Fish prices are insane!

[LBReefer]

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.

100% this. I live in LA and have worked for airports/ports for the last 7 years. The change in flight activity has greatly strained the bandwidth.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

The last screenshot which was a couple weeks ago 60% increase on corals and saltwater fish, I got this one today and they increase now

these last couple weeks I've been going to the wholesalers off and on in LA, and the odd thing is some do not charge surcharge.

 

[squampton]

100% this. I live in LA and have worked for airports/ports for the last 7 years. The change in flight activity has greatly strained the bandwidth.

I spent most of the last 20 years in the airline industry mostly on the ramp though, and in Vancouver, Canada and our airport is so dead, crazy how many flights we have lost, and its near impossible to get livestock from overseas because there are so few flights here at the moment.

I haven't worked since March though, and I don't anticipate going back, anytime this year, probably not next year either, so maybe never again. lol

 

[Costareefer]

Just saw on DD a niger trigger for 299$ and a blue tang for 349$. Ridiculous prices like these will kill the hobby bc once they go up like this they won’t come down.

 

[squampton]

I just hope things return to more normal pricing at some point, but airline service will need to pick up first or cargo prices will remain high.

 

[roblox84]

I was just browsing salty underground and they have an Azure damsel for 30 bucks. I bought one from a lfs a little bit ago for 10 bucks.

 

[najer]

England calling, I bought a Timor wrasse yesterday from my lfs, they got it from the wholesaler on Friday, £55 and it would normally be a £50 ish fish, stock is slowly trickling through over here and they have not put their prices up on existing stocks of fish and coral.

 

[Beau_B]

The manager of my LFS said he couldn't even place an order with his favorite supplier...

What was left at the store was limited but priced pre-covid.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Price are a major drag, especially when your trying to stock a 400 gallon. I do have 3 yellow tangs (luckily) but was planning on adding 4 new ones in one shot since I know how much of a dick tangs are to new fish so dont have luxury of adding them overtime.

I am setting up a good size QT tank so starting to go to Petco to see what they have and I found a small naso tang for $50 bucks, and small purple tank for $150. I've not done it yet but figured this would kill two birds with one stone (fish rescue and save some money), wish me luck!

 

[joe0813]

Price are a major drag, especially when your trying to stock a 400 gallon. I do have 3 yellow tangs (luckily) but was planning on adding 4 new ones in one shot since I know how much of a dick tangs are to new fish so dont have luxury of adding them overtime.

I am setting up a good size QT tank so starting to go to Petco to see what they have and I found a small naso tang for $50 bucks, and small purple tank for $150. I've not done it yet but figured this would kill two birds with one stone (fish rescue and save some money), wish me luck!

see if they will give you a deal because they are sick.... I got a purple for 30 bucks at my petco

 

[Ashish Patel]

see if they will give you a deal because they are sick.... I got a purple for 30 bucks at my petco

Yeah for sure, $30 for a purple tang is insane. How long ago? did it make it?

 

[joe0813]

Yeah for sure, $30 for a purple tang is insane. How long ago? did it make it?

Maybe a year and a half ago... The thing was in really rough shape. It is still with me. Treated with copper power, prazi and fed nori sheets soaked in selcon.
At first they told me no they can't sell it because it's sick. So I talked to the manager and told her then they technically can't sell any of these fish because they are all sick. So why not sell me the purple tang for a discount with no guarantee or anything and give it a fighting chance.

 

[Cwentz758]

Recently i got a pair of Swallow tail angels from Salgado Aquatics for 165$ which is less than what i find normally for just one. Both came in healthy and THICC especially the male he is huge.

 

[Scorpius]

Things won't go back to normal and may never go back to normal any time soon. Welcome to Thunder Dome folks, brought to you by a pandemic and governments using fear to control us.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Maybe a year and a half ago... The thing was in really rough shape. It is still with me. Treated with copper power, prazi and fed nori sheets soaked in selcon.
At first they told me no they can't sell it because it's sick. So I talked to the manager and told her then they technically can't sell any of these fish because they are all sick. So why not sell me the purple tang for a discount with no guarantee or anything and give it a fighting chance.

Thats great, I have to give it a try but have alot of research to do.

 

[Eddie7144]

Recently i got a pair of Swallow tail angels from Salgado Aquatics for 165$ which is less than what i find normally for just one. Both came in healthy and THICC especially the male he is huge.

They have nice stuff heard the moved recently. They alittle pricey but they have nice stuff.

 

[chaostactics]

It's not so much the virus as it's the effort to reevaluate our impact on the ecosystem. Which monetarily suck but in the long run could be helpful to our planet.*

*I do find it to be a cop out to target collectors without spending a ****ton more effort holding large polluting corporations accountable.