Are corals becoming harder to obtain in Canada?

[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.

[spit.fire]

Originally Posted by DKoKoMan

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

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.