FarmerTy

I got 7 purple anthias and a regal angel coming your way sir!

Thanks guys, it was a bummer but I told myself not to fall in love with any fish until it actually hits the display tank.

I'll give you one cent for it. I plan to turn it around for 10 cents if it colors up well. [emoji6]

Funny you mention, more of my frags have been going to LFS these days... And magically turned into new fishes for the tank! It's a nice way for hobbyist and LFSs can coexist and help each other out. [emoji106]

Oh no! Rey didn't make it! [emoji17] My potter's wrasse was dead this morning. RIP!My only two conclusions may be stress from not having sand to dive into or perhaps the prazipro treatment did it in as supposedly leopard wrasses are a bit sensitive to it. The wrasse looked perfectly healthy otherwise.

I can see how both sides of the argument are valid. Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day, I'm a capitalist. If I can make good money doing something and nobody gets hurt, I will. Well, throw in there that it's got to be ethical as well but that's a given. I often dream about running my own version of Austin Aqua Farms, AAF. Renting a storage somewhere, getting a wholesaler license, and running troughs full of corals as far as the eye can see. I'd sell everything online and have a day open for walk-ins once a week. That would be awesome! I know I couldn't do a storefront. The thought of having to be there at certain specified times of the day and engaging with customers all day long seems against what I would want in a business. Most of you guys know I can talk, but even chatter gets old if you do it all day long. Anyways, geting off point but in the AAF-like scenario, there's a clear line that I'm not a hobbyist anymore. I'm a vendor at that point. I have a place of business, I have overhead, I may even have an employee, I have a business license and insurance, etc. When you're buying from me, you are buying from somebody clearing looking to make money off their product. It is a for-profit business. Since those are pipedreams for now, currently, if you're buying from Ty the hobbyist, you're getting frags from corals that have grown in my tank. You're getting pieces that broke off, pieces from colonies that are encroaching on their neighbor, pieces from colonies I don't want anymore, or pieces from colonies that people have bugged me about so much that I finally fragged it to get them to stop harassing me. Okay, the last one was a joke. Either case, I frag for fun right now, and I like it that way. People buy frags from me assuming they are healthy and acclimated to tank life, at least that's why I think they do. I've never done swaps before but started doing them this last year. They are a ton of fun and a good way to get rid of additional frags as well. Bonus... I get to meet even more reefers! Getting to the chop shop mentality, even before this thread was started, I know personally I was on the fence about it. I know I buy some acro colonies sometimes thinking, if that thing turns into a beauty, I can sell some good frags of it. This discussion got me thinking, was I buying the colony for myself? Or was I really buying it for the opportunity to strike gold if it was a gorgeous colony and sell off frags of it. The true answer I believe is somewhere in between. I no doubt have an obsession with beautiful acro colonies. I would love to have them all! So, if I buy a colony, even with an eye on potentially finding a diamond in the rough and making money off it by selling frags of it, at the end of the day, it's so beautiful, I bought it to keep... not to chop up and sell off. Then you bring in the ethical element of doing the chop shop selling method that Gig'em brought up and how it affects the LFSs in our area. He alluded to its impact... cutting profits from the stores and allowing them not to be able to compete as they have overhead to deal with while running a storefront, having employees, holding inventory, etc. Then you also bring into the discussion at home vendors like TrueBlueReefs. Basically gets the same access to wholesalers without all the overhead. He passes the savings along to the community but to what end goal? Reduces profits for the LFSs around town as they have overhead to deal with and can't compete with his garage setup. Let's go worst-case scenario, everyone starts buying corals from him and fish and the LFSs go out of business. He opens up a storefront because business gets so busy that it can't be contained in a garage anymore. He opens up his own storefront and starts selling out of there. Now he has overhead so raises the prices to compensate. Somebody else starts their own garage business and does the same to him. All we've done is really destroy the LFS in the end. Sorry, not trying to single TrueBlueReefs out but his business model is very pertinent to the discussion. To me, chop shop is right somewhere in between that gray area of hobbyists selling to hobbyists and LFSs selling to hobbyist. It's in the same gray area where an at home garage business sits too. Personally, anything I can do to not support that, I will. I had my own ethical dilemma when acquiring the ice fire echinata. True Blue had a good price on one... I was that close to pulling the trigger... but at the end of the day, I decided to support one of the LFS that has been so good to me all these years and bought it from Niko's. I'm not saying I made the right decision for everyone, just the right decision for myself. I'm not saying anybody is wrong either for choosing the other route, just saying what I felt like it was a good decision in supporting the LFSs that have done so much to support me up to this point. I've had my own ethical dilemma as well from going chop shop myself on some maricultures and making some money on the side. I think this thread and the discussion that followed has made me take a more solid stance on that. The final answer for me is no chop shop for this guy but that's just my own personal decision. Nobody needs an unnecessary added middle man in a industry where there's plenty of middle men already. I still buy my bulk items from BRS when I could buy from the LFS... yes. Not everything is black and white. Sometimes, savings are a big deal. But, when possible, I like to support my LFSs. Alright, enough of me babbling on. Happy reefing everyone!

Looks like a peanut worm... Harmless and actually helpful.

Any update on the fish? Just wanted to point out, this only solves half the equation. You still have ich in your display tank. 76 days fallow will rid you of ich in the display tank and give you an ich free tank. If you prefer to run an ich maintained tank, which I ran just fine for 12+ years now (until I tried a powder blue tang), then just make sure your fish aren't stressed and feed them well. You can always find other methods to help alleviate ich. UV had the potential to keep populations low if the proper sized unit was installed and its also of good quality but that gets expensive fast. The unit needed for my 215-gallon was $400+ new to give you an idea, and its bare minumum size. I probably could have gone one more size up. I wouldn't bother with any of the cheap brands for UV, just junk. You'll just end up with an algae clarifier instead of something that can actually kill ich protists. Supposedly ozone works well too if you plan to run it down the line. I don't know too many who run ozone in their tanks though.

Free water test? Have a traveling set of tests that goes to each meeting and people can get their water tested if they show up.

Door prizes donated by Sponsors? I think I'd be beating myself up if there was an awesome frag as a door prize for the next meeting and I missed out on it. 3 polyps of utter chaos or an ice fire echinata frag!

Nice piece!

I just looked in the mirror and only a lunatic was staring back... [emoji15]

I'm reminded of post #2147 (12/15/15) "...But if I can ensure there are no pests with my final populations of fish and corals, why not?" Just like an addict, this is my last one........ Now I know how the movie stars feel when their addiction issues are made public. At least I'm on a forum that 90% of the members have the same disease. [emoji17]

Oh I'll find room... even if something gets evicted!

By next weekend, the angels will be reintroduced! You can swing by to check them out then or wait until the end of the month when all the fish are back! It's going to be awesome![emoji4]

Keep in mind there are no test kits for CP so if you do a water change, add back in what you took out so the concentration always stays the same. For instance, if you change out 10 gals of water, replace CP dose for 10 gals that you removed. Also, CP degrades under UV light so no light over your QT. Ambient room light will do.

I've never used copper so I can't comment too much on your current plan. I'd personally use tank transfer method (TTM) if the fish are still healthy enough to survive another week. Transfer four times between two tanks every 72 hrs, making sure to dry tank and equipment completely between transfers. You must have two sets of everything...heater, pump, tank. Twelve days total and no more ich. If the fish ever exceed 72 hrs in any tank, you must start the whole process over. If it's gotten so bad that they don't look like they'll survive that long, I'd do chloroquine phosphate. It works very quickly for relief and very easy on the fish... not as harsh as copper. NLS sells it in powder form, just follow the directions on the bottle. You can find it at RCA and Aquadome usually.

You peddling corals in my build thread Dan! [emoji87] Nice haul by the way! Those acro colonies look huge!

I buy what I like but I do keep an eye on resaleability. For the super expensive frags online, I can understand that they want to make their money back on it before something happens to it. I had the same experience with the Colorado Sunburst Anemone. I almost lost my anemone when I first got it. Luckily it survived and the first split almost paid for itself when I sold it. Specifically for the Walt Disney, what a sham of a coral. I despise this trend of corals that only look good in blue lighting or are heavily photoshopped... but that's the last I'll say about that piece in particular. Haha. Almost everything is open to being fragged in my tank except for the smaller pieces that are still growing out or if it's in a hard to reach area.

It's like you come out of the woodwork whenever you smell new acros! [emoji6]

The Brace is being touched up, then powder coated, then we'll be ready.I'll probably knock it out at some point during spring Break. Need to figure out how i'm going to hold the glass brace in place so when the silicone is loose, it doesn't fall into the tank! I think that's where the girlfriend comes in handy! [emoji4]

You guys are hilarious! Really! Made my day! Sorry for the delay, my dipping process can be described as quite thorough... plus, Gig'em distracted me with Beer:30 at Whole Foods as well. I give you Mega Ice Fire!!! If was twice as big! The guys at Niko's Reef were kind enough to split me half of it. I've been looking for a large colony for some time now! Here's the stock picture of it from their vendor. Thanks for finding this for me again guys! Coral headhunters! [emoji106]

And this is the bag it came in... [emoji48]

Very exciting day! I've had a couple LFS on the lookout for a large colony of this! Can't wait to pick it up today. Pictures and details to come soon... [emoji16]

Slow? Where'd that ever get anyone in this hobby!? [emoji48] I may be the first member of the "Jealous of Rob's chaoti wrasse" club.