Expensive fish thoughts

[prettyShe]

What are your thoughts on buying an expensive fish $600 and up. Would you?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

nope!!

 

[John Doe]

I will first check the condition of my wallet and the condition of the fish. If there is no problem, of course I will buy it.

 

[AlyciaMarie]

My personal feeling is that it's unnerving to spend a big chunk of money on a anything that has the potential of dying or not being accepted by other tank members. Lots of places has great DOA policies and great reputations, but it's still a financially scary concept to me. But at the same time, there are some pretty spectacular fish/coral that are wildly tempting....

 

[Sophie"s mom]

What are your thoughts on buying an expensive fish $600 and up. Would you?

iF MY TANK WOULD SUPPORT IT IN A HEALTHY WAY, ABSOLUTELY!!

 

[Dburr1014]

I don't think I would unless I had a big bank account.

I just spent $360 on a pair of bellus angel fish, that's my one time limit. The next expensive fish was my purple tang, he was $120 I think, like 8/9 years ago. The rest I'm hoping to be <$75 each.

 

[threebuoys]

What are your thoughts on buying an expensive fish $600 and up. Would you?

This is a really hard question to answer. I've never spent more than $100 on one fish as a matter of principle. In the other hand, given the $1,000's I've spent on the full set up, what's another $600? The unce3rtainlty of survival, particularly when other aggressive fish are already established, does slow me down.

For a reference point, In 1973 I purchased a clown trigger fish from a local fish store. The going price was $100. I knew the shop owner very well, so I got it for only $50. Keep in mind, my annual oncome at that time was $7,500. So maybe $600 ain't too bad. Of course, today you can still buy a clown trigger for between $100 and $150.

 

[Zionas]

The only fish that is consistently worth over this limit would be something like a captive bred angel from Poma Labs or something like a CB Goldflake.

Poma Labs has done a great job of offering previous “holy grail” species at lower prices than their original wild counterparts. When the Tiger Angel from Madagascar was first available for purchase, it went for $18k a piece. Now they’re two grand a piece and you’re getting a captive bred and conditioned fish. Same for the Conspics. A wild Conspic cost at least 5 grand and was only available as adults, and we know how much harder it can be to get large specimens of angels to adapt compared to getting them as juveniles. Now a Conspic is 3 grand a piece, so that’s an improvement.

The Blue Lines, while not a fish that cost in the four digits, used to be rare and still sold for a decently high price, as well as wild-caught adults having difficult adapting to captivity. I have read posts made by Taiwanese hobbyists who collected them in their own waters where they’re the most common large angel and they had the same story. Poma has again done good making them a more regular offering at a not-too-bad price of $300-400 along with the benefits of getting a captive bred and conditioned fish that’s still a juvenile.

I last read they’re planning to release CB specimens of Interruptus and Bandit Angels, so hopefully we’ll be getting them at competitive prices too within a few months of their release.

There’s a Peppermint Angel in Japan that was one of the original ones collected back in the early 2000s, the owner’s had it in a specialized display (all to itself) for over 22 years, but given that the fish was caught as an adult I would put the total age at ~24 years, maybe even 25 years for all we know. I wouldn’t be surprised if that specimen cost more than most people’s entire setups plus livestock combined.

I really don’t get the craze with designer Clowns, the aberrant Tangs, just about man-made hybrid, actually desirable to me > rare. And the Crosshatch Triggers are almost always caught as large adults and don’t always adapt well.

If you’re getting several fish on the higher end of things price wise, IMO it’s one of those building the system around the fish scenarios rather than just plopping it in.