acanthastrea pics...lets see em! - Page 54

mane3215 · #**1326** 10/04/2004, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by va_reefman
Of course yours is better...Pshhh...even my frag is already bigger than his now ...and better coloration too...hahaha

Pshhhh.....we'll see how goo dmy new acans look in my tank =)....and whose face is pressed against the glass hehe.

louisbui · #**1327** 10/04/2004, 09:51 PM

LOL...Just wanna tease up your Acans a little here and there...

mane3215 · #**1328** 10/04/2004, 09:52 PM

I just fed them all head by head I think for like the first time in my life, sheeeeeeeet I even fed my blastos =). Feeling a little zealous tonight =).

baja_01 · #**1329** 10/04/2004, 09:58 PM

Well, I decided to go ahead and post a pic I took the 29. I had to adjust the brightness and contrast in photo shop because my tank has a weird thing going on with it.

I think it all started when I feed my yellow tail snapper(long story) some live short neck clams from the seafood section.

I have a problem with my tank water being crap brown colored and I suspect that I got some sort of phytoplancton from the clams.

I just finished a new 4" x 4 foot tall skimmer that is really pulling out the gunk and the water is clearing up.

When it gets better I wil snap some good photos of them.

The red and green is recovering well and I have 2 whole eating polpys and 2 patches of skin that look like they will reform into new polpys in a few week or so.

The red micro is doing awesome. I just counted 5 whole polyps and 5 reforming or new baby polyps on it. I am getting a dimond weel for my dremle this weekend and plan to get some frags going.

Any way here the new photo as of 9-29:

va_reefman · #**1330** 10/04/2004, 10:00 PM

Yeah, feed them babies or else they will be smaller then their own frag...

Ok man, I have pick on you too much tonight...I will stop now...I still want your new acans cuz I don't want to hurt my nose.

John

burntom · #**1331** 10/05/2004, 12:15 AM

Sorry to step in at such a late stage (I only managed to read 21 pages before skipping to the end, but looking at the last few posts makes me wonder what happened in the intervening pages! Maybe I'll go back and read them later...).

Anyway, just to give you an impression from Japan. I hadn't really noticed the Acanthastreas out here until someone asked me if I could get hold of them and ship them out to the US for them. Turns out it's not possible for the CITES reasons mentioned earlier (sorry!), but it did make me pay a bit more attention (I don't as a rule go for LPS much, but these are convincing me otherwise...).

Anyway, last night I went to pick a really nice metallic greeny/blue/red favia colony from the LFS last night (about a foot across), which cost me roughly $110. Anyway, what should I notice in the same tank, but an unlabelled bit of LR with not one but two Acan-type colonies (actually more like frags as they're not more than 12 polyps each) on it. I asked the LFS how much. He said $27. I said $17 as it was a small piece and I was buying the larger favia colony. He agreed and sold me both for $127! OK they're common over here and it was a small piece, but with the info I've gathered from this thread (at least the first half), I'm hoping they'll grow well with some TLC. One frag is purple and grey, the other bright green and grey. Now I see this thread, it's a bit shocking how expensive they can be in the States!

BTW, having looked at all the pictures posted, I think these are Micromussa, rather than Acanthastrea. There is a colony on some live rock a friend gave me a while back which looks a lot like Acanthastrea though (neon green/burgundy). Guess I'll never be completely sure (no way of posting photos at the moment), but still a cool hitch hiker (about 15 polyps)!

PS: These are from Japanese waters, which, as someone said earlier, is probably why they're seen with such frequency here.

baja_01 · #**1332** 10/05/2004, 12:21 AM

I am very confused about what my red/orange one is. The mother colony pic I have looks like a micromussa, but my frag dosent look the same.

I think it may be lighting that is making the biggest difference(mine are under a 10k bulb and nothing else, his looked like it had alot of blue light) and the flow that I have them in may also be affecting how much they expand. These things are so hard to tell apart, I think I am going to give up and call it an microacanlikethingamabob.

burntom · #**1333** 10/05/2004, 12:27 AM

"Microacanlikethingamabob"

I like it! LOL

Soon you get people telling you, "No, no that's a Microacanlikedoojamaflip, which has larger polyps and meandroid, not ceroid"

MarLooney · #**1334** 10/05/2004, 03:29 AM

burntom you're our link to the mother land... so it's up to you to get us the coolest pics out there. HAHA. for starters lets see your pieces.

burntom · #**1335** 10/05/2004, 04:00 AM

Unfortunately no way of getting pics uploaded (only internet link I have is at work - don't tell the boss I'm on RC). You might want to keep your eyes on the link below though. They may well have them from time to time (that's where I picked up my frags and the owner certainly didn't seem fazed by them).

http://natyu.ne.jp/seitai/listin2.html

Look at the 6th link down (though there aren't any there I don't think, if you're quick you might be able to see the favia (?) I bought (the one at the bottom left) and the 4th one up for new arrivals.

Tom

MDP · #**1336** 10/05/2004, 07:57 AM

I'll help you out on this one Tom.

This is the webpage for the Discus and Coral shop in Fuchu.

Open the link below and click on the following tab:Æ’n?[Æ’hÆ’R?[Æ’â€°Æ’â€¹-2-

This is the third tab showing NEW from the bottom. Enjoy!!http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~greenp/

louisbui · #**1337** 10/05/2004, 08:14 AM

Click on the 4th tab showing NEW...They got 12 beautiful Acan colonies selling at $55 a pop...Nice Japanese Acans...

Louis

MDP · #**1338** 10/05/2004, 08:32 AM

Sorry should have said third tab from the bottom up or fourth if counting down from top.

Just to make you drool a little more, these were all on at half price last month!

Matt

MDP · #**1339** 10/05/2004, 08:37 AM

Here is another page from Kuki in Tokyo. The ones you want are near the bottom.

Matt
http://reef-kuki.com/stony2'.html

louisbui · #**1340** 10/05/2004, 08:40 AM

Wow...Matt....If so, we pay them here at about 20 times higher for a whole colony if available...

baja_01 · #**1341** 10/05/2004, 08:44 AM

lol, we pay close to 50 dollars a polyp here and that can buy an entire colony overe ther. So funny it makes me sick

louisbui · #**1342** 10/05/2004, 08:51 AM

I will blame it on Chris, LOL...J/K..;-)...If we quietly and gently collect them for fun, we wouldn't have to pay it so dearly...Technically, we all here have unintentionally created this high end Acan market in the States...

MarLooney · #**1343** 10/05/2004, 09:23 AM

how's it chris' fault? i know who's to blame for the price. you think chris came up with $50/polyp? he's a collector. not a seller.

va_reefman · #**1344** 10/05/2004, 09:49 AM

Marlo,

I hate to see this issue becomming another PM price debate but YES...We all have been guilty at some point with this acan thing. WE DID jack up the price ourselves because we paid that much, if not more, for the acans we wanted. Chris and I are no exception in this case

.

If you notice Louis was only joking! FYI, Louis paid the money to get all 16 varieties from Kris so you know what he paid for his stuff...He is as guilty as we all..

..It early in the morning budy

Peace,
John

dbrown · #**1345** 10/05/2004, 10:27 AM

The price jacking up could mean more will start coming this way instead of Japan. That is if wholesalers and collectors are watching this board.

mane3215 · #**1346** 10/05/2004, 11:14 AM

Sheesh, if Japanese LFS start reading these boards, I may be in trouble! Keep it down guys =), other wise I may never see a crazy shipment of these things =).

Its all Johns fault! HE IS TO BLAME!

BTW, I have mailed all the stores in the above links in the distant past, and never got a response =).

RandyO · #**1347** 10/05/2004, 12:22 PM

I think the price is so high because they are unavailable. They do not come into the country legally, without a bunch of permits, and a lot of luck. 50.00 per polyp may seem like a lot, but when they can double in size in a month, you can break even. Cut it in half, and now your half was free. In a year or less you can have a very large colony, if you care for it right.
Not all Acanthastrea grow that fast. Some of us have purchased frags at twice that price, and my not see growth for many months.
The Acanth craze can be blamed a little for the inflated price. But the harder it is to find something, the more it's going to cost. And the more people looking for them, the higher the price.
Supply and Demand.

RandyO · #**1348** 10/05/2004, 12:37 PM

And some of you may think I set the price for these since before me selling them in December of 2003, I don't think anyone ever offered up Acanthastrea frags for sale. And you may be right.

But it's gone out of my hands now.

For those that think 50.00 per polyp is still too much, take a look at some of those frags that were sold back in December and January. They are huge now.

I really do love these corals.

mane3215 · #**1349** 10/05/2004, 12:39 PM

Dude, not to sound like a whatever =P...I wish they went for 100 a head or more hehe...as rediculous as it sounds, it pains me to see they are becoming much more common. I mean yeah its good for some, and they really still arent common, but I liked when I actually had a LOT of difficulty just finding someone aside from Randy with them.

clsund · #**1350** 10/05/2004, 12:49 PM

The Japanese will only start raising prices if there is not enough supply in Japan or too much demand. Just because supply is short in the US and prices are high here, does not mean that other places completely unconnected to the US will respond in kind. That'll only happen if for some reason the supply in Japan is diverted to the US and they become hard or harder to locate.