Reef Discussion

[Cosby]

So...I'm forever envious of the prices that the U.S. get for such awesome corals. Of course they pay top dollar for some things that we take for granted, but geez, have a look at the prices on some of these frags that I found on eBay a while ago, and then just think of what they'd go for here with a "super ultra mega God-like" tag accompanying them.

Anyone want to come up with some names for these guys?

 

[lukusis]

No. I now want move O.S to support my reef habit though. :p

The last one can be a Supernova

 

[ReeferRob]

The opposite is true here, Aussie corals are very expensive. If it says Australia on it in the USA, these morons think they can take a normal 300% mark up and mark it up 500-700%. Duncan corals here regularly go for $15-$25 per polyp and 10cm Aussie Elegance corals fetch $100+ depending upon the colour.

 

[NiCd]

Its funny because the usa florida rics and rasta zoas sent out in asian exchange students rectums (then mass cultured) go for $150 a polyp over here

 

[ReeferRob]

There are a very few corals I've paid over $100 for at the transship level and they are the premium coloured chalices out of Timor, Australia and Irian Jaya. They are wild, but those are the last to be collected as I have 2 people here that grow them and frag them. Zooanthids don't interest me enough to pay more than $20 for a small colony, my wife on the other hand goes mental over zooanthids. And why in the hell would you risk getting caught with illegal ricordeas? I'd imagine that's a pretty hefty fine as well as losing your entire tank.

 

[MagicJ]

I guess the US has the advantage of being able to import corals from anywhere in the world.

You can buy some cheap fish in Australia which are imported from Asian countries - if corals could be imported from the same countries then I suspect they would be cheaper than the locally collected ones.

I don't actually fully understand why corals can't be imported into Australia - I hear about the bio security risk but we don't seem to worry about the release of millions of tonnes of ballast water from visiting ships.

 

[ReeferRob]

It's the same here mate. North America is being ravaged by non-native species. Zebra mussels, the goby that eats them, carp, grass carp, Lionfish are just a few. You can actually go to Florida to fish for Peacock bass and all sorts of pythons are on the loose on the land.

I can see their wanting to be careful, but a line has to be drawn. What I'd like to see done is a fine that would make people think twice about dumping things that they're tired of, something in the $50,000 line to make it painful to do so. Have people set up to take in unwanted animals or them to be euthanized humanely. Make the purchaser aware of the consequences of purchasing this animal, be it a fish, reptile or mammal.

 

[NiCd]

Back when i first started getting into marines they did import corals, from what I gather it wasn't legal or illegal it just wasn't regulated.

Im sure there was something that happened to set it into motion to ban the import of inverts, having said that i find it a bit stupid that things like redline shrimp that are the same species, share the same timor sea and float across on drift wood are not allowed to be brought across that same ocean under quarantined import.