AQUACULTURED 'DEREKS INDECISION' ACRO FRAG
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful wild piece of Aussie staghorn Acropora available at the store. It was bluey-green, shaggy and characterised by a bright green inner mouth pigment on the inside of the axial polyps. An avid local SPS keeper named Derek purchased it, and placed it in what he hoped was the best possible spot in his SPS display. No matter how much he would gaze at it, he wasn't exactly convinced it was different enough to his other stags, or that it complemented the rest of his Acropora collection in the position he had available. He reluctantly brought it back to trade in for store credit on a day we weren't open and it got placed by mistake on a rack for sale (despite the fact we desperately wanted it to grow out for propagation).
One week later, Derek returns to shop for Acro and spots the piece. Falls in love with it all over again. Gets served by a different staff member who has no idea of its origin. He heads home and only realises his mistake once he goes to glue it in place, only to discover it already has (his old) glue across the base. Feeling sheepish, he didn't want to admit his blunder and bring it back to trade in for the second time so he rings a second time so he calls another LFS and arranges the return with credit there. Meanwhile, we come in to discover the cool shaggy stag which was meant to be propagated was accidentally sold. And not only that, the fact it was sold back to Derek! So we gave him a call and the story unfolded. The piece was already at the other shop, so he rang them and explained that he needed it back. A few weeks later, it was back in our care and sent to The Prop room for propagation.
Years passed, growth was slow, and it had not yet ever been fragged. Jake Adams came to visit us and relentlessly poked us to frag a portion to send to him in Denver via Salty Pets export liscence to Unique Corals in LA. We did it. And he featured it in a Reefbuilders video about grafting Aussie stags. We since lost the mother colony in a heavy metal event but thankfully got a piece back from a fragger who was good mates with Derek. It has turned a little more teal than blue, we think that is because we no longer run our K (Potassium) at 460-500ppm. And now, we fragged that enough times that we can share it with you. Such a cool piece with a super cool story!
Please note the piece pictured may or may not be the piece you receive.
