Tips on becoming a designer coral collector

[PFoster]

Originally Posted by Snappy

For what it's worth all designer corals start out as just another cool coral somebody has until someone names it and it gets marketed as such.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

If a piece comes in and could be one of a kind. Someone hangs onto it and colours it up to amazing colours. Usually this process involves the store, hobbiest, importer or whatever bringing in a great many number of pieces and selecting the absolute best of the best that they have ever seen and culturing that specific piece out.
Grow it out.
Names it.
Now its "designer" or a named coral.

The names really just serve to help people identify a specific coloration or variation of a coral.
If I say a superman monti, everyone here know exactly what I am talking about (although there are technically multiple colour variations depending on where they are from, but thats another storey and when you get into the is that a "true" superman....)

Lineage refers to the origins of a piece. It identifies where it came from and lets you ensure that under the right conditions you have the potential to colour it up to the same colour that another person has had it at.

We have several rainbow tenuis here that we have been playing around with. One specific piece has colored up to gang buster freakin amazing.



But only one of them. The others are ok.... but not like this!

So now we will take this specific piece, grow it out to a large colony and we will have frags of this incredible piece.
We will give it a name like "RW Over The Rainbow Tenuis"
Other people may be able to sell you a rainbow tenuis but it may or may not colour up to look like this (we have been playing around with a ton of these and only ever found 1 that looks like this!)
So you MAY get one that can color up like this, but chances are that unless it has the lineage of being a frag from this colony it may not color up quite like this one.

Thats what makes it a designer acro and that what the lineage refers to.
So when see people posting asking what the lineage is or saying "is that a Steve Tyre double hippy flipper acro" (ok so that may not be the name but still)



But you can still get some really insane, really nice piece without them being a true "designer" piece.

That was what i was trying to point out in my previous post.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by PFoster

But you can still get some really insane, really nice piece without them being a true "designer" piece.

That was what i was trying to point out in my previous post.

That was a very good explanation, and thanks for taking the time.

I guess that is part of the intrigue with keeping SPS. You don't always know what you have, and sometimes can be very pleasantly surprised as they grow out.

[reefermadness]

Thats what makes it a designer acro and that what the lineage refers to.
So when see people posting asking what the lineage is or saying "is that a Steve Tyre double hippy flipper acro" (ok so that may not be the name but still)

Lineage means it came from the exact same imported coral, to assure it is the exact same one, with the same potential for growth, colour, hardiness.

Sometimes there are look a likes and maybe its the same one maybe not. That is the problem as you never know if it is capable of the potential as the lineaged piece.

I always use my palmers blue millepora as an example. I have own at least 2 other blue millepora. Same colour and species as the palmers but even though they grew in close proximity to one another the palmers always out shinned the others. Faster growth, better colour and hardiness.

But you can still get some really insane, really nice piece without them being a true "designer" piece.

That was what i was trying to point out in my previous post.

For sure Patrick and all corals come from the ocean. I will say though that I prefer to know that coral is proven to grow and maintain colour in an aquarium for 6 months +++. Even better if someone else was able to grow it out in captivity as that increases the probablity of other hobbyists doing the same. Not to say a nice coral that is not proven is not a nice coral....of course it is but they can be a bit of a gamble for sure. And with gambling sometimes you lose and sometimes you win.

[PFoster]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

For sure Patrick and all corals come from the ocean. I will say though that I prefer to know that coral is proven to grow and maintain colour in an aquarium for 6 months +++. Even better if someone else was able to grow it out in captivity as that increases the probablity of other hobbyists doing the same. Not to say a nice coral that is not proven is not a nice coral....of course it is but they can be a bit of a gamble for sure. And with gambling sometimes you lose and sometimes you win.

Agreed here 100%
With the amount we all spend on our tanks, real estate is very expensive.
I too will spend the extra few bucks to get proven pieces that I know that if i am able to provide the right conditions will turn into something incredible!

With the wholesale side I have gained a cursed ability to be able to horde certain corals when they come in. Our not for sale section is getting a bit out of control at present....
Sometimes if we get a unique pieces in that catches our eye we will sit on it to see what we can do with it. Sometimes it pays off and turns into amazing, sometimes it doesn't (more often than not, it doesn't....)

The tenuis pictured above is actually a perfect example. I must have at least 10-12 others that dont come close to this piece. and thats just what i have in right now, i know i have ended up selling a bunch that colored up to decent coloration, but not the same as this. This colony is literally the ONLY one that has ever colored up like that. So on an end user level, thats buying maybe 20 pieces in the hope that 1 MIGHT color up to super nice. Not very good odds. Now you have a tank full of all the same pieces that are just ok coloured and one nice one. And only assuming of course that you provided the right conditions for this piece....


Oh and i would advise trading frags with some of your other crack head, sps fanatic friends. If you dont your tank parameters will fluctuate and there is a 100% probability that if one piece dies it will definitely be the 1 pieces that only you have and you didnt give to any of your friends. And its pretty much a 100% guarentee that you will not see this pieces again for years, if at all ever!