RSF Aquarium Tip: Page 28

[Eric Borneman]

I don't have to even go into how I feel about this practice and especially Steve Tyree's role in this. I am going to Sulawesi in March and will be, again, in the area where so many of these corals are collected. I also will have permits and access to exporters. My plane fare and accommodations for a week were less than one of those frags. That in itself justifies the insanity of these practices.

Second point, the reason for the trip is to potentially look at setting up and training collectors in SECORE techniques to sexually produce these corals for restoring their bombed reefs in the area and to provide long term sustainable corals for the ornamental trade without touching corals on the reef. Furthermore, if successful, it may be possible to breed for phenotype. How I would love for this to pan out. At this point, there would be so many shizzleberries available, they would eliminate the obscene ploys played on this hobby using these marketing strategies.

[Amie]

. At this point, there would be so many shizzleberries available, they would eliminate the obscene ploys played on this hobby using these marketing strategies.

That would be fantastic.

You are right Joe, the tanks of the people that keep these corals are immaculate with high-end equipment that I could never afford. But they can't afford to loose a single coral at the prices they pay. We have been setting rules that the corals that they are selling need to be in their tanks at least 6 months before they can frag and sell them so they aren't bringing them in the night before they sell them. That has slowed things down a bit. I've tried to convince them to grow some of these large enough to let them spawn, but one of them actually said..if I did that, it wouldn't be worth as much. Funny, huh? In a sick sort of way.