Anybody else find coral trends funny?

[accordsirh22]

Reptiles are the same way. I remember seeing Amazon Basin Emerald Tree Boas in the mid 80's to early 90's going for about $100-$200. Finally got around to buying my female about 2 years ago and ended up paying $2500.00. Northern Emeralds going for $50-$150, now going for $400.00 for a cbb one.

thats because with emeralds you get what you pay for, period. wild caught northerns are notoriously difficult to keep. most end up with emerald regurgitation syndrome and die a slow horrible death. while cbb ones are a hair short of bulletproof. with amazons, the price rose because it is now illegal to import them, the only ones you will find are cbb and there arent a million people breeding them like there are corn snakes or ball pythons.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Yes, I think it is funny. I havent been around as long as some others, but it has been over 10 years. I remember LiveAquaria selling ricordea polyps for $6-8 depending on the color. I bought baseball sized zoa rocks for $20, and nice ones at that. I also SPECIFICALLY remember a single thread on RC about acanthastrea that kicked off the entire nationwide craze. I was getting into the hobby when named SPS were getting big and people were paying $100 for a dime sized piece of superman monti. It's actually nostalgic for me now, I would love to have some of those "old school" pieces. I liked it better when only the SPS had crazy names, and there was an actual lineage attached to them. I thought it was crazy when people started naming zoas.

I will say, on the other hand, I remember helfrichi firefish being over $300... and I picked one up for $65 from LiveAquaria last summer after watching them slowly come down in price over the years.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I think this is the acanthastrea thread... correct me if I am wrong but that is about the correct timing for the kickoff of the acan craze... the way I remember it, this thread did most of the job of putting the name of these corals out there. You will notice in the first couple pages people asking where to find them and that they are mislabeled because no one knows what they are...

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=395469

 

[Fish Biscuit]

I think that anything out of Australia is definitely more expensive, but depending on where you source from the quality is better than say out of Indonesia. I'm not saying that there aren't good Indo corals but the difference in the price can be quite high along with the higher airfreight cost.

I see this with horses too. European warmbloods are the big trend now with people spending anywhere from $20k to over $100k for a horse & then they import them because they don't realize we already have some of the best bloodlines here & they skip buying the cheap off track thoroughbred because it's too much work. Horses that competed in the Pan Am games go for about $225k. If I had the time & the funds I'd start turning around thoroughbreds to a dressage career & pay $1000 for the horse & sell at $30k lol

 

[clay12340]

My favorite trends to watch in any pet keeping hobby are the captive bred morph animals. They're not usually my taste, but it is really interesting to watch the pricing trends. I'll most familiar with it in turtles, but I'm seeing the same trend in clownfish now. The current rare goes for crazy money, but it's impressive to see how quickly the price drops.

 

[Winwood]

My favorite trends to watch in any pet keeping hobby are the captive bred morph animals. They're not usually my taste, but it is really interesting to watch the pricing trends. I'll most familiar with it in turtles, but I'm seeing the same trend in clownfish now. The current rare goes for crazy money, but it's impressive to see how quickly the price drops.

Clowns are a great example and so are the ridiculously named bubble tip anemones.

 

[Opus123]

Yes, I think it is funny. I havent been around as long as some others, but it has been over 10 years. I remember LiveAquaria selling ricordea polyps for $6-8 depending on the color. .

I will show my age and say I remember when ricordea came in on the live rock from Florida. They had normal live rock for $2 to $3 per lb and then you would pay $5 or $6 a lb for the rock that had ricordea on it.

As some have stated, there are fads plus just better marketing on the part of the industry. Also you have the internet being able to get the info to everyone in real time. Back in the "old" days FAMA was about your only source for mail ordering livestock. I remember being on the phone for 30 minutes while the guy described different clams he had in stock. Now I would just go to his website and see everything he has in stock.

You also have world events affecting the price of fish/corals. I remember when purple tangs got down close to $30. Now it is more like $200 for one.

I have thought for several years now that the internet and dslr cameras have ruined the hobby, at least from a $$$ stand point.

 

[Opus123]

My favorite trends to watch in any pet keeping hobby are the captive bred morph animals. They're not usually my taste, but it is really interesting to watch the pricing trends. I'll most familiar with it in turtles, but I'm seeing the same trend in clownfish now. The current rare goes for crazy money, but it's impressive to see how quickly the price drops.

It is funny when you think about it. The owner of the lfs I go to all the time say he remembers when ORA used to include the oddball clownfish for free with his orders because they told him they couldn't sell them. Now they make a ton of money off them.

 

[joekidwell]

Is it a trend or access to stronger cheaper lights. Makes sense mushrooms first Acros today.

 

[Opus123]

Is it a trend or access to stronger cheaper lights. Makes sense mushrooms first Acros today.

But mushrooms are just as bad. I see people paying $300 for one "bounce" mushroom.

 

[AdamNC]

thats because with emeralds you get what you pay for, period. wild caught northerns are notoriously difficult to keep. most end up with emerald regurgitation syndrome and die a slow horrible death. while cbb ones are a hair short of bulletproof. with amazons, the price rose because it is now illegal to import them, the only ones you will find are cbb and there arent a million people breeding them like there are corn snakes or ball pythons.

Yes, all of this I know. I run the latest Corallus forums now. If your interested in the web addy pm me. We always have room for more

 

[McPuff]

I have been thinking about this for a while now. Red Dragon selling for $100 for just a small frag... I have thought about getting a few "high end" corals and selling frags for $20, just like any other coral. My reason? Just to be a smart-a$$ and limit the amount others could get for the same coral. There's really no logical reason that frags should ever cost $100 in my opinion.

 

[leveldrummer]

I was in the hobby a while back, took a nice long break for 4-5 years, and recently came back, I remember when you could get large 3-4 inch colonies of zoas for 20-30 bucks, now they are 20-30 per polyp or MORE! its insanity! I had a colony of blue hornets back then and didnt think they looked that great at all, now they are massively sought out and expensive. You even see single polyps going for hundreds of dollars sometimes. for a single zoanthid!