Once in a while, it pays off to visit LFS in person. Two weeks ago, I was visiting Northern California and paid a visit to one of the lesser known LFS, California Reefing Company (Formerly Raft Raft Norcal). From my understanding there has been some drama with the store and the name change. I won't go into detail about it.
Myself, along with a couple of reefers scanned their SPS raceway tanks looking for nice acros. Just when I was about to give up, I noticed 5 out of placed tiles in one of the raceways, tucked in between some eggcrates. All 5 tiles had colonies encrusted on it and each one was browner than anything I've seen. Zero polyp extension on them as well.
What peaked my interest was that these were the only brown things in the store. Everything else was healthy as can be, so I asked the owner of the store (Matt) about them. He told me these are very old frags from back in the days when the store was under the old name. He held them in his own personal tank and they weren't receiving the best care. He decided to bring them to the store to see if it would make them better. So I had him tell me each one's lineage and name. Upon hearing the name of one of them, I quickly asked how much?? He walked away for a few minutes to grab another employee and they came up with a pretty decent number (roughly 30 times less than going rate). I said bag it! My wife was with me at the time, and she pretty much rolled her eyes because as an sps keeper herself, she knew that this coral was either on it's way out or will never color up again.
To make this progression thread fun, I'm going to leave out the name for now and let everyone guess. If I'm able to color it up, I am positive one of you self proclaim high-end acro collectors out there will nail the ID. If it never colors up, then I'll let the thread die
I wished I took a pic of it prior to the start of recovery. I had to un-mount it and dipped it in 2x strength of Bayer, because I was afraid of pest ( my usual protocol). You can see that some hint of color is already coming in and the polyps are fully extended.
Myself, along with a couple of reefers scanned their SPS raceway tanks looking for nice acros. Just when I was about to give up, I noticed 5 out of placed tiles in one of the raceways, tucked in between some eggcrates. All 5 tiles had colonies encrusted on it and each one was browner than anything I've seen. Zero polyp extension on them as well.
What peaked my interest was that these were the only brown things in the store. Everything else was healthy as can be, so I asked the owner of the store (Matt) about them. He told me these are very old frags from back in the days when the store was under the old name. He held them in his own personal tank and they weren't receiving the best care. He decided to bring them to the store to see if it would make them better. So I had him tell me each one's lineage and name. Upon hearing the name of one of them, I quickly asked how much?? He walked away for a few minutes to grab another employee and they came up with a pretty decent number (roughly 30 times less than going rate). I said bag it! My wife was with me at the time, and she pretty much rolled her eyes because as an sps keeper herself, she knew that this coral was either on it's way out or will never color up again.
To make this progression thread fun, I'm going to leave out the name for now and let everyone guess. If I'm able to color it up, I am positive one of you self proclaim high-end acro collectors out there will nail the ID. If it never colors up, then I'll let the thread die
I wished I took a pic of it prior to the start of recovery. I had to un-mount it and dipped it in 2x strength of Bayer, because I was afraid of pest ( my usual protocol). You can see that some hint of color is already coming in and the polyps are fully extended.
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