It is clear that our hobby is moving toward the propagation of corals by hobbyists and that means lots and lots of frags out there. Reefers in Arkansas have spoken loud and clear that they want frags so I started thinking about how to about buying a good frag. After visiting the Coral Farmers Market this weekend in Dallas I saw a lot of frags that were fresh cuts and had not show any growth on the plug that it was mounted on. Look for tissue that has already healed over the coral skeleton from cutting and is now growing on the mounted plug. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Size is important in that some of the frags that are offered are so small that any errors in transporting increase the probability that you will loose the coral. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Color is often what catches our eye but don't let the color cloud out your otherwise good judgement in purchasing a quality frag. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Acclimate your frags like any other coral - just because their small doesn't mean they need a small acclimation time. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Always dip your corals prior to adding them to your tank to get rid of any flatworms or other opportunistic parasites. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Price - many of the sellers of frags are giving their corals wild colorful names to seperate themselves from the other guy - Watermelon Chalice / Reverse Superman. Don't fall trap to these flashy names. These corals are often just color morphs of a common coral that will become the common coral under different lighting. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Keep in mind that a lot of vendors show their frags under 20,000K Radium bulbs to bring out the color that you salivate over. Unfortunately, this lighting is far from optimum for actual coral growth so viewing under 10 - 14K bulbs is more realistic of the color that you will get at home. Ask the vendor when buying frags what lighting the corals were grown out over. [/*:m:2fzb06yt] Last but not least - don't pay these outlandish prices for frags that are clearly not worth it. $280 Bubble Gum Chalice and 180 Watermeion Chalice this weekend. [/*:m:2fzb06yt]
