[Cujo#31]

With all due respect for all the parties involved I’ll start by making sure it’s understood that I am not calling out anyone, and I’m not into casting stones either. I am by no means an expert. I hardly even consider myself “half decent” in the SPS game. Although my preference is to deal with local guys on RR pieces and not to deal with RR directly, in all fairness to any vendor, it would be foolish to assume their marketed pics are true representatives of the real article. Any vendor interested in maintaining a degree of integrity should be happy to send you pics under “unsaturated daylight”. If a vendor won’t accommodate such a request, I personally question their integrity as, to me it makes me feel as they have something to hide.
As far as colouring up, as has been said, that is 100% reliant on specific Tank conditions. It is also not uncommon for pieces to take up to a year to “settle in” and sometimes another year to start popping.
At the end of the day all of our tanks are as individual as we are and we are or should be more than aware of the risks associated with ordering coral from abroad. Honesty, integrity, and customer support are, or should be paramount concerns for any vendor wishing to remain in business and I personally will only deal with vendors that demonstrate these characteristics.
Aside from that, the pics I have seen, are pieces that can easily be found locally or by forum inquiry if a source is not known. I would never gamble my hard earned dollars on ordering and shipping more common pieces when I can take a drive and see the real deal with my own eyes.