Fish prices are insane!

[Costareefer]

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.

Prices will never come back down in the hobby. The airline excuse while valid has created a new bottom in this hobby. The hobby is about to price itself out of profitability for collectors and wholesale distributors. You’re looking at a couple of years if ever before airlines are up and running to where they were a couple months ago. Many will go under. Avianca one of the largest in Latin America has filed BK today. That’s just the first domino before long American or united or delta will go under. Nevertheless this is where the hobby is now. Significantly overpriced to begin with it will now become price gouging out the wazoo. There is no 60% mark up per fish on shipments it’s the wholesalers who are getting nailed who are charging the ridiculous mark ups. A unspoken rule of economics is once prices on goods inflate they don’t come back down. Even when times get better you will see the bottomline for distributors increase significantly. The prices aren’t going down which means far less people in the hobby get ready Bc I don’t think the hobby will ever be the same. Aquacultured corals and some fish is going to be the hobby going forward. Wildcaught specimens from here on out will be way to expensive for 90% of hobbyists to afford the supply system is about to collapse Bc mom and pop won’t survive charging ridiculous markups.

If they want to fix it find another way to ship to retailers. I think it can be fixed but greed is at play here.

 

[Reeffragger]

Prices will never come back down in the hobby. The airline excuse while valid has created a new bottom in this hobby. The hobby is about to price itself out of profitability for collectors and wholesale distributors. You’re looking at a couple of years if ever before airlines are up and running to where they were a couple months ago. Many will go under. Avianca one of the largest in Latin America has filed BK today. That’s just the first domino before long American or united or delta will go under. Nevertheless this is where the hobby is now. Significantly overpriced to begin with it will now become price gouging out the wazoo. There is no 60% mark up per fish on shipments it’s the wholesalers who are getting nailed who are charging the ridiculous mark ups. A unspoken rule of economics is once prices on goods inflate they don’t come back down. Even when times get better you will see the bottomline for distributors increase significantly. The prices aren’t going down which means far less people in the hobby get ready Bc I don’t think the hobby will ever be the same. Aquacultured corals and some fish is going to be the hobby going forward. Wildcaught specimens from here on out will be way to expensive for 90% of hobbyists to afford the supply system is about to collapse Bc mom and pop won’t survive charging ridiculous markups.

If they want to fix it find another way to ship to retailers. I think it can be fixed but greed is at play here.

Dunno who 90% youre reffering too because my local store fish prices are 2x higher then they used to be but guy cant keep fish in his tanks.. Theyre still flying outa the tanks in days... and thats a problem like you said because it means prices wont go down

 

[Rkempka22]

Our LFS has had a gem tang for over a year, my son inquired about it and they sold it to us for $400.00, I’ve seen both higher and lower pricing depending on who the stores are getting their stock from. We’ve got one local LFS who’s tanks are full of fish and another with thin stock and are taking anything they can get from their suppliers.

 

[Ldc3000]

Prices for fish have gone up here in NC. One of the lfs sent out an email explaining the air freight issue, also explained that wholesalers aren’t getting a lot of inventory due to less international flights and some countries having had shutdown international air travel all together. Nine of those reasons should effect captive breed fish here in the states, but they too have gone up.

 

[Costareefer]

Dunno who 90% youre reffering too because my local store fish prices are 2x higher then they used to be but guy cant keep fish in his tanks.. Theyre still flying outa the tanks in days... and thats a problem like you said because it means prices wont go down

Well that’s gonna happen when people get stimulus money. They spend it that contributes to inflation. You think the store owner is going to lower his prices to pre coronavirus levels even if it’s cost effective? Of course not and the economic pain hasn’t set in yet for most people. My post was more of a long term projection rather than what’s happening now. You got stores that need money and are dumping their livestock while others feel like to survive they need to mark things up. In one city the largest saltwater store in the area just went out of business. There are lots of factors at play right now. People still have heir savings, they are bored, the government has sent them money. Take that away and yeah 90% aren’t going to be able to afford the huge mark ups and many people will leave the hobby in order to feed their family.

Look at the stock market. Do you think the current levels reflect a 15% unemployment rate? Of course not government spending has propped that up.

 

[Rtorres508]

In all honesty the reason for increased cost is air freight on nearly empty airplanes. 95% of the air traffic nationwide is gone. The normal air traffic world wide uses 24,000 planes a day. Now over 16,000 of those planes are parked and many will never fly again period due to age and the cost to keep them usable. Most fish move with extra space on passenger aircraft. So canceled flights mean lack of supply and the only movement is on higher priced shippers like FedEx and UPS. I got quotes for 25 lbs of live rock to the Midwest via Delta airfreight at $70.00 and the same shipping via the other two was $285.00. See the problem here? We currently have no air service even though I live 6 miles from an airport that I used to receive Fish, rock and inverts all the time. Now the closest airfreight is 100 miles away and has no regular service. Fish would be very hit and miss. Most people in the industry do not want to take the chance of a dead shipment. This is affecting freshwater less due to some regional wholesalers who can deliver in limited areas via truck.

Supply chain is completely broken due the very reduced air passenger service. It is possible we will never see a recovery as the supply chain is broken all the way to the fish collectors and farms. Many other businesses are affected as well. Even the postal service purchases space on passenger planes...no way to compete with full air freight services since they have to charge much higher prices per pound since the passenger is not providing profits to the aircraft.

It cannot get no better said than this!

 

[Rtorres508]

And for anyone who cannot comprehend what Lowell said or how flights work. My brother is a pilot for Delta. He’s been flying back and forth to wherever they send him on empty flights to keep their routes from being bought out by other airline companies! Delta freight is not worried if your Nemo is costing you an extra $7.00 dollars when they’re trying to keep from bankruptcy and putting another 100,000 people on unemployment. Worry about your family dying because you needed keep algae off your rocks, but the yellow tang was $25 more than is was 3 months ago. To everyone enjoying what matters! Stay safe and enjoy the luxuries we still have in our living rooms, basements or wherever. Love
My Reef!

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Greed is not the driving force in the current prices for livestock a broken supply chain is the factor. Unless you have been in the industry and understand the landed cost of goods you can not draw the correct conclusion. Now where is that mike to drop!

 

[ca1ore]

Flight frequency is going to be a problem for a while ..... into 2021 at least. Jet fuel is cheap though, so maybe that balances things a bit. I don’t think we will see a material return to something close to pre COVID pricing until then.

 

[JaimeAdams]

It is not the LFS beung greedy. I order from Emark, Sea Dwelling Creatures, Carolina Aquatics, A&M Aquatics, Ron Tubbs, Cortez Tropicals a number of small Caribbean connectors etc... Bottom line is the price of livestock from abroad has doubled in price. Captive stuff, Hawaii and Caribbean has gone up a bit as well. My shipping fees that are comming from LA tomorrow morning have trippled. I simply mark up a percentage. If that fish is $10 or $50 I just mark the percentage up. Even that being said there are tons of bread and butter fish that just no one has at any price. All the wholesalers say ours just temporary due to the extreme freight cost, but it's anyone's guess at how long that will be. I'm friendly with a transhipper and even that the costs to ship one box (20 or so of fish) is over a grand from Indo or Aussie. It All comes down to the freight costs that everyone keeps mentioning nothing to do with greed.

 

[youngreefer10g]

my lfs just got a shipment of 400 clowns sells them for 15 for 2

 

[Kenneth Hooper]

(sudden heart attack)
OMG!

 

[Kenneth Hooper]

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

Freshwater fish are starting to become real attractive to me. lol

 

[StatelineReefer]

It is not the LFS beung greedy. I order from Emark, Sea Dwelling Creatures, Carolina Aquatics, A&M Aquatics, Ron Tubbs, Cortez Tropicals a number of small Caribbean connectors etc... Bottom line is the price of livestock from abroad has doubled in price. Captive stuff, Hawaii and Caribbean has gone up a bit as well. My shipping fees that are comming from LA tomorrow morning have trippled. I simply mark up a percentage. If that fish is $10 or $50 I just mark the percentage up. Even that being said there are tons of bread and butter fish that just no one has at any price. All the wholesalers say ours just temporary due to the extreme freight cost, but it's anyone's guess at how long that will be. I'm friendly with a transhipper and even that the costs to ship one box (20 or so of fish) is over a grand from Indo or Aussie. It All comes down to the freight costs that everyone keeps mentioning nothing to do with greed.

It's also a split between the collectors abroad as well... not many are going out due to the restrictions in some countries. Many of our largest suppliers are on complete and total lockdown, not allowed to leave the house, and hence not allowed to leave port, not allowed to resell with our shippers... So supply is way down.

 

[cancun]

Wow! Interesting perspective... thanks for sharing. Two of the three LFS in STL that I frequent aren't bad. I bought a tiny baby yellow tail tameran one had in his coral tank for four months because he couldn't catch it. It took three of us but we got the little guy. I bought him for 80.00. He was eating from day 1. Corals haven't been that bad, hit and miss on selection though.

One of the three I go too was price gauging I am sure of it imo. He had a small pink wall hammer coral colony for 350.00, and I mean small, and no saltwater fish. That was twice as high or more than the other two stores I go too. So I won't be going to that one for a long while, if ever.

Today I bought a huge bubble coral colony for 150.00. I am about full on fish, but I am on the lookout for a Midas blenny. I can be patient though. That is one major thing this hobby has taught me! LOL!

 

[dyno]

CA is getting Hawaiian shipments and prices are good on anything out of there. My LFS said Indonesia and Philippines air freight is 3.5/4 x what it used to be. Visited 3 stores today most with old stock on fish and cultured coral stock. For some reason Fish Lounge here in Orange County, CA had new wild coralS and anemones in. Maybe corals are cheaper to ship?

 

[joe0813]

I wonder if they will keep the prices up after covid ends if people are actually willing to spend it.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I don‘t see this improving for a couple years at least, if not longer. I think it’s likely going to be the end of many exporters/importers for the aquarium trade and the entire nature of this industry is going to change in that time. Supporting domestic aquaculture facilities for fish and corals should be a major focus of aquarists now, they are likely to be our only consistent source for livestock for quite awhile.

Enjoy what you have, it’s a very real possibility that what is in your aquarium becomes the least of your worries! We’re blessed to have had these opportunities.

 

[Reeffragger]

Well that’s gonna happen when people get stimulus money. They spend it that contributes to inflation. You think the store owner is going to lower his prices to pre coronavirus levels even if it’s cost effective? Of course not and the economic pain hasn’t set in yet for most people. My post was more of a long term projection rather than what’s happening now. You got stores that need money and are dumping their livestock while others feel like to survive they need to mark things up. In one city the largest saltwater store in the area just went out of business. There are lots of factors at play right now. People still have heir savings, they are bored, the government has sent them money. Take that away and yeah 90% aren’t going to be able to afford the huge mark ups and many people will leave the hobby in order to feed their family.

Look at the stock market. Do you think the current levels reflect a 15% unemployment rate? Of course not government spending has propped that up.

Perhaps you need to re-read what i said. I said that prices have gone up 2x where i live.. but fish are still flying off the shelvs. And i said thats bad because it means prices probably wont come down if they are still selling.

And also not everyone got stimulus checks.. I didnt get one.. my mom didnt get one at least not uet. And who would spend that on fish anyway ? Honestly this virus hasnt affected me or my family or anyone i know. Traffic hasnt changed in NOVA. Life hasnt changed one bit for me. Were all still employed. But thats just us of course. we all have Jobs that will always be here and be needed

if unemployment is 15% where are you getting 90% from.. Are you assuming 90% in this hobby are the 15% unemoloyed ? Because that math isnt even close. Are you ssying the unemployed are spending their stimulus money on fish instead of their rent or mortage ? No the shut down has happened whoevee is unemployed has been for awhile now.. People that are keeping fish outa the tanks by buying em at high prices are stable have jobs.. So youre way wrong.

Most of the 15% that are unemployed couldnt even afford this hobby to begin with. So no i disagree

 

[StatelineReefer]

Let's not make this into a socioeconomic thread, please.

I don't think I can bite my tongue that long.