Whats up with the $500 Acans??

[dwillingm]

Are these corals really rare enough to justify costing $300-$500?? I havent seen many of them until about a year ago, where they recently made available for colelction or soemthing?

Will the prices stay this outrageous, or will they become more reasonable over time... ie. once more hobbyists begin growing them and making frags.

I would like to try a few, but no way am I paying that much for a coral.. lol

[otolith]

They have come down in prices...quite a bit. I paid $70 for a polyp 6-8mos ago that would go for $10/polyp now. All depends on the coral. Some are still, and probably will stay, expensive.

[mummra100769]

acans are on the verge of coming down in price. like oto said some color morphs will always have a high demand.

i am amazed that prop farms like ORA have not started propagating acans since they seemed tailor made for propping.

micromussa are going to be the next "craze". i saw a 50 polyp colony for $1200.00. that's a lot of money for a coral.

[oddballs]

actually micros are on the way down in prices to !they are on wholesale lists a lot now.alot of chalice people say they are the next craze to come?i personaly dont see it happening one reason is that there are tons of good looking chalices plus it includes up to 5 species and they arent really rare in good colors !

[mummra100769]

micros are still hefting a mighty price from what i have seen. way more than big brother lords. at least that is what i have noticed.

i agree with the other part...good colored chalice are in no way hard to find and that is what seems to drive the price up on these "rare" corals.

[dieselab]

I agree with odd. Micros price have drop significantly along with the acan price. I however believe that chalice are the next thing. Nice color chalice are not easy to find. I have been all around north and southern california, and the price on a nice chalice if you can find one is indeed ridiculous. Frags of nice chalice cost as must as single polyps of acan 9 month ago.

[mummra100769]

Originally posted by oddballs
actually micros are on the way down in prices to !they are on wholesale lists a lot now.alot of chalice people say they are the next craze to come?i personaly dont see it happening one reason is that there are tons of good looking chalices plus it includes up to 5 species and they arent really rare in good colors !

i think he meant that it is not the next big craze because they are easy to find in good colors.

i just bought a 5"x3" blood red chalice with blue accents just so it could be fragged up for our local club meeting (also i could only use a small frag instead of the whole thing) and it was not pricey.

this is why i said micros are next:

http://www.instareef.com/LPS.html

[mothra]

Where is that dead horse smiley when you need it! Regarding the acans, if you can't find acan lords for $10-15 a polyp you're not looking hard enough.

I personally think that people are a little burned out after the acan craze and thats why micromussa never took off that much. Probably just like the lords though the rare colors will hold their value as long as someone is willing to pay it. I'm guessing the bright micros are not from indo waters, so it would go to reason.

[horkn]

i got my green and pink micros for 25 bux for 20 or so polyps. the store didnt know what it was. i would have bought it regardless what it was, just for color sake alone. now its 45 or so polyps... but still a pretty slow grower...

[FishFreak20]

Are you sure it is micromussa amakusensis?

[bobafett]

My LFS had a lord with about 60 polyps for $350.

[Bcollins111900]

pretty good price depending on color morph. i know i have done my part and purchased some lord frags. just could not wait till they came down in price, that and i got a killer deal on my light blue (true blue not gray) with red stripe and my mint green and red stripe

[esotsm1]

it's a really good deal. i'm tempted...

[greenbean36191]

A few months ago you would get viciously flamed for suggesting that the market for acans would get flooded and the price would drop.... what do ya know?

[Project Reef]

Originally posted by greenbean36191
A few months ago you would get viciously flamed for suggesting that the market for acans would get flooded and the price would drop.... what do ya know?

Just wait, it'll keep dropping. Yes, even the 'rare' color morphs. They shall all be here with in a year. I can't wait Very pretty corals.

Greenster, I did NOT edit your post, my bad - I accidentally clicked on Edit post instead of Quote and ended up typing up my reply in your message. Ignore the 'last edited by Project Reef' phrase at the bottom.

[Juan-Carlos]

Didnt read the whole thread cause i'm way tired, But I laughed out loud for reasl 300-500 is nothing now they where going for $2,000.00 a while ago!! *Sigh* How times change

[fc.pride]

why is the price dropping?
are people aquaculturing more or is it micros are becoming more popular? maybe a bit of both?

[Bcollins111900]

bit of both. alot of people have bought the common colors so now we want the more rare morphs which=more money.

[Juan-Carlos]

Simply the marktet got flooded! supply and demand guys plain as day example when the craze first started EVRYONE and their mothers wanted Lords lol

So what happened all the people that know distributors got on their case seeing nothing more than $2k per colony lol and got the exporters to learn what to lok for and collect more acanthastrea... now we have a flooded market woo hoo!

Regardless I think they stil will stay high priced but never as expensive as they once where.

Micros have gone down IMENSLY! aswell.

heh

I wonder what the new craze wil be?

-Jc

[mummra100769]

i think the ultra colored micros are still bringing a hefty price. do you guys have any examples of price drops as i still see that they are pretty pricey online.

[mothra]

Well, what is pricey? That link you posted earlier they were around $20 / polyp. I wouldn't pay more than that unless I had to have them, and I can think of a couple morphs that I'd like to have but I can wait, just like I waited on the acans (well for the most part hehe).

[RandyO]

Originally posted by mummra100769
Do you guys have any examples of price drops as i still see that they are pretty pricey online.

I guess I can give you an example of some price drops.

In January 2004, frags of Acanthastrea lordhowensis were selling for 50.00 per polyp, and at that time I only knew of a handful of people that owned these corals. Many of them were not interested in cutting up their colonies.

As interest in these corals started to increase, so did the demand.

In September 2004, the going rate for exceptionally nice frags of Acans was 100.00 per polyp. And even at this price, supply could not keep up with demand. At this time it was impossible to find a whole colony of lord for sale. A few lucky reefers stumbled across a mislabeled colony here and there.

In December 2004 some of the more resourceful reefers were finding ways to get Acanthastrea lordhowensis colonies into the country and were getting top dollar for colonies. Anywhere from 1200.00-3000.00

After a few months, the Indo lords started making there way into LA wholesalers. There colonies were not nearly as nice as some of the others, but were still fetching a hefty price.


Where are we at now? Well, Acan lord colonies are coming in on a regular basis. The LFS I used to work at has had a few of them sitting in their tanks unsold for a few months now. They are priced at 500.00-600.00. As the demand goes down for them, or should I say, the people willing to pay big bucks for them stop purchasing them, the price will continue to drop.

Like Ali said, within a year these corals should be at a reasonable price for everyone to enjoy. Plus, they grow so fast that in another few years, hopefully no more will be needed to be imported because all of our tanks will be overflowing with them.

[mothra]

Randy, I think he was referring to micromussa, but more or less the same idea.

[mummra100769]

yah but what about micros? i think $20.00 a polyp is pretty steep, true they will never fetch the acanth price of the past but is still seems that they are hard to find and in big demand (for example i offer jendubs ability to sell the heck out of micro frags).

i agree acanth-mania is all but dead and i will have to agree that micros are probably not the next big thing but man are they ever cool.

[RandyO]

Originally posted by mothra
Randy, I think he was referring to micromussa, but more or less the same idea.

I had a feeling about that after I typed out the whole post already.
Oh well.

Micro's are not my department.