Good Evening, I typically don't respond to these threads and just read them over. But I feel like this would be a good time to add to the discussion. I own and operate a coral farm. We offer aquacultured corals as well as wilds. The market over the past several years has changed significantly. Prior to the bans and restrictions being put in place the frag market had already began to explode. Colonies was the name of the game for years but slowly over time the consumer began to gravitate towards frags. Why I truly do not know. Colonies would sit and frags would sell. This was not only locally but at frag swaps. We would bring 120 colonies marked at $65-$100 for very nice pieces and initially would sell out at shows, over time no one would even look at the colonies. Frags became the main source of sales and colonies steadily declined. So the business had to adapt and change to accommodate the majority of our customers. Throw in the bans and restrictions it absolutely did alter the market. Colonies are still out there but nowhere near the prices that they once had been. As a reference gold torches just last year I retailed for $150-$180 for a single large head or two smaller heads. Today I can't even get one head at wholesale for that price or it has other buying commitments that come along with it. So the entire industry has changed. From the initial suppliers all the way to the end retailer. We strive to offer high quality fully healed frags at reasonable pricing, most average between $25-$35. Some are more and some are less, the majority are grown in our facility. If it is a wild that has been cut up it has been in our possession for several months prior to ever being cut and then it will sit for several more weeks to heal before sale. This may seem as a sales pitch but it is necessary information, yes these corals are grown in house but it is not free. A large number of man hours go into maintaining and caring for the corals. Not to mention the costs of equipment, salt, foods, dosing materials, testing supplies, water, electric, internet, insurance, taxes, site fees, rent, shipping supplies, losses, fragging material, blades, so on and so forth. Yes the pieces may be smaller but the the costs to run these facilities are very large. We occasionally offer large colonies for sale. These are wilds that we either do not want to cut up for their beauty or do not feel it to be advantageous. We recently posted an social media a true show size Duncan colony over one foot across and over 120 heads. Several asked the price but no sale and it is still sitting. We received several texts and emails to cut a frag of it, frags with 3-4 heads go for $30 or about $7.50 a head. This entire colonies price is $450 with a price per head of $3.75. Economically you are getting a better deal on the colony but large colonies just simply do not sell like they did. Today vendors have to search out the right buyer for colonies which means they are sitting on them with zero return on investment. While frags of the same colony will sell and usually sell well. While talking with our customers they share the same feelings as many have stated. They like to have diversity in their aquariums and also less financial risk if they have a frag go down. I will not comment on what other vendors do as for pricing as that is their business and every businesses financials are different. As far as frag sizes go, we have experimented with it. When we cut larger pieces which do cost more due to time invested in growing it they tend to sit also. So we try try to offer pieces in 3/4" to 1" size for SPS and acans have 3-6 heads as an example. This size class seems to be what a majority of our customers are looking for. I hope this sheds some light on the inner workings a bit from a vendors perspective.
