Vendors that frag from their stock?

[caferacermike]

I noticed a comment made in another thread but the thread was closed down so that ended that. The comment was along the lines of "oh come on fragging is part of the hobby".

Well it is my understanding that fragging is done amongst hobbyists and not at retailers. Buying in Austin I've never felt compelled to buy just a piece of a coral, we just buy them as is. I visited Fin Addict a long time ago and asked to buy a coral that was for sale without a price. I asked how much for the particular coral and I got the strangest reply ever, "well that depends upon how much of it you want". Say what? I asked how much is THE coral. SO I asked to buy the entire piece, the next reply was even stranger. It was along the lines of "we don't like to sell entire pieces, we choose to sell some of it and then keep a piece to grow out". OK sure but that was kinda weird compared to EVERY other shop I've ever bought coral at.

So here in ATX most retailers won't sell you a frag off of a colony. Sometimes you might get them to let go of a single head dangling off the side or if it's a really expensive piece they might sell you a little piece but the norm is you must buy the entire piece. I agree with that policy. I don't see why a vendor should risk fragging a colony and then put it back in their "not so clean" tanks possibly killing the remaining colony so you can have a small piece of it at a reduced price.

So my main question is WHO actually frags their corals for their customers? I've heard it might be common in SA but does not seem to be the norm in ATX. Just wondering what some of the shops policies might actually be for selling colonies.

*********As a disclaimer this is not meant to argue with the original poster in another thread. It was the comment that got me to thinking about my and others past buying experiences. So please "poster" don't feel the need to argue your point about your last shopping trip and in no way should you feel the need to defend the comment, it just got me to thinking and opened the door to further discussion about the hobby. (If any Mod feels otherwise about me asking about other shops selling practices please feel free to PM me snd discuss it with me as to whether this is an "acceptable" topic).****************

[JimD]

As long as it stays completely on topic, we'll see how it goes, one iota of potential argument and guess what??? I dont think you're gonna get too may of the retailers to reply but we'll see..

[aprilmayjune]

I know I've bought frags from Fin Addict as you already mentioned, and from Polly's Pet Shop. I would always frag for a customer so long as it was a reasonable request which it usually was. I knew how it was having a small tank and wanting that nice piece of coral that was way too big. And the smaller frags always sold quicker than the larger pieces so I never had a problem breaking coral apart.

That usually applied only towards mushrooms and zoas since they were so easy to frag with low risk of harming the coral. I can't think of one incident where my colony died because of fragging. I can understand if a business doesn't want to risk any deaths though!

[apedroza]

I have actually received frags from aquatek and a small frag from aquatic warehouse. I actually think I may have got something small from kingfish as well.

[captexas]

I don't think he is asking who sells frags in general, but if any stores have/would frag from a main colony they have either for sale or in their display tanks.

[Richard]

I rarely fragged anything. When I did it was because I felt like fragging something not because someone requested a piece of a coral. It had nothing to do with worrying about harming the coral.

I spoken with some in the industry about this very topic. Some feel that it's fine since the hobbyist gets a cheap (from their perspective) coral and the store gets to make more money on a coral by chopping it up. Others thought it was unethical from a retail perspective since you are taking a coral that cost you $20 and instead of selling it for $40-$60 (the standard industry margin) you are chopping it up into say 10 pieces and selling them for $10-15 a piece which is a much higher margin.

I don't have a problem with stores that do it or stores that don't. The reason I generally didn't do it was quite honestly because I didn't feel like it.

[JimD]

"The reason I generally didn't do it was quite honestly because I didn't feel like it."

Exactly, as the store owner, he/she can do wahtever they feel like doing, after all, its their store. Theres no set rules so its completely up to them.

[captexas]

"The reason I generally didn't do it was quite honestly because I didn't feel like it."

Exactly, as the store owner, he/she can do wahtever they feel like doing, after all, its their store. Theres no set rules so its completely up to them.

Well you said as long as it stayed on topic, but then you slightly changed the topic! So to respond to your new topic. . .

I agree 100% that it is an owner's perogative to run their business how they want, but from a customer service standpoint and interest in not coming off as being rude to your customers, I don't think you tell your paying customers the reason you won't do something is "because I don't feel like it". If it's against store policy, fine, I have no problem accepting an answer like that, even if you were lying to me. But tell me you won't do it simply because you don't feel like it tells me you don't think I'm important as a customer. It says you would do it for someone else, but just not for me. And while it's an owners perogative to run their business how they want, it's also a customers perogative to take their money elsewhere and/or to tell others of their experience.

Back to the original topic now . . .
I don't think I've seen any retailer frag a colony that was for sale as a colony. Sometimes LFS will have a colony in a frag grow-out tank specifically for fragging so that's a different story. Sometimes maybe at Fin Addict, but probably sold more in frags than in colonies.

[Bill S]

FA and Aquatic Warehouse were both great about selling frags. Yes, I'm sure they made more money on it but it also allowed more people to enjoy (or kill) the same coral. If you remember, Felipe, for a while, was big into propagation.

[JimD]

Slightly? You've obviouisly missed the point...