Most expensive...

[ChiCity]

... Chromis I’ve ever seen!

Too bad it’ll mature into a full grown turd...
Just has that kind of face that screams bully.

 

[ca1ore]

Price is a function of scarcity, mostly; not temperament or beauty.

 

[kgk]

Look at the size of those eyes! Bet he does live deep.

 

[Jesterrace]

I can't imagine spending that kind of money on a Chromis, good luck finding a school for it.

 

[ChiCity]

Price is a function of scarcity, mostly; not temperament or beauty.

Actually, the price in this case reflects the specimen’s depth of collection...

 

[ca1ore]

Actually, the price in this case reflects the specimen’s depth of collection...

Right ...... which makes it scarce LOL

 

[ChiCity]

Bell’s Flashers and Johnson’s Fairies are not scarce in their locale, so why is it that their price is so high?

 

[ChiCity]

Diamond tails are scarce, yet their prices remain around $300, for ten years!
A close by relative, the Mauritius flasher, has always fetched a much higher return.

Mauritius is much more developed than Kenya, and has one of Africa’s highest concentrations of millionaires....
You don’t think that reflects the high dollar tags on fish coming from Mauritius???

Anyway...

 

[ca1ore]

No, it's simple supply and demand. If a fish is scarce in the hobby - for whatever reason whether rare in the ocean, regulatory constraints, difficult to catch, etc. - but nobody wants it then the price will account for that. If it's more common in the hobby, and everybody wants one, then the price will account for that too. Are diamond tails actually scarce? $300 is still a considerable amount for a fish, but don't you think if sellers believed they could get $400 they would.

Since you noted Mauritius ..... I had been on the hunt for a zebra tang. As far as I know it is found solely there. Not many of them find their way into the trade so they command a healthy price. Why do not many find their way in? Dunno for sure, perhaps they are uncommon or perhaps it's just expensive to get them here; or both. When they first showed up on DD, they were in the $800 range ..... and they lasted 5 minutes. Guess what, next time they were $1,200. Not just usual to see them stay around for a week or so before selling. Supply and demand ..... and price elasticity.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

There are also a lot of rare fish that get scooped up for $$$$ in other countries (Japan, for example). So fish like peppermint or conspiculatus angels command even higher prices than they otherwise would because you are competing with buyers willing to pay much more outside the US.

Not sure the case of this damsel, but agree that scarcity (for whatever reason) is what drives cost most times...