It pays to inspect and dip!
I just want to raise caution to those that purchase colonies and especially those that don't dip their coral.
It does not matter what the person, vendor, LFS whoever and whatever says....always be sure to DIP and inspect your specimens thoroughly. Our acclimating kit says "We dip all of our coral but that doesn't mean you shouldn't", and that's for good reason! You just never know what can and does get through a dip.
Lastnight I found a little hairy crab in one of the colonies from our newest shipment which then caused me to break the entire rock up, you'd be surprised the stuff I found in there hidden in the tiniest of holes. Even after dipping for almost an hour there were still creatures moving around. All of the remaining rock was discarded to dry out.
Because of this, one of our new procedures for aclimating, dipping and preparing corals for entrance into our stock will be to break down colonies and rock. Because of this we will no longer offer colonies that are a part of large pieces of rock. If you buy a colony from us it will be a propagated piece.
Just another bonus for buying frags, less chance of pesky pests. Avoid pieces with large rock whenever possible is our recommendation and don't hate on the frag plugs and discs! They are your assurance that the person before you did their part for responsible reef keeping.
Take these same precautions with whoever you buy from including other vendors and hobbyists.
We're keeping score...
Frags: +10
Colonies: -10
Originally Posted by hobogato
