fiah pricing

[Knuc dog]

hey i was jsut wondering how the prices were figured out on fish and what makes some so cheap and other so expensive?

 

[bshockstubb]

Well its based mostly on how they breed. If they breed easily and can be done commercuially they are cheap, but if they are very hard to breed and have to be imported, then it increases how much they are.

 

[David]

Also fish that are more difficult to maintain are generally much pricier. This is why the sensitive discus costs about 50 times as much as the hardy guppy.

 

[FishDan]

And then there is markup. This depends on how much money the store wants to make on each fish. One store may charge 2.00 for a fish while another store 10 minutes away might charge 3.00 for the same fish.

\Dan

 

[yhbae]

I remember one of the store owner saying it is much cheaper for them to obtain most of the fishes through their wholesaler, than through local breeder. Even then, some choose to purchase through breeders since quality is often much better.

At the end, it is demand vs supply (whether fishes came through breeding or by capturing from the wild).

 

[Rybka]

Try living in Australia

Here fish can't be imported...so only private breeders count. So in Australia prices are even higher

 

[Da_Oz]

What we will pay for a fish comes into play sometimes. But some fish just will not breed in a tank so they are wild fish that has to be taken from a river or lake and sorted and then shipped to a supplier then shipped to the fish store. All this shipping get high and seeing how alot of these die in the shipping process this is a cost to both people.

 

[yhbae]

Try living in Australia

Here fish can't be imported...so only private breeders count. So in Australia prices are even higher

Oh really? I din't know about that law...

Well, I guess that makes supply seriously limiting for some species hence higher price...

 

[Doggfather]

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the price of fish.

Firstly, it's avaliablity, anybody can breed guppies, so they are always for sale at cheap prices, on the other hand, i don't know of anybody whos bred a red tail catfish in a home aquarium so they have to be wild caught and sent to wholesaler or lfs at a much higher price.

Secondly, demand, using the guppy example again, almost all aquariums can house them, and sice they're a nice, small, colourful fish a lot of people want them in their tank(s). How many people do you know who keep tiger shovelnose cats? For every 5000 guppies that get sold to the average aquarist, 1 TSC gets sold to the obsessed fish keeper whos spent the last 3 months digging and setting a 5000 gallon tropical fish pond in his/hers garden.

Thats just two of the main factors, which don't include the taxes on the fish to import them, quarantine costs, wages for the people who go and catch them, and on and on the list goes resulting often in expensive fish.

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

Try living in Australia

Here fish can't be imported...so only private breeders count. So in Australia prices are even higher

really! i didnt know that
why cant they be imported here?

 

[clutterydrawer]

In my lfs it seems to be done on size

Out of the fish that I know are wild caught, a 1" fish is £1, while a medium would would be £3 and a larger one, £6

makes no sense to me either

 

[enchanted]

There are a few factors that contribute to the price of fish.

1. Supply and demand - A high supply is great, but if there is a high demand the price won't be so great, even with a high supply. Take Danios and Guppys for example. Both are a high supply fish, but Danios can be picked up for less than $1.00 each while guppys remain over $2.00. Simply fact that people want guppys more than danios, making the demand higher.

2. Aquisition - Breed in captivity or wild caught and how hard to obtain and in what quantitys. Basically you could end it with a wild caught fish that costs less than many bred in captivity for the simple reason they are easy to catch in quantities.

3. Shippability - This affects price also. There are some fish which are not good shippers. Due to this it drives costs up because of DOA and other factors.

4. Size - An adult fish is higher priced because more people seem to want them. Personally I prefer as young as possible (live longer in my tank. ) but many prefer adults and the fact the costs associated with raising them cause the price to go up for adult fish.

5. Finally Markup - Most stores, although your LFS may never admit this, mark up there fish by over 100%. Why? Because first they recieve the shipment, then quarantine it, through this they feed, sometimes treat for illness, etc... So, you could maybe get the fish online for $0.50 while your LFS sells it for $2.00 but then you get to deal with all the possibilitys of problems.

I think I covered everything, pipe in if I missed something.

 

[Doggfather]

A lot of fish can't be imported to Australia because of our environment and climate. For example, the government argues that if Zebra Plecs are imported chances are somebody will buy them and possibly release them into a local stream where they could breed and kill native aquatic species. Same goes for things like most botia loaches, apart from clowns and some cichlids like frontosas which are now illegal to import.

The on thing the governemnt can't stop however, if people selling local raised fish like Zebra plecs which were imported before the import regulations were created, thats why we see a lot of frontosas in the stores and we ocasionally get a glimpse of L-046 which can fetch quite a high price (anywhere from about $300 for a tiny one to over $1000 for a full grown)

I'v been e-mailing the government trying to find out if i can get a lisence to import some fish, but from what they've told me, it's probably not worth the hassle unless of got lots of money to spend on fish, and heaps of time to fill out a pile of forms

 

[yhbae]

5. Finally Markup - Most stores, although your LFS may never admit this, mark up there fish by over 100%. Why? Because first they recieve the shipment, then quarantine it, through this they feed, sometimes treat for illness, etc... So, you could maybe get the fish online for $0.50 while your LFS sells it for $2.00 but then you get to deal with all the possibilitys of problems.

This is very true. I was shopping around for a nice group of P Demasoni, and the price ranges from $10 up to $25! They are all around 1.5 - 2 inches, so size is not a factor. There's no apparent difference visually either. So either some stores are better at getting them cheaper, or some stores have higher profit margin...

 

[Inchworm]

Fish that are bred and raised locally are a good value, whatever their price is.

Any fish that comes out of a serious hobbiest's tanks is probably going to be fed better foods (including a good percentage of live or frozen foods) throughout their lives than the same kind of fish raised by a commercial breeder. In addition, home raised fry are usually doted on by their owners who give them daily water changes and all the loving care needed to keep them healthy and safe until they are passed on to the lfs.

These fish are raised in the same water the lfs and eventually their future owners have, and transportation time is short. When an owner bags his/her fish and takes them to the lfs, they get them there as quickly as possible to make sure that the temperature of the water they are in does not increase or decrease or the oxygen in the water deplete. A reliable lfs will then immediately float them and introduce them to their tanks.

Since chain stores seldom buy locally raised stock, these desirable young fish are only to be found at independent lfs, who might charge a little more because they have higher expenses. In this case the fish you buy are well worth paying a premium for.