Reefing Livestock has really gone up !

[streetrodder007]

Has anyone noticed that in the last year how much Livestock has had a price increase ? I am certainly not complaining about our LFS , they are in business like every other business and I appreciate them and frequent them weekly. It just seems the whole industry has had a price leap on certain Livestock, not to mention some of these crazy $500 coral frags. $ 1500 protein skimmers etc etc....

I just went today and bought my clean up crew, 2 basic fish, 3 Shrimp,and 1 filter sock. I spent $200. Wow, that added up fast ! I went to 2 different stores, and did some pricing online. Prices were fairly close when compared. When I changed from Freshwater to Saltwater 2 years ago, I bought my first Cleaner Shrimp for $9.99 .

Maybe I live in the dark, but what happened ? Did the oil spill contribute to these costs ? I would think that with all the captive breading, prices would go down ? I Don't want this to turn into a ***** session, obviously this is an expensive hobby, but I guess I was a little shocked.:fish2:

[jimsflies]

I agree that in the past couple years the price of the hobby seems to have shot up...disproportionately to inflation.

[Skyhigh]

When the gas $ went to the high, the Airlines shipping went to a high and then gas went down but the airlines stayed at the high. really sucks when the shipping is 3 times the cost of the shipment it self some times.

[jimsflies]

Yeah I don't necessarily think the LFSs are to blame. I think the collectors and distributors have jumped on the name game and also bought saws.

[Skyhigh]

They tryed for a min but the shipping has got out of control.

[streetrodder007]

Isn't it crazy how the "All Mighty Gallon of Oil " can affect every single thing in our lives, from Milk to Blue legged hermit crab's ! haha , it makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. LOL


One would think 20 years ago 1 Cleaner Shrimp would cost $30 because of supply and demand and various problems with harvesting them from the ocean. But with modern technology and breeding it should be more like $5 each , but it's not that way at all. Actually today I purchased 3 baby Cleaner Shrimp and it cost me $70 :stupidme:

[dcmartinpc]

The hobby is going nuts. I just got a great deal from Mr. Coral. Anytime you can get 35 quality frags for less than $230, you are in good shape. And most of the stuff he sent me had WAY more polyps on it than he advertised. There are still some deals out there, you just need to hunt. But overall, I completely agree. I guess it is up to us as hobbyist to keep trading and then maybe the dealers will get the idea :D

Don

[streetrodder007]

That works out to $6.57 a frag. You did real good, Congrat's .
Now bring some of that over to my house and split it with me ! LOL

[adalius]

Just an FYI, I just bought a supplemental clean up crew from reefcleaners.org and man oh man are his prices good. I'm hoping that it helps me. Should be shipping Monday.

[cg5071]

yeah. i thought my cleaner shrimp was $26 the other day as if that wasnt bad enough, it was really $29! lol
i havnt seen much cheaper even from the sites where stuff is really cheap. the lowest has been $19 i think.

[Skyhigh]

Last week the Trop had cleaner shrimp on sale for $19.99 each, and on there SP list they were $12 but only aloud one at that $

[Poseidon]

I agree with Bryan, the airlines have gone NUTS on shipping costs. In addition to that, BOX charges kill me.

One recent order I was able to get a particular for fish for $4.13 each, but had to add in the box/cold pack charges that were $73, and the actual shipping from the airline was $113. So for my order that was $600 of actual stock, I had to add $186 in COST, which for that order worked out to almost $4 per FISH! So that fish that was $4.13 on the list actually cost me $8.13, and we sold them for $14.99..... Not a huge margin there huh?

Now take into account a MINIMUM of 10% mortality on livestock purchases, and we are lucky to even break even sometimes.

We also use a Short Supply chain wholesaler, which SHOULD cost less, but it doesn't... it costs MORE per fish, because they are better cared for, we hope, along the chain of custody.

I agree fish and inverts are higher then they have ever been, but most of that has to do with actually getting the stuff in the shop, not the livestock itself.

[streetrodder007]

POSEIDON - I can imagine costs are reflective everywhere. The LFS is surely not becoming Millionaire's.

One funny thing to ponder- 50 medium shrimp are on sale at Meijer's for $4.99 a bag right now. 50 cleaner shrimp in Marine aquariums would cost you roughly $1250.00 if you bought them individually. Pro's /Con's - they both eat crap off the ocean floor, both live similar lives, but wait..... 1 of these has a red stripe on its back, OK... that's where the extra $1245.01 comes into play. makes sense......haha... LOL

[Poseidon]

LOL! Ya, I get that too. :D I am pretty sure the harvest methods are a little different for those two though. ;)

I hope you didn't find my post defensive, that is not the intention, rather I wanted to provide an example is all.

[XSiVE]

we were just talking about this in the chatbox the other night.. I see a few shops that frag their own and still charge quite a high price for the frags.. This is the part I don't understand.

[streetrodder007]

I don't take offense to any postings. I just hope someone doesn't turn my thread into a political bashing (Because of President .....thats why fish cost so much...blah blah blah).
Everything I have said in this thread I say with a smile on my face and with a serious/ joking tone. I am still going to buy my $25 bottle of Copepods (which is really worth about $2). Copepods to the Ocean, is equivalent to Mosquito's in Michigan, and we pay top dollar for them, other places people could care less, and there a nuisance . haha

[cg5071]

I try to order stuff when i can get a few things at the same time of course. My LFS is pretty cool (changed hands recently though ) I buy things there and support them because they are often flexable with stuff for a reg. customer. Sometimes though i can get some items shipped for cheaper than their prices and we dont have alot of choices up here.

On the other hand he charges top dollar for fish but add shipping to some cheaper ones online and it comes out even. Here i can see the fish first at least.

[jimsflies]

I see a few shops that frag their own and still charge quite a high price for the frags.. This is the part I don't understand.

There you're dealing with the cost of growing the frags...running a salwtater tank isn't cheap as you already know. To farm corals costs money in electricity, supplies (salt/water/saws/plugs/etc), and labor. And at the end of the day, they have to make a little money too or else it isn't worth it to be in business.

[XSiVE]

There you're dealing with the cost of growing the frags...running a salwtater tank isn't cheap as you already know. To farm corals costs money in electricity, supplies (salt/water/saws/plugs/etc), and labor. And at the end of the day, they have to make a little money too or else it isn't worth it to be in business.


Oh I absolutely agree, especially when you've got a small number of things or a slow grower... It's a little different when you've got 40 frags of something that's a fast grower and are still asking top dollar, I just find it a little silly. But whatever, they need to make their profits to stay in business, and I can simply choose to not buy a specific item, wait for a sale, whatever.

[Mike]

The airlines may have something to do with it but so does the fact that exporters can read too. They know that things like chalice corals, blasto's and scolymia are how items. You know they had to up prices based on the market for these items.

[Skyhigh]

The airlines may have something to do with it but so does the fact that exporters can read too. They know that things like chalice corals, blasto's and scolymia are how items. You know they had to up prices based on the market for these items.

Yep and thats the internet's fault, they could never see what the $ at the end was and now with all the web sites that sell corals super easy for them and they want a part of that $.

[BlackGrandPrix]

Another thing people are forgetting is that these 3rd world countries are wanting a higher standard of living. Soo instead of being paid .05cents a day now they demand .10 for example. Thats a 50% increase in wages. Along with airlines, electric bills going up, it all adds up unfortunately.

Food prices are going up Wheat has doubled in price in a month so beer, meat, breads will be going up.

[streetrodder007]

Your right Jason, allot of prices have gone up, unfortunately in Michigan our prices have gone down. In the world of construction, it's a killer right now here in Michigan, as is many other industries.

Oh yea, UPDATE- 1 of my shrimp I bought in Roseville was dead this morning. The 2 from the other shop, still breathin' . Hey JIM, I think I'm going eat the shrimp and post the pic in Feeding Frenzy ..LOL .. I wonder how peel-n-eat Cleaner Shrimp with cocktail sauce would be ????? :fishbones:

[Mike]

In a way it is good news for me because Acropora are now cheaper LOL unless you get the exotic Aussie from DFS.

[XSiVE]

In a way it is good news for me because Acropora are now cheaper LOL unless you get the exotic Aussie from DFS.

Same here, Im still just as into SPS as I have always been so I'm opposite the current trend, well, somewhat anyway :)

[fishtal]

Interesting thread. One thing I didn't see mentioned yet is locally produced captive bred fish, corals and inverts...

Granted, the supply of locally produced livestock isn't huge but with more support it could be.

Keep in mind that buying and selling locally produced, captive bred, livestock not only reduces the impact of the hobby on reefs around the world, it also cuts down on the impact/costs of shipping things around the world...

I'm not against sustainable collection of species that we can't currently raise in captivity. I'm all for sustainable collection practices along with promoting captive propagation.

As Poseidon mentioned above, if X number of fish are lost during transport, no one wins.

[rmalone]

The reason prices are higher is definately tied to shipping, but to say it's silly that an lfs is selling a common frag for high dollars is crazy. If people pay the price it would be silly not to charge that much. Nobody is getting rich on this hobby, if they are more power to them. Do higher prices suck for all us working stiffs? Of course they do, but if we keep on handing over the $$, the prices will stay where they are. Keep in mind if we all stop paying top dollar some of these items will not be cost effective to import and then we wont have access. Soooo, it sucks but it's the reality we are going to be living with.

[Mike]

I see more sales in the summer time too.

[gooch]

I see more sales in the summer time too.

Thats because from about May to just after Labor Day sales drop off the map and most vendors struggle to make enough to cover bills and payroll. Seriously sales for many drop to less than half what they do from Sept to April. They do for us and have every year that I have been in business for the last nine years. It's fine if you are well established and you can plan for it. But many of the newer shops get left with thier pants down and summer just kills em. When it is good it is OK. When it's bad it is really bad.

[cocothereef]

Recession = slow income,thus they jack up the price to balance the income.Try shopping craig's list sometimes,they post nice frag chalice for low price.