LOL

I saw a blue carpet in edmonton at big al's at the end of december it was only 99 bucks not a bright blue but still a decent blue, but it didn't look like it would last too much longer. not attached to anything, month was open, bleaching in spots, probably due NO lighting

The carpet anemones you typically see for sale are S. haddoni (Haddon's or Saddle Carpet Anemone). Check the very good link Evan posted on the previous page - there are pictures of haddoni as well as S. gigantea (Giant Carpet Anemone). There are a couple of canreefers out on the coast that have/have had Giants but no one locally that I know of. I know that the one Tony describes would be the Holy Grail of anemones, especially for him. (the Gr-r-r-r-rail !!!)

As for ethically-collected fish in Calgary shops, as far as I know it's a crap shoot. Someone please correct me.

:biggrin:

Blue haddoni carpets do occasionally make their way here from time to time. They're nice too. But what I'm after is gigantea ... they're just a little bit different. I've been told that at one time they were more common than haddoni's, now it's the other way around.

The link Evan showed is a good site that shows the difference.

BonsaiNut on RC has the most incredible looking gigantea I've ever seen. I should dig up the threads and I'll post them maybe, it's just incredible.

...
I'll call the guy tomorrow and ask about the stuff mentioned and then report back what I find.

Anne, I don't think I've said it before, so here goes. Welcome to Canreef! :cool: In answer to your question though .. I'm afraid I don't have a good answer. I think you have to rely on the good word of the person selling you the fish, who in turn has to rely on the good word of the person selling him or her the fish, and so on. If you don't know the person you're dealing with .. then there's probably no good method. Ask around to others and find who they recommend dealing with and in time you'll get a good feel.

Tony, don't let this one slip past your fingers. If you're a few bucks short meeting the $400 minimum even after all these offers, let me know and I'll think of something I need for my nano.

Here's one of the threads with pictures of Greg's (BonsaiNut) incredible purple S. gigantea.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=314425

Hey Tony,
I'd like to help you, but I have no room for more fish or coral colonies. Need a bigger tank.

Mike

Hey Tony,
If they Still have the blue table looking coral in the "What's new Section" (the top right pic) I would be into getting that.

Great Site :D

http://wish.wodonga.tafe.edu.au/~kwaldon/

Cheers,
Victor [Veng68]

Update: I called this Flavio guy (don't you just get an image of a male supermodel with long flowing hair undulating in the breeze as he goes on about tending to his tanks .... ). He was not in his store so I didn't get a very good sense of availability. I got the usual BS about "everything I have is out of the ordinary" but the bad news is that pictures on their own website is of a past order of Walt Smith and this current order is not Walt Smith but instead something out of Indonesia. So the only pictures that would be current are the ones on aquariumpros.ca.

I asked about clams, he said there is one blue maxima, 3", leftover from the Walt Smith order and it's $100. Let me know if anyone's in for that.

I also asked about the possum wrasse, perhaps not surprising ... nope.

Anyhow I am supposed to call him after 2pm today our time (after which he'll be in the store and I'll get better answers as to what's REALLY available and what prices, etc.).

I'm starting to get a little annoyed at how hard this is to try to buy from them. If anyone else feels that way and wants out (that previously indicated they were "in") that's cool with me. We'll see how this goes after 2.

It might be time to let go of the idea. As far as corals go I don't think he has anything that we can't get locally via trades or our LFS's or from places like J&L.

This is what he told he me he has available:

• green BTA
  green mushrooms
  elegance
  candy cane
  torch
  fox
  branching hammer
  goniopora
  red Florida ricordea
  green star polyps
  green plates
  doughnuts
  spaghetti leather
  yellow leather
  green montipora capricornis - prop, about 3.5"x2.5"
  green bubble coral
  stylopora
  purple acro
  green acro
  red acro millepora

The "blue" carpet that he said he'd hold for me, is suddenly not opening up. They originally had 4 of them, now there's only 2 (one green and one blue). Frankly I'm getting a bad feeling about it and am strongly considering backing out. My instincts are telling me it's a potential mistake at this point to follow through, and I really don't see anything in the above list that knocks my socks off. We're better off buying Walt Smith pieces from places that actually care about our business like Ocean Aquatics and J&L (I'm defining "care" as "they don't punish you for trying to buy from them.")