hot take for reef supply places and people who sell reef supplies:
to follow my "just because you put some $5 screen on top and plastic doors on it doesn't mean it deserves to be $110+" take that I had for reptile supply manufacturers:
your 25 pound box of dead dry white reef rock is not worth $200.
Red egg crab (Atergatis interrimus), a bashful crab belonging to the family Xanthidae, is a species of reef crab, which is colorful and round that can be very commonly seen on many shores in coral rubble areas and reefs. It looks like a cancer pagurus that many people prefer to cook and eat it. However, it is highly toxic and toxins mainly come from algae and shellfish, accumulating through the food chain. It contains tetrodotoxin (TTX), a paralytic shellfish toxin. It also contains saxitoxin (STX), which is the best-known paralytic shellfish toxin. These toxins, which are not destroyed by cooking and have no effective antidote, can cause muscle paralysis, respiratory failure, and death.
Caught my Cynarina lacrimalis spawning this evening! Managed to get some crappy shots of the eggs and gametes being released!
About 7 separate releases, and he got smaller and smaller each time. A wrinkly blob by the end of it! Should be back to normal by tomorrow, but I bet he’ll be hungry!
Re-did my saltwater aquariums aquascape and am feeling really pleased with it! It definitely has a lot of growing to do but the fish seem to like the new layout, and I think I will enjoy it being much easier to clean. Only coral that is upset is my Xenia, and it'll be back in full force before I even miss it lol.
Oh, and don't worry about the dottybacks fins...the dumb dumb loves shoving himself through small holes hunting worms and regularly rips them. I just make sure to keep things extra clean for his healing.
your test kits arent worth $50 for a plastic egg with some leds, 2 10ml vials i can get for like 50 cents each, a plastic 10 cent syringe and some Special Juice
your zoanthid corals arent worth $50+ because they're called "gorilla's nipples" (actual zoanthid cultivar name...)
your other corals that are maybe a quarter in size aren't worth $400 because they're called "OG Jamie Fox Money Shot Booty Bounce" or whatever you're just stupid
your fancy air bubbler that sucks foam out of the water (literally anything can do that? its just a tube, an air stone, and airline with an output for the skimmate) is not worth $80 even for the smallest one
your ~fancy soda ash co2 scrubber omg~ you can make cheaply using bulk materials, airline, and some plastic tube isnt worth $100+
your chaetomorpha isn't worth $30 when people are throwing pounds of it away because nobody will buy it
your pulsing xenia frag isn't worth $20, people are throwing it out of their tanks and you only want to give a thumb sized frag anyway
your green star polyp with 1 (one) head isnt worth $20 when people are also throwing it out of their tanks by the pound because they hate it
your calcium reactor isn't worth $200, it's easier to diy and just buy a cheaper version of the media
your asterina stars arent worth $20 for 10. i shouldnt even have to explain this people are throwing hundreds of dozens of them out by the day and you want me to pay $20? for ten of them? For food for a later invertebrate i plan on keeping?
you aren't better because youve been in the hobby longer, you just look like a snob who won't give anybody else advice because google is free. also, it's not "too much trouble" to ship something locally when you'd do it for anybody else from minnesota or oregon.
some people can't diy, you cucks.
your clownfish aren't worth $30. they're literally the generic clownfish from anywhere you can get and you want me to pay that much? please
also a plastic frag rack which is literally just a sheet of acrylic with a hole drilled in it isn't worth $30 because it has special colors like ooooh i can paint mine too youre not special