Frags don't have to be tiny and take years to grow into good size colonies. That just the way most people do things. Locally there are only about 5 of us who can keep SPS with any success so typically when we buy/sell/trade coral with each other its for pieces that dwarf what are sold as 'colonies' by retailers. There are those of us in PG who often throw large amounts of coral into the garbage on a semi annual basis... Its a huge waste but unless someone wants to take the time to ship them out of town there just isn't anything else that can be done.

:surprise::cry::surprise::cry:
that sucks.

Frags. A frag grows and adapts to it's environment and it will be much more hardy because of it. Also frags of healthy mothers grown in capivity are proven to be successful in our artifical boxes of water.