Does anyone else hate these fish prices these days

[Sisterlimonpot]

so jealous

Well, it's sort of insight to the human psyche, those weren't any special fish. But when you say they're hard to get, people start to perceive value. Haha


I remember yellow tangs being less than $20 And powder blue tangs hovering under $30.

 

[William Chiavetta]

Well, it's sort of insight to the human psyche, those weren't any special fish. But when you say they're hard to get, people start to perceive value. Haha

FR

 

[Jekyl]

Prices aren't going up. Your dollar is worth less.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

And my point is that as a matter of economic fact, they're not. Cherry picking examples or historic time frames doesn't change that.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/hig...s-expensive-federal-reserve-cars-2023-12?op=1

Also, auto gas prices are down currently and almost unbelievably are predicted not to rise over the summer:

Why Gas Prices Will Probably Keep Falling This Summer

Drivers in three states are already paying under $3 a gallon, with more likely to follow.

money.com

youre def not from CA! we are paying well over $5 here....

 

[Cichlid Dad]

And my point is that as a matter of economic fact, they're not. Cherry picking examples or historic time frames doesn't change that.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/hig...s-expensive-federal-reserve-cars-2023-12?op=1

Also, auto gas prices are down currently and almost unbelievably are predicted not to rise over the summer:

Why Gas Prices Will Probably Keep Falling This Summer

Drivers in three states are already paying under $3 a gallon, with more likely to follow.

money.com

As for gas prices, it's an election year, so yes gas prices will stay lower

 

[Cichlid Dad]

Prices aren't going up. Your dollar is worth less.

Much less!

 

[Bob Weigant]

I don't buy fish like I used to. Some prices are just too much for me to justify.

 

[VintageReefer]

All my corals were on sale and less than 60$ each. Ask my wife

 

[Glowurm]

I got a feeling prices will go down this summer. Livestock inventory is still high, and demand just took a dive for the season. You’ll see even more “sales” too.

Sure prices are rising, but wages are rising, in order for prices to fall (meaningfully) you require a depression, deflation equates to unemployment (and boy is that coming over the next 1/2 years).

Back on point, this is this hobby isnt cheap, but nor should it be, the volume of waste (fish in particular dying in transport) isn't something we should encourage IMO. My understanding is death is close to 50% whilst in transit, and that is not accounting for those which die after having been sold. So the Yellow Tang selling for $20 was insanely cheap given how many died before even hitting the LFS.

If reefing is to be sustainable (and ultimately it needs to be) then costs need to rise. Obviously the acceleration in costs will slow and find an equilibrium, strikes me we are close to that right now.

 

[Glowurm]

Prices aren't going up. Your dollar is worth less.

You're not wrong, folks do need to get used to the dollar buying less going forward.

 

[VintageReefer]

You're not wrong, folks do need to get used to the dollar buying less going forward.

I don’t understand the logic

If someone says the dollar buys less than it used to, or the value of a dollar has gone down, how is that different than saying things are more expensive

Isn’t this two different ways to say the same thing ?

 

[kwjones]

When I started stocking my first tank, green chromis were $3.99, Ocellaris clowns were around $10, my Royal Gramma was $8, snowflake eel was $35, hermit crabs were $2, snails were $1, and I think the most expensive fish we bought were a pair of Heniochus for $65 each. If it was more than $80 I wasn't buying it because at the time, that's an outrageous price for a fish. Then my wife saw a Pakistani butterfly fish for $80.

 

[lbacha]

Prices aren't going up. Your dollar is worth less.

I agree I find the cost of livestock actually going down from a couple years ago. The newest fad coral or fish are the exceptions but even those aren’t instantly selling like they use to.

 

[Glowurm]

I don’t understand the logic

If someone says the dollar buys less than it used to, or the value of a dollar has gone down, how is that different than saying things are more expensive

Isn’t this two different ways to say the same thing ?

Well printing dollars devalues all of the existing dollars in circulation. If you were to remove those dollars from circulation then the strength of the dollar would rise (scarcity and all that). So its not that the price of X has gone up rather than the value of the dollar is worth Y.

But since the US is hell bent on running trillion dollar deficits year in year out you need to borrow more, which in turn devalues the value of the currency. The merry go round is working right now, but only because the economy is being propped up by fiscal stimulus (aka borrowing), a reckoning is coming though, right now all fiscal stimulus is doing is increasing the debt and keeping inflation sticky (it aint falling to 2% without a recession), suspect things change once the elections over.

 

[Nano_Man]

Yep

 

[Tamberav]

Fish are cheaper when they don't die and you only have to buy them once.

Biggest tank I had in college was a 40g, anything more then that and it was too costly but I only kept 20g tanks the entire time. I am only now buying a 150g and been in the hobby 17? years. I was waiting until both me and my husband finished schooling. I had my bigges tank ever... 80g.. bought just before the pandemic because I had stable income.

If you are truly on a budget, I would not plan on a 125g as a new person coming into the hobby, the loses you will have in fish disease alone while you learn will set your wallet on fire.

Every single living thing you add, has the possibility of killing everything that came before it. More so if you don't qt or don't have an "old" established tank.

It is much more affordable to fill up a nano with a few select healthy fish and corals then to try and fill up a 125g and not wipe it out with velvet. It is a great way to learn and keep things affordable in college.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

If reefing is to be sustainable (and ultimately it needs to be) then costs need to rise.

This is based on the premise that reefing in its current state or even decades prior isn't and wasn't sustainable. Seems to me that the narrative has very little to do with fact and instead making connections based on what we see and read about somehow means unsustainable.

I don't know if overfishing for consumption is unsustainable but based on all that we read, it certainly seems that way. But it's a wild stretch to lump that in with catching fish for the aquarium industry.

this is this hobby isnt cheap, but nor should it be, the volume of waste (fish in particular dying in transport) isn't something we should encourage IMO. My understanding is death is close to 50% whilst in transit, and that is not accounting for those which die after having been sold.

Saying that prices should increase to account for death in transit suggest that it never was already factored in and sounds more like a way to simply increase profit.

Besides, punishing the entire hobby for the minority that can't be responsible sounds like the wrong approach to teach someone a lesson. It seems irresponsible to raise prices as a means of punishment in order to force individuals to be better stewards. Shouldn't the job to encourage proper care and husbandry fall to the community?

 

[TardWrangler]

Sure prices are rising, but wages are rising, in order for prices to fall (meaningfully) you require a depression, deflation equates to unemployment (and boy is that coming over the next 1/2 years).

Back on point, this is this hobby isnt cheap, but nor should it be, the volume of waste (fish in particular dying in transport) isn't something we should encourage IMO. My understanding is death is close to 50% whilst in transit, and that is not accounting for those which die after having been sold. So the Yellow Tang selling for $20 was insanely cheap given how many died before even hitting the LFS.

If reefing is to be sustainable (and ultimately it needs to be) then costs need to rise. Obviously the acceleration in costs will slow and find an equilibrium, strikes me we are close to that right now.

This is “your understanding”??? Lol. Where did you hear this nonsense? From Biota? Or the anti trade/hobby activists?

 

[Glowurm]

This is “your understanding”??? Lol. Where did you hear this nonsense? From Biota? Or the anti trade/hobby activists?

No fish wholesalers, death rate for livestock is huge.

How many years you been in the business of wholesale?

 

[TardWrangler]

lol what happens when prices go down?

If I understand what you’re asking here…The same thing as always. You think the price going up or down changes transit mortality and DAA(death after arrival)rates? No.