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Anonymous

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Thanks guys. I actually just got an email from the vendor a few minutes ago saying my stuff is going out tonight, so here's hoping it finally arrives tomorrow. I've held off on ordering anything from anyone else til this order gets here (or gets refunded), waiting to see just how it fills out the tank before trying to fill whatever space remains. I'm cautiously hopeful that the only things left for me to track down if this order arrives are some blue snowflake polyps (pic included, in case anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about) and some columnar eunicea gorgonians.

 

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Anonymous

Guest
Well, I'm supposed to be getting two boxes tomorrow. One from the vendor's location, which I have tracking info for, and one from Lone Star aquacuture (the farm that produces most of what I ordered) being shipped to me directly... which I haven't seen a tracking number for yet. Fingers crossed on that one.

The vendor has apparently thrown in three freebies and I have to admit I'm impressed despite myself as to the nature of those freebies. A dendrophyllia, a rainbow acan... and a sympodium. This order might turn out to be a positive experience after all.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Aaargh, that's terrible. Don't forget to take photos as you unpack. :x
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Sigh.

Okay, the box from sustainable reefs came with no problems whatsoever. That box included the ORA blue cespitularia that I'd ordered, plus three freebies: a 1/4" inch sympodium frag, a single head of denodrophyllia and five polyps of a nice multicolor acan. Everything arrived in good health.

The box sent directly from Lone Star is a complete disaster. Tiny styro box, everything bagged without oxygen, none of the xeniids were attached to styrofoam so they'd float in their own bags, and an oversized heat pack placed right next to the bags. Yellow encrusting xenia was completely melted, a bag of brown water and a frag disc with nothing left on it at all. Pink cespitularia in much the same shape, but a little bit of tissue left on the disc; it's melting but I've got it in the tank in hopes that some of it hangs on. Daisy xenia was melting but not as much, water in the bag was cloudy but not opaque like the others. Most of the tissue is still on the disc, but I can't tell if it's dead or not yet. The last item, a blue xenia, also was melting but still looks mostly okay. Of the four, that's the only one I'm pretty sure will make it.

I photographed the first couple of bags as I went and then the batteries in my camera died. Not much to worry about though - I really don't want a store credit from this place, as I really don't want anything to do with them in the future. I wrote them to let them know the deal, told them I wasn't interested in pursuing getting a credit with them, and that I'll eat the loss so I can put them behind me for good.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
You've really had the worst possible experience with this order. I really feel for you. :(
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Yeah, no argument from me there. Now I get to sit back and see if any of this stuff actually lives before moving forward.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Well, the day later update....
The freebies (acan, sympodium, dendro) continue to do just fine.

The blue cespitularia took about a day to perk up just from the shipping stress but appears to be settling in now. ORAs morph of blue cespitularia is IMO the nicest, and well worth seeking out.

The blue xenia seems to have made it okay, looking a bit healthier today. Think it's going to be fine.

The daisy xenia is down to about 10% of the original tissue. I -think- some of what's left will continue to hold on and maybe recuperate.

The pink cespitularia has completely disintegrated except for a couple of small nubs of tissue left on the disc. I'm pretty sure it's a lost cause, but I'm keeping the disc in the tank for now on the off chance I see some polyps form.

And the yellow anthelia, of course, was a complete write-off in the shipping box.

Overall, not as bad as I'd feared or as good as I'd hoped. Out of the five items I'd ordered, one was DOA, one is probably hopeless, one -might- recover and two are okay.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Dang- when I had a reef I was looking forever for cespitularia- cool to see its available now...
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Flabello Meandroid":skgyvm76 said:
Dang- when I had a reef I was looking forever for cespitularia- cool to see its available now...

The "african blue" morph is pretty readily available. I don't personally care for it; for some reason the polyps on this morph never really seem to open. They just hang there, extended on their stalks but closed.

The "metallic blue" and "ORA blue" morphs may be the same morph just being sold under different names. The polyps on these are peachy brown and do open, providing a nice contrast to the blue stalks.

The pink morph -might- be the same coral which in other circles is making the rounds as "Sanjay's purple efflatounaria". Under either name it's not that easy to acquire. Of all of the cespitularia morphs, this is the one that gets the fluffiest looking polyps.

There's also a green morph with yellow polyps that I've seen photos of in a handful of hobbyist's tanks, but so far as I know is not commercially available.

It's interesting, at a time when interest in soft corals other than ricordea and zooanthids is at it's lowest point ever, there are some staggeringly nice soft coral offerings making their way into the trade right now. With hardly anyone even noticing.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Argh! You're making me want to get back into it again. :twisted:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
7.5 gallon Mr Aqua rimless 12" cube for $50 from Marinedepot, a PAR38 LED for $120, maybe add an AquaEuro intank nano skimmer for $50.... fill it with cespitularia, sympodium, and maxi-mini anemones....

[rimg]http://www.reefhotspot.com/store/images/large/4.maxi_mini_aa3a.jpg[/rimg]

And use marco rocks, so the rock will only cost you $20 :D
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Yeah, the maxi-minis are neat. I'd have looked to add a bunch to my tank but I can't trust them with the redspot cardinals, they'd likely end up being a meal.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
The pink cespitularia finally gave up the ghost completely last night.

Still not sure about the daisy xenia. It's pretty much stopped losing tissue and the sexy shrimp have stopped picking dead stuff off it, but it still doesn't look anything like healthy.

The other two, the blue xenia and the blue cespitularia, are doing well. Have to figure what I'm going to do about the frag plug the blue xenia is on, though. It's freakin' huge. The frag is a little small for cutting lose and transplanting... maybe I'll just buy some bone cutters and try cutting down the disc it's on to something more manageable.

Liveaquaria has some of those columnar eunicea spp. gorgonians right now. Will see about getting some of them shipped to me this weekend, I think.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Sigh. I just read Matt's entire fish for the Nano Tank posts. :roll:

:lol:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Okay, short status update...

The daisy xenia hung on and is making a comeback. Now that I know it's not going to give up the ghost I'll remove it from it's plug and get it mounted on the rock work. The blue xenia is thriving, pulsing and growing; it's not really blue, more of a dark purple, but still really nice. The blue cespitularia is a little more iffy... seemed to be doing well at first, but I think something's been picking at it the last few nights. I pulled another crab out of the tank last night (a gray stone crab, about 1.5") so here's hoping he was the culprit and the cespitularia rebounds.

Just placed an order with liveaquaria for delivery saturday... a hi-fin goby (Stonogobiops nematodes) to hopefully pair up with that pistol shrimp hitch hiker I've got, a couple more thick-stem/giant bali xenia and I got lucky and scored this sympodium...


3.5" with about ten times the coverage of the little frag I got from Wet Thumb aquatics... for about the same price at the little frag I got from wet thumb aquatics :)

I'm thinking I'm just going to let the entire top of the rockwork get covered by the thick stem/giant bali xenia. The one colony of it I already have is a showstopper, so letting it dominate the upper part of the tank should be nice.
 

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Anonymous

Guest
I bought a nice Stonogobiops nematodes about 6 months ago, and put him in my Biocube (14).

Saw it for the 1st time about 3 weeks ago!





:D
 

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