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Captive-Bred Fish Prices


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Just wondering if I am the only one who thinks the prices of Captive-Bred Fish are ridiculous compared to the ones that are plucked from the sea? I'm all for finding ways to Breed Fish and reducing the amount of Fish we pluck from the sea but as a buyer on a budget I am always going to go for the better deal. Unless it' a minimal difference. But when you have these Breeders more than doubling the prices on the fish it' hard to compete. I just saw a post from Poms Labs advertising a "Black Friday Sale" on their captice-bred conspicuous angel fish for $4,999 for one and a Bonded Pair for $9,700! I looked on Live Aquaria and these fish are running for $2,999-3,499ea. What are your thoughts? 

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A lot of it is the economics of the cost to produce the captive bred fish.  In a lot of instances it's just not possible to sell for a price competitive to wild caught.   Another important thing to consider is if a captive fish is 2-3 times the cost of wild but you go through 2 or 3 wild fish to get one surviving then it is really breaking even without all the extra work and loss of life.   In the instance of these angels my understanding is that wild caughts come in very rarely and when they do can be difficult to get to eat and/or stop eating suddenly and perish.  Don't know when DFS last sold any of those but the price might be a bit outdated as well if they rarely come into the US.  

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3 hours ago, waldend said:

A lot of it is the economics of the cost to produce the captive bred fish.  In a lot of instances it's just not possible to sell for a price competitive to wild caught.   Another important thing to consider is if a captive fish is 2-3 times the cost of wild but you go through 2 or 3 wild fish to get one surviving then it is really breaking even without all the extra work and loss of life.   In the instance of these angels my understanding is that wild caughts come in very rarely and when they do can be difficult to get to eat and/or stop eating suddenly and perish.  Don't know when DFS last sold any of those but the price might be a bit outdated as well if they rarely come into the US.  

Yeah I understand that there are economics behind their pricing and that they r trying to get back what they have invested into the time and research. But I still feel like they can be a little more reasonable. If we talk about how economy works the most important thing is to have consumer spending. If u don' have enough ppl buying ur goods then ur not making profit. Take for example the Prius. When It first hit the US market it came in with a price tag of about 40k. We all knew that they were good for the enviroment and we saved on gas. But bc of the price tag they were not selling as good as they wanted. Now u can get them for half that price and sales have definitely increased.

I'm also not just talking about the conspicuous angels. I saw then same issue with all the other tank-bred fish that has come out. 

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13 hours ago, Reefaddict12 said:

Yeah I understand that there are economics behind their pricing and that they r trying to get back what they have invested into the time and research. But I still feel like they can be a little more reasonable. If we talk about how economy works the most important thing is to have consumer spending. If u don' have enough ppl buying ur goods then ur not making profit. Take for example the Prius. When It first hit the US market it came in with a price tag of about 40k. We all knew that they were good for the enviroment and we saved on gas. But bc of the price tag they were not selling as good as they wanted. Now u can get them for half that price and sales have definitely increased.

I'm also not just talking about the conspicuous angels. I saw then same issue with all the other tank-bred fish that has come out. 

I agree price is the biggest talker. Unless they can be remotely competitive, wild caught will continue to win out. We all want to eat healthy but eating healthy is expensive. People would rather pay for a bag of processed frozen Tyson chicken strips than some fresh chicken. Much easier to hit up a fast food place, cheap fast and now. Money will always be the biggest issue with just about anything. 

On another note I’ve had conversations about captive breed fish almost always not doing well when introduced into home aquarium. Their immune systems are so weak from a highly controlled environment, when introduced into aquariums with other fish they suffer greatly. Never experienced this myself just info from a reliable source. 

On a more positive note, as these breeders become more successful  price should fall. Larger batches of fish grown to sellable size, and better mortality rates. In time I hope it will all work out. 

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