There's no doubt that the red dragon was the "It" acro of 2010. When that thing hit the scene it was such a unique looking acro that we were all blown away, and instantly drawn to it. The craze had begun. A red thin brancher! This was the kind of coral we may have only dreamed about a decade earlier, but here it was, and we all wanted it real bad.
Now roughly five years later, the Dragon has proven to be one of the fastest growing acros out there and has become, for lack of a better word, common. Where once, a 1/2" frag may have set you back over 300.00, I now see large colonies regularly for a fraction of that. I myself had been giving it away as freebies after the first year already. Suffice it to say, while the appeal is still there, the Dragon has become as ubiquitous as the Sunset Monti or dare I say the Green Slimmer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think it's a very good thing to have hobbyists and vendors alike perpetuating these species this way. It's a very good thing indeed.
The originator of the Red Dragon was a little know company at the time by the name of Reef Raft. A quaint LFS and importer located in Canada. The locals were well aware of the caliber of the sps that these guys were training their divers to seek out, but the rest of us had yet to even hear of them. I remember some of the very early Red Dragon threads over on RC and RR being mentioned. Google searches at the time turning up literally nothing but a barren website and maybe a few nuggets on Canadian forums about them. Who were these guys?
Fast forward a couple years and the original Canadian Reef Raft store decides to become a sponsor here on reef 2 reef. Now if you were around for that whirlwind, you will remember how all of our mouths dropped simultainously and the puddles of drool formed below as they introduced acro after acro, the likes of which we had never seen before. In fact not even close.
There were color combinations that were so coveted up to that point that it was a manic free for all, but the result was ultimately a disastrous upset. They had numerous permit issues and a gamut of problems trying to get that stuff to us here. I know there’s a handful of lucky reefers that got their hands on some of that first wave stuff but most were lost in transit. The Orange Passion, Wolverine, and mind blowing CJ’s Pinky to name a few. Admit it, if you were part of that, it was a very exciting time to be an acro enthusiast. No matter how it all turned out. All of a sudden we were like the kid in the first aisle of the toy store, having just lifted his head to realize that there’s a whole lot more store to explore! Weather you like it or not, this sparked a newfound interest in SPS that has carried itself high to this day.
So where am I going with all of this? Let me explain. Back around the same time, another Lucky reefer named Rick was able to get his hands on a browned out colony that had reportedly found its way to the US from The Canadian store. Rick, please feel free to chime in here anytime if you want to clarify any of this. The details of which I am a little fuzzy on, but after a year or so in Ricks tank, it blossomed, and blossomed well. He decided in response, or maybe as an antidote to the dragon craze that was going on at the time, to call it Ricks Reef Raft Dragon Slayer and had an exciting thread about it over on RC. This thread was the only one I could find about it here. Needless to say, I did not hesitate at all when I saw it back then, and immediately got ahold of Rick with hopes to nab myself a frag. That was about 2012 now, and my frag has blossomed quite nicely since then as well.
Hardly a “New release” or anything like that, and a bit more mundane by todays standards then it was the day I saw it first, but the Ricks Dragon Slayer remains one of the finest acros in my collection. I’ve always felt lucky to have gotten a piece of this guy when I did. Easily passing the four years captive mark, I thought a showcase of one of my most under-appreciated gems was long over due!
As always please feel free to post a pic of yours if you've got one!
Now roughly five years later, the Dragon has proven to be one of the fastest growing acros out there and has become, for lack of a better word, common. Where once, a 1/2" frag may have set you back over 300.00, I now see large colonies regularly for a fraction of that. I myself had been giving it away as freebies after the first year already. Suffice it to say, while the appeal is still there, the Dragon has become as ubiquitous as the Sunset Monti or dare I say the Green Slimmer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I think it's a very good thing to have hobbyists and vendors alike perpetuating these species this way. It's a very good thing indeed.
The originator of the Red Dragon was a little know company at the time by the name of Reef Raft. A quaint LFS and importer located in Canada. The locals were well aware of the caliber of the sps that these guys were training their divers to seek out, but the rest of us had yet to even hear of them. I remember some of the very early Red Dragon threads over on RC and RR being mentioned. Google searches at the time turning up literally nothing but a barren website and maybe a few nuggets on Canadian forums about them. Who were these guys?
Fast forward a couple years and the original Canadian Reef Raft store decides to become a sponsor here on reef 2 reef. Now if you were around for that whirlwind, you will remember how all of our mouths dropped simultainously and the puddles of drool formed below as they introduced acro after acro, the likes of which we had never seen before. In fact not even close.
There were color combinations that were so coveted up to that point that it was a manic free for all, but the result was ultimately a disastrous upset. They had numerous permit issues and a gamut of problems trying to get that stuff to us here. I know there’s a handful of lucky reefers that got their hands on some of that first wave stuff but most were lost in transit. The Orange Passion, Wolverine, and mind blowing CJ’s Pinky to name a few. Admit it, if you were part of that, it was a very exciting time to be an acro enthusiast. No matter how it all turned out. All of a sudden we were like the kid in the first aisle of the toy store, having just lifted his head to realize that there’s a whole lot more store to explore! Weather you like it or not, this sparked a newfound interest in SPS that has carried itself high to this day.
So where am I going with all of this? Let me explain. Back around the same time, another Lucky reefer named Rick was able to get his hands on a browned out colony that had reportedly found its way to the US from The Canadian store. Rick, please feel free to chime in here anytime if you want to clarify any of this. The details of which I am a little fuzzy on, but after a year or so in Ricks tank, it blossomed, and blossomed well. He decided in response, or maybe as an antidote to the dragon craze that was going on at the time, to call it Ricks Reef Raft Dragon Slayer and had an exciting thread about it over on RC. This thread was the only one I could find about it here. Needless to say, I did not hesitate at all when I saw it back then, and immediately got ahold of Rick with hopes to nab myself a frag. That was about 2012 now, and my frag has blossomed quite nicely since then as well.
Hardly a “New release” or anything like that, and a bit more mundane by todays standards then it was the day I saw it first, but the Ricks Dragon Slayer remains one of the finest acros in my collection. I’ve always felt lucky to have gotten a piece of this guy when I did. Easily passing the four years captive mark, I thought a showcase of one of my most under-appreciated gems was long over due!
As always please feel free to post a pic of yours if you've got one!
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) But it's growing well for me.
