ORA Red Planet is Aquarium City Red Millepora. Well...probably

I would never post this on RC or Nano-Reef....because it would be way too "political"...and I would be crucified.

Way back in the late 1990s a LFS in the San Fernando Valley (Topenga and Sherman Way) called Aquarium City had a display tank with the most colorful and healthy SPS corals you could find in a public venue. They had massive SPS colonies of about every kind. This store and the tank are still around but they don't keep much of anything new or rare in it anymore. I think the original owner (Mike) has had a little too much, "been there - done that - and just trying to stay in business". Anyway, The owner can tell you, and I believe him, that he had a couple of guys come in and buy lots of frags from him back then. Both those guys would later start their own business, i.e. ORA and Reef Farmers. It's very likely that some of the more popular "Old school" Acros like Ora Red Planet originated in this tank.

I can tell you now that I have an ORA Red Planet and an Aquarium City Red Mille side by side in my tank they appear virtually the same. The only difference is the Aquarium City Red is a slower grower and encrusts a little more before branching. Otherwise - identical twins. I also suspected the Halloween Mille was possible a Morph (or close cousin) of Aquarium City/ORA Red. One thing for sure is that the Halloween Mille has less green and much more florescent Red. As far as the "pretty" factor, I'm most fond of the Halloween Mille.

Lastly - anyone have a Rouge Mille or Teal Staghorn they want to sell a frag of?

If you've been in this hobby for 10 years or more, you'd know this is the norm for most corals. But most people don't know that.

Back in the day, Steve Tyree went to different peoples houses/tanks and would buy certain corals from them that he thought looked really good. He'd grow them out, put a name on them, and call them a "Tyree limited edition". Like suckers, people would buy them at crazy prices.

We've done this to ourselves and now the importers are cashing in on our stupidity. I remember going to Walt Smiths warehouse down in LA, seeing large bins full of rocks covered in beautiful Zoa's, they were 30 bucks a rock, didn't matter what was on them.

Now days, people put a name on a zoa and try and sell it for 100 bucks for a single polyp, and people buy them. WHY?

I even remember when some people would ask for papers showing the linage of the coral and who it came from. How crazy is that. Even if you had a coral that was exactly like one of the "LE" corals, if you didn't have papers, then it wasn't really a "LE" according to some.

Me, I never bought into all the hype. If I found a nice coral that I liked at a good price, I bought it. When it grew out and someone wanted some, I'd either sell them what now days would be called a mini colony at a fair price, trade with them and sometimes even just give it to them.

But the hobby as gone way beyond that and is no longer a hobby for most. Everyone seems to be into the hype and has to have a coral with a name on it that came from so and so. Well sorry, but all of the corals came from the ocean.

I'm off my soap box now.