not supposed to have links to web based businesses in your signature with out sponsorship fyi

Darn good thing he's a sponsor, eh? :)

I find the really nice walt smith sps sell very quickly. I know red coral brought some in and the really nice sps sold within mintues of the store opening.

is he? oops I didnt see sponsor by his name.. stuuupid me :lol:

sorry guys

Whew.. Another disaster narrowly averted!

Thanks for that information, it is nice to know that he is collecting them in a way that is sustainable as possible. My biggest question is why do we not get corals like that in Victoria? I would pay good money for any of the corals that were in the pics, but I haven't seen any in quite a while. Is there different grades that retailers can buy or is it just luck of the draw?

There is one item for ordering wild acros and then it is what they have on hand that is ready and capable of handling shipping stress. Some times it is luck of the draw or timing with other shipments going out. I have gotten some really nice pieces and some "tourist" pieces in the same shipment. By "tourist" pieces I mean the plain green ones they should just leave on the reef for the tourists to see.

I think another issue of Tim's samples and whats available locally, is that Tim is well equipped to keep these in their original color, while most LFS are not. So if they don't sell quickly, they end up looking "regular". I have seen these locally, both Proreef and Japarto have had them, although Japarto typical does custom orders for clients and Proreef killed they're order.
Cost is also higher, which might make a retailer think twice about ordering. Honestly, how many expensive colonies are us Victorians going to buy?

Another issue as to why the cost is higher is that they are normally a lot larger than the corals from Bali or Tonga. Larger size = higher risk in shipping and greater cost of freight.

A lot of the time people do not recognize colonies in store that they see in photos. I have experienced many conversations with people about photos of coral they have seen online and have looked over in the store many times.