frogspawn i will trade for a small piece of the blue zenia. i have 4 heads total 2 on each piece
So any idea when someone can come over and take some pictures? Just want to know ahead of time so I can scrape the friggen corraline algae off the front/sides before pictures. I would like to get this done before the sept meeting, but I dont have a tripod or anything for our camera, and its 6.1 Mega Pixels, which is nice enough but its not got the best white balance on it.
I have a couple of tripods but lack a quality digital camera. The white balance is pretty important.
I would be interested in frogspawn from either tat or icy, just let me know price or what else you would like to trade for it. Looks like I need to get moving with my list of frags.
I have two species of blue “xenia”, one you would need about a 55-60 head frogspawn to make it an even deal the other one usually sells for the equivalent of 40 heads, but that is because when you ship that species there is a high risk you will lose it. Having either delivered locally would make them more valuable as there is MUCH less risk that you will be losing them, especially if they have been in captivity for years and aquacultured. Sorry Tat, I have spent a lot of money and time taking care of my nice corals I can’t give them away.
Jon
Hey Jon, I see Cespitularia frags for around $70. Is that the equivalent of 50 heads of frogspawn, or do you have something different? What are you looking to get for a frag?
From what ive seen, frogspawn ranges from 5-10$ a head, depending on color. So 50 heads could be anywhere from 250-500$, which seems to be way over priced for any type of xenia.
Personally, and no offence intended to Jon, I think that cespitualira is a fad just like named zoas and duncans were a a while ago and acans and some other things are now. 100$ a frag? Come on its a form of xenia, which means it generally grows like a weed. Even if it is slower growing that still doesnt justify the price to me. I might pay 20$, and I understand how you want to get your money back on it from buying the frag, but I just dont see how any coral is worth that much for that little amount. Acans are the same way. They actually grow quite well, and are the #3 most common hermatypic coral in the indo-pacific, and yet they command a very high price in the aquarium industry. Why? Not because they are hard to get or uncommon, but simply because people want them and can charge alot.
I think the same thing happens with cespitularia. People buy a frag for 100$ and expect to make that off of every frag that they produce, even though it grows fairly quickly compared to some corals. I personally think that if something is growing for you great, but you shouldnt charge as much as is asked online for a frag to the local people. Heck, I have given away completly for free pink/purple ricordea yumas which I have seen on the divers den of live aquaria (the exact same color pattern 100%) on a small plug for 89$ each polyp. I usally trade these for things worth 10$ ish and sometimes give them for free to people who dont have anything to trade. Why? Because they grow well for me and I want to see other people have corals that are nice, not because I want to make a profit. I wont say how much the colony cost me, but you can be assured that I have not gotten that much for any one frag, or even all of the frags put together even. And I dont feel the least bit bothered by that. I still have a beautiful coral that grows well for me. The fact that you cant buy a yuma online at any vendor ive seen for 10$ doesnt bother me in the least… im not in the hobby to make money, I’m in it to enjoy my aquarium and help the other people in the hobby.
[quote=“icy1155, post:36, topic:585”]
From what ive seen, frogspawn ranges from 5-10$ a head, depending on color. So 50 heads could be anywhere from 250-500$, which seems to be way over priced for any type of xenia.
Personally, and no offence intended to Jon, I think that cespitualira is a fad just like named zoas and duncans were a a while ago and acans and some other things are now. 100$ a frag? Come on its a form of xenia, which means it generally grows like a weed. Even if it is slower growing that still doesnt justify the price to me. I might pay 20$, and I understand how you want to get your money back on it from buying the frag, but I just dont see how any coral is worth that much for that little amount. Acans are the same way. They actually grow quite well, and are the #3 most common hermatypic coral in the indo-pacific, and yet they command a very high price in the aquarium industry. Why? Not because they are hard to get or uncommon, but simply because people want them and can charge alot.
I think the same thing happens with cespitularia. People buy a frag for 100$ and expect to make that off of every frag that they produce, even though it grows fairly quickly compared to some corals. I personally think that if something is growing for you great, but you shouldnt charge as much as is asked online for a frag to the local people. Heck, I have given away completly for free pink/purple ricordea yumas which I have seen on the divers den of live aquaria (the exact same color pattern 100%) on a small plug for 89$ each polyp. I usally trade these for things worth 10$ ish and sometimes give them for free to people who dont have anything to trade. Why? Because they grow well for me and I want to see other people have corals that are nice, not because I want to make a profit. I wont say how much the colony cost me, but you can be assured that I have not gotten that much for any one frag, or even all of the frags put together even. And I dont feel the least bit bothered by that. I still have a beautiful coral that grows well for me. The fact that you cant buy a yuma online at any vendor ive seen for 10$ doesnt bother me in the least… im not in the hobby to make money, I’m in it to enjoy my aquarium and help the other people in the hobby.[/quote] well i feel the same way icy!!! jon paid alot for the blue xenia but shouldnt expect to get what he paid for it back off the first frag. i just seen a thread on rc for blue xenia for like 40 0r 50 for a polyp or 2
I wasnt really talking about Jon in particular, just how some things in this hobby seem to be disproportinatley expensive. Personally I base how much a frag is going to cost based on how fast of a grower it is. The slower it grows, the more I ask. I dont ask more because a zoanthid is a named color morph, or call my corals aulstralian so that I can get more money for them, when all that really has an impact on is Elegance coral survival. It seems as though every coral on ebay is “SUPER RARE” and whatnot, even though there are 100 other corals exactly like that one for sale at the exact same time.
Sorry I typed a response earlier while I was in a doctor’s office on my handheld, but I suppose it never got posted.(edit then I had to re-read a couple times to make sure what I was saying couldn’t be misunderstood) I’m in the same predicament many people are with their corals. I was sold a piece of “Blue Xenia†and a piece of “Efflatounariaâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ. “Blue Xenia†is a very crappy common name used for Cespitularia. As far as I can tell there are at least three species of Cespitularia which are traded and sold in the hobby. The blue species I have I believe the hobby is trying to call “African Blue Xeniaâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ, but do a Google search on the stuff and the first picture that appears is of Blue Anthelia. I have yet to find any Efflatounaria being sold in the hobby, but one big name person in the hobby says they have some and is selling some purple colored Cespitularia under the name.
Long story short I plan on building part of my website soon that will have diagrams, photos, and solid references to explain the differences and the flaws in the common names.
When I first posted my corals for sale in the “For sale forum†I had thought the fair value online was $100 and had seen it listed this way on several websites. The cheapest I could find it was $80 on a super special sale, so I went even cheaper. I had not searched the forums and didn’t know someone had followed my thread on the DVRC forum with a slightly cheaper price. For the coral which I believe is the African blue Cespitularia I am asking about $50, or fair value in trade, since the decent size frags I had made have grown significantly.(will try to post pictures soon) I currently only have two frags ready. They will not be ready for sale or trade until next months meeting as their salinity is currently above what most people keep there tanks at and I want to bring it down slowly help them make the change easier. The other species I don’t have enough of to sell currently.
BTW here is a post made on RC a couple days ago, “There are two types of what is commonly called blue xenia. One is Cespitularia and the other one Efflatounaria which is a much harder to find. A frag of Cespitularia normally cost $60 to $90, while I see price for a frag of Efflatounaria ranges from $100 to $150.†Care for Blue Xenia? - Reef Central Online Community
Earlier in this thread I threw a rough number out there for the number of heads of frog spawn was equivalent in trade. I didn’t pull out my calculator or break open excel to calculate things exactly. It was almost a joke as I knew that no one knew had a frog spawn that big to trade. My point was, at $5-10 a head depending on the type, size, and quality, a two headed frag or frogspawn was not worth the same as a piece of “blue xeniaâ€ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ.
Just as a warning no one sells xenia by the polyp. I would be careful buying xenia this way as I could make you a two polyp frag about 2mm in size. Most often this stuff is sold by the inch and it is best to only buy what you can see a picture of, or better yet see in person. You have to be careful buying stuff online. Blue tinted xenia and blue anthelia is also sold as “blue xenia†frequently. Cespitularia also ships horribly and wild colonies often do not make it.
Fact is in the near future I hope to start selling corals to make some sort of an income. Now on what scale I do so is under debate, but regardless does this really make me evil? I plan on asking fair rates for my corals and I don’t plan on running a chop shop, painting corals, playing tricks with photo shop, or making new names for an ugly coral and listing it as ultra rare when I know it is not. The second I obtain a business license, open a shop, or create a website to sell my corals I will halt any sales on forums if I am asked and still pay to sponsor the club. Though, someone posting in this thread asked me to offer up some frags to the club before I sell them to retail stores, so shortly afterwards I posted some frags. 
Jon
I completely agree that there is a lot of sensational names and hype that sells a lot of items in the hobby. Atomic, exotic, rare, radioactive, nuclear, ausy, metallic, and so on are often used. It does often get old especially when they are thrown on the names of some plain old corals. Trust me no one gets it worse then LFS. When we order things from transhippers, and wholesalers the sales people are talking to us on the phone telling us what hot items they have and how they can charge a fortune per polyp for these fast growers then we get them and they are plain and ugly.
As far as Cespitulaira goes you just have to see it to believe it. It is my favorite coral and I bought it not to make a buck on it but because I like the Xeniidae family and have a collection of them and the coral is by far the most beautiful I have ever seen.
Jon