Outrageously Priced Fish

[Nokiaec11]

Am I the only one who is shocked by the cost of some of the aquarium fish you see online for sale...Many of those fish are just defects of the birth. Recently I have seen small Tangs for as much as $1,800, and they just look like their color was just messed up...Look at this Bicolor Angelfish for $1,300:mad: and they act like its a special breed.

 

[ngoodermuth]

They wouldn’t be priced like this if no one bought them ;) I think it’s the “odd-ball fish” some people will happily pay to have something different or unique. To each his own [emoji2372]

 

[Bob Loblaw]

...

 

[AdamNC]

I saw that Angel on FB and at first glance I thought it was a sick fish. It’s kind of like these “designer” Clownfish. In the 80’s and early 90’s they were considered defective and couldn’t sell for more than $5.00.

 

[jsvand5]

I laughed at the bicolor as well. That thing is hideous

 

[Nokiaec11]

Honestly, every thought you all mentioned poped into my head when I thinking about this topic. Are we guilty of being the reason for these outrageous prices? As for myself, I have paid questionable money for live bacterized rocks because they look so irregular...Now when I think about it I could have purchased huge BRS pieces of pukani, chiselled and shaped it, soaked in calcium with some scrapping of coraline algae and saved hundreds of dollars over the Fiji Live Pukani, when it all was available.

 

[Reef_Obsession]

wow, i think it looks nice, but not $1300 nice.

 

[mattzang]

i'm pretty cheap by nature so dropping 1k on a fish just doesn't feel like something i'd do unless i stumbled upon a whole heap of money

but hey, power to people that want to do so. i'd take the regular bicolor over that fish every day of the week, but i'm sure someone thinks it looks awesome

 

[BantyRooster97]

LOL, that is terrific marketing! Making you think that this damaged fish is special & worth more $. And it will work.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I agree with @ngoodermuth . If no one buys....to each there own. I find these odd-ball fish, and what I term the "designer" clown fish, just not my thing. Personally think its foolish to spend this kind of money for a genetic anomaly. But there is a demand...and when there is a demand, it gets filled. Recently saw someone selling a pair of designer pair of clowns for $900. They're clown fish. I'm happy with my $20 pair I have. And mine look like normal clown fish. But that's just me.

 

[ngoodermuth]

I really can’t talk. Last year I bought a decently bred, AKC “english cream” golden retriever. I could have probably gotten a golden, golden retriever with similar quality breeding for about $300-400 less. But, I definitely paid for the “white” because I liked the look of the dog, and it was just a little bit different. Same with the silver labs that are so popular now, it’s just a genetic mutation in a chocolate colored lab... but they will sell for a couple hundred more than the chocolate and yellow labs from the same litter!

The market sets the price, and people will ask for what they know people will pay. Doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it to the people who are willing to pay it.

I think my handsome white pooch was worth every penny [emoji12]

 

[vetteguy53081]

Don't buy them and see what happens to the market price. You couldn't touch a gem tang for under $2000 and now they are as low as $650. Reason being- US. Don't pay the high price.

 

[Nokiaec11]

I guess when it comes to things that makes us feel calm, and just relaxes us, and makes us smile when their happy when they seem healthy and happy, we can't help but just splurge a little bit..Especially dogs :)...Even going through -Reef2Reef -you will find people that may not pay $1k for a fish, but will lay down $5k for the tank setup.

 

[YellowFinsReef]

Don't buy them and see what happens to the market price. You couldn't touch a gem tang for under $2000 and now they are as low as $650. Reason being- US. Don't pay the high price.

I'm waiting on those femininus wrasse, lennardi, masked angelfish, and bandit angels to drop in prices. Lol

 

[Geebs19]

This was just on divers den. Lasted about 24 hours. I for one would never pay that much let alone several hundred dollars. I think my max may be $200 if it was something real special but I’ve only gone 75 so far.

 

[ZipAdeeZoa]

LOL, that is terrific marketing! Making you think that this damaged fish is special & worth more $. And it will work.

That may not actually be damage, I'll admit it does look like it upon first glance but I wouldn't rule out genetics.

Apologies in advance about the short essay this will become... I swear I don't try and do this...

Mutations for the most part should not exist. Evolution and naturals selection typically wean out the majority of mutations in a natural setting. All things look a certain way so that they have the best chance of survival and when something mutates and strays from that it often makes that animal much more vulnerable. It sticks out to predators and can ruin the chances of attracting a mate, the fact these fish exist means they have beaten the odds because the chances of them surviving for any amount of time just went down drastically. This means that they are very rare and the chances of that genetic anomaly occurring in an area were a collecter could catch it? Theres plenty of fish in the sea but the chances of those things alining are extremely slim. That rarity and collecter vibe feeds most of the demand but some of it is simply that different things appeal to different people.

As for designer clowns its a similar principle except that there is no natural selection... Nothing weeds out the genetic anomalies the way that nature does, in fact the opposite happens where such genetic mutations are encouraged for the same reasons as above. People just love being different and standing out but thats not the only reason people buy them.

I'm mainly a reptile person and morphs (genetic mutations which at some point effect the pattern or colour of an animal) are pretty much the name of the game. A ball python was purchased for 100,000 a few decades ago because it looked different and that difference turned about to be genetic. A few years ago my brother and I bought a ball python of that morph for $150 because of how quick that gene can be expressed through breeding. The reason for that price drop is all about supply and demand and the reason the demand is unlikely to drop in anything other than designer clowns is because of the difficulty of breeding marine fish in captivity which is why ball pythons have hundreds of morphs and thousands of combinations where it may seem like theres a lot of clownfish morphs its not anywhere close.

Personally I appreciate morphs since they are often pleasing to the eye, they serve as a reminder of how effective and remarkably complex natural selection is and most importantly they increase the chances of people taking interest in the hobby and that is something that we should not overlook. Some will argue its wrong that people get involved for that reason and that they should be interested in it because of the beauty of nature and morphs set false expectations. To those people I say that appreciation for nature and the intricacies of its processes comes in time as they learn more and more about why they're fish look like that, why its different in the ocean and I strongly believe that as people learn more about the animals and places they come from they become more and more likely to learn about the environment, how delicate it is and how they can help conservation efforts protect it.

If people don't know about an issue then they can't help solve it. I know not every person who buys a pretty fish will read that far into it but some of them will and even if its only 1 in every 1000- I've been involved in conservation long enough to know that we need every bit of help we can get.

 

[Thomashtom]

I really can’t talk. Last year I bought a decently bred, AKC “english cream” golden retriever. I could have probably gotten a golden, golden retriever with similar quality breeding for about $300-400 less. But, I definitely paid for the “white” because I liked the look of the dog, and it was just a little bit different. Same with the silver labs that are so popular now, it’s just a genetic mutation in a chocolate colored lab... but they will sell for a couple hundred more than the chocolate and yellow labs from the same litter!

The market sets the price, and people will ask for what they know people will pay. Doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it to the people who are willing to pay it.

I think my handsome white pooch was worth every penny [emoji12] He/she looks worth it to me!!!!

I really can’t talk. Last year I bought a decently bred, AKC “english cream” golden retriever. I could have probably gotten a golden, golden retriever with similar quality breeding for about $300-400 less. But, I definitely paid for the “white” because I liked the look of the dog, and it was just a little bit different. Same with the silver labs that are so popular now, it’s just a genetic mutation in a chocolate colored lab... but they will sell for a couple hundred more than the chocolate and yellow labs from the same litter!

The market sets the price, and people will ask for what they know people will pay. Doesn’t mean they aren’t worth it to the people who are willing to pay it.

I think my handsome white pooch was worth every penny [emoji12]

 

[Nokiaec11]

I wonder if one of those $2500 fish is a DOA will they refund, or if it dies after 3 days...But could you imagine having to settle for a $2500 store credit ;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful

 

[ca1ore]

Don't buy them and see what happens to the market price. You couldn't touch a gem tang for under $2000 and now they are as low as $650. Reason being- US. Don't pay the high price.

In the case of the gem tang it’s actually improved supply. They’re coming out of both Madagascar and Mauritius now. There are still some online places that have them listed for $3K. DD is actually a good place to watch supply and demand in action. Some years ago I was looking for a zebra tang. DD had a couple at $999 that lasted less than an hour. I thought, cool with a coupon I can get one for $800. But, the next batch were $1,199, and they were gone in two hours. Third batch were $1,399 and they lingered. Partly I’d imagine because there isn’t a huge addressable market, but also partly because the price got too high. Now, when you see than they’re $1,199 and generally sell in a day or two.

So I have my zebra, my gem (the $650 one lol) and my black. About the only other $$$ fish that would tempt me is the tigerpyge hybrid angel. Haven’t seen one in a while though.

 

[AdamNC]

I wonder if one of those $2500 fish is a DOA will they refund, or if it dies after 3 days...But could you imagine having to settle for a $2500 store credit ;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful;Joyful

When I used to breed and sell Northern and Amazon Basin Emerald Tree Boas, I offered a DOA policy with video proof (not pics but an actual video) and I offered a 1 week health policy with proof of proper housing/care. Never had one issue. But my normal pricing ranged anywhere between $400-$4,000. Depended on the geographic range of the animal.

The only reason I can see a fish going for a premium price is if it were collected on an isolated reef or real deep waters.