Who Knows?

[Pete Luna]

Not been in the reefing long, just today made my first purchase on R2R. I am sure all will go well. My question.

Who really knows and how do I know? I see all day long reefers asking the lineage of a coral, or calling a torch an Idigo, Dragon Soul, or Secret Tank X. how do I know? looks like most of the others but at a heftier price, So how do I know?. Is there a guide, or do I just assume the individual charging me $1100.00 for a frag with large bumps call it a Dolly Parton Special is worth $1100.00, How do I know?

 

[KrisReef]

Who has the Dolly Parton for sale? I need a frag of that one myself.... :)

It comes down to trusting the seller and their supply chain. I don't know of anyone doing genetics on frags to validate these claims. But since we are dealing with clones it is possible that many of the named frags I have are fragments from one colony that has been passed around like a cheap lounge singer and everyone now has gotten the same piece.

 

[Idoc]

Without DNA testing, I don't think you can know a true lineage of any coral. Plus, name's are arbitrary and randomly chosen by whoever is selling the coral, mostly. The rarity of a coral or an anomaly that sets that coral apart from other similar corals should determine the price.

 

[lapin]

If coral had a breeding/fragging registry like pure bred animals maybe you could be sure of what you are getting. Once a coral is fragged and placed in a different tank it will take on different elements in that tank. What looks like a $1000 in 1 tank can look like $50 in another. If its not from the true parent colony, it might be impossible to duplicate what you think it should look like.

 

[PatW]

High priced corals tend to be ones with unusual and vibrant colors. There are all sorts of really nice looking corals for less than $100 per frag. You can check out Jason Fox or Battle corals. Battlecorals will even give you a grab bag of nicely assorted frags for $300. And Battlecorals has grown these for sometime and has a provenance.

Most people list the starter of the line that they are selling like Jason Fox, WWC, TSA, Vivid, ORA or other. Usually, these things have a certain look so it is probably accurate.

For $1000 frags, usually those are new strains with unusual colors.

But unless you can reliably grow time tested strains like ORA Red planet, I would suggest not even trying the high end stuff. Why spend $1000 on something that you will kill or not be able to get brightly colored.

Once you can raise corals well and get them brightly colored, then it might make sense to buy the $$$$$$ stuff.