MarcosD
Supporting Member
Yeah an insane amount lol
Complete Bonus/Ultra Coral List - 2024 (REVISED AS OF 2/16/25)
- Thread starter IOnceWasLegend
- Start date
MarcosD
Supporting Member
I brought 3 so I contributed to the problem lol. But only one was my entry, I brought one for each of the 2 people I brought frags for
tribbitt
Supporting Member
How many appeared? I know I brought 2. Maybe yellow jawbreakers are bonus, and with red are ultra? Or with green? Jawbreakers exist on a spectrum of "quality"
Candy crush jawbreakers are different altogether
DaddyHook
Supporting Member
I also brought one but I wasn’t checking them in and wasn’t really looking for them:
DaddyHook
Supporting Member
I’d say maybe 10-20 at least at every swap I’ve been at.
Candy Crush don’t make the bonus to me.
Maybe clear green and red for ultra and single or no other color for bonus.
I think that might be a problem if we’re grading things on a spectrum based off quality that’s going to differentiate between each person grading it. A simple is or isn’t and then whether it is healthy seems to be the right way to go.
tribbitt
Supporting Member
When I posted, in my mind I imagined something like red = bonus, red + green = ultra. But what if it closes halfway or shrivels, making some green become hidden? I see your point and agree
tribbitt
Supporting Member
My thoughts
Splatter hammers -> remove
Gold hammers -> I think they coouuld stay, but a lot of people want them taken off-- a couple of the "gold" hammers were actually peach hammers
Peach hammer -> Remove. Not sure peoples' opinions but I think it was discussed before due to them growing so fast
Avatar chalice -> remove
Holy grail micro -> ultra
WWC Red Dragon -> merge with "any smoothskin"
Oregon Tort -> Bonus (There was lots that went ignored until later rounds 2 swaps in a row) It's also hard to judge if a frag is true oregon tort in the cup, as a frag, with no light, and polyps closed
Splatter hammers -> remove
Gold hammers -> I think they coouuld stay, but a lot of people want them taken off-- a couple of the "gold" hammers were actually peach hammers
Peach hammer -> Remove. Not sure peoples' opinions but I think it was discussed before due to them growing so fast
Avatar chalice -> remove
Holy grail micro -> ultra
WWC Red Dragon -> merge with "any smoothskin"
Oregon Tort -> Bonus (There was lots that went ignored until later rounds 2 swaps in a row) It's also hard to judge if a frag is true oregon tort in the cup, as a frag, with no light, and polyps closed
MarcosD
Supporting Member
The gold hammers are nice. There were just too many. Only thing I’m worried about is now that they’re not bonus we won’t see them at the next swap
I have some peach hammers and they actually don’t grow too fast for me. Slower then my golds
That’s because they weren’t real Oregon tort.
Way too many gold hammers. Agree splatter hammer should come off the list.
I think when deciding whether or not to delist from bonus, the main consideration should be desirability (demand) rather than how many people have been bringing (supply). If a coral is desirable and people are bringing a lot, that is the system working correctly. You will see some make it into the second regular picking round… but that is one of the main goals of the bonus system, to make it so all our members have a chance to go home with a desirable coral or 2.
Every time we delist a coral you should be saying to yourself, ok I won’t be seeing that much anymore at swaps. And decide if that’s a good thing or not.
I think tequila sunrise should definitely stay bonus. It remains very desirable, I saw one of our most savvy members intentionally pick one in the first bonus round, and they sell retail for more than many of the corals on our ultra list.
Gold hammer is along the same lines but less clear cut.
I’m afraid the BAR blue tort vs Oregon tort issue may have irreparably harmed our ability to properly value it. I wanted to get a “real” Oregon this swap and didn’t see any, but I saw several that I thought were BAR blue torts labeled Oregon that got past our ultra check in table. It’s too hard to tell for sure at the table. If Oregon is to stay on the ultra list, I think individual members should need to get pre-approval from our experts before the swap and only they would be able to get ultra credit for it.
Every time we delist a coral you should be saying to yourself, ok I won’t be seeing that much anymore at swaps. And decide if that’s a good thing or not.
I think tequila sunrise should definitely stay bonus. It remains very desirable, I saw one of our most savvy members intentionally pick one in the first bonus round, and they sell retail for more than many of the corals on our ultra list.
Gold hammer is along the same lines but less clear cut.
I’m afraid the BAR blue tort vs Oregon tort issue may have irreparably harmed our ability to properly value it. I wanted to get a “real” Oregon this swap and didn’t see any, but I saw several that I thought were BAR blue torts labeled Oregon that got past our ultra check in table. It’s too hard to tell for sure at the table. If Oregon is to stay on the ultra list, I think individual members should need to get pre-approval from our experts before the swap and only they would be able to get ultra credit for it.
These are good points, but most of the corals listed here as “high supply” also had relatively low demand - I picked up a gold hammer (a very nice one with two heads and flesh band all the way to the plug) in a very late round. If supply is >>> demand it should come off the list.
Growth rate is also a factor, and some of these on the bonus list grow like crazy.
I was thinking about how to better reward the few people who bring more nice corals while still encouraging more people to bring at least some. One of the problems we’ve had more recently, which is quite frankly I think the main impetus for removing coral from the bonus list, is how many people are in that very first Bonus round. Everyone in that group has a fair chance to walk out with the very nicest corals that were brought, even if they only brought the minimum 3 bonus corals and got 1 ticket. Which I think is a lot of the members in that group. The flip side of this is that the members who brought lots of bonus/ultra corals are more likely to walk away without getting what they wanted. So they walk away asking themselves why do I bother?
So I was thinking maybe the very first bonus round should be for the most generous members. That could mean just those who brought at least a certain number of ultra corals. Or, easier to enforce and what I think is better, those who have at least 5 or so bonus tickets in hand. Or something like that. So that those who go above and beyond and supply the corals everyone else will be happy with have 1 first pick, and are more likely to at least get 1 coral they are excited about. This also would encourage others to get into this group by bringing more nice frags, which of course is what we want. Then the next bonus round would be all bonus ticket holders for 1 frag, then bonus round for the rest of the tickets. So pretty similar to what we did, except that the first bonus round would be a lot fewer people, the ones who were the most generous. By definition the people in that first round brought a lot more than 1 nice coral, so it still benefits the members in subsequent rounds to have people in that group.
We used to have fewer people come, and yet have more coral brought. A lot of members are bringing the minimum. Which is 100% fine of course for those who can only bring that many. But we used to also have several members who brought tons of frags, at least 5-10 times as many as they would bring home. It makes the swap a lot more magical for the newer members when they can go home with a bunch of nice frags, but it only works if some people give a lot more than they will take. It’s a lot of work, and without some encouragement those people stop doing it, as we’ve seen.
So I was thinking maybe the very first bonus round should be for the most generous members. That could mean just those who brought at least a certain number of ultra corals. Or, easier to enforce and what I think is better, those who have at least 5 or so bonus tickets in hand. Or something like that. So that those who go above and beyond and supply the corals everyone else will be happy with have 1 first pick, and are more likely to at least get 1 coral they are excited about. This also would encourage others to get into this group by bringing more nice frags, which of course is what we want. Then the next bonus round would be all bonus ticket holders for 1 frag, then bonus round for the rest of the tickets. So pretty similar to what we did, except that the first bonus round would be a lot fewer people, the ones who were the most generous. By definition the people in that first round brought a lot more than 1 nice coral, so it still benefits the members in subsequent rounds to have people in that group.
We used to have fewer people come, and yet have more coral brought. A lot of members are bringing the minimum. Which is 100% fine of course for those who can only bring that many. But we used to also have several members who brought tons of frags, at least 5-10 times as many as they would bring home. It makes the swap a lot more magical for the newer members when they can go home with a bunch of nice frags, but it only works if some people give a lot more than they will take. It’s a lot of work, and without some encouragement those people stop doing it, as we’ve seen.
RandyC
Supporting Member
It gets going faster after it reaches a few inches, but yes, painfully slow compared to something like a Myagi or California Tort. Cali Torts or Myagi Torts will likely have a green base on it.
And for those wondering, here’s an Oregon Tort under 14,000K spectrum.
Side View
Top Down View
I think at this point either Oregon is dropped entirely from ultra and bonus (even though it deserves to be ultra), or each person bringing it requires preapproval from our experts before the swap. If we de-list the BAR Blue tort, which was given to people as Oregon tort, but leave Oregon tort on the list as ultra, there will be a never ending issue with this like we’ve seen at the last couple swaps. Up to you.
RandyC
Supporting Member
The problem is, people who bring really nice or (I hate to say this) expensive coral, aren’t incentivized to bring them.
And right now, it doesn’t seem there’s much difference honestly to the bonus and ultra in terms of desirability. Also, I haven’t been to a swap in a long while and coming to this one, my first impression was whoa, there’s a ton of bonus pickers and bonus pickers have a lot of tickets. And there are three rounds! Almost made me feel like the regular rounds there wasn’t much left to pick from in terms of bonus or ultra corals.
Maybe there should be 1 round of ultra that are really nice, desired coral. Every two ultra you bring, you get to pick one ultra coral. The ultra are separated on the table for this one round. Think you should aim to have at most 10-15 pickers in this category. Then the leftover ultra should be mixed in with the rest of the coral when the ultra round is over.
I’d also cut the bonus round time and maybe only have two rounds. Also enforce the number of repeated bonus corals brought for each person.
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B the Nano Reefer
Supporting Member
I agree with a lot of the suggestions, gold, peach, splatter hammers should all come off. Jaw breakers should be bonus. Tequila sunrise should come off. Probably other tweaks that can/should be made.
I think when it comes to shrooms there has to be some kind of size expectation, at least approx 1” diameter? I saw at least a dozen mushrooms no bigger than the end of a thumbtack make it in as ultras/bonuses.
I think when it comes to shrooms there has to be some kind of size expectation, at least approx 1” diameter? I saw at least a dozen mushrooms no bigger than the end of a thumbtack make it in as ultras/bonuses.
tribbitt
Supporting Member
Some of those mushrooms were from me. I brought 6 med-small mushrooms and 1 small smoothskin Acropora, and received 1 ticket for all 7 of those corals combined. They were still labelled as bonus because they were technically on the list (In case someone was searching for something they knew was on the bonus list, we didn't want it to be unlabelled).
Edit: my rainbow yumas somehow just stay that size, whether it be my parameters or something else. Once they reach penny size they begin splitting and budding, severely slowing their growth. It looks funny - one booger stretched across the rock as it tries to split in 3. But that's just the size they reach in my tank, and I tried to choose the larger ones to bring.
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