Coral Frags Observation

N2nanoreefer · Jan 25, 2024

Recently visited a local aquarium store and coral vendor with great reviews. They mostly deal with online orders and have huge warehouse with corals for days- open to the public. However, holding/ frag tank was infested with aptasia and bubble algae and who knows what else. From threads I’m reading here, most have come to accept the pests and buy, treat at home anyway, while others consider this a red flag. Place has more variety than several places in my area. But the tank management at other vendors is pristine so there’s that. Should I disregard the conditions of tanks at this place, as corals look phenomenal, and just scrape off, treat or remove coral from frags? What would you do? Ty

Fish Fan · Jan 25, 2024

Welcome to R2R!

I'm not an expert, so others with more experience may offer better advice, but I am in the camp of why bring home the pests and hope to deal with them? I personally would go for the store that looked clean, if everything else was the same. If the store with the unkept tanks had something you just absolutely had to have, then at the least do some dipping and setup an observation tank for the new coral so you're not risking your main display tank. Again, others will know for sure, but that's my $0.02.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

N2nanoreefer · Jan 25, 2024

Fish Fan said:
Welcome to R2R!

I'm not an expert, so others with more experience may offer better advice, but I am in the camp of why bring home the pests and hope to deal with them? I personally would go for the store that looked clean, if everything else was the same. If the store with the unkept tanks had something you just absolutely had to have, then at the least do some dipping and setup an observation tank for the new coral so you're not risking your main display tank. Again, others will know for sure, but that's my $0.02.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

Thanks for the .02 lol. I was just curious if this is normal for larger wholesale coral vendors who may not be able to keep up with the maintenance like smaller shops. I dunno, place is super close to me which is convenient, but not sure what’s considered acceptable conditions for sellers in this hobby. I could go the quarantine route you suggested if I find something there that’s a must have. Thanks again!

Fish Fan · Jan 25, 2024

N2nanoreefer said:
Thanks for the .02 lol. I was just curious if this is normal for larger wholesale coral vendors who may not be able to keep up with the maintenance like smaller shops. I dunno, place is super close to me which is convenient, but not sure what’s considered acceptable conditions for sellers in this hobby. I could go the quarantine route you suggested if I find something there that’s a must have. Thanks again!

Honestly, I'm just getting back into reefing after a decade or so out, so I'm tagging along myself because I want to see what others have to say. I just personally have a thing about dirty fish stores, both fresh and saltwater, even if the water is clean or the animals are healthy. And I understand that the place near you is so huge they can't possibly keep up with it all. On the other hand, I have a locally well regarded small LFS near me that has salt creep an inch or more thick on all their tanks, you could chisel it away. It's owned/run by just two guys who, I assume, put all their efforts into other aspects of the business, but if I were them I would raise my prices a few percent and hire a high school kid just to clean. Maybe I'm asking too much, or maybe no one wants to pay more than they have to for livestock, but cleanliness is a sign of a quality reef shop, in my humble opinion. I have two other shops in my area that area a much further drive, but both have pristine tanks. I prefer to deal with the places that are clean.

N2nanoreefer · Jan 25, 2024

Fish Fan said:
Honestly, I'm just getting back into reefing after a decade or so out, so I'm tagging along myself because I want to see what others have to say. I just personally have a thing about dirty fish stores, both fresh and saltwater, even if the water is clean or the animals are healthy. And I understand that the place near you is so huge they can't possibly keep up with it all. On the other hand, I have a locally well regarded small LFS near me that has salt creep an inch or more thick on all their tanks, you could chisel it away. It's owned/run by just two guys who, I assume, put all their efforts into other aspects of the business, but if I were them I would raise my prices a few percent and hire a high school kid just to clean. Maybe I'm asking too much, or maybe no one wants to pay more than they have to for livestock, but cleanliness is a sign of a quality reef shop, in my humble opinion. I have two other shops in my area that area a much further drive, but both have pristine tanks. I prefer to deal with the places that are clean.

Agree with everything you mention. I guess I was hoping I could convince myself to give this place a chance because of close proximity to my house and the inventory was OMG! but I’d hate risking contaminating in my tanks more than anything. I will say, even from the cleanest of the 2 stores I get my corals from, one of my frags had aptasia creeping out from under the base of Zoa, I didn’t and probably wouldn’t have noticed it at the store anyway. O well. Thanks for your input as well.