Once upon a time there were so few of us reefers that there was an unspoken code that corals were to be given away, shared, traded, but never sold. Well that is ancient history now, mostly, and the American reef aquarium hobby is定义by a cottage industry of coral farmers and frag slingers that specialize in selling pieces of all kinds of different corals in sometimes ludicrously small sizes.
一方面，对于“旧盐”来说，对于使用炒作出售微小的珊瑚片的新珊瑚农民来说是可以理解的。另一方面，正是珊瑚炒作机将真实或感知的价值赋予某些软珊瑚，石质珊瑚和Zoanthids，并使它们成为强化水族馆培养物的目标。
起初，除了几个带有非常深的口袋的收藏家外，新发现的珊瑚菌株将无法承受。但是珊瑚农民也投资于珊瑚，如果珊瑚需求量很高，无论它是否真的很少见，您都可以打赌您的最后一个紫色的人息肉，那个珊瑚将得到照顾，养育和碎片成很多，有价值的珊瑚组织和骨骼的小片。
但是，在几年的时间里，花在珊瑚农民的托儿所中孵化的时间越来越多，曾经越来越昂贵。有一天，您可能会发现自己仔细阅读了当地的珊瑚sling的网站，并发现像绿眼的杰克 - 绿色灯笼一样Leptoserisis going for nearly the same price as its regularly colored, all-orange counterpart.
Such is the case when yesterday, while browsing the website of Mind Blowing Corals we saw that a nice size frag of杰克 - 奥兰特Leptoseris售价为49美元，而普通的售价略大orangeLeptoserisis being offered for $45. Five years ago we saw a “mother frag” of the Jack-O Lepto being offered up for $500 and up until two years ago you would have been hard pressed to find any piece of it going for less than $100. The Jack-O Lepto is still valuable but now it is commonplace to see it for sale at most frag swaps, for reasonable sizes and prices.
在极端，密集文化实际上可以导致勒珊瑚菌株变得如此普遍，以至于没有人再想要它们。这里有人还记得关于蒙蒂斯的超级炒作，上面有彩虹，超级曼和日落蒙蒂普拉（Montipora）等彩色息肉吗？这些珊瑚的长大如此之多，以至于看到这种珊瑚的巨大岩石带回鱼类商店并被息肉上的便士提供。日落蒙蒂（Monti）是我们最喜欢的例子，因为曾几何时，这种珊瑚的片段会给您带来数百美元，现在我们甚至都不知道任何人都不知道他们的水族馆里有这种压力。
This is the cycle of “Limited Edition” corals, and at this rate we wouldn’t be surprised if the Jack-O-LanternLeptoseris实际上，比其所有橙色对应物更为普遍。多年来，这种情况已经发挥了无数次的作用，像太空入侵者Pectinia，无数的zoanthids和every color form of蒙蒂托拉has been through this wash, rinse, repeat cycle. It might be a little unsavory when corals are商品化，but in time this process of intensive coral culture has resulted in reef aquarists having access to an incredible diversity of coral strains that otherwise would not have been.
