Why are achilles tangs so expensive?

[aquaph8]

Thanks for the info guys and really cool pic philter. Hopefully one day Ill get to see it for myself.

 

[pacislandaqua]

Small amounts are in mariana and palau as well as melanesia, but philippines and indonesia have the vast majority of PBTs.

 

[geaux xman]

its been a while since i've seen LA/BZ/NYA having an achilles available. LA had the small juvie(2-3") achilles for a little while and will occasionally put up one on DD for a wallet burning price.

PIA currently has some 3-4" achilles available.

Those 5-7" achilles fetch $3-400, but i RARELY see them available online. DD will put one up one about once a month. Why so few 4" plus achilles available online?? Theres not even ONE available online at the moment.

 

[philter4]

Achilles are collected in other locales, such as French polynesia. However, the additional airfreight charges on a fish that size make them land in LAX at the same price as their Hawaiian counterparts.

The air freight is split among the whole shipment so it while it is more expensive than shipping from Hawaii it is not that much more per fish on normal imports. Freight forwarders give a discount on larger shipments and since there are less species available for aquariums in Hawaii then in other areas the cost per unit is more. In areas where the number of species collected for the pet trade is greater the number of pieces shipped is greater spreading out the cost per individual animal.

The main reason is they are not common in those areas so they are not commonly collected and when they are collected the cost is actually higher then Hawaiian individuals.