Are corals becoming harder to obtain in Canada?

[Animal-Chin]

Just been thinking about this. When I first started reefing I remember being able to go to the LFS and buy acan collonies, Blastos, all sorts of LPS coral pretty much all the time. Lately though the LFS in my area anyway have seemed to stop stocking a lot of coral. The smaller stores seem to have almost stopped bringing in new coral and the biger store still does but the selection seem really limited (other than the frag tank that's from local trade ins).

Makes me wonder if something is going on? Are there new restrictions? The Canadian dollar make it not worth it? Have people stopped buying coral so the stores stop stocking it?

[Bugger]

THere is not a huge market for corals its pretty much just a hand full of people keeping tanks. 2007 to 2013 where good years since then its fallen off.

[DKoKoMan]

Just a thought... but maybe with the many online coral dealers the LFS just shy away from stocking as much. :shocked!:

[spit.fire]

Just a thought... but maybe with the many online coral dealers the LFS just shy away from stocking as much. :shocked!:

That mixed with people are too cheap mixed the stores can't compete with hobbies so they just stop stocking nice stuff (mostly in B.C. from what I can tell)

I hear people say they rather buy from hobbyists on a regular basis which takes away from retail sales causing retail locations to just stop bringing in nice stuff.

[smokinreefer]

I agree and disagree.

The hobby has evolved... marketing has evolved... costs have gone up...
yes, yesteryear was a good time for reefing! colonies could be had at reasonable prices. but perhaps more desirable and harder to get specimens weren't collected as much.

I think with the increase of online shops, and increase demand for not so common livestock, increase in marketing of corals, has all contributed to the higher costs of corals in general.

corals simply weren't generally sold on a per frag, per inch, per polyp basis.
the hobby, or should I rather say, the industry has changed.

[gmann]

plus stuff is expensive in general, stores arent going bring stuff in to have it sit there forever

[whatcaneyedo]

I'm finding it easier than ever to find the coral that I want. We don't have a LFS in town that carries saltwater anymore but the sheer number of online retailers with refined shipping methods and wysiwyg up to date web pages more than compensates. The popularity of localized social media sites has also made collaborating on group orders a lot easier. Clams on the other hand are more rare and seem to be 2-3x more expensive than they were 10 years ago. I think that has to do more with regulation than scarcity.

[kyl]

I haven't had problems with corals for the most part. Sourcing the fish I want though, that's been a challenge.

[Myka]

Weird. Around here things are buzzing along nicely! Bayside Corals has hundreds of colonies at any given time with coral orders arriving weekly.

I have seen a shift though - people are buying frags a lot more than colonies. People say they want to watch it grow, but won't admit that they just want to spend less. People definitely spend less than they used to.

[whatcaneyedo]

Spend less? I used to be able to buy a nice little colony for $50. Now thats what the frag costs and the colony is $150. The price of salt in this province has also doubled over the last decade while our many of our wages have stayed the same. No I think we're spending more than ever or just buying less.

[Myka]

Spend less? I used to be able to buy a nice little colony for $50. Now thats what the frag costs and the colony is $150. The price of salt in this province has also doubled over the last decade while our many of our wages have stayed the same. No I think we're spending more than ever or just buying less.

People used to buy like 3 or 4 colonies for say $250, now they buy 3 or 4 frags for say $80. People would rather spend $25 for a micro-sized frag than $150 for a colony. That's what I mean. Sure there are still some us who will pay $400 for a micro-sized frag, but that wasn't even an option 10 years ago. :lol: Lots of nano tanks too. You don't really see that here at Canreef, there's an odd bunch of us left here, and not the usual reefer here anymore. Watch the Facebook groups with all the newbies - they aren't the same as us who've been in the hobby for 10 or 20 or 30 years.

[Reef-Geek]

May not be true in other regions but definitely true in BC. High real estate prices are pushing away small business

[Animal-Chin]

Ya frags are fine but I'd rather a nice big coral to start off with. So hard to find in Vancouver now. I find anyway...

[Myka]

Ya frags are fine but I'd rather a nice big coral to start off with. So hard to find in Vancouver now. I find anyway...

I like colonies too if I'm buying LPS or Zoas. For Acros I like frags because colonies always look funky when they start growing in a new tank.

[corpusse]

I would say it's both easier and harder. Easier if you have $$$

I live in the middle of nowhere now, but there are quite a few places that ship corals and many of them always have stock. For the first 11 or so years in the hobby I was in the gta and saw a lot of changes.

10+ years ago there were about 3-4 dedicated reef shops + big als who at the time had quite poor selection. Coral colonies were routinely $40 regardless of what it was and occasionally 3 for 100 or $30 for stock that did not sell the first day. If you weren't there the first day you were getting brown pieces.

In the old days in the toronto area regardless of what shop it was you had to line up before the store opened on shipment day. I can recall on more then one occasion running into a store to grab something I saw a picture of posted. People buying zoa's that only had a few polyps open because they couldn't take the chance someone else would snatch it. Back then you'd bag your own coral because there were several dozen people in the store. Even the busier stores would let a few people in lock the door and let a few more in after they left.

I recall catching a purple tang myself and at the time $90 seemed very expensive but red sea shipments were not as common. Now they are routinely up to $200. Some of that is the dollar, some of that is the passage of time and some is demand. 2 weeks later you can still find decent pieces in shops.

When Australia first opened up the line ups were even longer. Now can find some nice frags and even some colonies, 24/7 online. Since these prices were already considerably higher than indo the prices for aussie stuff hasn't seen the same kind of inflation. Even fish regular stuff is always available and moderately rare stuff is also not as difficult to locate just considerably pricier. Look at J&L's current livestock list as an example of stuff that a few short years ago were much harder to find.

Now at least in the gta there are a ton more both reef stores and fish stores that sell saltwater stuff. I'd say about a dozen good to pretty good ones just off the top of my head. If one store doesn't have what you want you can just go to the next and your shopping schedule is not limited to when the store opens on shipment day.

Online selection for corals still has a long way to go but that being said anytime of any day you can probably find something you'd want to put in your tank unless you are jam packed or super picky. Fish hasn't really changed much. J&L's new and noteworthy still shows the same amount of livestock as when I ordered naked clownfish from them in 2006 (still have one).

This is a little different perspective then those on the west coast but to sum up I'd say selection has greatly improved but price has drastically increased due to demand, dollar and the passage of time.