Post F&S Frag Swap Report

[Limpit]

Greetings all,
Just a follow up on the frag swap that F&S had this past weekend.

Talked with Fahz and he said they had double the attendees this year.
Traders went from 8 last year to 38 this year!

We set up our stuff Friday so we would have less to do Sat. a.m. and am I glad we did. Got there Sat. at 10 minutes to 9 and it seemed like it was nonstop for 2 hours, lots of people!
I did not even get a chance to walk around a little and take some pictures until noon.

Here are some shots taken from between the traders tables.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/Limpit/traders1.jpg
Current U.S.A. supplied 12 gallon Aquapods for the traders.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/Limpit/traders2.jpg
The buckets on the floor between the tables were filled with saltwater for bagging.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/Limpit/traders3.jpg
Hey Kass, say cheese!

A couple of pics from around the traders area.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/Limpit/traders5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v358/Limpit/traders4.jpg

Well to everyone who I got a chance to talk to over the weekend thank you and I hope that everyone had a good time.
I am already looking forward to next years event!

Ron

[kass03]

and what a LOVELY picture of me that is lol.
I kept hoping I would'nt be in any of them.

I had a GREAT time and it was nice seeing all of you again.
Those tanks they gave us are sooo cool. Now I have to buy my kid a new freshwater tank so I can keep the aquapod for frags lol.

kass

[Sula]

Hi, I'm Sula from Madison and that's me in the purple shirt looking at Kass's frags.
Kass - everything looks just excellent, thanks again :D

[sidd129]

and what about the price of the snails they were sellinging in store.

turbos, black turbos, super nassarius, and cerith were all $0.99

[nellie54914]

I was kind of dissapointed with the cleaners actually. We did pick up a dozen ceriths, but they were out of 1 of the kinds of turbos when we were shopping (Saturday late morning). And the nassarius that were on sale weren't the big ones, they were the smaller ones. At least that's what we were told, cuz we were going to get a bunch if they were the larger ones. She said the big ones were $3.99, only th little ones ere $.99. The girl by the tanks directed me over to the bagging table, said they had a bunch pre-bagged in back. When I got over there they checked and didn't have any of the nassarius in back, directed me back over to the tanks. By that time it was WAY too crowded over by the tanks and I didn't even want to mess with it since it was for the smaller snails. If it was for the bigger ones guess we missed out! It was pretty chaotic in there though, so maybe the girl just told us the wrong thing..

Other than that we had a great time! Picked up 8 different frags--7 SPS and a hammer coral frag. Got some really cool stuff, we're looking forward to watching them grow!

Once again the staff & volunteers at FS were AMAZING!!! Everybody was so helpful and friendly! We had Pablo with us and of course he got spoiled at the store, they kept bringing him treats. One even gave him a sub, said since we were eating them he needed one too. It gave him onion breath! :eek2: I think he's a few pounds heavier now, LOL!

I thought the frag demostration was pretty cool. They could have used a bit more light over the fragging bins cuz it was kind of hard to see what he was doing sometimes, but he explained it really well. It was interesting to see how effortlessly he did it all, it was obvious Julian had fragged all different corals numerous times. He sure had a bunch of frags in that short amount of time. Not like me who's afraid to kill things and that I'll do it wrong, I go slowly and veeeeery carefully! It was pretty funny, we were sitting in the front row and had Pablo with us (we couldn't get the truck to lock with it running & the air on, and didn't want to leave the windows open cuz it looked like rain. So we asked the "gatekeepers" if it was ok to bring him in. anyway...). Before he started the demo and was testing out the mic, Julian saw Pablo and started barking and growling at him (Julian was barking & growling, not Pablo). The mic wasn't very loud at that time so a lot of people probably couldn't hear him, but those who could probably thought he was nuts! LOL! Then at the end when everybody started clapping Pablo wasn't sure what was going on, so he had to let out a couple barks too. And Julian barked back at him, it was quite funny. Maybe that was Pablo's way of applauding, haha!

The event was definitely better than last year. Much more organized, and it was nice with so many more traders! It was also nice that the coral facility tour was longer this year, and the allowed time to just look around at whatever we wanted at the end of it ask questions, etc. Last year there just wasn't enough time to stare and drool! :D I asked the guy if he knew how to kill xenia and he couldn't help me, said he hadn't figured that out himself yet. hmmm...

Wish I would have signed up to be a trader, would have been worth it just for the tank!! Those sure are nice, great little frag tanks. That's cool that the company donated those, very generous of them. And the goodie bags were really nice too! We bought a big tub of Formula Two flakes in the store. Between that and the 4 canisters of food (between the 2 of us) in the bags, we're definitely set on dry food for quite a while. And we can reign in the food too with that little food fence! :)

[kass03]

That's really great to hear about the frags Sula.
I'm glad I'm not the only one in that picture lol.

I'm still so excited about that tank lmao. It was the best part of the trip. I have it all set up already with water but not sure how to cycle it. I might just put some rock and prolly sand from my other tanks.
It's been over 20 years since I cycled a tank. My 150 I got used and set up so I did'nt have to cycle it.
The wheels keep turning lol I wanted it for a frag tank but keep thinking boy I could have a rose bulb anemone or something cool in there too. I need a cpl more of those lmao I'm still kicking myself for not signing up my hubby to trade. I was'nt smart like Ron.

I did miss Pablo on Sunday morning. I had nobody to lick on my donut lmao.
I also noticed they did'nt have any donuts with nuts this year. Could it be because last year I was eating mine over the clam tank and the nuts were falling in? hehe

Michelle those big nassarius usually do go for alot more. I think I paid 4.99 for mine in Green Bay. I got the small ones at Doc Fosters for 99 cents though.

I was also a little annoyed with trying to buy in the store.
I was second in line waiting to ask about a six line wrasse Sunday morning because it had pop-eye and they kept ignoring me and waiting on the people behind me. I waited over a half an hour to get waited on.
It turned out good in the end though because instead of their $22.99 price they gave it to me for $5.99. It's doing fine so far so I hope it will be ok.

Otherwise it was great as Michelle said. I was still amazed and in awe on the tour even though I saw it last year.

The staff are so nice there to. When I was trading Doc Fosters (or whoever he was lol) kept grabbing me and asking if I needed anything and how I liked it.
They all went out of there way to make sure everything was going good.

I wish they would have it twice a year (hint hint lol)

kass

[fahz]

Hey thank you all for coming :D I certainly enjoyed talking to everyone.

Fahz

[kass03]

Thanks to you also Fahz I enjoyed talking to you and your humor when doing the raffle lol.

kass

[Limpit]

Hey Kass, the frags I got from you are doing great! The Toadstools have their polyps extended as well as that Gorgonian.
I would also like to "second" the idea of doing the swap twice a year!

Everything I ended up bringing home is doing quite well so far.
It is truly amazing how resilient corals really are.
I wish my back was as tough as the corals were after unloading a years worth of salt though!

[iceman5]

i certainly enjoy the weekend even thou i ended up going solo. it sure was nice to see kass,ron,jeff,mako, nellie there! all the corals i got there are doing great also! thanks ron for the green ric.i am sure glad i stayed around for the tour of the coral farm that was pretty amazing! did anyone else notice in kevins office that he had one of those vortex powerheads on his sps tank. anyway i can't wait to do it again next year (i hope its still in the same place)Andrew

[kass03]

That's great to hear Ron I'm glad they're all O.K.

That 6 line wrasse I got looks like it's eye is getting better already and it's acting normal so I think I got a good deal lol.

When I went back Sunday morning all my corals were open nicely in the tank. I think you are much better off going the night before.

Andy I did'nt mean to ditch you at the tour. My hubby wanted to get going back so we kinda left before I was done looking.

I did'nt see Mako there hmm. Gooch was there also.
We could'nt miss Jeff claiming all those prizes (OINK OINK LOL)

kass

[EdBurhop]

My only complaint was the lack of a selection of fish. I know they ship a lot of their fish from the west coast, but they could have made a lot of money if they would have set up tanks and brought in an assortment of fish. Other than that, fantastic show. I will be back next year!