Original LE Chalice Colony Shots

acronautical · Apr 22, 2010

I've never seen pics of the following premium chalice original colonies (Prior to being initially fragged). Can anyone post them?: Pink *******, Cornbred Trash ME, Oregon Mummy Eye, Miami Hurricane, Flamethrower. It's as if the frags just fell out of the sky or something!

shaggy420 · Apr 22, 2010

lol, i just sold my flamethrower, but it was a frag.

Alpha Aquaculture · Apr 22, 2010

I know the bpc flamethrower original wild colony photo was posted in the big chalice thread a month or so ago.

Interested in seeing the others tho

MarvinsReef · Apr 22, 2010

you can check out these threads... there's lotsa chalices to drool over (colonies, mini colonies, and frags).. at least for me...

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/f44/chalice-threads-show-off-main-wm-16679.html

SDguy · Apr 25, 2010

FT info: http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/pdf/version12.pdf

Miami hurricane info: Auctioned Editions Miami Hurricane Echinophyllia

Pink ******* colony pic: http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j206/da6d2003/chalice/newchalice-1.jpg

pitbullguy · Apr 25, 2010

Mummy Eye

Here is a couple pics of mine, these were taken quite a while back as I have not taken any new pics in a few months

Gazog · Apr 25, 2010

Don't take this wrong and I do agree that some of these LE chalices are really nice but I just don't see the attraction,
why spend up to hundreds on a little sliver of coral that someone has decided should be listed as an LE coral.

I have several chalices I paid very little for that are unbelievable. This picture is of a frag that I picked up, this picture was
taken under my standard T5's 2-12000k and 2- Antics. As it colors up and grows its getting more vibrant in color and
I expect that as it grows it will become more spectacular.

nicks387 · Apr 25, 2010

Thats a nice chalice you have there, but the truth is its also a very common one and the ones that demand more money are nicer then most. The ones that command the most money are the ones that have certain characteristics that people are willing to pay big bucks for. Those are:
The bright green "watermelon" Ring
Bright contrasting eyes "not ones you cant see"
3 or more contrasting colors like orange base with blue eyes and a green rim for example.
The reason they cost so much is they are harder to come by and in demand and as long as people are willing to spend the cash on them they will stay that way.
You cant just say "this is LE and its $300 an eye." The piece has to earn that title by having a market that is willing to pay that price. Otherwise it never gets sold and it certainly never gets LE recognition by the community.

Just look at Peter's "SDGUY" avatar. Thats a Pink ******* colony. Thats why people pay $300 an eye, so that maybe if they don't cut it every month it will look like that one day.

acronautical · Apr 26, 2010

SDguy said:
FT info: http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/pdf/version12.pdf

Miami hurricane info: Auctioned Editions Miami Hurricane Echinophyllia

Pink ******* colony pic: http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j206/da6d2003/chalice/newchalice-1.jpg

Thanks Peter! I thought I had scoured the Reeffarmers site, but I missed that one. What's the originating story for the PB colony? Also, you need to drive back up again to check out the nice growth on the PB frag from our trade; it has grown substantially and the tank is locking in hard right now. Steve.

SDguy · Apr 27, 2010

Great to hear the PB is doing so well for you, Steve! The Raptors is also growing well, and looks fantastic. You still need to come see my tank!

Hmmm, the story of the PB. Well, I guess it started with my friend Jessica (Treylane). She was on the hunt for those St Thomas mushrooms. She found a vendor Florida selling some (I think it was a vendor – and actually, I think I once saw her comment here on R2R about the PB, so maybe she’ll chime in on where the PB was collected). This vendor sent a few pictures of other stuff she had to Jessica, including a big pink chalice colony. This was around September '08.

Now, I have to tell you, this was just on the heels of me learning my lesson about buying tiny eyeless Tyree watermelon frags, so I was sort of fed up with tiny chalice frags for the moment. I told Jessica (since she was the one in communication with the vendor) that I wanted at least two eyes of the thing. I think it was going to be $70 per eye at the time. Well, eventually dealings were made, and three of us (me, Jessica, and David) ended up just buying the whole colony, and splitting it. We referred to it as “pinkie” this whole time. I remember Jessica commenting on how quickly some shipping damage healed once she had it in her tank. This was a nice surprise, again after my experience with the pink WM. So she cut it into approximate thirds. I eventually ended up with the smallest, yet most ungainly piece. It was my birthday present to me that year. :bigsmile: When I first got it:

That year at RAP (October '08), I saw the Vivid Echino at their booth, and was like “Hey, that looks just like pinkie!” I was rather unceremoniously informed by various people that I can’t do that. I can’t call it the Vivid Echino because it didn’t come from Vivid. OK. Later, a bunch of us were all talking about this subject in the chatbox on my club forum, and started throwing around funny names. I commented on how “mammary” the colony looked, and I think (knowing her humor) that it was Jessica that suggested *******. Needless to say, Pink ******* got a resounding YES vote. So, all you conspiracy theorists can suck it; that’s how the name came to be. Not because we were trying to market it; and not because we were trying to pull a fast one and pass off the Vivid Echino as something else. We were just being funny and silly, and following the “naming rules” as they were. The two corals were, after all, collected at least 1.5 years apart! None of us were selling or trading the coral at that time.

Fast forward… Eventually I think David made the first few trades (hence Marvin’s “sickest chalice” thread). I made one trade for an OS chalice.
First frag I ever made (I was so nervous LOL):

When I made that frag, my colony actually broke, and a decent sized piece came off. I kept this piece growing on the other side of my tank, as backup. Eventually I sold it to Fish n Frags.
Piece that went to FnF eventually:

He was the first to set a public price of $325 per eye. At the same time I traded two pieces with Fonda and Alicia (both very generous to me, which I will not forget). And I sold a couple pieces. Then it got nuts. Everyone’s your best friend and everyone expects you to trade with them or sell it to them at the “friend” price. It sucked, because a lot of people got bent (even people I like), taking it personally that I didn’t want to cut 20 of my 24 eyes and sell/trade them. But that’s another story…

Fast forward again. Jessica lost her colony. David still has his (I just saw it this weekend).

gumby · Apr 27, 2010

good story peter! cant help but take a closer look at my pb

agent462 · Apr 27, 2010

Awesome story, thanks for sharing!

acronautical · Apr 30, 2010

Peter, I haven't been able to post for a few days. Great story on the PB! It would be nice to hear a similar story on the Cornbred Trash ME and the others I mentioned, from the people who brought them into the hobby...Thanks for sharing, Steve

KLR · Apr 30, 2010

My

Miami hurricane, small colony

its only 4 eyes, but growing 5th

MarvinsReef · Apr 30, 2010

acronautical said:
Peter, I haven't been able to post for a few days. Great story on the PB! It would be nice to hear a similar story on the Cornbred Trash ME and the others I mentioned, from the people who brought them into the hobby...Thanks for sharing, Steve

+1 on this Pete... Thanks for the background...

slojmn · May 1, 2010

Peter, Great story

. You are definitely a very generous reefing bud

, to people got bent

amore169 · May 1, 2010

Peter I never heard you tellling the story of the PB with such detail, thanks for sharing!! Well I got the Original Vivid Enchino from Shawn from Vivid ( I remember talking to him on the phone and him telling me about this piece I think this was before RAP 2008) then Kenny posted the frag he got from Vivid on RC, beautiful coral! I ended up buying the frag I think I paid $175 for the frag with like 3 eyes, After u sold the piece to Matt (F&F) he was going to sell me a 3 eye frag because he was trying to recoup is money (I think he wanted $700) but finally he ended up fragging it and sold it by the eye that's when I got him the PB, MM and the Psychedelic, I have both pieces growing together the Vivid has like 20 eyes it just took off recently after like about a year without any growth, and the PB has like 5 (it doesn't grow for me at all) but having them growing together for a while I must say that is the same coral.