http://fragswapper.com/home.asp
NCPARS is having their annual frag swap at the TFP annual customer appreciation sale again this year. Saturday, October 2, 2010.
I went last year and it was pretty crowded for the swap. lots of nice frags. And you get to talk to Sanjay about lighting questions too, when you can corner him. I’ve been getting my email posts from TFP and NCPARS about their big sale and the swap.
Anybody going?
Well, I made the trip up to TFP this morning. I wasn’t in a big hurry to get there at the opening, since there was no tent sale for broken junk i like so much. So i got there about ten. I was surprised to see the lot only half full. But it was still an hour before the frag swap started, so i bought some IO salt on sale. buy 3 get one free. the 200 gallon box size. dumped it in the car and went to the frag swap.
It wasn’t as full as last year either. but a pretty good crowd growing as the store filled up later in the day. the club guys had a wide selection of corals and frags to choose from. and pretty good price too. I got a really bright superman monti plug for $15, a blue milli, and two types of blue tip acros frags, a couple each in the bag. and a bag of 4 elkhorn frags. Ive been looking for some for a long time. but you have to find tank grown stuff. and its rather rare anyone still has some growing. so im excited. time will tell if its the right stuff. have to see it grow and what shape it takes to verify.
It was a good day. Did anyone else go?
4 different Elk horn frags or four clones of the same thing. I have a lot of Elk Horn frags, but something has been bothering them recently. Made some changes on the system last night and plan more today, so hopefully they start perking up and growing as well as they were a couple months ago.
I really want to get my hands on an ORA elk horn coral.
TFP had an ORA “Elkhorn” frag on sale for $30. but that is a misnomer. it is actually Montipora Hirsuta that sort of branches like an Elkhorn. What i got were broken frags from the same tank raised coral that might very well be Acropora Palmata, Elkhorn. It probably goes back many generations of tank cloning. I suppose ICY will have some info to add on wild stock protection status. Currently various Florida agencies have 10 large underwater nurseries for growing frags of elkhorn and the local staghorn for reseeding reefs.
Ken if you were interested in finding Acropora palmata(note species in scientific name shouldn’t be capatalized 
then you should have said something and I would have given you a frag. Right now mine is not in any shape to be traveling.
We also really need to get you a camera. Would like to see pics of what you picked up, but pointless asking at this point.
BTW what color of Cespitularia do you still have? Both purple and blue?
i didnt know you had any of the endangered florida elkhorn. the frag of blue cespitularia you gave me has nearly died out right now. it never really took off for me. and some red sea xenia. thats all. do you still have any of the blue left after the crash? if not. take back the little foot print of mine to grow again. it does much better for you. i’ll get another frag from you later.
Oh, I’ve still got some. It’s actually very sad to see it at the moment, the massive blue colony I had isn’t colored up or polyped out and is less then 1/3 the size. I had some of each in another system. Just wanted to see who if anyone had back ups. I know Ellen had some and so did Andy, but Andy’s isn’t large or thriving either.
I have what I have IDed as palmata, but I am not 100% sure on that. The person I got it from called it Elk Horn and it certainly is the same color and growth structure. Will have to see if I can find some pics.
Obviously not the red one. It flattened out and opened up more like the typical growth structure a couple months after this shot.