2020 Fish Prices

Poseidon

Poseidon

Distinguished Member
Joined
May 15, 2012
Location
SW Ontario
This is a bit of a - catch me up- type of post.
Two year+ hiatus from the hobby

Visited a bunch of stores (7+) past couple weeks, and was blown away at the ups and downs that are fish prices.

Some examples

Flame angel- 150 up from 60
Yellow Tang- 199 up from 50
Gem Tang- 699 down from 1999
Purple tang- 149 down from 199
Fire fish- 19 down from 30
Blue Hippos - 50 down from 80-100.
Midas Blenny - 69 up from 49

Post up some fish you've either seen or bought past 6m-12months.
Just want to see what market values have been.

Midas Blenny i bought, because its my favorite fish and they are so freeken cool

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Amaroq

Amaroq

New Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Location
Guelph, Ontario
Pricing fluctuates wildly throughout the year I've noticed, perhaps due to seasonal collection difficulties? I'm honestly not sure why though. I've seen Flame Angels as high as your saying but I also see them as low as $70 still occasionally. JL Aquatics in BC has them on their price list for $68 right now, granted you need to pay overnight shipping and don't get to see the fish before purchase so your certainly taking a gamble. Though to counter that I suppose you normally don't get any sort of guarantee on marines from LFSs anyways so it sort of equalizes out in my mind. Newer species seem oddly accessible in recent years as well, for example new fairy wrasse species always seem to show up in GTA/online sellers, then some 'older' species have become harder and harder to find, a replacement Yasha Goby is my bane at the moment. SeaLife was the only place I knew of getting them in around here and they've unfortunately closed down. Baylife Corals out in Saskatchewan get in Yashas occasionally but I have a hard time justifying the cost of overnight shipping for a single fish order when they do get them in so I always miss out lol

That all said though my last fish purchase was in June 2019 and it was a White Tail Bristletooth Tang I impulse bought on sight as I couldn't believe that I finally found one in person, and on my birthday at the time no less. Paid a pretty penny at $350 for the boy and he cost me the two clowns and the McCosker's wrasse with some ich he brought in but that was my own fault for not QTing. Anymore fish additions will be going through QT. Last time I remember seeing one before buying my boy though was on a JL Aquatics price list back in 2015 for $200. Since it had always been a dream fish for me though I didn't mind paying the premium at the time, I likely wouldn't do that for any other fish lol

 
J

Jason Bell

Active Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2019
Location
l2r4t1
It all comes down to what is caught and what arrives alive. I know one store owner well and he does place his order however along with that he has to take whatever comes with it, sometimes fish requiring large tanks that he will end up keeping for a while. He also explained to me for a purple tang, he has placed an order for 100, he can then sell them for $75 and everyone is happy. Of course he does not know what is coming or when they arrive until he gets the notification. It is a hard business, personally I don't have an issue with higher priced livestock as maybe people will think twice before buying something they are not capable of keeping. I would also gladly pay more for ORA fish that are bread in captivity rather than plucking everything from the ocean.

From the original post, I do recall early last year paying $50-$70 for a yellow tang and then by Christmas they were over $200.

I missed out on a Golden Angel but afterwards didn't regret as it probably would have ate my coral. I would at some point like a fish only tank so I could keep some of those angels.
 
J

Jason Bell

Active Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2019
Location
l2r4t1
I'm keeping a spot for a purple, but I also would take a mimic or scopas well come to think about it a powder brown or blue, ya I have a thing for tangs.
 
Amaroq

Amaroq

New Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2014
Location
Guelph, Ontario
Poseidon said:
@Amaroq Big als in Kitchener had some white tail bristletooths for 299$ last week.

Beautiful fish, but just not my # 1 tang desire atm.

have a soft spot for purples :)
Click to expand...

Yeah that is actually where I grabbed my guy! Can't say I've seen or heard of any other shop getting them in around here but I could definitely be mistaken on that. I grabbed him back when they got them in for the first time last year. The manager at the Kitchener location has made some great changes to the saltwater fish section, its much nicer then it used to be in my opinion. He also gets in some crazy stuff for prices that really confuse me, like the Gem or the "Koi" Scopas Tangs being a solid example, or almost any brand new designer clown they somehow tend to have immediate access to, typically at prices drastically lower then the average rates I see. They were bringing in Black/Mocha Storm clownfish for the price of a pair what other shops were charging per clown. Pintail wrasse for like $50, males even. Don't get me wrong, as I'm not complaining, I definitely appreciate not being forced to go all the way to GTA just to get good prices or a better selection of livestock. Its just a big difference from where they used to be and I'd be interested to hear if it was just something as simple as change of management or maybe when the whole crap storm with Aquatic Kingdom came to light years back perhaps they got access to more suppliers, pure speculation on my part. Not that its any of my business in the first place! Lol Purples are great, definitely my favourite Zebrasoma tang. If I had all the money in the world and nothing to spend it on though I'd definitely get myself a Zebra Convict Tang, Acanthuras polyzona.
 
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