Australian Acan's

I did recieve 2 small colonies with at least 15 polyps one of them came from Randy O. from an Ebay purchase. His prices for the small colony where very reasonable especially considering it is one of the more colorful variations I have seen.

I have no intention on fragging that coral for a long time. With the lower prices on the new acan's going into Canada I am hoping to add at least one more small colony to my tank if I am lucky enough to score one of those colonies for a reasonable price.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10266990#post10266990 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk
I hope you are right. The "many beautiful display tanks" in this and other forums were what made me want a large display tank.

It sure seems like all you see now are pics of tons of frag plugs at the bottom of a tank or frag racks packed to the gills. Pics of nice display tanks with colonies seem to be getting more and more rare around here.

It also seems like alot of people in this forum and in this thread lately only post/care about getting a eraser sized frag of the latest "hot/named" coral to sit in their frag rack until its big enough to re-frag.
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I have a ton of cool frags in my tank sitting on plugs waiting to get moved into the new tank. eventually they will make there way onto the right rocks, for now they are just frags collected over the past year from lots of really great reefers out there in the U.S., some from vendors. I love collecting really nice corals. I prefer frags over colonies so I can grow them out. My goal is not to fill my tank with wild colonies to have a ready made reef tank. My goal is to fill my tank with small pieces from others and grow them out. This takes a few years at least. My old tank had huge colonies and I spent 4 years collecting frags and growing them. It is a slow process if you do it with patience and caring. This is only my truth about my tank and my desires. I can't speak for others on this forum but that acan colony I bought from Clint was the second "colony" of anything I have purchased, everything else started as a small frag.....everything. You may be right to assume some are getting the hottest coral just to wait to frag it to sell it...but truthfully that can be a while with some of these corals. I have had my original pink watermelon for 18 months. One frag is it...and that was a trade :). It is pathetically small even after 18 months, darn thing grows so slow then it didn't like being fragged :(. Anyways, you get my jist, you're generalizing a great deal in your posts. Many folks have hot corals and trade with friends, give them away to club raffles, pass them on to newbies, restock a crashed tank of another RC member, sell some, etc. I know there are plenty of unscrupulous folks in this hobby just like any hobby, heck...life in general. Hard to find the good eggs anymore. But I have found lots and lots of good eggs in the reef world :D. I like to look at the positives as much as I can and find the beauty in people. I choose to stay away from the haters. I stay away from the unscrupulouos folks in the hobby as well. Once burned...you know.

This is so off topic...sorry Chad :( , I'll let it go now ;)
 
It sure seems like all you see now are pics of tons of frag plugs at the bottom of a tank or frag racks packed to the gills. Pics of nice display tanks with colonies seem to be getting more and more rare around here.

It also seems like alot of people in this forum and in this thread lately only post/care about getting a eraser sized frag of the latest "hot/named" coral to sit in their frag rack until its big enough to re-frag.
Click to expand...

It does seem that way these days, doesn't it? Personally, I like to buy frags b/c, as others have already mentioned, colonies are just too expensive. And I think there's a lot of satisfaction to be had in watching it grow over a couple of years. I'd rather have a really nice frag of something I like than a super expensive colony of the latest "hot" thing just because other people like it. But I put my frags in the tank where they can grow out and become part of the reef. I try to skip over the tank threads that look more like store sale tanks than nice displays. And there do seem to be way too many of those popping up all over the place.

Maybe someone can answer this for me: what is the point of putting frags in a frag rack instead of putting them in the rock work somewhere that they can grow out and become permanent? I could see if you have a tank full of stuff already and you don't want the frag to get lost. But I keep seeing these frag racks even in tanks that aren't full.
 
Personally, I haven't seen any price drop at a wholesale level. Granted there are alot of the acans coming into the US right now from AU, but who knows how much longer Australia will be exporting stony corals. I mean this year is the first time australia has allowed export of stoney corals in over a decade. And let's face it, its a whole different government in australia, than in most of the indo-pacific countries that all of our other corals are imported from.. I will agree that it is kind of crappy to see all of these beautiful colonies purchased from retailers for the sole purpose of chop-shopping them up, and gouging them away. But it goes all the way to the source- some of the exporters in AU are doing the exact same thing, especially with the lords. That's one of the reasons why alot of the retailers seem to have only pieces of actual colonies.. It all goes back to supply and demand.. As long as the demand is there, the price will be there as well....
 
The website that I have been checking out says that the wholesalers in Canada have some 500 colonies and they are asking $100 for each colony.
 
Here's a thought about pricing. I've heard that the summer months are the "off season" for reefing and fish. I've noticed over the past 4 years that prices drop in my LFS's around the summer time. That being said, I don't know how accurate we can monitor the price drop solely due to the growing supply. Just my .02. :)
 
This is really weird!

Every CONSUMER and uninterested party says that prices have dropped substantially.

Every person who owns a lfs or actively sells them says that prices havent dropped at all:confused:

Could some people just be trying to protect their SUBSTANTIAL investments???

Maybe, its just me, but i think its REALLY shady to spend time on here talking up a coral and its price when people don't know that you also sell those corals.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10270584#post10270584 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk
This is really weird!

Every CONSUMER and uninterested party says that prices have dropped substantially.

Every person who owns a lfs or actively sells them says that prices havent dropped at all:confused:

Could some people just be trying to protect their SUBSTANTIAL investments???

Maybe, its just me, but i think its REALLY shady to spend time on here talking up a coral and its price when people don't know that you also sell those corals.
Click to expand...

:confused: How would a retail customer know what a retailer is paying for a particular piece? You keep insinuating that retailers are driving the price up, but that fact is, most retailers are taking the same percentage markup on the acanthastrea that they are on other corals. It is at the supply level, where the prices are being gouged, FYI ;) retailers can't find a grade A acan colony from australia for less than anywhere near $150.. Especially on the East coast..
 
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did you read the posts on the ap site? the first shipment from RR had the prices in the $250-450 range, this next shipment is $100.
 
I have been seeing an average of 100% mark up which is very common at any level in the coral market. I am hoping that the mark up stays the same vs. seeing people try to take advantage of the lower priced corals they will be receiving.
 
How would a retail customer know what a retailer is paying?? hmmmm, let me see, i dont know, maybe PRICE!

If a retailer was charging $150 a head and now is 3 heads for $150, obviously prices dropped. That is unless you want to tell me that i was correct before and EVERY one of the aussie acan sites were RIPPING people off beyond belief by charging what they were a month or so ago. If they weren't, then prices dropped substantially.

Say what you want but there IS no chance that you are putting the same markup on aussie acans as any other coral you buy. That is not true. Not a single one of you paid anywhere near the $150-250 a head price that are being charged. Not even close. Aussie acans are making people bigger profits than they have ever seen. To say the markup is the same as a torch, frogspawn or any other coral is ridiculous.

I dont get it, you say at least $150 for a grade a colony on the east coast? How is that expensive? You get it for $150-200 then sell it for $50-100 a HEAD and make more profit than you can imagine, right?
 
If they were charging $150 per head, then yes, they were ripping people off ;) Even 3 heads for 150 is a rip-off, I don't disagree with you there ;) And there are those of us that do take the same markup on acans as we do on other corals ;)
 
They weren't charging $150 a head, it was $250 a head for some!


Not only that, when i complained about it, almost every person to a man said that the guy doing it was not ripping people off and a GREAT guy to boot:confused:
 
If you look at the rare corals page of that site, you can see their pricing. There are some small frags, and 5-8 polyps looks to be considered a colony on their site, and yes, they are running from $75 to $200, some at $100. I just dont consider 5-8 polyps a colony. ;)

I also have to agree that $150 a polyp was kinda steep, even a month ago. But that was supply and demand. If there were customers that were paying that much, they cant blame anyone but themselves if they feel they were taken advantage of. The aussie acans were around a month ago at numerous vendors for less than that.

I am just glad that they are becoming available at all, at least for now. Thanks to the Australian Gov't. for making it possible for us to enjoy many types and morphs of corals not previously available to the reefing community. You have some beautiful sealife there in the 'down under'. ;)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10270655#post10270655 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tangwang
:confused: How would a retail customer know what a retailer is paying for a particular piece? You keep insinuating that retailers are driving the price up, but that fact is, most retailers are taking the same percentage markup on the acanthastrea that they are on other corals. It is at the supply level, where the prices are being gouged, FYI ;) retailers can't find a grade A acan colony from australia for less than anywhere near $150.. Especially on the East coast..
Click to expand...

The $150 price is if you are being picky or buying a few small colonies. Stores like RR that buy hundreds of colonies pay nowhere that amount. I have seen two different price list for wholesalers with the Aussie Lords and can tell you that the price is much lower then you would expect.
 
well everyone loves canada thats why we getting great deals i guess...

i guess i'll have to buy everything out and sell it and triple the profits...lol i am joking by the way

i was told i could get a good sized colony from my man at $150 CAD which is pretty damn good i think still...
 
i'm guessing the 100 dollar acans will not be as nice. If you look at the pics john posted they were under 40w white lights. Will the 400 colonies even survive until they are shipped here? If 200 come we will be lucky. RR usually gets 60-75% of their shipments and 99% of them are grade A, however they are also getting from a different supplier which they are selling at $100 a colony. They look nice, better then indo but nowhere near grade A.

Another toronto area reef shop is supposed to have more colonies in the next couple of weeks. I guess we're lucky around here that 3 stores are regularly importing 100s, they still sell really fast, in part to all the people from the US that buy here.
 
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