I don't get designer clownfish

[ninjamini]

I don't get designer clownfish. Some variants go fo $100. $200 plus. Where the normal clownfish is $12 at my local lfs. Sure I get it's a little different than the normal one but at 10 to 20 times the price.

What I guess is that many will buy these fish and breed them driving down the prices. So the $200 fish today will likely be $30 in two years.

Sure there cool looking but worth the money? Help me understand.

 

[GHill762]

not any different than high end zoas imo.. I'll pay a little extra (I paid 50 for a black clown), but I wouldn't buy a $150 clownfish, it's not worth it to me. I also wouldn't pay over a few dollars per polyp for any zoas (I think $20pp is stupid).. let the folks with more money than sense bring the price down, get them when the price drops..

btw, have you seen the new longfin clown that ************ posted? not exactly pretty, but it's definitely interesting..

 

[Allmost]

buy what excites you.

after keeping clowns for past 15 years, a nice and special designer clown makes me VERY excited. and Im willing to pay 300 for it, just gout 4 black bullet something ... lol

 

[ninjamini]

I really want to hear why people would want to buy them.

Allmost. So it sounds like boredom and the need for something different.

 

[Susan Lohrer]

I paid $60 each for my black-and-white clowns because (and this may be just me) I think they look elegant whereas the orange ones look silly (my husband begs to differ about them looking elegant). They're right by my desk at work, and if I'm going to be looking at them for the next ten years or so, I want to be looking at fish I think are pretty. I enjoy them very much and don't regret buying them.

If $200+ super-duper-designer fish were what I wanted to look at for ten years and it were in my budget, I sure would have bought designer clowns.

I didn't think twice about paying a ridiculous amount of money for my ridiculous mixed-breed a.k.a. designer dog. I don't regret doing that, either.

 

[Allmost]

Allmost. So it sounds like boredom and the need for something different.

this hobby is supposed to be more than that ? lol

no they dont poop gold if thats what u were thinking they are all fish at the end ...

but Copps has a nice quote about this ... "Buy fish that excite YOU, and respect others' passions.
Yes, we know, there's a cheaper and prettier fish than the one we’re talking about. "

seems to sum it up well

recently I sold frags of a yellow acro to some reefers, for a good amount of money. to general public, it was just another SPS ... to the buyers, it was the only actual yellow Acro ...

 

[CHG107]

I paid $200 for my Bonded pair of ORA Premium Snowflake clowns. To me they are absolutely stunning compared to a regular occelaris or percula clownfish.

As Susan said, I plan on having them in my tank for many years so I would rather have a more elegant looking fish to stare at.

 

[Allmost]

same with cars and everything else ...

you can not drive more than 100 km per hour, so the horse power of the car is kinda irrelevant in city driving, yet ppl buy nice cars .... it just excited them

 

[Sun357]

Same as anything else...people buy what they like the looks of and what they can afford.

Do I like 'plain' clowns? Yes. Do I prefer some designers to them? Yes.

Clowns can live longer than some cats and dogs and people spend thousands on them.

 

[leveldrummer]

I agree with you, and will go a step further, I dont understand paying extreme money for ANYTHING in this hobby. The thread about those peppermint angels blows my mind, those angels for for 30k! I could pay off both mine and my wifes car and really change my life with the money that person spent on a single fish that just might die the moment he plops it in the tank. I wish I had the disposable funds to do things like that, but even if I did, I doubt I would. Id rather give that type of money to someone who could use it better and go buy a flame angel. lol

 

[ninjamini]

$30,000 no way. Bueatiful fish but wow. That guy was not married!

 

[Mabyboi]

I paid $300 for my pair of designer clowns. I still enjoy regular clowns, but when I buy items for my aquarium they're for me to stare at, they're pretty, they're eye candy. I wouldn't want to spend hundreds or thousands on a tank that just looks bleh.

Its all about the person who buys it. You should buy whatever makes you happy, and theres always been that idea of "the clowns will drop significantly in price over the years" but they still haven't.

 

[HumbleFish]

after keeping clowns for past 15 years, a nice and special designer clown makes me VERY excited. and Im willing to pay 300 for it, just gout 4 black bullet something ... lol

^^This^^

Old salts, who have been at this for a very long time now, have owned just about every kind of clown there is. So, they want something new & exciting. This is also why DD is so popular, with their new & unique stuff.

 

[Chronicj7]

I have a snowcasso/picasso pair and love them. They definitely stand out above the typical clowns and the diversity they bring intrigues me. Many people have tried breeding them but to get sought after patterning and color takes some of the founding fish lineage.

I agree with the buy what makes you happiest.

 

[AdamDeMamp]

What I don't get is when people spend incredible amounts of money on equipment. How often do you look at your equipment? I look at the life inside my tank, not the super expensive stuff that sits inside a cabinet. But at the end of the day, it's up to you what you want to buy. You're the one that works hard to buy it.

 

[brvheart]

Should the amount of time you've been reefkeeping really matter when it comes to the appearance of a fish species?? You would think that the appreciation for the look of a fish species would be timeless. Sure, the false percula is the quintessential common SW fish; but maybe because it's a gorgeous fish. And I still think this, after 15 years in the hobby. But I suppose fish get boring, just like a song you may have once loved but now you change the station in a nanosecond.

Personally, I can't stand the designer clownfish. The whole movement is 100% missed on me. I think they look like accidents. I think that markings and contrast in colors found in nature can be very regal and striking. The spattered markings of the bred fish looks very bad IMO. While we don't do this hobby to please novices, if I knew little about fish, I would think most of these designer clownfish had some sort of advanced disease process going on.

It isn't a price thing at all either. I wouldn't pay equal price for a designer clown over a standard one. Haha I think my point has been made. The one very good thing I can say is that thanks to the heavy interest in breeding, I was able to buy a B&W Perc yesterday for $19, which I DO love.

 

[bues0022]

I don't get designer clownfish. Some variants go fo $100. $200 plus. Where the normal clownfish is $12 at my local lfs. Sure I get it's a little different than the normal one but at 10 to 20 times the price.

What I guess is that many will buy these fish and breed them driving down the prices. So the $200 fish today will likely be $30 in two years.

Sure there cool looking but worth the money? Help me understand.

The price is due to basic supply and demand. Yes, you are partially right that the price can drop over time, but not as dramatically as you believe. Picasso Percs, for example, only make up a small percentage of a clutch of fish. So, perhaps for every 100 regular percs, you might have a few that are really wild barred. With such limited supply, a higher price can be had (basic economics). As it takes some time for juvi fish to reach sexual maturity, and create the next generation of fish, the time span is much longer than two years, and even then if there are 10 times as many designer fish, they still only make up single-digit percentages of each clutch, so the price will always remain significantly higher than regular percs or O's as long as the demand exists.

 

[ReachTheSky]

same with cars and everything else ...

you can not drive more than 100 km per hour, so the horse power of the car is kinda irrelevant in city driving, yet ppl buy nice cars .... it just excited them

It's a little bit different than that. A car now a days (in the USA at least) is almost a necessity. You need one to get to work, get home, go to the store, move things around, visit your parents and so on.

A reef aquarium is nothing close to a necessity. Heck, it doesn't even give you anything practical in return! It's purely for enjoyment. Like it or not, we're throwing money at this hobby and 99% of us will probably never see that money again. We're all on the same level. Every single one of us. From the guy making a sump with a $2.99 plastic bucket from Walmart to the the guy putting designer clownfish in his enormous Zeovit-powered reef. The latter guy is simply has more disposable income.

From an outside looking in perspective, we're all crazy. :jester:

 

[Allmost]

It's a little bit different than that. A car now a days (in the USA at least) is almost a necessity. You need one to get to work, get home, go to the store, move things around, visit your parents and so on.

A reef aquarium is nothing close to a necessity. Heck, it doesn't even give you anything practical in return! It's purely for enjoyment. Like it or not, we're throwing money at this hobby and 99% of us will probably never see that money again. We're all on the same level. Every single one of us. From the guy making a sump with a $2.99 plastic bucket from Walmart to the the guy putting designer clownfish in his enormous Zeovit-powered reef. The latter guy is simply has more disposable income.

From an outside looking in perspective, we're all crazy. :jester:

well I dont know ... my point was, you can drive a ford focus, or you can drive a BMW M5 with sports package... they will both take care of the daily needs, one will just excite u alot more ... so some pay for it. for me, Im not that big into cars ... as long as it moves and doesnt break down often, Im ok with it ... some who are into cars, get bored and change it to better model yearly. they might even take budget from other things and add to their Car's budget ... same with reefing ...

I agree we might look crazy ... but again, whats the difference between a guy who buys a Rolex for 30K, and guy who buys a fish for 30K ? both are a waste, and purely done for enjoyment. last year in vegas a friend of mine spent some crazy cash for a jimmy Hendrix poster that was signed ... I called him crazy, and he called me crazy for spending that much on my fish bowl lol

 

[ReachTheSky]

Yeah, I understand and completely agree with the car scenario (BMW driver here). But my point is that a car is a necessity and a reef tank is not. A Focus and an M5 will both take care of the same "needs" but seeing as there is no "need" for any tropical pet to fulfill, it's not really comparable.