Which coral frags are recommended? - PLEASE HELP, as I will be buying this weekend.

[chrisbenavides]

If you know about frags please help me.

I will be traveling to San Antonio, Texas this Saturday and will be buying frags from Fin-Addict. San Antonio is the nearest place to buy corals from Laredo, Texas (150 miles).

Which frags are good to buy?

My lighting specs: 260w PC lights
My water flow: 20x flow rate
My desire for a great looking reef tank in time: HIGH

Basically, what grows great from fragment corals, which ones survive too?

I was told to buy only LPS, softies, and polyps, and mushrooms.

From these which would you recommend me buy?

Also, is it better to buy frags, or to buy a bigger piece of coral?

[theatrus]

mushrooms never fail, see if you can get some colorful ones.

Xenia may be cheap, grows fast, and looks nice

with only 260W over 55gal, that means no SPS. You may be able to keep (maybe) an easy LPS like a frogspawn if its high in the tank.

Zoos and star polyps of any kind would work well.

Those are just some of my favorites

[viceversabrd]

I would also recomend buying a leather toadstool, I have the same lighting scheme over my 55 and it has grown quite well.

[drives300]

Hammer coral and torch are popular. I have leather toadstool and fingerleather for softies. I think frogspawn is another popular one. Shrooms come in many varieties and I think they are all easy. Polyps are easy too. Good luck.

[chrisbenavides]

can anyone explain though the prupose of a frag, and if its better to buy frag corals than whole pieces.....

thanks!

[Broodingwolf]

A frag is a way to get a small piece of coral for cheap(er) and then you can grow a nice colony from it. I'd go with zoos, leathers or mushrooms for your starter coral. Not Xenia, it will grow lilke a WEED if it likes your tank, and therefore I'd put it in near the end if at all. Hope this helps!

[MiddletonMark]

A frag is like buying a puppy ... it will turn into a lovely dog given a little time and attention.

Frags are cheaper, are a way to buy a captive grown coral vs. imported. Given they have grown successfully in aquaria already - chances are pretty high you'll have success too.

Also - with frags you can ask the guy who grew it where to locate it in your tank [in relation to light/flow] and ask care questions. With a wild coral at the LFS, they only know what hasn't killed it in the last week.

I've stocked from mostly frags, had great success with them, and feel much more pride in the grown-out frags.
Best of all, they're usually cheaper.

[ANNIESREEF]

Just my 2 cents worth...if you purchase polyps, remember to dip them before putting into you display tank. I would do another dip within a few days. I am fighting nudi's now because of my ignorance.
Shrooms are great! Spread really fast!
If you don't mind the waiting, I would go with frags. THey spread fast and give them room to grow. I was in such a hurry to fill my tank with corals that now some are growing over others.
Good luck and have fun with it!

[rutz81]

IMO, if I was starting over again, I wish I didn't limit myself to what the LFS had. Meaning, look at some reputable online site, they usually have a much better selection and sometimes cheaper, even including shipping. Also, since you are ordering mostly softies, they will have a much higher survival shipping rate. Some sites you might want to take a look at are listed in the sponsors section. Good Luck


HTH,
Dave

[Shooter7]

yeah, take a look at the vendor's feedback area. I believe there were several threads talking about getting good corals from various places. Too bad you're not closer, I could probably sell you some shrooms, xenia, green star polyps, yellow polyps, and zoo's myself. Can't believe there aren't local club members down there closer to you that you could buy frags from much more cheaply.

[chrisbenavides]

well....maast.org recommends www.fin-addict.net in San Antonio, TX. Since I noticed that Tuesday is a day that they have specials, I will be going then instead of this weekend.

Check out their website and tell me what you all think.

[Mykayel]

Just a thought... but the cost of driving 300 miles would be about the same as the overnight shipping cost from buying online. And you'll probably get a better deal online. The only downside is that you won't be able to see exactly what you are getting.

[vessxpress1]

Mykael's got a great point. I hate driving 50 miles to get to the nearest fish store here. It also drives me to spend more than I should when I get there.
Occasionally you do get to see what you'll get online. I just started buying this kind of stuff online this year. Mainly everything I get is off ebay and I've had pretty good luck. Just be sure to check they're feedback. Although, a lot of guys get trashed on their feedback becasue people aren't happy with how they're zoanthids look that they get. They don't look like the picture. Well, zoanthids can look a hundred different ways depending on your tank and especially on what kind of lighting you have so take some of it with a grain of salt.
But yeah, I'd much rather pay for the over-night shipping unless you absolutely have to have them Saturday.. That's a long ways to drive for coral. I'd just buy some stuff online this weekend, have them ship it Monday, you have it Tuesday. A lot easier.
Zoanthids are great starters too by the way, and they ship very well. You can even use 2 day if you're worried about cost.

[fodder]

As a newbie myself, while I love looking at the pictures in books and online, nothing beats actually seeing the corals "up close and personal." Pictures don't allow me to actually envision the animals in my tank the same way that live does. Granted, within that same 150 mile radius though I probably have 100+ fish stores (and I've been to many of them, too many in my wife's opinion!!!) I'm sure that once I am more experienced, I will feel more comfortable with ordering online.

[chrisbenavides]

another thing up about online though is you really can't see the movement some corals exhibit. you just see beautiful pictures under probably the best of the best lighting these retailers provide. If I go to a LFS I can see first hand...and if I go to San Antonio, I can have a "little" vacation away from my city....(River Walk in SA is fun)

[The Grim Reefer]

Frogspawn and torch LPS corals are good choices. Finger leathers are great for movement (the frogspawn and torch are good too). Shrooms or Zoanthids are great for adding color.

[MCary]

I believe the word "frag" only truely applies to SPS corals. LPS can be "fragged" but they grow relatively slow so I would get the whole colony. Cutting a single head off a frogspawn or hammer i say yields a small colony not really a frag. Polyps and mushrooms are fragged by cutting them in half. So buying a single mushroom isn't really a frag. If your going to have a chance to see what your getting then buy what looks good at the budget set for yourself and don't get hung up on semantics. Your choices seem reasonable and hopefully the company is reputable and will help you decide what is best for your sytem.

[MiddletonMark]

Candy cane / Caulastrea are a great LPS choice - at least mine have been easy.

Frogspawn is a little more picky, but I had very good luck [from one head to over a dozen when I fragged it a year and a half later ... now it's been 9 months since fragging and it's up to 10 heads].

But as these are your first corals, I'd lean more towards softies and zoanthids and mushrooms and toadstools - if a mixed, softie tank is what you want. Xenia I found to be a great coral to have at first - really sucked me into my tank, to where I started seeing more [feather dusters, sponges, worms, pods, all the micro-stuff that's interesting to watch develop/change].

I'd even consider something like a ordinary plating Montipora, or a Pocillapora if you like those. While they might not grow as fast under PC's ... and I wouldn't count on the super colored ones working out - but there's probably some good varieties of each and I've found both to do ok under non-MH.

Just a thought. I would seriously search some, have a good coral book [Eric's IMO] in hand/car. Go to the place, look, enjoy, talk to the guy about what he'd recommend. See what you like best.

Go have coffee, or a beer, or eat ... but go and think a bit, have a coral book to look up everything [write down names at the place, if it helps] .... and figure what would do well for your setup.
Then go, take a second look to make sure you didn't miss something the first time ... then buy.

IMO, it's best to avoid impulse-buying with live creatures, and I've done well with livestock I went back to the LFS for. Sometimes research helps you avoid things that wouldn't do well - might have long sweeper tentacles [like Galaxia or others] or require direct feeding regularly [Tubastrea/Sun Polyps].
Both corals worth having - but yet it's good to know the details, as for these might require consideration on where to fit them/etc.

Anyway, that's my long ramble on the subject.
In short, get a book. Use it.

[marineaddict]

Great post Mark!!!

Not to take over the thread but you suggested an ordinary Montipora or Pocillapora.... Is it pretty common for these to do well in VHO lighting?? I have 3 48" bulbs now, going up to 4 next week on my 75. What do you think?

Thanks

[MiddletonMark]

I would think so. You might not set any records, but if you put them fairly high and have good water conditions - you can do it IMO.

Ask when you're going for frags.
I've seen one of the nicer huge Monti caps [just plain green, huge whorling shape] that was grown under VHO. IMO I've seen wilder colored ones mostly under MH, but seems like the big whorling Monti's grow out just lovely under VHO.

Really, for any stony coral [biologists don't call things LPS or SPS, though it can be handy terminology for us, it's all stony to them] - for any stony coral you want to monitor and suppliment to NSW levels both Calcium and Alkalinity. Acropora to Frogspawn to Maze Brain to Acanastrea to ...
You don't need to radically boost either - but it's good to keep these in mind with those, as it doesn't have to be that hard to take care of that - once you get used to it, get in a pattern.

Then with enough light, and some water movement - you may find success. They're very non-aggressive, so be careful of `turf wars' as other things can creep in and cause problems in a year ... once you've grown yours out from frag to neat colony.

[marineaddict]

Thanks Mark!!! I'm thinking I might give it a try and see what happens...

[drives300]

That is a good point. Chris should check his calcium and alkalinity before purchasing. LPS will use some calcium. He should be OK around 380 for calcium and 3.5 for alk

[Stinekraus]

I would buy online before driving 300 miles. Ive gotten some great corals online. Also check out the for sale forum here they have some beautiful frags for sale.