What happened to torch corals

eric23

New member
Why are torch corals that used to cost 50 to 100 per head now selling for over 1000 a head and why are people buying them ? When I started in this hobby there weren't that many brand named corals and corals were relatively affordable. I don't judge anyone for doing what they want with the money they earn but if people just refused to pay these ridiculous prices then they would come down and be affordable again. I'm lucky in that I can afford to drop money on coral if I want to but out of principal I will never ever spend more than a few hundred bucks on a piece of anything. In fact the older I get and the more years in I have I'm more interested in trying to build a beautiful tank with more cheaper frags... I'm all over the 10 to 30 frags at stores lol.... Sorry for my rant but I just don't get it
 
Last year was bounce shrooms

Year before was chalices

Year before zoas

Who knows... next year might be Xenia
 
I agree with you here. What’s funny is vendors are saying it’s rare to find but at the last show I saw plenty of them. What I think is that vendors are hoarding the corals to inflate the price. That way they can ask for more. There was on vendor that had 50+ heads of indo gold and wanted 250/head and people paid for them. He only had a few left at the end of the day. . Then came back the next day and had another 40-50 more heads. This is why I think it’s not a shortage but an inflation caused by vendors and wholesalers.
 
I just tossed out around 60 heads from my torch. Got to big and took up to much room in my 180. I would have gladly gave them to anyone who would of picked them up. Same thing with my duncan. But as to your question I'm not sure why but they are slow growing. My torch splits about twice a year.
 
its because of the coral ban in indo pacific. was just at an even at my LFS this weekend and they where talking about how the ban is killing the industry right now with coral. One of the first ones they talked about where the torches/frogspawns etc. apparently most of them or the nicer ones came from this region and are now banned and not coming in so whatever is here is it for now.
 
I agree with you here. What's funny is vendors are saying it's rare to find but at the last show I saw plenty of them. What I think is that vendors are hoarding the corals to inflate the price. That way they can ask for more. There was on vendor that had 50+ heads of indo gold and wanted 250/head and people paid for them. He only had a few left at the end of the day. . Then came back the next day and had another 40-50 more heads. This is why I think it's not a shortage but an inflation caused by vendors and wholesalers.

He either was lying on the origin or they were imported illegally.
 
You do also have to take into account that they do have set margins to make. They probably pay, in their point of view, more for the torches too.
 
Like diamonds there is a **** ton. But the diamond people hoard them to maintain prices up

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Last gold torches I saw at a wholesaler they were $200 per head. To sell for $250 per head he is probably trans shipping them. I bought some gold torches at Macna 2016 for $32.50 per head...
 
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