Loading ...I went to the only LFS within a 45 minute drive with a couple of friends last night.
Their coral collection, as usual, was abysmal. Not so much from the selection, even though there was very little to choose from, but from the coral’s health. Everything was bleached out. There was a scolymia that could have been beautiful if only it wasn’t bleached and starving. You could see its skeleton through its flesh.
This. Only not so alive.
In their live rock tanks, they threw dying SPS. I spoke to one of the guys in charge about some dying SPS and if I could take them home and try to rescue them. He said that they had just come in on a shipment and he wants to “see what they would do”. I could have told him what they’ll do…die.
There’s so much waste in this hobby. I don’t want LFS to add to it. The thing that keeps popping into my head is a Top Chef episode. Stay with me here, it’s good stuff.
The point of the show is to cook the best dinner using preset ingredients. In this particular episode, the head Chef, Tom Collichio had this reaction:
the head judge commented that Gene’s overcooked and poorly executed red snapper “bummed him out” because, as a chef, he feels you are supposed to “honor ingredients.” He was actually visibly disturbed by the fact that a fish died in vain for Gene’s bad dish. It was sincere and honest, and I loved it.
“If my alkalinity is 8dhk and I want to bring it up to 11dkh, then I need to balance my calcium at 440ppm…”
There’s a lot of parallels between cooking and reefers. There’s a lot of death in both industries, but I like the idea of “honouring ingredients”. Do you honour the ingredients of your tank? Does your LFS honour theirs?
Honouring your aquarium means doing the best to take care of the livestock, while knowing that you’re walking a fine line between life and death for your charges. If something dies, don’t just say “Oh, well” and buy a replacement. Stop. Reflect. Make changes if necessary. Slow down. Mourn things that have died.
So, with that in mind, Eddie has me thinking. Today he’s he wrote about exporting coral. I found this to be the most poingnant:
While on the topic of aquaculture, let’s have a look at the false notion that keeping frags and promoting frags, even captive grown frags are deterring wild coral collection. The idea is good but again is flawed. Here is a typical example. A nice wild echino soon to be the “new watermelon chalice” is collected from the wild. It is sent to a wholesaler in the US. The coral gets picked up by a smart guy that specializes in fragging. He knows the value of this coral. I don’t blame the guy, to make money, I would do the same. So he cuts up the precious colony into many parts. Even glues them on a plug and let’s them heal. Then he smartly calls it a special name and starts to market it. The demand skyrockets.
Hit the link for more.
Also, please no Top Chef spoilers. I haven’t watched the finale yet.
In the hobby since 2001, and has seen all kinds of fads come and go. As he gets older, Jeff is developing more and more of a conscience towards environmental concerns, especially towards reefs. Currently, he writes from Ontario, Canada, but would rather be snorkeling on a reef.
I do not see any problem with that scoly, how much is it? It does not look bleach or ‘too’ bleach at all.
Skeleton sticking out of the flesh is VERY VERY common amongst new shipments and for healthy specimens, with feeding, they usually recovers in a week and ready for sale.
Hubert that wasn’t the coral in question, it was used as an example of the coral we had viewed. I was with Jeff last night at this LFS in question and not one piece in their tanks looked healthy. Not one.
I am forever wondering how this company stays in business seeing as they are not on my list to stop in to shop at. To be honest the only pieces they have that are worth any money are the ones in their reef display. I haven’t seen any of those corals in the back ever, so a store that takes the best for itself and sells us the rest… well that really speaks for itself doesn’t it?
This same store wouldn’t allow us to post a MASD flyer up either to direct a new hobbyist to a place where they can learn and get more out of their hobby. Their reasoning? “Well if we put yours up we have to put everyone’s up.” What other ones? lol. I am of the opinion that this place makes money off of the ignorance of a newer hobbyist.
This franchise store is absolutely the worst one of all the ones I have been to. Hands down.
Hubert – The scoly in the tank was so bleached, that you could see the skeleton THROUGH the flesh, even though it was inflated. Like, it was nearly translucent.
The picture is a healthy scoly, hence my caption. That picture is from Zach’s TOTM profile. Hope he doesn’t mind me “borrowing” it
No wonder, these days, I noticed that pure orange donuts are hard to come by and also come with a hafy price tags.