Are corals becoming harder to obtain in Canada?
 

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.