What is the best deal you’ve gotten on a coral?

[MaxTremors]

I was reading the ‘most expensive coral’ thread and it got me thinking about the flip side of that coin. What is the best deal you’ve gotten on coral? Or what is a coral you’ve purchased that is so pretty or interesting that it should’ve cost more than you paid for it.

For me, the most recent one that comes to mind is a little blue/green/yellow/orange Yuma that I got for $10 (picture doesn’t do it justice). It’s going to be quite pretty (it already is) when it gets bigger, it’s about the size of a quarter right now.

 

[Jekyl]

50$ for an 8" rainbow nem

 

[Biokabe]

$150 for three Acan colonies, each with more than 25 heads, all in color morphs that I usually see for $90 for three-head frags.

 

[Gtinnel]

I got a SBB Rainbow Eclipse zoa polyp in a live sale for $5. It took longer than expected for the company to ship it and by the time I recieved it there were the begginings of two babies as well. The ironic thing is I didn't even realize it's was a relatively high end zoa until after I had bought it.

 

[davidcalgary29]

A cynarine from Fragbox. I had no idea that it would expand to take up a quarter of my Evo's available substrate footprint...

 

[Tyler Flynn]

Free digitatas, $100 7 headed splatter hammer

 

[drewwCh]

$3.50 for a single polyp Predator zoa frag from my LFS. I bought it as a Purple Monster, hence the wayy lower price

 

[Just John]

$10 for a 4" fuzzy sinularia and $5 Lava Lamp mushroom.

 

[Bouncingsoul39]

Got this mini colony for $20. Gotten a bunch of other nice Frags for $10 each. Nice to have so many reefers nearby.

 

[ZoWhat]

Sunburst anemone. Guy wanted $800. I talked him down to $700...which was an absolute steal for me. Boy did a win that deal.

 

[blue-thumb]

Bargains are few and far between. The cost of coral has risen significantly.

 

[Chuka1212]

I snagged a millepora for $1 in a frag sale online, but I was most excited about a pink tip elegance coral I snagged for $40. When I bought it he was slightly smaller than a tennis ball when fully open, now about 3-4 times that big.

 

[Ef4life]

best deal I ever got was $9 for a huge green digitata colony - it was a raffle I won though.

I sold this for $40 - as far as named sps frags go that’s an insane deal for a fully encrusted frag that was 2” tall. I paid 2x that for a 1” twig. There was another frag, smaller but chunkier that I also sold for 30

 

[shandoee]

Free. Many free corals. All *easy* corals but hey it’s free. Can’t beat free. Did I mention they were free? Bubblegum digi, birdnest, sunset monti, branching cyphastrea, and a rainbow splice (jk on the splice, I wish lol)

 

[Tamberav]

There is a college with a reef tank near me. Bring anything they don’t have in their frag tanks and take anything you want home.

Went home with like 20 corals… dragon soul torch and large encrusted Walt Disney acro are two examples of what I got.

Also recently bought a piece of gulf live rock for 8 dollars because it had a beautiful red rose coral on it and those can not be collected and sold (just on live rock).

 

[vetteguy53081]

There is a college with a reef tank near me. Bring anything they don’t have in their frag tanks and take anything you want home.

Went home with like 20 corals… dragon soul torch and large encrusted Walt Disney acro are two examples of what I got.

Also recently bought a piece of gulf live rock for 8 dollars because it had a beautiful red rose coral on it and those can not be collected and sold (just on live rock).

Bob is very generous. Thats my daughters school

 

[ARCkeeper]

There is a college with a reef tank near me. Bring anything they don’t have in their frag tanks and take anything you want home.

Went home with like 20 corals… dragon soul torch and large encrusted Walt Disney acro are two examples of what I got.

Also recently bought a piece of gulf live rock for 8 dollars because it had a beautiful red rose coral on it and those can not be collected and sold (just on live rock).

Lutheran College of Wisconsin?

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Haven’t gotten a lot of corals yet and I have seen better deals on other corals but out of my purchases, my indo ultra green was a steal. I got one with 5 heads and amazing color for $200

 

[MaxTremors]

I got a gorgeous little bubble coral at petco of all places today for $20 (was $25 but I had $5 in rewards). They also had a torch for $25, but it was kind of brownish and not very pretty, so I passed. Funny though, they were selling Kenya trees and little brown 1” toadstools for $59. I don’t usually shop there (stopped by to get some carbon and some filter floss, the closest lfs is 20 minutes away), but it was too good a deal to pass up.

 

[Gtinnel]

I got a gorgeous little bubble coral at petco of all places today for $20 (was $25 but I had $5 in rewards). They also had a torch for $25, but it was kind of brownish and not very pretty, so I passed. Funny though, they were selling Kenya trees and little brown 1” toadstools for $59. I don’t usually shop there (stopped by to get some carbon and some filter floss, the closest lfs is 20 minutes away), but it was too good a deal to pass up.

One of the cool things about the PetCo closest to me is that sometimes you can get a good deal because they have no idea what they have or what they should cost. There is one PetCo about 45 minutes away from me that has a really nice coral and fish selection, but the person in charge is a hobbyist and knows his stuff. It's weird to see sps corals at PetCo and they actually look healthy.