What's the hype with Walt smith corals?

[Borderjumper]

Originally Posted by Aquattro

Darn good thing he's a sponsor, eh?

Whew.. Another disaster narrowly averted!

[fishoholic]

I find the really nice walt smith sps sell very quickly. I know red coral brought some in and the really nice sps sold within mintues of the store opening.

[windcoast reefs]

Thanks for that information, it is nice to know that he is collecting them in a way that is sustainable as possible. My biggest question is why do we not get corals like that in Victoria? I would pay good money for any of the corals that were in the pics, but I haven't seen any in quite a while. Is there different grades that retailers can buy or is it just luck of the draw?

[TimT]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

Is there different grades that retailers can buy or is it just luck of the draw?

There is one item for ordering wild acros and then it is what they have on hand that is ready and capable of handling shipping stress. Some times it is luck of the draw or timing with other shipments going out. I have gotten some really nice pieces and some "tourist" pieces in the same shipment. By "tourist" pieces I mean the plain green ones they should just leave on the reef for the tourists to see.

[Aquattro]

I think another issue of Tim's samples and whats available locally, is that Tim is well equipped to keep these in their original color, while most LFS are not. So if they don't sell quickly, they end up looking "regular". I have seen these locally, both Proreef and Japarto have had them, although Japarto typical does custom orders for clients and Proreef killed they're order.
Cost is also higher, which might make a retailer think twice about ordering. Honestly, how many expensive colonies are us Victorians going to buy?

[TimT]

Another issue as to why the cost is higher is that they are normally a lot larger than the corals from Bali or Tonga. Larger size = higher risk in shipping and greater cost of freight.

[Bblinks]

Brad's got a point, We(jl and oa) just got a shipment in for fiji sps and the color and size are just amazing. I mean if you buy 4 or 5 pieces for a 120 gallon tank, you would've gotten yourself an instant reef. I myself purchased a couple colonies just because you don;t get them too often. I have them under intense lighting 24 hours after introduction into my tank just so I can keep the original coloration. I had another piece a while back from fiji that browned out and brought back to the original color from blasting it with heavy light, for me this is the only way that I know to bring out the "true colors", of course your tank parameter has to be in line also. Now I was just at jl yesterday and the 2 other colonies that was on hold changed colors from light yellow and pink body with red polyps to darker brown and now 4 -5 days later they look like your normal run of the mill large brownish colonies that no one will even think twice about. I think this is the issue most lfs are concerned about. Keep in mind that JL has a dedicated tank for sps and sps frags but for some reason they just can;'t seem to keep even the frags from local tanks at the color when they first arrived. They must sell their sps within the first week or worse the first couple of days or they will end up losing money.

[freezetyle]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

Thanks for that information, it is nice to know that he is collecting them in a way that is sustainable as possible. My biggest question is why do we not get corals like that in Victoria? I would pay good money for any of the corals that were in the pics, but I haven't seen any in quite a while. Is there different grades that retailers can buy or is it just luck of the draw?

A lot of the time people do not recognize colonies in store that they see in photos. I have experienced many conversations with people about photos of coral they have seen online and have looked over in the store many times.

[Proteus]

Myself have paased up on Alot of pieces that in store looked dull. In my experiences stores have had old lights and or water quality issues. I just have trouble buying a browned out piece to find out what it will be in my tank

[Blue World Aquariums]

Originally Posted by windcoast reefs

My biggest question is why do we not get corals like that in Victoria?

I can count the people in Victoria who are into SPS and actually have room in their tanks to buy new corals on one hand. Does that answer your question?