What is your opinion on the hobby's status?

[Animal-Chin]

Have you seen JL's frag tank lately? Thats all local frags for sure and they charge between $40-80 a frag. Coral is crazy expensive compared to few years ago. I get that we drive the prices, how many of us (me excluded) have paid $40 a polyp for utter chaos palys? Think about that for a minute...

I'm not really complaining, I drop $100 on an acan here and there but honestly I think frags of sps or single polyps of coral should be like $10 - $15 when we're clipping them out of our tanks but I'm an old hippy...lol

I do remember when blue tangs were like $30 though and now one that isn't a 1 inch at JL is closer to $70.

Its all a matter of how big you want to go to, my daughter has a 14 gallon biocube with 2 clowns and after the first set up hasn't cost very much, some salt and carbon, thats about it.

Seriously though, $40 for one polyp?

[Reef Pilot]

Yeah, J&L is good about that. I have sold them frags as well (and then watched them go for 2 to 3X what they paid me (credit). But hey, am not complaining, as they were not exactly flying off my own frag rack...

[gobytron]

This hobby is full of people who love to pay as much as they can for things...

Complain about pricing and expect to get at least a couple "you're in the wrong hobby" gems.

I would thin with the exchange rate, Canadians may feel a bit more of a price increase than hobbyists elsewhere.

I do. Is the days a bit where you went into an lfs and might see something you had never seen before because it came in on live rock or something.

That just does not seem to happen anymore.

Not sure if it's more stringent inspections at the border or prior to shipping or if the bio diversity out there has just depleted to this point.

[jorjef]

A trend I have started to notice and I'm not sure if it's driven by economics or supply is tiny fish.... Not as in gobies but 1 inch hippo tangs etc. That makes it tough if you want to add a fish to your display but realize with its size it would have a tough time surviving.

I love it when the LFS gets trade ins or surrendered fish due to tank shut down. I bought a giant Royal Gramma a few weeks back that was traded in. Didn't even blink at the wee over priced aspect, the size sold me. I also didn't mind paying a little extra for what I call tank tested fish. No guarantee but survival rate is way higher vs. newly arrived fish.

[Ryanerickson]

Those little tangs you talk of usually go to the higher paying Asian markets we are lucky to be getting them in. Smaller tangs in my experience adapt better to aquariums.

[jorjef]

Then why are they showing up here? Lucky? or a diminishing over seas market.. What ever the case is it's an annoyance for me, I can't add a 1 inch hippo tang to my tank. I did add a quarter sized Clown Trigger but I was pretty sure he could handle himself. Question was for the other guy Colby not you.. Oh and for gods sakes man charge my Visa card. I guess I will have to go where the cool kids are on facebook. I don't get to "like" many things due to fact Im using the wife's account.

[Bayside Corals]

Originally Posted by jorjef

Then why are they showing up here? Lucky? or a diminishing over seas market.. What ever the case is it's an annoyance for me, I can't add a 1 inch hippo tang to my tank. I did add a quarter sized Clown Trigger but I was pretty sure he could handle himself. Question was for the other guy Colby not you.. Oh and for gods sakes man charge my Visa card. I guess I will have to go where the cool kids are on facebook. I don't get to "like" many things due to fact Im using the wife's account.

I wasn't directing my response directly at you just wanted to give my point of view.

There for sure are new people that come to the forums, But there are more that are hitting social media first. The majority of new customers I have seen in the last year or so are not on any forums that I am a member of.

Off topic but I would sponsor this forum if the prices justified the traffic it received. Also every sponsor you talk to pays a different price. Would be nice if the price structure was the same for everyone......But it's not.

[Animal-Chin]

Originally Posted by Ryanerickson

Those little tangs you talk of usually go to the higher paying Asian markets we are lucky to be getting them in. Smaller tangs in my experience adapt better to aquariums.

ya I don't know, I went to JL one evening actually hoping to buy a hippo and was shocked to see a tank with 20 dead hippos and 20 that looked rough. The store workers were quickly trying to rescue the living ones and pulling out all the dead ones but it was heart breaking to see. No idea what happened and I didn't ask but those quarter size tangs have to be what a few weeks old? I've tried 2 of them with quarantine and everythign and have had no luck with the little guys...

BTW not picking on JL, they are just the big store around here. I've purchased plenty of quality fish from them.

On a side note, with how fast fish dissapear from that store and how busy it is when I'm in, Id say the hobby isn't slowing down at all. I'd love a count on reef tanks in BC, that would be cool to know...

[Myka]

Interesting thread to read. Lots of interesting stuff to say Colby, I wish more of the LFS owners would pop in here and put their input in too.

Originally Posted by Animal-Chin

those quarter size tangs have to be what a few weeks old?

No, they would be around a year old probably, maybe more. A few week old tang wouldn't even be through metamophosis.