Hidden Jewels

[grouper25]

I recently read a thread I believe was started by Mucho Reef regarding finding hidden jewels amoungst rubble.

Recently I stopped at this crappy northern NJ LFS as I was just passing buy. I almost didnt given the way its maintained. In one of their filthy reef tanks where coarals are kept , I observed a 7 inch rock loaded with zoa polyps. Given the horific water quality and lighting conditions along with virtually no water flow, they were virtually all closed except for a few which were slighly opened. These very few gave me the clue that something good could lie within. Anyway, I recalled Mucho's experience and decided to liberate this poor colony from its death sentence given the potential I saw.

Its now been 7 days since I bought this 150 polyp colony for $42.00 and they are all opened and a fabulous green and pink color. Of course, I did the dip and tons of unfriendly life forms were discharged.

Thanks Mucho.... Good luck to all future hunters.

[MUCHO REEF]

Hey that's great grouper25. I found two myself last week that I have never ever seen anything like them before. As soon as we can get away from LE, giving polyps a name, and per polyp sales, the hobby as we once knew it will return. I continue to say that the joy for me is the hunt, not being able to recite every name and gaining the daily knowledge through trial and error to keep each regionally collected frag or colony alive. Congrats again.

Any other successful hunting stories out there?

Mucho Reef

[kicbak]

I just got these from a local store

3 frags
I can't remember but which but $5, $10, $15 where the prices
http://www.kicbak.com/images/Kicbak/album/33C04052008/zoos256.jpg

Bottom Right and top left are two frags. I took the pic after gluing a bunch of frags in the tank so they were pretty ****ed and not many were open.
http://www.kicbak.com/images/Kicbak/album/33C04052008/zoos280.jpg

I really like the pink and greens with some odd gold flecks in the bottom right of the second pic

[RevHtree]

Those are awesome!

[650-IS350]

SCOOOOOOOORE!

[Abominable Reef]

LFS been belly belly good to me for $35

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/66420zoa_rock-med.jpg

[kicbak]

nice, I love the frags or rocks that have a couple (or more in your case) different colors

[ggk1988]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12293393#post12293393 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Abominable Reef
LFS been belly belly good to me for $35

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/66420zoa_rock-med.jpg

I got those EXACT same zoa combo on a rock in my tank. Kinda strange..

[jonathanws]

lol i've never had that luck. the lfs's i frequent always have the same boring stuff. i'd like to see pics from the OP!

[psychofishy]

same here jon... Local stores got barely any good.. and if they do, it's often REALLY expensive for a couple of polyps :-(

Thank god there's a store about 1,5 hours away which has AWESOME stuff...and reserves a couple polyps for me from every cool thing they get in :-D

[tankdvr]

I wasn't having much luck finding nice colorful zoa's at my lfs until I read what mucho had posted as well. I finally made it back to the shop last night and took a look at their lighting. Then squatted down and started staring at the frags they had. I found a really nice rock with a good mix of different types for about $30. I'll have to post a picture of it later on. I can't take all the credit though (well none of the credit i guess, because it should go to mucho), one of the owners sat with me and gave me pointers on what to look for while I was staring at his tanks as well.

[tankdvr]

Here are a couple of pictures of my new addition. I have no idea if they have names or not, but I really like the combination of colors (the pictures don't really do them justice unfortunately).

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/515/184445zoa_2.JPG

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/515/184445zoa.JPG