Thanks, that's really encouraging. My Strombus snails are probably who I have to thank for my sand bed, they do an excellent job of keeping it clean, particularly as the Tail Spot Blenny seems to take offence if they try and eat off the rock, and they now mostly stick to the sand, though occasionally one will go climbing on the rock work.
Zoanthids have for a long time been called the beginner's coral here and not in a good way. It seems the hobby here has been for a long time a hobby for (mostly) men who like a challenge and therefore the prestige comes with a tank full of SPS colonies or carpet anemones. But that's changing I think. LPS are now seeming more popular and the way LFS here are seeing their more colorful zoa colonies sell out so quickly, I think we may be on the verge of a boom in their popularity. I'd love to think that will lead to an increase in supply of interesting colors (it seems to be so far) without the accompanying price rise, but it's inevitable to an extent that a premium will be charged for the fancier colors, unless the market gets flooded.
Acans have never been that colorful here, though I've found somewhere that sells some nice pieces (and very cheap). Chalices are very much at the periphery and always sold cheaply as whole colonies. The downside of that is that there are very few dramatically colored pieces.
The irony I find with the periodic crazes in the US hobby is how often Japan is referred to as a place where anything is available or where all the cherries get sent. It's true to an extent with rare fish, but with coral, from what I've seen on the net, the selection here is generally nowhere near as good as the US (maybe because it's smaller scale as well, less commercialized, with less of the clever marketing of silly names/"rare morphs").
Another thing that is kind of annoying/amusing is the number of times I see Japanese deepwater zoas or Japanese XXXX coral etc talked about in the US. According to a friend of mine, the Japanese deepwater zoas come from Vietnam. They're just recently starting to appear here. :lol:
The pink softie is really looking great. I should try and get a close-up for you at some point. It usually looks a lot spikier than the first shot I posted, so it might be a Stereonepthya sp. In front of it now is a cheapo $15 yellow version, sold under the same Japanese name, but I have no idea whether it's the same species or just a different color morph (the Japanese name seems to be used for a whole group of corals, rather than just one species).
Thanks again.
