What do you do or how do you feel when the corals you receive look nothing like the venders pictures?

[vabben]

In my experience some corals just need a bit of time to acclimate to your tank parameters and lighting before they really pop.

Though I will echo others here, buying from local reefers has been the best. For online vendors, everything I have bought from Kush Corals has always arrived healthy and just as colorful as the picture.

 

[kartrsu]

Have people had good experience with aquasd? See my post above, but my supposedly pink hammer came back all banged up and not true to photo.

 

[Hawk324]

I’ve bought from two different venders where the corals colors looks nothing like the online pictures. The toadstool is the most disappointing since its straight up brown. The devils hand isn’t as bad because I feel like there is some potential color wise and I like the shape and growth pattern, I drove more than an hour to get it so it was disappointing to see it not look like online pictures but I did buy any ways for the reasons I mentioned. At best I feel like I could leave google review for these two companies with pics to warn other reefers.

I’ve also made another online order with a different company and I’m totally feeling uneasy about it not looking like their pic but they at least say they take pictures under whiter lighting and they try represent the coral accurately.

My lighting is probably 12-14k temp wise in these pics but even with blue/actinic these corals are nothing like the vender pics.

I've learned in my short time with buying,you do not get what you see and that's how some of them get you. Either have camera real close for picture or bright lights on it to make it look great.

 

[Spazizz]

@LeahAnn I’ve gotten burned on eBay, I bought two leathers, one pink and one green. Turned out they were the same coral cuz they look the exact same now in my tank, neither pink or green. They are grayish bodies with white polyps, they are kind of nice With white polyps. In high light they get pale green but nothing like the pictures on eBay.

@vabben The coral showed up to my doorstep looking brown and not green. I will give the brown leather a chance though, I think in a high light area It could improve.

 

[PicassoClown04]

@LeahAnn I’ve gotten burned on eBay, I bought two leathers, one pink and one green. Turned out they were the same coral cuz they look the exact same now in my tank, neither pink or green. They are grayish bodies with white polyps, they are kind of nice With white polyps. In high light they get pale green but nothing like the pictures on eBay.

@vabben The coral showed up to my doorstep looking brown and not green. I will give the brown leather a chance though, I think in a high light area It could improve.

You should really give R2R marketplace a chance, you can also search for seller feedback threads and posts to make sure they’re reputable and the pictures are true to life which really helps me.

Buying things with names also really helps, like I wouldn’t buy a zoa with a fake name (AC/DC Cookie Monster Zoa for example) because I can’t reference it anywhere online so I really have to trust the seller’s pics. But I wouldn’t hesitate to buy something like an utter chaos cause I know what that looks like and I can dispute the charge easily if the coral I receive doesn’t match the name or picture. Pretty much all corals these days have names so it’s super easy to just Google it and find pics of what it should look like.

Zoanthids.com had the best pictures I’ve seen so far. I ordered like 8 zoas from them and every single one was exactly as pictured. Their sister company Ultra Corals also sent me a Pink Buubies chalice and it was also exactly like the pic. The packaging was spectacular (small cups and the corals were floated upside down on styrofoam. Box had a cooler inside filled with paper and packing peanuts) and they also included some really nice stickers. 10/10 would buy from them again, the only downside is that their normal pricing is much higher than hobbyist. Their live sale prices are actually pretty good and I got some Zoanthids.com originals like UC Inception, UC Ketchum, UC Oingo Boingo, and UC Pink Zipper Grandis which is awesome because I can’t get them anywhere else

 

[William Morris]

If I receive a coral that doesn't resemble the image on the vendor's website (which I always save) I ask for my money back. If they say "it's your lighting" I respond that this is not my first rodeo. Normally I will get the refund or a replacement.
Where I go wrong at times is not asking what size the coral is. I bought a beautiful Blasto from UC that looked like it was 1-1/2" or so in the image and it turns out to be about 1/2" in diameter. They duped me with the close-up image only and nothing else in the background to get a sens of scale.

 

[William Morris]

Me too.

I found POTO and Cali Kid to be the most realistic in their photos.

Will I really see all the yellow under almost all blue lighting? The image is from POTO

 

[gentlefish]

Just had ordered 3 frags, nothing the size of the advertisement. 1/4 to1/2. Sent pics to the store and they gave me a store credit. That’s good policy and that’s why I will be back for more.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Will I really see all the yellow under almost all blue lighting? The image is from POTO

I’ve bought a couple things from POTO, they showed up pretty much exactly as pictured. Yellow clove was definitely yellow, fox coral was green center with brown folds, sunset strip BTA looks pretty much exactly like the picture, and the hulk torch is 100% accurate to the pic provided. I agree with you that the blasto colony looks a little too good to be true though

 

[MONTANTK]

I feel as some vendors are walking a very fine line when it comes to posting deceptive photos. I remember one instance where someone on eBay had a straight up red torch for sale when it was clearly not red. A lot of this has become more widespread due to the use of orange lenses/filters. Eventually it becomes easier to tell which photos have been edited and which have not

 

[Bluedore]

POTO is good place to order online, I’ve bought mid & high end pieces with them on and off, prices are good and great customer service from Kenny and his crew. The items I’ve received are pretty close to their online pics.

 

[CanuckReefer]

I don't buy anything unless I see it with my own eyes, whether that is LFS, or local reefers selling. I understand some are unable to do this of course, but it's just not worth the risk if I can purchase somewhat local.

 

[dzolot]

I’m so glad you posted this because I’ve had the same issue every time I bought corals online!! Never made a stink of it with the sellers, but just don’t buy online anymore. I buy from some great LFS’s and Facebook has some good local groups with people selling and/ or swapping nice and high end corals.

 

[William Morris]

Has anyone ever seen a Blasto like this? Do you think it will really look like this?

 

[PicassoClown04]

Has anyone ever seen a Blasto like this? Do you think it will really look like this?

I have a blasto that looks very similar (the purple is a tiny bit darker) I believe that the blasto probably actually looks like that

 

[bsr2430]

Ive had the same luck on ebay with 2 sellers. The last one i bought 3 times from, being a newbie at frags i believed her when she said, theyre just stressed and will be ok. Well some did do great but colors not what was picture. most recently i bought a purple and green acro, sposed to be overnighted paid 45 for overnight, plus got 3 other corals. Well it took 4 days, the water temp was 68 everyone was pale. The lepto had broken off the frag. So 3 wks later now the acro died. She reimbursed 15 of 45 of shipping. Wont buy there again. Here in Omaha there is only 1 store with corals and they recently moved and lost most if them.. . Any suggestions of where you order and recieve what is shown? Thanks for reading my blog. Open to suggestions.

I got a suggestion for you, stop buying from eBay. I’ve only purchased from AQUA SD on eBay, always got exactly what was pictured and zero photo editing.
I’d would never accepted deliver after four days. You should’ve gotten a full refund for that. Not a crappy $15 or $45.

 

[Jib]

Yeah so I just bought from the Zoanthids.com live sale. Colors are accurate, but geez are they tiny. Picture must have been taken with a microscope. Was pretty disappointed receiving baby zoanthids that seemed normal size in the picture. I had just participated in the Jason Fox live sale before that and the stuff I bought was great, 5-7 large polyps on each frag plug. Although ones zoas color does look pretty different, overall I’m happy. Very doubtful I’d order from Zoanthids.com anymore though. Learned a good lesson. Will have to check into vendor reputation before making anymore purchases.

 

[PicassoClown04]

Yeah so I just bought from the Zoanthids.com live sale. Colors are accurate, but geez are they tiny. Picture must have been taken with a microscope. Was pretty disappointed receiving baby zoanthids that seemed normal size in the picture. I had just participated in the Jason Fox live sale before that and the stuff I bought was great, 5-7 large polyps on each frag plug. Although ones zoas color does look pretty different, overall I’m happy. Very doubtful I’d order from Zoanthids.com anymore though. Learned a good lesson. Will have to check into vendor reputation before making anymore purchases.

I found their zoas to be pretty small too. But I think that may be the adult polyp size? If you don’t mind me asking, which zoas did you buy?

My Ketchum’s and oingo Boingo have doubled in number but the polyps are still puny, I can barely take a pic of them in focus because they’re so small.

A few have gotten to regular zoa mature size, but the biggest let down were the pink zipper grandes. Grandes usually means a pretty big polyp, I expect dime size or larger with a name like that but they appear to be normal pink zippers. It’s still early though, maybe they will grow to the advertised size and it just takes a little time.

 

[William Morris]

I now ask how the photos were taken (what was the lighting) and how large the coral is.
Aqua SD is as bad as any of them when it comes to size and colors at times.
Often the images are extreme close-ups with no reference to actual size.

 

[Biokabe]

I got a suggestion for you, stop buying from eBay. I’ve only purchased from AQUA SD on eBay, always got exactly what was pictured and zero photo editing.
I’d would never accepted deliver after four days. You should’ve gotten a full refund for that. Not a crappy $15 or $45.

Yes, exactly. Even if it wasn't the seller's fault (and taking 4 days for an overnight shipment isn't the seller's fault, that's on the shipper), all of those shipping services come with a guarantee. Taking 4 days to deliver an OVERNIGHT shipment is a straightforward claim; if the seller had bothered filing a claim with the shipper, they would have had their shipping refunded. Which they should have given back to the buyer.