Mr. Coral

I ordered from Mr. Coral (mrcoral.com) last week for the first time ever. I had heard mixed reviews about Mr. Coral, but they were running a sweet deal where you got 2 free coral frags for every 4 frags purchased, so I thought I'd give them a shot.

My first impression upon opening the box of coral frags that came in last week was that some of the frags that I bought (in particular the acans and chalices) were smaller than I thought they'd be. And, I was kind of upset because a couple of the frags seemed to have had a rough time shipping - some of the corals weren't underwater when they arrived; IMO Mr. Coral should have packaged them better. However, I was most displeased that one frag of bluish clove polyps that I ordered was essentially missing: The bag contained the frag plug covered in hair algae (like 2" long HA), and the polyps were MIA (I assume they got pulverized in shipping or the HA smothered them). WTF?

But overall, I was mostly happy with the order. I got a 11 frags for a good price. While the clove polyps were MIA, I got 4 freebies, so that placated me.

However, unfortunately, it's been almost a week now since the Mr. Coral order came in, and it seems that a few of the frags are looking worse instead of better. One of the acan frags that wasn't looking so hot when it arrived now looks like it has taken a turn for the worse. The two chalice frags that I bought aren't looking so good either. Both of them have bleached pretty badly. The chalices are only about the size of my thumb nail, and I think they were just really fragile to begin with. I've been moving the corals around my tank trying to make them happier. I guess we'll just see what happens... I think for now on, I'll stick to buying locally...

I'm not discouraging ordering from Mr. Coral. They have some really good deals. However, a fellow reefer referred to Mr. Coral as a "cut shop", and now I can attest for this. IMO, the frags are very small, Mr. Coral doesn't give them enough time to heal from the fragging before shipping them, and Mr. Coral needs to package their frags better. Overall, I got a nice variety of coral frags for a nice price, but I wish my experience with Mr. Coral would have been better...

I participated in the same order as Sam_G and wasn't too thrilled initially. I will say that from my 10 frags I still have a sweet un-named chalice and a war coral that is red and green and growing great!





And the second picture was 4 months ago!!! lol

But I can't justify 80 dollars for a few self grown corals that survived. It seemed like everything that came in was run through a saw, glued and shipped within a few days.

Overall it was decent.

Your war coral is looking sweet! BUT, it's not worth spending money on 10 corals when only 2 live...

Nicholas41 wrote:

I can't justify 80 dollars for a few self grown corals that survived.

Yeah that's pretty much what I said, and being as freshly cut as they were it's an even higher risk. I'd really have to debate it.