I really enjoyed the article on trendy high dollar reef gear and critters myself. I suggest a new approach when dealing with friends who aspire to keep the absolute most expensive/difficult critters possible and whose interest wanes with the passing of each month.
First off recommend a course of ritalin, tell them it's really great for keeping you awake so you can monitor your gear and tank all night and still hold a day job, and it lets you see the corals' colors better!
Suggestion 2: Tell them instead of parting with the kritter currently not hip enough and replacing it with the next big thing, suggest mixing a variety of incompatible animals-the biggest challenge of all. Add a few more fish than are really wise too for ****s and giggles, and maybe a corallivore. Then take the ritalin and stay up all night doing tests, shooing corallivores and observing the 800 buck skimmer for the "1 cup of black stuff per day" Now the person has a real challenge on their hands, and if they can pull it off we will all be very impressed! Isn't that the goal? Me, I guess I would rather just buy a vintage jaguar convertible and drive slowly past my friends' houses.
Ok, jokes aside I am totally with you on this. I have these 2 words that keep on bouncing around in my head: "intrinsic value". There is an obvious cost we should have to pay for any coral to support those who gathered, transported and housed them for us. We should not be shocked that the LFS expects us to pay their electric bill and wages, or a hobbyist wants 10 bucks for his xenia because he is paying an extra 80 bucks a month to light and dose it. On the other hand the intrinsic value of the xenia may be pretty low. I can see that where a shortage exists the intrinsic value may rise a little, too, like if the coral is very slow growing, rare, and/or domestic raised. But when I see blue zo's available from any permitted florida collector for 20 bucks why were they selling for 200 bucks later on?!? And the acanthastrea... not sure exactly what it looks like after seeing all the different supposedly genuine ones I have seen in stores. Granted some are extraordinary. Saw some in Portland labeled as faviids that were deep red and green for 30 bucks too. Can't explain the extreme pricing on these things at all considering most people can't even ID them. How do they even know they like it if they don't know what it looks like?!?
What really bothers me about this hobby is that people continuously expect me to upgrade my gear in the effort to solve problems having more to do with husbandry than gear (can't always keep up due to health issues), and then the gear fails within about 2 weeks of the end of the warranty. Where is the intrinsic value of a pump that only lasts 13 months and then leaks electricity endangering me and mine? How about one that rusts and poisons the tank before failing? Or the one that released grey smoke and blue flame when plugged in? How about the allegedly UL listed lights that I can't touch the reflectors of without getting painful shocks? I don't see any intrinsic value in gear that can burn my house down or kill me and has in fine print a statement that the manufacturer is not responsible if this happens even though they know they designed a product that won't last a year with normal use.
Between the gear and the artificial sense of value placed on one species over another sometimes I want to quit the hobby in disgust. But then I remember that I don't really care if the acropora snobs dislike me for having montiporas. (Maybe if I didn't suck at acropora I would be happier with them.) I think the hobby needs to get a lot cheaper though, with people starving in America and everywhere else we really should question how we blow our extraneous cash, myself included. I am disabled but denied benefits due to government cash flow problems. So at this point whatever dies does not get replaced and most of what I have will probably be sold within a year-I had a 50 tank fishroom going before all this. Guess I have a more ground level appreciation for how stupid it is to pay 800 dollars for a 1 inch piece of trendy coral-I can't afford complete medical care. Especially when you look at the posts of the person who bought it and see how many times in the last few years they posted "help my tank is crashing and everything is dying". People have lost spouses for less.
But that's just my opinion, unpopular as it is. Keep on writing, I like your "say it like you mean it" conversational style. I tend to be more delicate and that doesn't help really.
Thanks,
Kate B
Oly WA
