Fish prices - are you freaking serious?!

Went to one shop today to just price and look around. They wanted $11.99 for 1" demasoni. My usual LFS wants 14.99 for 2-3" demasoni. Now the 15$ is steep even for me, especially when you need to buy 12-14 of that species minimum to keep aggression down. I wouldn't mind paying 15$ for a good looking fish, if I knew it would acclimate fine, but when you're having to deal in large numbers like that, it's just insane.

This just furthers my thinking that mail order/online purchases are much more economical and reasonable than going to the LFS. If I were to make a large purchase of that many fish, I'd hope to get a discount on a per fish basis, maybe 11.99 for each fish instead since I'd buy bulk, but no that is not an 'offer'.

I'm sure the prices are due the fact there are 2 'fish' stores and then there is Petland and Petsmart. I hate going to either of the corporate places, but thank goodness, they have had some pretty quality fish in as of late. I'm just thoroughly annoyed right now after having the conversations I had. Needed to vent, thanks for listening.

 

Fish can get sooooooooo expensive! I have started ordering fish online and for the most part, it is pretty economical. However, those shipping prices definetly add to the cost. It's kind of a toss up as to whether aquabid or the LFS is a better deal. I guess it kind of depends on the fish. I have seen demasonI on aquabid for 5.99 each for 1-1.5 inch fish, but then you need to tack on an extra 25-30 dollars for shipping. Unfortunately, buying fish is expensive. Many people think that freshwater is way cheaper than saltwater (which in a way it is), but when you get into buying cichilds, plants, and rare breeds of fish....it definetly adds up big time! I feel your pain

 

OMG the demasonI are beautiful!!!!!!!!!! what's the least amount you can buy to have them be content? is it really 12-14?

 

Yup. They are extremely aggressive. When you get them in a large group, they school together and chase eachother so the other fish in the tank get left alone.

 

The way we stocked our cichlid tank is with in mind you can only ad 3-4 fish at a time was we get paid biweekly... so we would get 3-4 fish every paycheck.. so we could get the 18 dollar fish if we wanted.. and 3-4 of them... so we have paid top dollar for our mbunas, also when stocking our pecocks we did the same process....
Now.. Its up to 11 cichlids in my mbuna tank.. I want 4 more.. so I am wanting some more hard to find fish... (not to mention I am taking my mel aurartus back due to the mixing of aggressiveness w/ already having that, kenyi, and red zebra in my tank so I picked my least fav to get rid of) They said they will give me full credit for the fish... so I actually will need 5 more cichlids...
but 4 I will prob order online... and prob will be female kenyI to mate w/ my male to make the female to male ratio proper... and I think I want to match my yellow lab up if possible...
I will also have to keep my fish buying cheap (my husbands spring turkey hunting season starts this sat) so I have to play fair w/ the fish prices myself...

I used to buy from the 3 for 18.00 tank.. but my mbunas are too big that I have now, so I have to buy the larger sizes....

 

wow..is this the same type of fish? I really like this fish ...

 

Here is a link to the demasonI profile:

 

I'm scared to add 2-3" demasonI in 3 at a time though. They'll be picked off until only 1 is left, so by the time I wait 2 weeks and get 3 more fish, then I'll just have 4 demasoni's

The online dealer is a way better deal actually, the one I'm looking at at least, if I go ahead and buy all the fish at once. I'd have use bio-spira no matter what so that's an additional 40$ as I don't have enough to dose a whole tank again. Getting 21 total of 3 different species, is $92 for the fish + 42$ for air freight shipment. Same day delivery. That's $134 through the online dealer. Through the LFS, I'm looking at spending $220 minimum for the same fish.

 

Our plan just works better for us... on Wed and Sat is "fish tank" day for me... I do a water change on wed, and vacuum tanks on sat... but every other frI if we want to buy fish, the even days of the month is my API test days, so even if its an off day on Thur I will test tank water and if it comes up -0- nitrite, -0- ammonia, 8 ph, and 10 or less on nitrate I will say its a go on frI for fish buying day.... and then Sat we can move rocks and territories and vaccum...

 

sounds like a good deal to me

 

Our plan just works better for us... on Wed and Sat is "fish tank" day for me... I do a water change on wed, and vacuum tanks on sat... but every other frI if we want to buy fish, the even days of the month is my API test days, so even if its an off day on Thur I will test tank water and if it comes up -0- nitrite, -0- ammonia, 8 ph, and 10 or less on nitrate I will say its a go on frI for fish buying day.... and then Sat we can move rocks and territories and vaccum...

Which fish do you stock though? That's my biggest issue. I wouldn't mind getting nickel and dimed and paying more over a longer span of time, if I knew the guys would be ok with each other.

Saw BN plecos being sold for $20 too btw. That's insane to me.

 

Which fish do you stock though? That's my biggest issue. I wouldn't mind getting nickel and dimed and paying more over a longer span of time, if I knew the guys would be ok with each other.

Saw BN plecos being sold for $20 too btw. That's insane to me.

I don't pay over 12 for a pleco, I buy them way small and put them in a tank w/ smaller fish that will not attack them until they get big enough to go in w/ the others.. The last pleco I bought was 4 dollars...
My peacocks are my most expensive fish, they were about 15-18 a peice. Skittles and dorI (they are both babies, peacocks in a smaller tank growing) I got cheap. That's another money saver for me and why I have the extra tanks. Now my lab and my kenyI were my more expensive of my mbuna... I did pay 14 for my scofI but I did it for a reason, the last one I had was way to small for the tank, and live and learn the others beat the out of it.. so I bought a larger size this time.... and now its the same size as the first cichlids I bought (my red zebra, yellow lab, kenyi)
My extra money comes in when I need the frozen foods, chemicals, etc..

I do plan to get a rather large pleco for both my larger cichlid tanks only because the alge is getting a bit much on the back, and the fish are eating it but I think that they could use some help.... I will just buy large common plecos... cheap plecos... my pleco I have in my 55 now is about 6 inches long, hes just not doing enough by himself....

 

Our plan just works better for us... on Wed and Sat is "fish tank" day for me... I do a water change on wed, and vacuum tanks on sat... but every other frI if we want to buy fish, the even days of the month is my API test days, so even if its an off day on Thur I will test tank water and if it comes up -0- nitrite, -0- ammonia, 8 ph, and 10 or less on nitrate I will say its a go on frI for fish buying day.... and then Sat we can move rocks and territories and vaccum...

That is quite a schedule! I have one day off a week, so on that day, I spend at least half of it doing water changes on my 11 tanks and doing API testing. Some people would say that it is not a good day off, but any day to spend time with my fishies is a good day to me!

 

That is quite a schedule! I have one day off a week, so on that day, I spend at least half of it doing water changes on my 11 tanks and doing API testing. Some people would say that it is not a good day off, but any day to spend time with my fishies is a good day to me!

Well, if it wasn't for my ability to be at home as much I prob wouldn't be able to do this sced. My 1st child had a ton of health issues, so I had to stop working full time. I work part-time, prn for a hospital and usually just on the weekends. My husband is a paramedic and works 2 full time jobs to keep me at the house so my "cleaning" sced is made around the fish....so to speak.. yesterday I did my floors in the house and will be doing my laundry today (or put a dent in it anyways w/ the four of us its hard to keep up w/ it) and so on... and I have to work on the tanks the eheim that I bought 2 weeks ago has to be took down on the 36 to get the carbon out.
Now when my youngest (hes 2 right now starts preschool) I will be going back to college for a bachlors... so either I will be doing fish tanks at 1am... or it will be once a week... (by then I'm sure my husband will be back down to one job so he can take a fish day himself)
Its just after all the malawI books I have read preached water change water change water change... I look at my tanks and if the water isn't crystal clear it makes me actually a bit nervous... I guess fish ocd.....lol (good for them though) I'm that way w/ my house too... I will let the kids have the toys out though..

 

wow..is this the same type of fish? I really like this fish ...

Yes they are an african cichlid from lake malawi, but they get 8"+ and are aggressive. You can get all kind of mbuna cichlids which have the OB trait.

 

Went to one shop today to just price and look around. They wanted $11.99 for 1" demasoni. My usual LFS wants 14.99 for 2-3" demasoni. Now the 15$ is steep even for me, especially when you need to buy 12-14 of that species minimum to keep aggression down. I wouldn't mind paying 15$ for a good looking fish, if I knew it would acclimate fine, but when you're having to deal in large numbers like that, it's just insane.

This just furthers my thinking that mail order/online purchases are much more economical and reasonable than going to the LFS. If I were to make a large purchase of that many fish, I'd hope to get a discount on a per fish basis, maybe 11.99 for each fish instead since I'd buy bulk, but no that is not an 'offer'.

I'm sure the prices are due the fact there are 2 'fish' stores and then there is Petland and Petsmart. I hate going to either of the corporate places, but thank goodness, they have had some pretty quality fish in as of late. I'm just thoroughly annoyed right now after having the conversations I had. Needed to vent, thanks for listening.

Wow that is a good price for demasoni...they are like $40+ here. Remember that DemasonI should be in a species only tank, just them. They are really aggressive and do better with their own.
We paid $40 for 2 of our fancy plecos. Remember quality fish usually costs a bit more...you get what you pay for.

 

My LFS has a 200 gallon of just nothing but african cichlids...tons of rock caves and just a bunch of babies to med size all mixed in..I thought it was the coolest...maybe someday

 

That is quite a schedule! I have one day off a week, so on that day, I spend at least half of it doing water changes on my 11 tanks and doing API testing. Some people would say that it is not a good day off, but any day to spend time with my fishies is a good day to me!

Everyday is tank cleaning day here. We do lots of water changes...it helps with the growth of our baby fish.
My mornings are feeding the fish tanks, checking on the sick or injured, entertaining the betta, and tending to the cats.
Saturdays are big water change days, gravel vac the 120 gallon and the 44g.
Since we've found the right mix of african cichlids we haven't had to rearrange at all.

 

I actually just rearrange to vacuum I like to clean between/under the rocks, and since we are still stocking..

 

Wow that is a good price for demasoni...they are like $40+ here. Remember that DemasonI should be in a species only tank, just them. They are really aggressive and do better with their own.
We paid $40 for 2 of our fancy plecos. Remember quality fish usually costs a bit more...you get what you pay for.

I think it's just harder for me to pay so much when you need XX amount of them for them to live with each other. Paying 20-40$ for 1 fish every few weeks I certainly wouldn't mind, but that's not possible with dema's. That make sense at all?

 

One thing while stocking you might want to keep in mind is you want to buy them about 2-3 inches a peice (juvie size) at that size aggression isn't really a issue. So only buying 3-4 at a time won't be a problem.. and if you can buy 3-4 and wait about 4 days, check your chem, do a water change and buy more... do that... its adult cichlids that really get into the mouthfights, and are out to really do damage to each other. At that age they are like a bunch of kids that grow up together.

 

Hi!

Most plants from mail order are more expensive than LFS ones I find. It takes a little while to find them, but when you get 2 bunches of Rotalla wallichiI for $4.00 rather than $9.00 - it's worth! I'm going to be buying a Panda Apisto for $15.00 soon... Worth it though!

 

I think that the price of fish is like everything else (except wages) - going up due to the ever-rising cost of gas. Isn't it crazy that just 6 years ago, it was $1?

 

I remember when I was in college paying 88 cents a gallon for gas (I miss those days I had a caviler and that rocked! I went everywhere on a tank of gas when I was in high school I had a mustang and paid about the same... and could run around town all night everynight on my allowance and still buy clothes.. eat... etc...)
Now... as an adult last Thur we filled up my jeep and I just filled it up again but I only left the house to take my son to school, and to take garbage off and work 2 times...

I dread my next trip to the fishstore.. it will cost me about 30 dollars in gas, we always eat out while we are there (another 50) that's if he even goes w/ me... I bought his KY hunting license today to turkey hunt and if weather permits he will hunt instead, then we spend about 80 dollars every time we go to the fishstore in supplies and fish just because its usually either a once every 2-4 week trip, this time we haven't went in about 3 weeks...

 

Yea, it's crazy. I used to drive down to Disney on Saturdays to hang out with my best friend who had moved to the other side of Florida but didn't go down there when Stacy & I lived there before moving back to Denver because of gas prices.

I wouldn't be surprised to see prices on everything at the fish stores moving up some to pass on their costs from gas prices onto us.

 

Yea When I first got my license in 95-96 I guess? gas was $.86 a gallon. And I drove a small little sports car and got 35mpg IN CITY.. about 49 on the highway.... gone are those days baby.