Fish prices are insane!

[Fishingandreefing]

Finally visited my LFS after 6 weeks cause of covid-19 and was looking to buy a nice blue throat trigger male..they usually run around $69 and I almost fell down when I saw the price today at $158...these prices are insane, not only is this virus going to drive business bankruptcies but the pricing surely will

Hopefully it won’t be like this soon as I want this fish in my new build. Very cool fish.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

One of my friend saw a gsp frag at petco for $49.99 before covid. But usually their coral prices are insanely high these couple of year. No one buys them then ended up dying.

 

[SteveO83]

I paid around 140 back in 2009 for a male blue throat

 

[Fishingandreefing]

I paid around 140 back in 2009 for a male blue throat

Price was around $65 - $75 locally for a male and $100 a $120 online since I got my first pair 3 years ago. Both turnt female but then didn’t make it one after another.

 

[PoeticInjustice]

yup i made a post about divers den pricing. And now they are even WORSE. 699 for an Achilles tang on divers den right now. Absolutely awful

I was browsing Diver’s Den this morning and had the same reaction.

 

[Katie03]

Prices haven’t changed here (Knoxville, TN)! Love my LFS! The owner actually drives to NC to pick up the fish shipments! That’s the way he’s always done it!

 

[Mikeltee]

Fish are not shipping. If someone has them in stock and needs money they will sell for cheap. If the stored saved for a rainy day, they can afford to charge a premium until that brown truck can roll up three times a week with a fresh load of fish from the seas.

 

[Chukthunder]

I was browsing Diver’s Den this morning and had the same reaction.

Was going back and forth between saltwaterfish and liveaquaria, seemed to be a 150-200% price increase for everything I was considering. That and waiting lists.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I was browsing Diver’s Den this morning and had the same reaction.

DD has gotten insane. I went to my LFS and they are SIGNIFICANTLY less there. I know it depends on what you are getting but I won't be shopping Live Aquaria anymore.

 

[DJF]

Yeah divers den has gotten ridiculous. $219 for “paired” skunk shrimp- yikes. Don’t forget the $10 boxing fee lol

 

[Joshua Sassaman]

I work at a local pet store specializing in well everything. I do orders from a few distributors. The coral prices have only raised a little bit. The fish have gone through the roof. I was just looking at the stock list. For example a bi-color angel we sell a small one for about 30$. Now for me to order one and make the same mark up it would cost over 100 dollars. I haven't even looked into the shipping which has tripled to quadrupled its cost. The actual distributors are having a hard time getting any shipments from Vietnam, Indo, Aussie, and so on, there are extremely few international flights and live fish is not much of a priority right now. So they have raised their prices because of this, then me the pet store cant get overnight shipping straight from Cali or Flordia. Some shipments have literally gone through 3-4 different states because of so little air travel. So then we have to pay a lot more.
I would expect when countries open up and many more people are taking fights you will see a graduate decrease in prices. Right now this is the new normal, I love doing these orders but as a store needed to make money I'm not willing to get fish that normally cost less than 30 dollars to sell go into the hundreds.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Im sorry But Yes they are and it has caused me to say " I can wait !!! ". ARE WE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF ????
It just seems like oil, each time there is a panic, pandemic or natural disaster our livestock (fish and coral) become a commodity. Hawaii upon a recent survey have an abundance of yellow tangs. Why then are they from $24.99 to average $50 as an example.
AGAIN I SAY - " I CAN WAIT " until these prices reduce to realism, and if not, I have many fish already.

 

[salty150]

yup i made a post about divers den pricing. And now they are even WORSE. 699 for an Achilles tang on divers den right now. Absolutely awful

Yup, their prices are CRAZY!

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Luckily I have all the fish I need. Haven’t added anything in more than a year

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Finally visited my LFS after 6 weeks cause of covid-19 and was looking to buy a nice blue throat trigger male..they usually run around $69 and I almost fell down when I saw the price today at $158...these prices are insane, not only is this virus going to drive business bankruptcies but the pricing surely will

here's what one wholesaler sent me on price increase.

 

[Cwentz758]

Prices won’t level out until the airlines are back up to speed. With fewer flights going places prices for everything shipped has gone up.

For some perspective. Everyone knows how crazy busy Chicago O’Hare airport is correct? If not, in a nutshell it’s one of the busiest airports in the country if not top 10 in the world. Since all this started TOTAL flights in a day in the US are less than what Chicago normally has during the day.

 

[Bob Severance]

Maybe their costs have increased? Will they read this thread and sell it to you for less?

The shipping availability has decreased. A lot more of the available storage space in flights is dedicated to medical supplies and there's a lot less flights happening because there's no passengers taking the flights. Essentially, there's no cost effective way to transfer the fish for sale. That may explain why places near the coast that don't require air shipping have cheaper fish and anywhere that requires a flight for transfer has limited stock and higher prices.

 

[Greenlady]

Finally visited my LFS after 6 weeks cause of covid-19 and was looking to buy a nice blue throat trigger male..they usually run around $69 and I almost fell down when I saw the price today at $158...these prices are insane, not only is this virus going to drive business bankruptcies but the pricing surely will

My lfs has been same price and they didn't shut down for long but every day its chais in there. Huge groups of people and they can't keep up. I wanted to trade my zoanthids for some clean up crew and he took my zoanthid and walked off didnt see him again they closed so they got zoanthids for free. I couldn't stay in there much longer because of how many people were in there. It was shoulder to shoulder chaos and they were still getting orders in fine. I'm in Texas.

 

[AtulR]

Finally visited my LFS after 6 weeks cause of covid-19 and was looking to buy a nice blue throat trigger male..they usually run around $69 and I almost fell down when I saw the price today at $158...these prices are insane, not only is this virus going to drive business bankruptcies but the pricing surely will

I definitely agree that prices have gone up due to lack of space on air freight, but I'm guessing this also may have been location on where the fish was sourced from. Blue Throat Triggers from Indonesia usually run around $70, but Hawaiian ones will put you back around $150..

 

[Reeffragger]

Coral prices havent changed where i live in Northern virginia mainly because alot of the places grow and frag them thrmselvs.. or they give store credit for trade ins from people.

But fish prices have changed yes.. i paid 100$ for a copperband butterfly normally theyre like 40$. I did buy a potters angel in petco for 80$ also got a red colord unknown wrasse and a neon yellow wrasse for 40$ together but down the street at a new store that opened the guy had the potters for 190$...

I actually asked him why hes charging so much he said because of supply.. but i noticed after i mentioned that he lowered the peice on them to 160$. So i think some places are actually price gouging purposely. Much like gas stations... Oil prices are or were down to -40$ a barrel yet where i live in northen va 87 is still 2$ and 94 is 2.70$ yet costco is 1.50$ and 1.89$.

The owner also told me blue hippo and yellow tang prices are going down soon like they were in 90s.. Im like really how ? Then asked how much he wants for a blue hippo and he said 80$.. Yeaas no thats 2019 prices lol not 1990 prices. So i think the owner is full of it tbh. But he alao keeps saying itd getting harder and harder to get fish in. He just opened 2 months ago too.. so hes struggling. This owner also drove from VA to Newyork to pick up corals because he said shipping prices are too high

Thankfully i dont need fish. My tanks are stocked up and i have no fish dying.