What Needs The Most Improvement In The Hobby?

[jduong916]

cheaper LED options, and like someone else pointed out, better apps for the high priced LEDs

 

[Richard the Reefer]

It would be great to get full test kits for everything you need as a bundle. Also pricing on just about everything!

 

[THX1138CY]

Quality lighting solutions at reasonable prices, equivalent lighting solutions for home/office use compared to "aquarium lighting" is quite ridiculous, I am just not seeing a justification for the prices charged when comparable solutions cost less than a quarter. I ended up building a ramping/dimmable with 4-20ma controlable t5 array from parts for less than a tenth of what gets charged for name brands, and I used name brand components.

 

[Mark Gray]

Its easier to keep a whale shark with ich than a crinoid

Oh my whale has Ick, oh wait that's me. Well got to start the black worm, white worm, fish gut bacteria laden diet and kick this ick

 

[cracker]

The thickness of my wallet !

 

[rob safron]

Coral price contriols. Getting really crazy to pay $100’s of dollars for a 3/4 inch nub. When I started my first tank in the late 90’s I could get 8” or larger colonies for $150.

 

[Forsaken77]

I agree on the price. I see way cheaper options that will work just fine. But for some reason the industry wants to jack up the prices [emoji857]. Or is it to keep any schmoe from buying marine fish & killing them off due to inexperience?

I don't think it's to keep people out, because they would make more money if there were more sales, which they haven't grasped the concept of yet. I think it's first and foremost because it's a niche hobby and they want to cover their costs first (R&D, Engineering, ect...), then profit.

Then it's like they overprice just to say "we're a premium brand" to differentiate themselves.

But yes, prices don't need to be as high as they are. A lot of the Chinese made companies also make products for a whole range of things. A bunch of the expensive companies make only aquarium products. Maybe if they branched out into other markets the prices on aquarium gear would come down.

That's my take anyway

 

[Forsaken77]

Coral price contriols. Getting really crazy to pay $100’s of dollars for a 3/4 inch nub. When I started my first tank in the late 90’s I could get 8” or larger colonies for $150.

Definitely!!! In the 90's you would get a full coral for the price, not a little stub.

 

[samnaz]

Larger selection of aquacultured or captive bred livestock - especially invertebrates such as anemones, crabs, shrimp, snails, as well as fish.

We need more vendors like ORA. Obviously not as huge, but even small vendors that specialize in tank raised livestock are few and far between.

Tons and tons of corals are easily grown, fragged and sold, over and over again forever. Yet most vendors have corals collected from far away reefs, which no doubt must cost an arm and a leg considering all the expenses (shipping, packing, all the collectors/divers/packers wages). No doubt, aquaculture requires way more time and effort for vendors themselves, but longterm it costs a lot less than wild collection.

Livestock that's used to captive conditions is more likely to survive tank life than their wild counterparts. What's required to keep them alive and thriving isn't a mystery. Also, disease is virtually nonexistent, unlike the never ending constant risk of disease that comes from the wild.

 

[Will Milberger]

Sorry if already posted. Better nomenclature system of corals. What one guys "wham bam thank you ma'am's" are some other guy's "frizzy purple gummies". When in actuality it's something else.

 

[Xandernfs]

I'm sure it's been said and I put my $.02 in on the first or second page, but I would also say education of the hobby/animals. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. I see many, many posts on social media where people have a small cube with TONS of fish in it. I'm not a member of the 'tang police' but I see it quite often. It looks cool when you have a lot of fish and are successfully growing coral. But at the end of the day, most of us on here would agree that it is not right.

 

[graffitireef]

As owners of living animals that depend on us, there needs to be a lot more effort to be responsible on all fronts.
Conservation and education is key.
Hopefully, captive bred animals will become more and more common and affordable.

I know we'd all love to see equipment prices lower or at the very least become better in terms of quality.

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

Larger selection of aquacultured or captive bred livestock - especially invertebrates such as anemones, crabs, shrimp, snails, as well as fish.

We need more vendors like ORA. Obviously not as huge, but even small vendors that specialize in tank raised livestock are few and far between.

Tons and tons of corals are easily grown, fragged and sold, over and over again forever. Yet most vendors have corals collected from far away reefs, which no doubt must cost an arm and a leg considering all the expenses (shipping, packing, all the collectors/divers/packers wages). No doubt, aquaculture requires way more time and effort for vendors themselves, but longterm it costs a lot less than wild collection.

Livestock that's used to captive conditions is more likely to survive tank life than their wild counterparts. What's required to keep them alive and thriving isn't a mystery. Also, disease is virtually nonexistent, unlike the never ending constant risk of disease that comes from the wild.

While this is a positive thought about the subject, in reality it's not this simple and certainly does NOT cost less than collecting fish and invertebrates from the wild. The amount of time and electrical energy required to grow a marine fish from egg to sellable adult is staggering and takes anywhere from around 3 months to nearly a year. Wild collection costs less because mother nature takes care of the growth period to get a fish to sellable size, and then it gets to the retailer in around a week or two. Shipping, packing, and employee wages are nothing compared to lighting, heating, salt mixing, broodstock food, larval foods, live feeds for the live foods... There's a lot of people trying to improve the costs of raising ornamental fish and inverts, but its far more difficult than it sounds.