The days of buying decent sized corals for decent prices is over.

[EMeyer]

Most corals people want to buy aren't fast growers. ...
...
And there's the rub, you just excluded the vast majority of corals hobbyists like buying.

We're gonna have to agree to disagree here, because you are incorrect.

If you were to count all the coral in all the hobbyists' tanks, WD, HW, and whatever other nonsensical name of the week would make up a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the corals.

The corals you are talking about cost more specifically because of their rarity.

In other words, your statement is the exact opposite of the accurate description. The vast majority of corals that hobbyists buy are *not* rare high-end corals. Theyre common, fast growing corals.

If this board didnt have its' policies on URLs I'd link a dozen examples of coral vendors selling things like Sinularia, Pocillopora, and Xenia for well over $30 each. And like every other market, the price at the bottom affects the price all the way up to the top.

 

[sde1500]

We're gonna have to agree to disagree here, because you are incorrect.



If you were to count all the coral in all the hobbyists' tanks, WD, HW, and whatever other nonsensical name of the week would make up a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of the corals.



The corals you are talking about cost more specifically because of their rarity.



In other words, your statement is the exact opposite of the accurate description. The vast majority of corals that hobbyists buy are *not* rare high-end corals. Theyre common, fast growing corals.



If this board didnt have its' policies on URLs I'd link a dozen examples of coral vendors selling things like Sinularia, Pocillopora, and Xenia for well over $30 each. And like every other market, the price at the bottom affects the price all the way up to the top.

Except I never used "œrare high end". I said slow growers. But maybe you're right and the majority here don't want that. It's probably just an anomaly that the SPS forum is the most active coral forum here.

You're completely glossing over any equipment costs. And I'm confused as to why. You say there are two models that can be applied; high volume low price, or low volume high price. And in some manner sure, some corals are easy to grow fast and cheap. Doesn't mean it's cheaper to grow GSP or Xenia in aquaculture as compared to harvesting from the ocean. And if a grower chooses to use valuable limited space for them, they are choosing to limit the more sought after LPS or SPS corals, that REGARDLESS of name command a higher price. A hobby coral aquacultureist lost her entire business last year due to electric fire. The risks and costs are so much greater idk how you can say it wouldn't cost more than wild collecting. And you haven't provided any details beyond you saying it shouldn't be.

 

[Zalick]

The hobby is moving to a more substainable future. Get use to it.

This.

As an avid diver, who dives all over the world, I'm torn with our hobby. We are not paying anywhere CLOSE to the true "cost" of our corals. I wish wild corals were 5x more expensive. This would encourage further aqua-culturing and lead to an overall improvement, and reduced prices, for our hobby.

 

[Fourstars]

This.

As an avid diver, who dives all over the world, I'm torn with our hobby. We are not paying anywhere CLOSE to the true "cost" of our corals. I wish wild corals were 5x more expensive. This would encourage further aqua-culturing and lead to an overall improvement, and reduced prices, for our hobby.

Considering we are in the middle of the sixth great mass extinction, I agree. The bill will come due sooner rather then latter. One thing that helps me with the hobby is the realization that our tanks are like seed banks, some corals will only survive because of the hobby. I would be fine with ALL wild collection being banded world wide. Okay guys, what you have in your tanks is all your going to get, so what are you going to do about it?

Let the flames begin :furious:

 

[Zalick]

Considering we are in the middle of the sixth great mass extinction, I agree. The bill will come due sooner rather then latter. One thing that helps me with the hobby is the realization that our tanks are like seed banks, some corals will only survive because of the hobby. I would be fine with ALL wild collection being banded world wide. Okay guys, what you have in your tanks is all your going to get, so what are you going to do about it?

Let the flames begin :furious:

Agree with you 100% on banning wild collection word-wide. The death I've seen first hand diving over the last 20 years is heart wrenching. So many in the hobby don't realize how many fish are collected just to have a single fish survive to make it to the LFS...

Here is an true adult giant clam. Picture taken January 2018 in Indonesia. About 5-6' across... I "think" that's a carpet anemone to the right for size reference. Don't see these anymore. Very glad that most or all clams these days are aqua-cultered. Forgive the crappy white-balance I had on this shot.:headwally:

 

[d2mini]

I dont join any local clubs tbh.. Dont care too.. So i have no idea about whatever club he sponsors lol... All i know is i wrote a long bad review about his shop... Funny thing is i used to know him from petland before they kicked him out of the store i bought some discus and other fresh water fish there.

As for where i get my corals its the petco in dale city. Right bow there frag tank is fairly empty they sold alot of corals recently.. I just bought a silver dollar sized Hollywood chalice from em for 25$ and i got two frags of a Blue/grape acropora, i also got my purple cespitulara a month ago from them. Right now they are selling all their leather corals for 50% they are all fairly large devils hand or finger leathers.. For 15$ each.. They are about 4 inchs in diameter for some of them.

They still have a few acroporas and cespitilaras and a couple basic chalice corals left.. They have a reverse superman monitpora for 25$.. And a neon greenish cabbage coral..

But like i said ive also gotten bubble corals torch corals hammer corals and so forth from this petco..

their salt water tanks are stocked with tons of fish too. they have 3 flame angels, 4 kole tangs, a purple tang, clown tang, sailfin tang and the rarer spotted sailfin tang, they have 2 blue hippo tangs, as well as tons of other fish.

Id check it out when you can, as i said though the corals are kinda depleted atm lol i bought alot recently so did a few other people.. Its just one like 50g frag tank it isnt some reef dedicated store but its my go to place.

These are just half of the corals ive gotten from petco

This is my Hollywood chalice i got 2 days ago for 25$



This is my purple cespitulara i got a month ago i believe it too was $25. it was half this size it grows very fast

[url=https://ibb.co/yXb1DJK]

This is a bad pic i should taken it closer but do you see that tall frogskin acropora the neon green one in the back ? Thats an ORA frogskin like 3 inches tall i got from petco for $50

[url=https://ibb.co/SXcydJ2]

This purple torch coral i got from petco for $35, and the neon green cabbage coral behind it i got from their misc pile for $15

[url=https://ibb.co/sRTtMrW]

This like 100 polyp fire and ice zoa colony i got for $25

[url=https://ibb.co/sQt3YpN]

And this fairly good sized blue/purple bubble coral i got for $40

[url=https://ibb.co/fkDjDdB]

Do you have any local reefers around you? IMO you way over payed for all those corals. They're all extremely common and grow like weeds. I'd sell you big chunky frags of that Frogskin for 20 bucks all day long.

We're lucky to have a really big reefing community here in Houston. Lots of great shops but also some really good groups of hobbyists that sell and trade with each other all the time. I was practically giving away colonies of Battle Corals Twilight Dragon recently. That sells for $70 an inch. I was selling large frags of WWC Yellow Tip for $40. Jawbreaker mushrooms for $100 that would normally sell for $200. I traded a colony of Jawbreakers for a WWC OG Bounce Mushroom that was easily worth $800. Never in a million years would I have spent that kind of money. I don't think I've ever spent more than $100 on a coral.