Chriskid's Stag

     It's funny when I go through my photo's on my computer sometimes. I have a folder that I place all of our fishtank photo's in as I take them off of our camera. Usually Chris has an array of top tank shots, side views, a new fish he's recently bought, zoanthids that are looking amazingly well, you name it. 

     This morning I was going through the photo's in order to come up with a tank update for July since nothing really went on that month. This must have been the month we added the LED's to the tank. Why do I think this? Because most of July's pictures are of Chris trying to capture the glow from the LED's onto the corals. It's an amazing sight here in the house, on the camera however...eh...not so much. 

In case anyone is wondering, we only use the LED's to add a 'pop' of color to our tank. We are die hard halide supporters. 

     When I talk about this folder and going through it let me tell you, this takes time. There are thousands of photo's in it from all the years we've had our new camera. If I want older ones, I have to search through six or seven disks to find the picture or pictures I'm looking for. These ones are usually so awful in clarity though, that I only put them up for a before and after type of logic. 

     That's pretty much what I plan on doing right now too :)

     About eight years ago (give or take) Chris was wandering through Fin & Feather looking for coral. He would always end up talking to one particular worker there or we would get into conversations with the owner, John. This particular day he was off with John in coral land as I wandered around and looked at the other animals. After some time he tells me he's all set as he's walking out of the fish area with three bags in his hand. He's all excited, he just got a really great deal on some coral. Cool! So, what did he get? We go to the register and I look into the bags. I will never remember the other corals he bought that day or if we still have them but, this one...oh for crying out loud! Really?! It was a thick brown stick with a ball on the bottom. I remember complaining about him buying brown coral again and then expressing my absolute distaste for this ugly, brown dick looking one. He was excited however because they were only $20 a piece. I then expressed that they were this price because they were ugly and one of them looked like a dick. 

     The coral went into the tank and it was forever deemed 'The Big Brown Dick' by me. 

     This was the time when we were still getting used to keeping SPS in the tank so, for some time, this coral remained simply long, brown, and dick-like in resemblance. Chris moved it to the basement tank for a while. I'm not sure if it was because of my comments or something else but, it was gone for a while.

     A few months went by and the coral started to show a little bit of life and started to grow from the base. It also started turning dark green. See it in the picture? You can't miss it! Towards the front and to the right of our frogspawn in the sand.

     About six more months went by. I'm peering into the tank one day and see this amazing coral. It's light pale green and goes to blue and the very tips of it are an amazing yellow. I ask Chris what in the hell this coral is and he smiles at me, "It's The Big Brown Dick" he says. He proceeds to give me the 'I told you so' talk about corals and lighting. 

     After some time it grew enough to be fragged which was a good thing. We lost the main colony some time ago when our tank crashed the first time for unknown reasons. 

     When people would come over and look at our tank they would always ask about it. We would tell them the story of my dislike for it when it was bought and how it grew into a thing of beauty but, we never had a name. Chris knew it was a stag and that was all he was ever able to find. 

     About two years ago, someone was over and bought a frag of it. When he asked the name and we told him the story he said we should just start calling it Chriskid's Stag. From then on, that's what we have done or for short CK's Stag We've joked and said that we should have named it The BBD Stag. 

     Before the tank upgrade Chriskid's Stag looked like this...

     In July it has grown into a monster coral in our tank...

     So, (another) lesson learned in the reefkeeping hobby. The brown sticks can truly turn into things of beauty if provided proper lighting and water conditions. 

     Chris buys a lot of wild coral now for two reasons. One is to prove to himself that he can keep them alive because we have noticed most hobbyist have a lot of difficulty with them. Two, to see what will happen to that one that has no color but, looks like it has a lot of potential. It's fun to see what we get sometimes. 

     Until next time, happy coral shopping! 

Jersey's Frag Swap & Conference

     The New Jersey Reefers Club was supposed to have it's conference right after Hurricane Sandy. However, flooding of the Expo Center cancelled this date and instead brought it to June 15th. 

     Chris and his dad decided early on that they were going to split a booth at this frag swap in order to try to meet some new people and to sell the coral we have been trimming to reefers outside of our area. 

     I'll admit it, I was against this idea right off the bat. I didn't like the idea of going to another state and pouring out a ton of money for the booth, hotel room and anything needed for bringing and distributing the coral. It wasn't until about two weeks before the swap that I agreed to go. 

     I went down to Camero Signs and had a banner made for Chris to put up. I figured it looked more 'professional.'

     Just like the FFM, we brought our own water and this time asked NJRC to only hold a small amount for us just in case. We used our buckets with our homemade frag holders again, brought the tank that Emery made for him and of course everything else you could possibly need. Bags were on order to pick up at the swap and the bank account was all snuggled and ready to receive payments with credit cards too. We brought Emily with us because she was soooo helpful at the FFM and I borrowed my mothers car because it was way newer than mine. 

     We met Emery and Lisa somewhere on 95 that morning. We were pretty much operating on very little sleep and it was still up in the air as to whether or not we were getting a hotel room after the swap. Chris was worried about the corals and setting up the tank in the room which was understandable but, before we ever even got there I was exhausted. 

     Lisa bought us all matching color shirts to wear and even put little rhinestones on the ones for us girls.

     The swap went very well. We didn't pull in as much as we had hoped (all the funds went towards our upcoming wedding) but, we still had a great time and met some fantastic people. 

     Everytime I turned around Chris was off at another booth checking out corals and zoas! Just like a kid in the candy store. 

     Next time, we go back to using the light we had at the FFM or something else to help make them pop. The light we used drowned out the color of our corals terribly which I think kept people from buying some of them. 

     A ton of photo's of the swap can be found by Clicking Here

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Hawkeye a NJRC member

Photo by Lisa Messier

Photo by Lisa Messier

     We did end up spending the night in Jersey. We were all wiped after the swap ended. The next morning, Chris only lost one of the corals that he bought and we attributed the loss to him keeping it in the bag instead of just putting it in the tank with the rest of the frags.      

     Until next time, keep fraggin!