Okay, confession time. I have this sort of weird secret disdain that I carry with me. A secret that really no coral vendor should have.
I hate frag plugs.
The objects of my disdain. Surely, I need to get a life...
No, really. I hate them. I’m not sure why. I mean, to a person who sells coral for a living, they are the best and easiest way to manage coral frags, so it is downright weird that I hate them so much. In fact, one could argue that frag plugs are the symbol for sustainability in the aquarium trade, and that to dislike them as much as I do is almost UN-American, ecologically insensitive, and downright curmudgeonly (like I haven’t heard that one before)! I should love them to pieces.
I even “commissioned†the “Corals 4 The Cure†plugs that we use at Unqique Corals to help donate money to cancer research , so I think plugs can be a force for good. But the vast majority of them cause me more consternation than they do anything else. I really should just deal with it.
A bad thing doing good: The C4C plug tells cancer where to stuff it...
Instead, I would like to smash them to pieces. Bizzare. I must need therapy or something. I mean, surely there must be more stuff to raise my ire, especially at 5:45AM PDT the day after a grueling 2 day Reefapalooza coral fest. Hmm..maybe that could be it? I dunno. This is why the internet is so slow. This kind of crap and cat videos on Facebook. Who is the person who actually films these cat videos, anyways? And how much time do they have on their hands to catch “Fluffy†feeding the birds or doing the Macarena, or whatever?
So who was literally the first person I ran into at RAP? My bestest buddy in the whole reef keeping world, Tony Vargas. A man who understands my insanity. Note the ironic free plug for a certain coral vendor in the background.
Oh, anyways, back to my commentary…
Do I have to apologize on behalf of the coral industry about unleashing these wretched things upon the hobby in large numbers every day?
Probably not, but I will at least express my views here.
And I’m not the only one who feels this way..I have clients who simply won’t by frags because of the plugs. They’re about colonies and such. I even have one client who is a Lobophyllia and Trachyphyllia lover because, as he eloquently stated, “I hate the #$%^%$^&% plugs that frags come on.â€
That’s an expensive hatred, and perhaps the ultimate in defiance- but I commend him for his steadfastness.
Let’s be honest, frag plugs are necessary evil. The ultimate way to grow a coral and transport it around the country or the world. They work. Some are pieces of art, like Justin Credabel’s “sculpture plugs†that he makes for ReefGen. Our customers love ‘em. They’re cool.
The sexiest frag plugs, hands down: Justin's "Sculpture Plugs" for ReefGen!
The neat thing a bout a frag plug is that they help keep us honest in the industry! With a little experience, you can differentiate between a “chop shop†and a legit coral vendor at a mere glance. Huh? Yeah,a coral that’s been “on the plug†for a while will show signs of encrusting, or at least, signs that it’s been on the plug more than 6 hours, including a slight patina of algae around the base where it was glued, and usually some encrusting tissue at the base (with many corals).
On the other hand, if you see a clean white plug, supporting an insanely colorful coral frag with no tissue encrusting, no algae film, and nice fresh glue, you have exactly what you suspect- a newly chopped up coral just glued to a plug. Is their anything inherently wrong with that? In some quarters, no. In my personal opinion, it’s a sign that you should at least ask some questions of the vendor who sent it to you. There’s some “splainin’ to do…And there may be a perfectly good explanation- and you should hear it before you “twitter-hack†them to death. At the very least, the little frag plug can help alert us to this not-so-cool-practice.
Still don’t like ‘em, though.
I guess one of the things I don’t like about frag plugs is the “pin†, and the way it projects down and creates issues for anal aquascapers, who have to contend with the pin and the aesthetic compromises the “pin†causes in their rock work. The “pin†is there because it helps hold the frag in place on eggcrate, which is the “industry standard†for placing coral frags in grow out tansk and raceways. If you don’t have rocks with nice clefts or holes, you have what looks like a bunch of golf tees or mushrooms poking out of your well-thought-out rockwork..or worse- you lay ‘em on the side haphazardly. I mean, there are a few other workarounds, of course- each a compromise of sorts:
*You can cut the “pin†off and simples glue the base to your rock, and wait for the encrusting growth to occur and cover it completely.
You can orient the plug on its side, cover it with some bits and pieces of rubble and such, and the coral will grow in a different orientation for a while before it “goes vertical.â€
*You can carefully remove it from the plug altogether…Really not advisable, as this can create stress for the coral, and damage it to the point where any number of causes dooms it.
*You can just “deal with it†and brag to your non-reefkeeping friends that they are a symbol of hobby sustainability and responsibility (which they are, really).
I say this as I proudly pointed out at least 50 times this weekend that the ORA “Red Planet†and other ORA pieces we offered at our booth were the “real dealâ€, because they were on genuine ORA plugs…Uggh..I’m crazy, stubborn, AND hypocritical. Nice.
"Look under the calcium carbonate for the genuine ORA plug!" Oh, boy, I've lost it.
In the end, we don’t really have a better way to grow frags, do we? I mean, for Xenia, Sinularia, zoas and such, there are alternatives (like tiles, window screen, etc.), but for the bulk of the corals we play with, plush are the way. Or at the very least, we have the frag disks without the pin for many species.
So, in summary, frags are basically one of those things you have to deal with in the hobby, much like we deal with replacing blades in our razors, the filter in our Brita pitcher, or removing batteries from plastic blister packs. A necessary inconvenience, yet, at the same time, and important symbol of the sustainability of the reefkeeping hobby.
That’s like 1,070 words largely hating on frag plugs from a guy who probably sees more in a day than many will in a lifetime, and owes a good part of his existence as a businessperson to ‘em. Has anyone ever written an entire op-ed piece about frag plugs? Probably not..guess I’m breaking new ground here.
Bizzare. Really, I’m even weirded out myself by this attitude.
How do you feel about frag plugs? Be honest. Is there some other “industry standard†thing that drives you nuts? It’s Monday, it’s your forum, and you can vent here safely. Relax, you’re among friends.
And if you think I’m nuts, or wasting bandwidth, let me know. I remember not long ago, a reader gave me a very concise and highly accurate assessment of the majority of my writing (“utter stupidityâ€) that was very helpful…Well, actually it just motivated me to write more about ridiculousness such as this…LOL
Okay, enough of this.
Time to start my day. It was a pleasure seeing some of you at Reefapalooza this weekend…Some of you have even threatened to stop by UC today, so I need to get my slovenly behind on the road soon. I’ll have more to say about the show in later pieces this week, along with some meandering about some of my favorite corals and people. Hopefully, we will all have a good week.
Until then- be safe, have fun…
And Stay Wet.
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
I hate frag plugs.
The objects of my disdain. Surely, I need to get a life...
No, really. I hate them. I’m not sure why. I mean, to a person who sells coral for a living, they are the best and easiest way to manage coral frags, so it is downright weird that I hate them so much. In fact, one could argue that frag plugs are the symbol for sustainability in the aquarium trade, and that to dislike them as much as I do is almost UN-American, ecologically insensitive, and downright curmudgeonly (like I haven’t heard that one before)! I should love them to pieces.
I even “commissioned†the “Corals 4 The Cure†plugs that we use at Unqique Corals to help donate money to cancer research , so I think plugs can be a force for good. But the vast majority of them cause me more consternation than they do anything else. I really should just deal with it.
A bad thing doing good: The C4C plug tells cancer where to stuff it...
Instead, I would like to smash them to pieces. Bizzare. I must need therapy or something. I mean, surely there must be more stuff to raise my ire, especially at 5:45AM PDT the day after a grueling 2 day Reefapalooza coral fest. Hmm..maybe that could be it? I dunno. This is why the internet is so slow. This kind of crap and cat videos on Facebook. Who is the person who actually films these cat videos, anyways? And how much time do they have on their hands to catch “Fluffy†feeding the birds or doing the Macarena, or whatever?
So who was literally the first person I ran into at RAP? My bestest buddy in the whole reef keeping world, Tony Vargas. A man who understands my insanity. Note the ironic free plug for a certain coral vendor in the background.
Oh, anyways, back to my commentary…
Do I have to apologize on behalf of the coral industry about unleashing these wretched things upon the hobby in large numbers every day?
Probably not, but I will at least express my views here.
And I’m not the only one who feels this way..I have clients who simply won’t by frags because of the plugs. They’re about colonies and such. I even have one client who is a Lobophyllia and Trachyphyllia lover because, as he eloquently stated, “I hate the #$%^%$^&% plugs that frags come on.â€
That’s an expensive hatred, and perhaps the ultimate in defiance- but I commend him for his steadfastness.
Let’s be honest, frag plugs are necessary evil. The ultimate way to grow a coral and transport it around the country or the world. They work. Some are pieces of art, like Justin Credabel’s “sculpture plugs†that he makes for ReefGen. Our customers love ‘em. They’re cool.
The sexiest frag plugs, hands down: Justin's "Sculpture Plugs" for ReefGen!
The neat thing a bout a frag plug is that they help keep us honest in the industry! With a little experience, you can differentiate between a “chop shop†and a legit coral vendor at a mere glance. Huh? Yeah,a coral that’s been “on the plug†for a while will show signs of encrusting, or at least, signs that it’s been on the plug more than 6 hours, including a slight patina of algae around the base where it was glued, and usually some encrusting tissue at the base (with many corals).
On the other hand, if you see a clean white plug, supporting an insanely colorful coral frag with no tissue encrusting, no algae film, and nice fresh glue, you have exactly what you suspect- a newly chopped up coral just glued to a plug. Is their anything inherently wrong with that? In some quarters, no. In my personal opinion, it’s a sign that you should at least ask some questions of the vendor who sent it to you. There’s some “splainin’ to do…And there may be a perfectly good explanation- and you should hear it before you “twitter-hack†them to death. At the very least, the little frag plug can help alert us to this not-so-cool-practice.
Still don’t like ‘em, though.
I guess one of the things I don’t like about frag plugs is the “pin†, and the way it projects down and creates issues for anal aquascapers, who have to contend with the pin and the aesthetic compromises the “pin†causes in their rock work. The “pin†is there because it helps hold the frag in place on eggcrate, which is the “industry standard†for placing coral frags in grow out tansk and raceways. If you don’t have rocks with nice clefts or holes, you have what looks like a bunch of golf tees or mushrooms poking out of your well-thought-out rockwork..or worse- you lay ‘em on the side haphazardly. I mean, there are a few other workarounds, of course- each a compromise of sorts:
*You can cut the “pin†off and simples glue the base to your rock, and wait for the encrusting growth to occur and cover it completely.
You can orient the plug on its side, cover it with some bits and pieces of rubble and such, and the coral will grow in a different orientation for a while before it “goes vertical.â€
*You can carefully remove it from the plug altogether…Really not advisable, as this can create stress for the coral, and damage it to the point where any number of causes dooms it.
*You can just “deal with it†and brag to your non-reefkeeping friends that they are a symbol of hobby sustainability and responsibility (which they are, really).
I say this as I proudly pointed out at least 50 times this weekend that the ORA “Red Planet†and other ORA pieces we offered at our booth were the “real dealâ€, because they were on genuine ORA plugs…Uggh..I’m crazy, stubborn, AND hypocritical. Nice.
"Look under the calcium carbonate for the genuine ORA plug!" Oh, boy, I've lost it.
In the end, we don’t really have a better way to grow frags, do we? I mean, for Xenia, Sinularia, zoas and such, there are alternatives (like tiles, window screen, etc.), but for the bulk of the corals we play with, plush are the way. Or at the very least, we have the frag disks without the pin for many species.
So, in summary, frags are basically one of those things you have to deal with in the hobby, much like we deal with replacing blades in our razors, the filter in our Brita pitcher, or removing batteries from plastic blister packs. A necessary inconvenience, yet, at the same time, and important symbol of the sustainability of the reefkeeping hobby.
That’s like 1,070 words largely hating on frag plugs from a guy who probably sees more in a day than many will in a lifetime, and owes a good part of his existence as a businessperson to ‘em. Has anyone ever written an entire op-ed piece about frag plugs? Probably not..guess I’m breaking new ground here.
Bizzare. Really, I’m even weirded out myself by this attitude.
How do you feel about frag plugs? Be honest. Is there some other “industry standard†thing that drives you nuts? It’s Monday, it’s your forum, and you can vent here safely. Relax, you’re among friends.
And if you think I’m nuts, or wasting bandwidth, let me know. I remember not long ago, a reader gave me a very concise and highly accurate assessment of the majority of my writing (“utter stupidityâ€) that was very helpful…Well, actually it just motivated me to write more about ridiculousness such as this…LOL
Okay, enough of this.
Time to start my day. It was a pleasure seeing some of you at Reefapalooza this weekend…Some of you have even threatened to stop by UC today, so I need to get my slovenly behind on the road soon. I’ll have more to say about the show in later pieces this week, along with some meandering about some of my favorite corals and people. Hopefully, we will all have a good week.
Until then- be safe, have fun…
And Stay Wet.
Scott Fellman
Unique Corals
