NCPARS/That Pet Place frag swap 2011

North Central Pennsylvania Aquarium Reef Society and That Pet Place had their annual frag swap yesterday. Hundreds of reefers, dozens of fraggers, and nine speakers (including Tony Nista of UPG and Randy Reed of Reed Mariculture), showed up for the event.

Let's start with some eye candy from the swap right away.

Jason Fox's frags are hot right now. There are a lot of online frag stores nowadays that are selling "LE super radioactive insert made up trade name here" for boatloads of money, so I'm always skeptical of designer frags. I always say, "You can't photoshop in person." Well, Jason Fox doesn't have to; his frags might really be radioactive.

Here's your eye candy. Jason Fox Fruit Loop Zoas

The Jason Fox tank was a big hit!

Dan Rigle, the president of NCPARS had huge crowds around his gorgeous frags

my new setosa is the one on the far left

Red Planet Acro

Montipora setosa the Orange Setosa were HOT sellers. I got one!

Tricolor valida

TFP was crawling with hundreds of reefers

Reed Mariculture's new Mysis Feast. Can't wait to try it on my seahorses

UPG's new Reef Capable LED lights. LED's are the future of our hobby!

Seachem products

Two Little Fishies products

Brightwell Aquatics products

Brightwell and PE Mysis vendors working hard

The rest of these photos are display tanks and live stock from That Fish Place/That Pet Place. They had a lot of nice freshwater fish, a pretty nice selection of saltwater fish (that room is expanding), an impressive reptile room, and probably the best selection of small animals/rodents I've seen.

That Pet Place entrance

A Cardiff bullet tank at TFP. Remember my old Cardiff reef?

TFP Red Head Goby

Another TFP display tank

Closeup of the clownfish inside above tank

TPP has amazing reptile and small animal rooms

TFP Periclimenes imperator

rare Australomussa coral

Meat coral Acanthophyllia deshayesiana

Maxima clams

clownfish hosting in long tentacle anemones

Garden eel Heteroconger cobra

Green carpet anemone Stichodactyla haddoni

Corythoichthys pipefish

Powder blue tang Acanthurus leucosternon

TFP Plum Crazy Acro look alike

TFP Red Planet acro look alike

TFP had some nice freshwater fish too

Chocolate Chip Mollies

 Rainbows

OB Peacock Cichlid

Peacock Cichlid

Peacock Cichlid

Albino Kribensis cichlid

TFP Ray petting tank

Pinto Seahorses may lose dramatic coloration

According to ORA's blog, their Pinto Seahorses may or may not keep their unique coloration. Seahorses are known to change color, even Pintos.

Thank you, Elf, of seahorse.org for letting me use your photos to demonstrate this color change in your gorgeous Pinto seahorses from seahorsecorral.com.

before

 

 

after

 

before

Seahorse Video

An older video of my seahorses goofing off, wrestling, and just being cute.



I moved from Wisconsin to Philadelphia lately, and my seahorses are staying with a friend in WI until I am ready for them. I miss their little faces, but this video helps.

"Pinto" Seahorses

ORA® recently posted a blog on their new site about a "Pinto" mutation seahorse they have been selectively breeding. "Pinto" is a type of piebald color mutation that occurs in Hippocampus erectus seahorses and is easily one of the most highly sought after seahorses in the United States.



This mutation first occurred over ten years ago at Ocean Rider in Hawaii who was selling them for $950 EACH. Within the past couple years this mutation also occurred spontaneously at the Seahorse Corral aquaculture facility in Florida. Originally, they didn't charge extra for the "pinto" type seahorses, but when demand exceeded supply, they raised the price to $160 each.

ORA® mentions in their blog that the "pintos" may not keep their coloration. The Seahorse Corral "pintos" have also been known to lose their unusual coloration. Not much is known about the Ocean Rider Pintos. I suspect that not many have been sold over the years to preserve their purported rarity. Hopefully ORA® will produce large quantities of this color form so hobbyists have better access to them.

As a side note, Seahorse Corral was not allowed to market their seahorses as "pintos," because Ocean Rider has sole rights to that name. I'm unsure at this point if ORA® will be able to market theirs as "pintos" or if they will have to come up with a new catchy name for them.