Coral Farms - How long will they last!?

[attaboy]

Just wanted to open a discussion on the current coral farm craze. The US is EXPLODING with new farmers each day. What is you opinion on how long this will last (in terms of years). At this rate will we saturate the market in short order? Finally what impact will all of the home corals farms have on the big retailers?

Patrick

[Eric Boerner]

As I see it, the hobby in it's self is becoming increasingly easier over the years as people start to learn better techniques to keeping a reef. More and more novice Marine keepers are jumping into the reef hobby each year. This brings more market for both the small guy and the big fish.

However...

1. Equipment is expensive. Most people spend a good deal of money on their equipment and spend as little as possible on corals. Trading has become extremely viable for getting your livestock.

2. Equipment is expensive. However some people figure, what the hell, may as well buy 12 wild colonies from a distributer for $80 each. (These people have more money than sense).

Most people in catagory 1 will strive to trade for all their corals or won't spend that much on a colony. Most people in catagory two, usually don't want to wait for their frags to grow, and try to get that "instant" reef look immediately.

So... Farmers have a dilema. To satisfy cat 1 people, you need to be able to provide cheap frags that are hardy. To satisfy cat 2 people, they need to be able to growout frags to a decent sized colony before selling it.

Most farmers won't let their livestock grow out to a full colony for cat 2 people. Its just not cost effective. Most farmers usually can't opperate at low selling costs to satisfiy cat 1 people. They just wouldn't make enough cash.

I see main distributers hanging around for a long while. However, I also see some of the main distributers getting into the "frag trade" to cut down on shipping costs.

In the end, most homebase farmers will only be able to make enough money to keep their opperation going, but will never be able to break into "big business".

Yet.... There are niches that can be filled. If you adapt and go with what the latest craze in Corals, you can make a fortune. For instance... Rose BTAs are extremely profitable. If you know what you're doing and can force splits. MONEY! Ricordia are also a latest craze. If you can force splits on rare ricordia colors. MULLA.

Depends on how smart of a small fish you are.

[scubadude]

Hey Patrick! :-)

Ever since I started my coral farm I have bought Wild, Semi-Wild, and Cultured corals and by far the best success has been with the cultured corals, they endure more from what I have seen. It does appear that transition from wild to captive is a sensitive area, Im not saying that all of my wild stuff has died but the death rates are higher then the cultured corals. Basically thats what it all boils down to Cultured vs. Wild. Wild corals are much more plentiful and more cost effecient, and money is what it all boils down to with most customers or vendors. Opening up the market to cultured corals has just now started to take off, we have NOT seen it in its full glory IMO. CITES has started to tighten the chains in many arenas in the marine aquaria industry and I have a feeling it will only get tougher to export the animals. Ok so my point is that most reefers and/or vendors have not taken the jump to cultured corals because its not effecient and the hobby is constantly growing more and more so newbs tend to buy wild thus feeding ONLY that side of the market. The market will adapt to cultured corals IMO, its just not gonna happen overnite, the more cultured corals that are put into the market the faster they will adapt, the ppl on this board IMO are the ones that can change it.