Getting Rid of Fast Growers?

[chipmunkofdoom2]

How does everyone get rid of fast growing SPS? I have a ton of Montipora that I literally can't give away for free (locally). I've been trying for weeks and only had 3 people take me up on the offer. Still a ton of coral left. No interest.

I considered shipping, but at the very least, I'd need boxes, packing supplies, and then on top of that, pay $40 - $50 to ship them. So we're looking at $60+ per package just to ship them out. I'd be surprised if people are willing to pay much more than $60 for a 3-pack of Montipora, so I'd basically be breaking even.

Does anyone else have issues getting rid of some of these faster growers? How do you do it?

 

[TankCandy]

If you have exhausted those avenues. My last attempt would be to take it to a local fish store and see if they will give you store credit or maybe a trade. The market here is pretty good. Make sure you tag it as local pickup and your state.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

If you have exhausted those avenues. My last attempt would be to take it to a local fish store and see if they will give you store credit or maybe a trade. The market here is pretty good. Make sure you tag it as local pickup and your state.

Thanks for the input. I've been trying to avoid this because the closest LFS to me is about 1 - 1.5 hours away. At this point though, killing half a day might be worth it to get rid of all these frags. I'll see if there's any interest.

 

[DanyL]

I often find myself in the same situation.
For over a decade I've been offloading the frags I couldn't sell or giveaway to multiple stores over my country.
I usually offload around 40, large 5 to 10 cm frags each visit and get store credit in return.

You can also try to include them as freebies to other frags you sell, people will often appreciate it.

 

[Enderg60]

1. Sell local
2. Sell to store for credit.
3. Trash can

I have thrown out POUNDS of monti, starry night and pocilapora over the years.

 

[Dburr1014]

1. Sell local
2. Sell to store for credit.
3. Trash can

I have thrown out POUNDS of monti, starry night and pocilapora over the years.

4) carx, free media

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

3. Trash can

I have thrown out POUNDS of monti, starry night and pocilapora over the years.

I know this happens, but I'm trying to avoid it if possible. I don't love the idea of throwing living animals in the trash. Maybe it's just me and how I assess value, but it's almost inconceivable that nobody wants these things for free.

Hopefully driving 2 - 3 hours to a LFS will pay off.

 

[DanyL]

I know this happens, but I'm trying to avoid it if possible. I don't love the idea of throwing living animals in the trash. Maybe it's just me and how I assess value, but it's almost inconceivable that nobody wants these things for free.

Hopefully driving 2 - 3 hours to a LFS will pay off.

Call them first, show pictures of the frags and their size, is usually helps.
Also, I advice you to agree on how much credit you get per frag for each visit up front, at least here some owners try to lower the regular value when they know you wouldn't return back home with them.

 

[Dburr1014]

My lfs gives me half of what they would sell them for.

 

[Enderg60]

I know this happens, but I'm trying to avoid it if possible. I don't love the idea of throwing living animals in the trash. Maybe it's just me and how I assess value, but it's almost inconceivable that nobody wants these things for free.

Hopefully driving 2 - 3 hours to a LFS will pay off.

Stop thinking of coral as animals. They have no brain. They are one step between plants and jellyfish.

Its pruning your garden, not killing babies man. While someone might want a rose trimming that can be replanted(expensive corals), no one wants your grass clippings(basic monites). And most of the time you cant find anyone to take the rose trimmings so they go in the trash too. In a few weeks you will have more anyway.

And yeah, call the store before you go driving 3 hours. When I worked at a LFS people would get mad at how little we would offer them for stuff.

I used to hold onto frags until someone wanted it because hey its MONEY! Frags would grow into colonies while waiting and I would end up selling it for the frag price just to get it out of the tank.

Ive found the best course of action is to post that you will be trimming stuff on a weekend and let people swing by for fresh trimmings. High end stuff gets mounted as frags, the rest gets trashed. Or bleached and stuffed in the calcium reactor.

 

[GARRIGA]

Stop thinking of coral as animals. They have no brain. They are one step between plants and jellyfish.

Its pruning your garden, not killing babies man. While someone might want a rose trimming that can be replanted(expensive corals), no one wants your grass clippings(basic monites). And most of the time you cant find anyone to take the rose trimmings so they go in the trash too. In a few weeks you will have more anyway.

And yeah, call the store before you go driving 3 hours. When I worked at a LFS people would get mad at how little we would offer them for stuff.

I used to hold onto frags until someone wanted it because hey its MONEY! Frags would grow into colonies while waiting and I would end up selling it for the frag price just to get it out of the tank.

Ive found the best course of action is to post that you will be trimming stuff on a weekend and let people swing by for fresh trimmings. High end stuff gets mounted as frags, the rest gets trashed. Or bleached and stuffed in the calcium reactor.

Our food was once alive including vegetables. It is what it is.

 

[thepotoo]

I would love to know about this too. My LFS won't take SPS corals (he can't keep them alive) so I regularly put whole colonies of gatorade birdsnest into my calcium reactor. It's frustrating to see coral vendors selling this stuff for $30/inch when I'm throwing away colonies that are (by their pricing) worth thousands of dollars.

I tried to give a 30" colony to a larger vendor that would have been a 4 hour drive away for me, but he didn't want it (no space).

And as was mentioned previously, shipping cost is far more than the cost of the coral, so shipping is a lot of hassle to make literally no money (and to need to deal with DOAs, flaky buyers, etc.).

There's sadly no market around me, posting things for free on CL doesn't even get a single reply.

 

[92Miata]

So we're looking at $60+ per package just to ship them out. I'd be surprised if people are willing to pay much more than $60 for a 3-pack of Montipora, so I'd basically be breaking even.

Have you watched any live sales? I've seen people pay more than $60 for green digi. Tidal gardens' montis start at $30/piece. WWC has 1 frag less than $29 with most being $40+.


We're in a weird place right now where for a lot of these corals, it's tough to find them locally because nobody is bothering to sell them, and they're expensive online. So you've got newbies spending hundreds of dollars online to buy stuff that people are throwing out down the street.

We really need a better distribution system.

 

[Enderg60]

You also have the fact that people will pay retail prices from retail places(as dumb as it is in most cases), but as soon as you sell it, its now second hand and not worth retail prices.

 

[DanyL]

It's interesting to see that the exact same things I see here in Israel are the same in the US.
I always had the impression that due to the large amount of reefers in the US combined with the fact that shipping is an option at all, and an acceptable one at it, it would be a lot easier to move frags for a reasonable price, and at all.

But hey, at least you guys still do have conferences, local farms, and a huge variety of corals and equipment to choose from. We don't have any of these here unfortunately.

 

[92Miata]

You also have the fact that people will pay retail prices from retail places(as dumb as it is in most cases), but as soon as you sell it, its now second hand and not worth retail prices.

This is in a lot of cases because of all the propaganda in this hobby about pests. I'm hesitant to buy corals from a lot of reefers because I don't know enough about their processes - building a web store at least tells me they're taking things somewhat seriously. It also gives me some idea of what they have.

Algae Barn can't keep chaeto in stock at $40 for a tiny ball because they tell people theirs's is clean (it's not) and that getting it from a reefer is a huge risk (OMG, Bristleworms!). BRS and all the others have parroted this and reinforced it, and made people afraid of everything from bristleworms to microstars to amphipods. There's so much corporate capture of the hobby at this point it's just ridiculous.

There's just nowhere locally for me to find stuff easily - I can post on the local facebook group "Hey, anybody got a piece of Fox Flame?" - then I have to sort through a half dozen PMs, some of which are people who want $150 for a frag of a coral that's readily available online for $50-75. Some will want to sell me 1/4" pieces. Some will be different corals, etc. One will be the local guy who has an online store who was pretty good - but now he's importing stuff every week and I have to worry about that.

 

[Dburr1014]

This is in a lot of cases because of all the propaganda in this hobby about pests. I'm hesitant to buy corals from a lot of reefers because I don't know enough about their processes - building a web store at least tells me they're taking things somewhat seriously. It also gives me some idea of what they have.

Algae Barn can't keep chaeto in stock at $40 for a tiny ball because they tell people theirs's is clean (it's not) and that getting it from a reefer is a huge risk (OMG, Bristleworms!). BRS and all the others have parroted this and reinforced it, and made people afraid of everything from bristleworms to microstars to amphipods. There's so much corporate capture of the hobby at this point it's just ridiculous.

There's just nowhere locally for me to find stuff easily - I can post on the local facebook group "Hey, anybody got a piece of Fox Flame?" - then I have to sort through a half dozen PMs, some of which are people who want $150 for a frag of a coral that's readily available online for $50-75. Some will want to sell me 1/4" pieces. Some will be different corals, etc. One will be the local guy who has an online store who was pretty good - but now he's importing stuff every week and I have to worry about that.

Unfortunately, some big online stores have pests also. I will not mention names but think BIG NAMES.

 

[92Miata]

Unfortunately, some big online stores have pests also. I will not mention names but think BIG NAMES.

Of course - anybody who is regularly importing stuff and then selling it is going to have pests. The best places to buy are places that culture stuff long term and don't let any corals into their culture systems for the first year or so.

 

[njreefkeeper]

It's interesting to see that the exact same things I see here in Israel are the same in the US.
I always had the impression that due to the large amount of reefers in the US combined with the fact that shipping is an option at all, and an acceptable one at it, it would be a lot easier to move frags for a reasonable price, and at all.

But hey, at least you guys still do have conferences, local farms, and a huge variety of corals and equipment to choose from. We don't have any of these here unfortunately.

Yeah but you have that gorgeous Red Sea not too far away. I’m sure you could find your way straight to a collector/diver…lol

 

[DanyL]

Yeah but you have that gorgeous Red Sea not too far away. I’m sure you could find your way straight to a collector/diver…lol

Haha it is true that we have that gorgeous Red Sea in our back yard (although, technically it's 7 hours drive from where I live), but things aren't as good as they may seem to be from far abroad.

Basically, any kind of collection from the Red Sea is strongly prohibited by law with extremely high consequences for those who try to break it, and it is enforced by inspectors patrolling near by as well as infiltrated into private groups in an attempt to catch any illegal trade of protected species.

However, while all of the above was rightfully put in place in an attempt to preserve the declining state of the reef in the Red Sea, they also imposed new, somewhat silly and unrelated restrictions on the hobby in recent years as well.
We are now not allowed to keep, trade or import soft corals, urchins, clams, snails and most types of crabs and shrimp.
Which is nonsense, because they are allowed to be farmed, traded, imported or exported otherwise as food.
Thankfully, these restrictions aren't enforced as strongly as the others, but it does hurt us and prevent the hobby from evolving here.

As someone who's been in the hobby for 15 years and seen it all, I'm positive that eventually these silly restrictions will be removed and as the global market grows and evolves, it'll eventually influence the local market here as well.