Kessil

Boom and Bust

bookfish

bookfish

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Boom and Bust is a well known phenomenon in the aquarium hobby. The potential is easy to spot. "I need to have a frag of every type of xyz coral" or "I need to have every coral of the week during the week it's popular so i can brag about how I acquired it". These folks are, IMHO, appreciating coral for reasons that don't lead to setting up stable colonies in stable tanks for years. Often, if you wait a few months, they realise they've completely overextended themselves time-wise, money-wise or space-wise and then comes the inevitable bust. I won't trade, sell or donate my better corals to anyone who hasn't had the same system set up for more than a few months. I feel it isn't doing the corals any favors to be spread out to unstable, new and ever changing systems or hobbyists. You can all flame me now but you still can't have my corals!! LOL!!
 
I can see this happening. This is definitely a take it slow hobby but it's so easy to get excited about all the gorgeous corals that are up for sale it's hard not to buy them all (and all at once too :) ) I'm not sure if you had an intended audience for this but it is good to be reminded to take my time every once in a while.
 
The disturbing part to me is generally "those people" have an overall disregard for life, and are better off collecting stamps or baseball cards. I'm with you Jim, my more desirable corals go to people with a history of being successful reefers, not only does that ensure growth and distribution, I feel that successful reefers have been around long enough to understand the importance of lineage.

Also, Jim I don't think you'll get flamed on this board..... Try it on the "other" board and see what happens, it's actually quite funny the names people can call you.
 
Definately some annoying things there. Hobbyist chop shop coral pimps looking to make a killing off their new acquisitions. Disregard and exploitation of the animal for trade fodder or a quick buck.

Then there are the forum posts... "Look what I just got! Is this rare?", "What's this worth? Did I get ripped off?", "Is this the xyz named coral?"

Right, so they don't know what it is. They don't know how to take care of it. They bought it for too much money. And they're already scheming on how to frag it up and flip it around. They like it for its perceived value, and not for anything actually having to do with the coral itself.

Then they get mad when someone says, "No, that's not the xyz named coral."

"Oh yeah? There's plenty more in the ocean. Mr. xyx isn't the only one that can find a piece. It just looks different because of different lights. Mine is just as good. It's exactly the same. It just looks different. I don't care about the name anyway!"

Well, if they're all the same, and they don't care about the name, then why is it such a big deal that their's has to be "the same" as the xyz named coral? They never say, "Check out this cool looking Genus-name species-name coral I just got. I'm going to grow it into a colony instead of chopping it into a million pieces."
 
[quote author=tuberider link=topic=2502.msg25799#msg25799 date=1192491398]

The disturbing part to me is generally "those people" have an overall disregard for life, and are better off collecting stamps or baseball cards. I'm with you Jim, my more desirable corals go to people with a history of being successful reefers, not only does that ensure growth and distribution, I feel that successful reefers have been around long enough to understand the importance of lineage.

Also, Jim I don't think you'll get flamed on this board..... Try it on the "other" board and see what happens, it's actually quite funny the names people can call you.
[/quote]
Yeah, i don't doubt this would cause trouble over "there".
BTW, Jeremy, I have a tiny Tongan micro colony for you (10-12 polyps)
And I am keeping and growing out the rest of the colony along with my other 3 Tongan micro colonies. People can ask me about buying frags in late '08!
 
I like the way you think jim.

But I think I'm in the buy a frag and grow it into a colony group because I don't have the money to keep throuwing tiny frags in my tank.

Chris
 
[quote author=Apon link=topic=2502.msg25807#msg25807 date=1192496593]
So what is the coral of the moment? I probably need to get some.
[/quote]

Dunno but let me know so I can get a frag as well :)
 
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