Where to buy Christmas tree worms?

[starfishguy869]

My tank is ready for a Christmas tree worm rock, but I don’t know where to buy one. I live in Quebec and I don’t want anything more than $200. Preferably $100.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

I believe they come on live rock, unsure if you can buy invididually however... It's not 'only for Christmas, it's for life' as the advert on t.v says... Apparently

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

They are very difficult to find in Canada. I see them come up for sale in different places sometimes, very rarely though, always very expensive. The one's I've seen for sale are $500-$600.

 

[Rick's Reviews]

If you want one for your aquarium then my only suggestion is talk to your wife?
If your looking to sell... Nobody will buy at that price.

 

[Stomatopods17]

$200 is a steal for them.

Christmas tree worms usually come on coral so you're going to pay pretty hefty for the combination.

That being said idk where to get them, ironically here on REEF2REEF's selling threads is where I occasionally see them pop up for sale. You can do a quick search there to see what the previous prices were.

EDIT: example: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fs-christmas-tree-worm-rock.1006808/

 

[TurboTang]

I see em fairly often on corals.com. I think they run around $300. Not sure if they ship to Canada.

 

[College_Reefer]

Christmas tree Worms are kinda my thing so here's the longer answer: They have skyrocketed in price because so many places have banned live rock harvesting and the entire Atlantic pretty much is closed to coral harvesting so that leaves the indo-pacific. From doing research and talking to importers and such, it seems as though there is only one place in Australia that they can still be wild harvested. There are other subspecies that are more common but the classic "tree" shaped worm will be a lot of money and generally all come from the same area in Australia. Unless you find someone who either doesn't know what they have or it's a small rock with 1 or two worms and no coral, you're looking at $300 all day for a rock of them. What you could do (and what I've had success doing) is going to a shop and asking them to keep an eye out at distributors for them and then telling them you'll buy them and giving your contact info. They're a niche organism and shops don't just go and buy them on a whim generally unless they have a guaranteed sale.