What is a Tyree coral?

[baja_01]

Wow, it must be nice to live where you guys do. Where the lfs are stocked with beauty after beauty and nothing rare or crazy colored is difficult to find.

This bringing flashbacks of the acan craze. NO ONE is forcing you to buy these corals at his prices! It may seem like a bit of a shock, but its true. If you dont like it, go and get your corals else where. Oh, sorry, lfs didn't have that fancy new echino in stock that you wanted so bad? Well maybe his prices are worth it, if you really want it.

They are corals for crying out loud. If some guy wants to travel around and find corals that may have stayed tucked away in some one's tank and sell them to other hobbiests, who are you to say he can't or that its wrong. If they are too expensive, don't get them!

Anyways, I feel better getting that rant out.

LE's are rasied by Steve Tyree, and sold mostly through the web site reeffarmer. He also does road show sales and auctions.

LEs are usually fairly uncommon and difficult to get ahold of. They are helpfull because most every one will know what you are talking about, and for ones that have been around a bit, most of the likes/dislikes of the coral have been found out.

They can be pricy tough, and the wait list is horrible. Also, over time their rarity and price will go down.

[DarkXerox]

I find myself getting a lot of his corals mainly because of the fact that they really are nice. There are often a lot of people that are trying to market their corals as the same, but after getting the real thing and comparing it to a lot of the mariculture "copycats" with the same name, you can really see why there is a lot of demand--the corals are really that nice.

You dont HAVE to wait in line for frags and pay in full, just find someone that has them and get frags from them or find a website that carries them. Personally I go to rarefrags.com and find what I need.

Plus I've found that since you are getting frags, they have already been "selected against" so I haven't lost a tyree coral yet. Of course its buyer beware online, so make sure you have a reputable seller.

And the best part is that once the corals grow out, they are still in pretty good demand since they look great, so you can trade for really nice stuff. I never tell myself "oh man I wish I never got that coral" like I do with brown mushrooms or xenia when they take off.

[wentreefgirl]

I have a few le myself but not a huge prices and not because of the le. Just the coral itself. There are many on rc that are good friends with st that sell his specials and lets say a fair frag price. But getting away from the topic started here.
http://www.dynamicecomorphology.com/ Thats the website and you know who the man is now. You choose if its worth it.

As for gas prices, it sucks all around nuff said.

Oh, and all you cali reefers do have it made. Where I live the lfs has basic stuff. THey are so excited about their displace covered with calearpa, and mushroom and torch. Wish I could visit one of your lfs at least once in my lifetime. It might take me a week to quit drooling

[Mr. Ugly]

Hey you should come out to our Bay Area Coral Farmers Market in June. It's just for one day, but you'd get to see a ton of the most awesome corals all in one place. Should be some really good deals too, based on what I heard about the SoCal one.

[stevedola]

you have to admit that the prices are rediculous. even the normal things like montis and porcis are 40/.5 inch just because its a Tyree coral. I do admit that some of the pieces he finds are very nice but do not warrent a 400% price increase. Its a very clever Mkting scheme but thats the economy we live in.

[NorthernCF]

While my personal tank does not have LE corals, I wont say they are not worth the price to some.

You are getting a coral that can be stunning under some conditions.

You are getting a coral with a known genealogy. This can be important for some people doing research. There is not a whole lot of funding for reef research and having some sort of history on a coral helps.

Now, the name thing... well there are other sites out there that take wild caught colonies and jack up the price with a funny name. I always wanted the diamond back bike... but it was 100 bucks more than the name brand.

Bah, no time to finish this post

[wentreefgirl]

Hey if you think about it its not just st. And im not pointed an evil finger here, just noteing. TUbs, mike paletta, Rommel, jendub. But not sure if they reep the benis for it. Perhaps. Me and cris from reefer madness discusssed names. He has some cool ones.

[mummra100769]

reefer madness get very playfull with the names. some are really funny.

[joe18]

haha
good one!

some of the names reefer madness puts out, are just carazzzy! (:
great corls though...any one see that 800 dollar bowerbanki they recentlly sold.?

[ShadowViper]

OMG @ NorthernCF,
My bro and myself had diamond backs in the early 80's, parents paid like 200 bucks for them, My bro's got stolen in the early 90's, so the homeowners did like a bluebook thing on it and came out to over a Grand. I am suprised anyone even remembers those bikes.
Oh btw, I shouldnt of used had since I still have mine at my parents storage.

Lastly,
Not to be completely off topic, I have met steve a couple of times and he is a good guy. What ppl don't take into consideration is that it costs to keep a facility running and not all the corals he brings in live. As for his corals they are gorgeous and healthy (seeing these first hand from his facility). Usually he will hold a specimen for months before he releases it to the public, this insures one thing over going to just a normal LFS- survivability.
The corals that alot of LFS's stock up on are purchased through wholesellers that have recieved them from natural collections. And unfortunately not all corals survive the transition from natural enviroments to our aquariums.
There are a few instances also where a very uncommon/rare specimen comes in and like anything new, the person who discovers it has the right to name it. There are other types of corals that aren't LE's that i see posted by other members on these forums that run $100+, so its not fair to bash someone who has made a living working with corals. He does do lectures and such around the US. So clearly people out there have acknowledge that the man has some skill with what he does.
Think as his corals like you would diamonds. You can get jewelry with diamonds from almost anywhere, but there is a difference between a Tiffany's diamond and the ones sold at walmart.
And btw steve doesn't live like a millionare or anything like that he is just a normal guy like most those on these forums, I am sure there are many more ppl that make more money off this hobby then he does.

[NorthernCF]

LOL in the early 80s I still had a girl's Huffy with a bannana seat... but had swaped big mag wheels on it, LOL... I took that over all the hills and jumps all the other kids did.
Can you tell I am the oldest?

Good memories

[ShadowViper]

God Thanks to a certain movie, think it was called bmx or some thing like that, I decided to take my dirt racing diamond back and turn it into a freestyle bike, So I swapped out the expensive light rims i had for these big ugly red mags. Even with those heavy mags my bike was still lighter then every other kids bike on the block :P

[NorthernCF]

LOL. I went to Boston U for collage and a freestyle bike was just the thing for those cramped streets. Course, the bike... and the rack it was attached to... and all the other bikes attached to the rack, were stolen with a crane the first week I was there.

I learned to skateboard after that

[neyugn0w01]

don't forget about haro and GT bikes.

[mummra100769]

i had a diamond back mountain bike in the early 90s. it was the lightest bike in it's price range (i think it was like $500.00) and i wrecked over 2 dozen times and replaced one set of gears and a bent rim. amazing bike.

[floridareefs]

hey mummra can you frag me some of those acans from your avatar for the not LE price?

[SunnyX]

"Tyree" is kind of like any other name brand, same product as the cheaper brands but you pay for the name.

You can blame him for jacking up the price of many corals. But this hobby like everything else is market driven. Just look at Acan's, a few years ago you could get them for almost nothing, now people are paying an arm and a leg for them.

When I go out to purchase a coral I only purchase it on the bases of what it looks like, not the name.

[NorthernCF]

That's a good point sunny, and makes the others point about lack of selection even more valid.
When there is no store in driving distance, getting a named coral can increase your odds you will get what you want.

It obviously depends on your situation wether 1" for 100bucks is worth it or not. Not for me, because corals are available in my area, but for some one else...

And, some people like the trading card feel.

[Al G Blenny]

How can anyone talk bad about Tyree and his LEs. Heres one example. How much have you seen the watermelon chalice go for on Ebay? I saw it go for about $500 once. How much does Tyree sell it for? $165 or less. Why less? Anytime someone buys multiple corals from him he gives them a discount. I was offered my watermelon for a great deal but I paid full price. I know Steve and I know he isn't making a killing doing this. Imagine how he feels making about $4000/month (a very small amount to live on in Cali) and constantly getting bashed by people that think he is overcharging for corals that others charge two to three times the price for. He is not scamming anyone.

I love the argument that you can get corals just as good at any LFS. You obviously don't know your corals very well if you think that.

A while ago Borneman and Calfo wrote an article that basically bashed the PM from Tyree. That was plain ignorant. They said that they saw it in a local reefers tank and it wasn't very purple. They said that they have more purple corals sitting in the backs of their tanks getting no light. Just because one example of it in another reefers tank didn't look good doesn't mean that's what it always looks like. You should see a fully grown out colony of this coral and tell me that it isn't an outstanding Acro.

I don't understand why people don't bash sites like ultimatefrags, rarefrags, exoticreefs, etc..... They sell LEs. Some take wild colonies, break them up, then sell the frags as rare. They are making a much larger profit that Reeffarmers. Steve is actually growing the coral out. That takes a lot more work and overhead. Again he is not a rich man.

As for the people that Tyree gets the corals from I don't understand why people think they are getting scammed. I have given a few LEs to Steve and I have been very happy with my transactions. I get corals in trade, I get half of his first edition auction, and the recognition for discovering it. Plus the coral is then popular so I can trade it or sell it a lot easier. It's nice to have a colony of an LE.

Another thing I don't get is how people bash him when all he is doing is making coral farming more popular. Shouldn't we all be working towards captive propogating corals. This puts less of a strain on our natural reefs.

[NorthernCF]

Well said AGB.

[The Beaut]

If you have the money to buy something you want that someone else is selling for the price they want, then what is the problem. Naming corals is just a nice part of this hobby, that does not mean you have buy it because it is named something. Don't give a guy a hard time because he sells "LE's". Don't buy them if you can't afford them, buy them somewhere else where they are cheaper, if you can find them.

[duec22]

Couldn't agree more with you AGB.
I just don't uderstand how people think he is overcharging if he ends up with waitlists that are years long. And if you can find the same coral at your LFS, then why complain why not get the coral from your LFS and be happy about it.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by coker98
gas is not needed it is wanted to fuel the car you like that makes your life convenient. if you had to get to your job because it was the last time you could be late and your car wasnt working you would NEED to walk.

Wrong. I can't walk 35 miles each way to work every day, and I certainly can't afford to live any closer. So yea, I need fuel.

[neyugn0w01]

"I love the argument that you can get corals just as good at any LFS. You obviously don't know your corals very well if you think that."


I just love that. Well said.

[baja_01]

Originally posted by SunnyX
Just look at Acan's, a few years ago you could get them for almost nothing, now people are paying an arm and a leg for them.

That statment is not true for most kinds of acans. A few years ago, you could not find lords anywhere, save for the few times a collector accidentaly collected one. Echinata were the only one you could regularly get, and the price has come back down on those. A red and green lord is dirt cheap now, and only the crazy ones have held their high price.