Jestersix

Complete Bonus/Ultra Coral List - 2024 (REVISED AS OF 9/22/24)

In theory, that could work. In practice, not so much unfortunately. There are two major issues. First, we know that places like WWC and TSA are very inflated, especially compared to prices you could find from local sellers. Second, and most importantly, the line would be a mile long at the coral check-in booth. Volunteers are already slammed with work, and asking them to determine on the spot whether a coral meets the threshold is not a reasonable ask. Again, it could be a great idea if we had an accepted source of value and unlimited volunteer resources, but we dont.
It would be up to the person bringing the item to have documentation already. Show your documents , get a sticker.
I understand big vendors are inflated but it’s a standard. We aren’t talking about price shopping. It’s a base line.
 
Based on the price alone, my copper hammers should also be on that list - https://tidalgardens.com/stock-coppertone-hammer.html.

Are we going off of price alone, relative price, "desirability" which is kind of hard to quantify? Because right now, butt munchers ($20-25 online) and Australophyllia wilsoni ($100-200 online) are both bonus, with clear disparity in ease of fragging and propagation. But butt munchers are a relatively desirable zoa, and wilsoni is a relatively desirable LPS.

I don't think Tidal Gardens, TSA, WWC etc should ever be used as a price gage on anything lol. I found some copper hammers at $55/head from a different vendor.
 
That was my point with that post. I was saying "if we're going by price alone, then my coral should also be there", fully feeling that my coral didn't deserve to be.

And yet it is. It's still a bonus coral as of now lol
 
Thanks for updating the Bonus/Ultra list. It is probably very challenging to keep current! We may want to have someone charge of each category since it is hard for one person who keep on top of which are the hottest zoas vs. LPS vs. euphillia vs. SPS

One suggestion: Under zoas, probably should replace the Ultimate Chaos with Utter Chaos is which more sought after and looks nicer.
 
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It would be up to the person bringing the item to have documentation already. Show your documents , get a sticker.
I understand big vendors are inflated but it’s a standard. We aren’t talking about price shopping. It’s a base line.
Big stores can be unreasonably inflated. Problems arise when you get things like this:
By price, this would be an ultra. But if someone brought a holy grail torch and went home with this, I don't know if they'd want to bring a torch to the next swap.

On the topic of the process, I'm well aware that large revisions would introduce some complexity to an already-arduous check-in, for volunteers who are already doing a lot, and so the feasibility of this is probably slim. I completely understand how no process or list can be infallible, and the closer you try to get, infinitely more work is needed to make it happen. I still wanted to put in my two cents for consideration by people more experienced with events than I am.

Instead of the two tiers, bonus and ultra, we could assign "ticket-eligible" corals a point value and decide that, say, every 5 points is a ticket. This, IMO, would allow for better ranking of corals by allowing for more corals that float just outside the "bonus" or "ultra" categories to be incentivized to be brought and be rewarded.

For example, a regular hammer, which based on the current system is not bonus, might suddenly feel worth bringing if it were worth a point, while on the extreme opposite end, an OG bounce might feel worth bringing if it were worth significantly more than just a sunkist.

For what it's worth, my former bonus are probably going to end up in dbtc or as trades. I'm not too upset and for some of them, I agree with Josh's decision. I just wanted to share my thoughts about this.
 
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Then you would need 3 people dedicated to constantly changing the list to make it as fair as possible. And that’s just their personal opinion of what that coral rates. Then you’ll still get someone complaining that it’s not fair.
 
1) I have a couple small King Kong Yumas splits that are not bouncing. Do these count as ultra?

2) Similarly I have a couple Sunkists, but they're also small, like just under a dime size, but the Sunkist already has bounces. If they need to be bigger I can do that, but I would like some bonus tickets this swap. What is the bar for approval for these mushrooms? For example, is it the development of bounces, or a certain radius?
 
1) I have a couple small King Kong Yumas splits that are not bouncing. Do these count as ultra?

2) Similarly I have a couple Sunkists, but they're also small, like just under a dime size, but the Sunkist already has bounces. If they need to be bigger I can do that, but I would like some bonus tickets this swap. What is the bar for approval for these mushrooms? For example, is it the development of bounces, or a certain radius?
1. Can you provide any photos? I do not believe regular king kongs are on the list. The coral must be bouncing at the time of the swap in order for it to be considered a bounce.

2. The sunkists should be fine as long as they are visibly bouncing. Dime size is quite small, but as long as they are visually identifiable as Sunkist bounces you should be fine.
 
1. Can you provide any photos? I do not believe regular king kongs are on the list. The coral must be bouncing at the time of the swap in order for it to be considered a bounce.

2. The sunkists should be fine as long as they are visibly bouncing. Dime size is quite small, but as long as they are visually identifiable as Sunkist bounces you should be fine.
FYI: King Kongs rarely bounce until they get old, quite old. And even without sending pictures, I know mine are not true bouncing.

Okay on the sunkists
 
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1. Can you provide any photos?
I guess it can’t hurt? This is one of my uglier pictures in recent history lol

Taken through a film of algae
 

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I guess it can’t hurt? This is one of my uglier pictures in recent history lol

Taken through a film of algae
I'm a fan of those. I'm not sure if the came indirectly from the ones I gave out to people (the cage in one of your pics looks like one I gave out), but either way I have a bunch of those and I haven't seen them bounce. They get huge and grow fast in the right conditions though.

Yours might be different, just noting for reference since those look very similar to what I have and what others in the club have in DBTC.
 
I guess it can’t hurt? This is one of my uglier pictures in recent history lol

Taken through a film of algae
Those look very similar or the same as the rainbow yumas that I have a lot of and I’ve shared widely in the club. They were bonus before the recent update, now I don’t see them on the list. I do see King Kong on there still in ultra, but not sure if there’s a difference. Confusing.
 
Those look very similar or the same as the rainbow yumas that I have a lot of and I’ve shared widely in the club. They were bonus before the recent update, now I don’t see them on the list. I do see King Kong on there still in ultra, but not sure if there’s a difference. Confusing.
Here’s an old photo of one I got from you

IMG_8688.jpeg
 
For what it’s worth and I’m no professional aquarist or a leading vender that can create a fancy name behind a coral and sell it for 10x market value.

But I don’t consider ricordia as a bouncing coral. They already have the vesicles that tend to increase and decrease in size on a regular basis.

I look more towards Rhodactis and discosoma as bouncing variety.
 
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