Expensive Hobby

[ReeferRob]

Being that this hobby is soo expensive, and we all try to live around our budgets. So what's the most you'll spend on anyone coral? We all have personal limits as to what we will allow our selves to spend, what's yours?

And the time you broke your own rule, how much did you spend? What did you tell your wife or significant other it cost you?

And for fish? What is reasonable and what is redonkulous?

Pictures would be sweet in this thread too!

[demonclownfish]

zoas i will only ever pay $10 and get one MAYBE 2 polyps.
LPS i can go up to 60 and no more(at least until i get a job).
sps i can spend $0 on.

and then there are the scaly creatures who roam the tank....

good price is anywhere from free-$100
redonkulous price is $200-$10000

[jimsflies]

I personally like the under $30 price range, especially for fish. But I did go over that with the yasha goby I bought a month or so ago. My tastes weren't always that cheap...but after a few "hard lessons", I have tried to be more practical.

[MizTanks]

So far I haven't gone over 25$ on my fish but I'm sure that'll change when it comes time to buy my * Flaming Prawn Goby*@129$
I did pay 60$ for 4 heads of Duncan?

[BriGuy31+]

I tend to have "high-end" taste on a small budget. Although, I am more apt to buy something if I can frag down the road and make some money back on it. I always try to trade if I'm looking for corals but I fund my tank(salt, additives, bulbs, etc.) from sales of my corals.

$150 on my picasso clownfish pair. $100 limit on a single fish is my rule.
$45 polyp for zoas is the most I've spent. I would say that is my limit on zoas. Although, I will try to throw in some trades+cash if I see something I really like.
$60 on SPS is my limit for a frag. But I think the most I've spent is $40.
LPS-don't really care for. Maybe the most was $40 for a chalice.

[streetrodder007]

I only will buy coral's in the $10- $30 range and grow them out, all varieties. I have 1 guy in Roseville that I have bought a lot from, and its only because he has cheap prices. I have no problem giving him $100 each time I visit, but I also walk out with 5-8 bags of all different healthy corals.
My first Blue Hippo was $65 and died of a disease in about 3 months. So that's the ballpark price on a fish.
1 ZOA head for $85 because it has a microscopic yellow dot on it's *** is just stupid.

[MyNemesis]

I try to keep coral purchases to less than $50.00, but I have spent up to a buck. . . or buck and a half. Fish are limited to the $60.00 to $80.00 range. Did you ever notice it is the slowest growing, most expensive corals that always wind up getting stung by somebody else or knocked off by a fish onto a killer echinata?

[ReeferMike]

for livestock, $100 is my limit for any one thing that i NEED to have...- for equipment i usually need to save for in $200 increments. budgets suck lol

[Myteemouse]

my general rule is not more than 25-50 for a frag mostly in the 25-40 range
but of course we all have to have rules in order to break them :)
80 on this one
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o128/acungaro/saltwater/may12024.jpg

100 on my Rainbow acan
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o128/acungaro/saltwater/IMG_2040.jpg

25 on one polyp of these gobbstoppers
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o128/acungaro/saltwater/april23068.jpg

[softiegirl]

Id have to say I HAD to have a capt america paly for $75 :stars: and it aint all that! I tend to spend too much on everything I buy honestly, but I tell my sig other "it was only $20!!".... for everything! lol :doh::shifty::secret2:

[gablett]

I paid $50 for 3 polyps of Darth Mauls. Thats my limit. In fact, I wont even come close to that again.

I paid 200 for a female bellus angel. Wont EVER do that again.

[cephalotus]

I don't mind paying $50 for a nice peice but $100 is the absolute max.

[evolutionracr]

My frag limit for sps $30, the most I paid was $60 and that was for my setosa but it was well worth the splurge.
Fish- $40
Zoas- $15 a polyp

[cg5071]

i buy ALOT of cheaper stuff so far. lol. i also look to the future when i can trade stuff i have grown out for something. so far it has been 55$ on a fish but i really considered $100 for a blue spot jawfish. then i would need a pair of them, haha. 60$ on a nicer lps colony, i spent that on my trach. and it doesnt bother me. i am planning on some hammers, frogspawn bubble and fox coral in the future and that is my limit. likely i would go cheaper on a frag and grow it out. i will probably buy a nice favia in the $100 range so i dont have to wait for it to grow out like the frags.

10$ would have to be the high mark for a zoa polyp though i havnt spent that yet.
i dont have many sps but i think 20$ on a smaller frag/mini colony is fair.

i dont usually tell my partner what i spend but i point it out when i get a good deal,lol. he is more into the fish/crabs/shrimp ect. so i get some animals i know he will fall in love with and not notice the new coral i added :)

[rmalone]

It really depends on what it is, and how big.

I have 4 or 5 different zoas, first corals I bought and wont buy anymore, not my cup.

LPS, I have the ones I want Rhizo, Dendro and a couple of Euphillia. Price was from $100 down to $30. I love acans but they hate me, so no more attempts. My Copper band seems to like Welsos so no more fleshy LPS. My chalice is doing well so perhaps a couple more of those, but $75-$100 is max and I'm not itching for 'em...yet.

SPS, I really prefer to buy/trade frags from fellow reefers, but I have been known to buy $60 lfs frags on occasion. And I wouldn't pass up a small colony of something that knocked my socks off for $100+, again size matters. I would rather spend $100 on a 4 branch mini-colony at 3" tall than the same coral as a 1" frag for $40, you can simply get back to even faster and have more for your time and $$.

Fish, the most I have spent is $225 for 3 female + 1 male flame wrasse, money well spent and a great price for really sweet fish. If I thought I could get away with it, and I really don't, I would pay $150 or so for an achilles tang, maybe more, still I probably wont go there.

[cherrycorals]

I won't buy a fish thats more than $50.

Corals......sky is the limit.

[toddman74]

I would cap my fish to 50 also... my one exception was on a mystery wrasse which I had a good deal on for 80... but ended up lost to carpet surfing... guess that wasnt such a good deal after all. I even had a tank canopy, but the one hole for the overflow was a tad too big.

corals is a different story.. one or two pieces is rarely a problem. It's those dang frag packs that add up :(

[pjr]

Spouse discussion on reef expenditures? Simple policy works well: don't ask, don't tell. :)

Of course, I don't review her clothing spends either.

[fishboy13]

My limit on corals is probably now $80 I never buy zoas because I can't keep them alive (I know this sounds really weird).

My limit on fish is around $100 (eventually I will have to extend this for an achilles tang)

I'm not married so I don't have a problem with my spouse asking how much my stuff cost me [my dad usually does that for me ;)]

Overall this hobby is very expensive but once you get into it enough and decide to do everything correctly the hobby can pay back which I really like.

[cherrycorals]

I take my $50 limit back, like toddman I would buy a mystery for well over $50, they are exremely usefull fish!!