Price of fish per inch...

Magnum Man

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I can't say that I've ever looked at that calculation... usually either I want them, or I don't at the listed price...
I have a hard time, sometimes, buying fancy little Plecos, that are small, yet expensive...

but I was looking at these today...


& in my mind, I actually thought "ouch... that's $70.00 an inch for fish"... might be worth it, & I have bought fish at that price, before, but my mind never went to price per inch, before... maybe I didn't expect it to be so small, for that price???
 
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You’ll need at least a few inches of these guys since they like to be in groups to shoal. That’s a lot of shekels.
 
Spending is metric anyway!

I find it quite interesting to see how we think about this. It's right across the hobby. A small fish can require herculean efforts to get out, and to get into the hobby. It can cost a fortune to bring a bag out. They can be the rarest of the rare.
And because they're small, we (I fall into this too sometimes) want them for cheap tetra prices. We as a hobby are a little more reconciled to the cost of small Cichlids, but tetras and barbs? No one will buy the rare ones, and so they fall out of the hobby.

In Europe, people spend on them, but in North America, no.

It could be that Cichlids are easier to breed in general. tetras can be difficult.

I was told about an importation of neon tetras to my old city, carried in a tin box by a seaman working the freighters to Brazil. In the depths of the great depression, when rent was $1.50 a month, they cost $5 each. I knew a very credible old man who had seen the shipment, and the price. He said all the potential buyers were trying to sex the half starved fish, because back then, very few people bought fish to just look at them. The high entry price is worth it only if you're a breeder. For consumers, it's a hard price shock. This winter, I plan to breed my "new" tetras. I practiced last year with cardinals, and the only good thing about winter is it brings tetra breeding season.

As far as price per measurement goes, all good fish cost $2 per zurfff.
 
I used to breed redline cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis) and they sold for around $80-120pr retail. Now the same shrimp sell for $800-1600pr. These shrimp are usually about 1 inch long when sold at shops and grow to around 2 inches. They are hideously overpriced now due to overfishing, habitat destruction/ climate change, and nobody breeding them in captivity.
How many prs do you want? :)
 
When I sell plecos the price is based on the size. That was because I had acrivel spawning groups awhich meant I had offspring I would ship which were anywhere from 1 .5 inch TL to almost adult size. The only way I could price them was by the inch. With the pleco I spawned it takes time to grow them to where they will spawn. So the the bigger/older the fish, the closer it was to being spawnable.

But I am a hoby breeder and seller. So the more of any species ne bpught, the less per fish they cost. And then for those buing multiple species i would further discount baste on the total order size. I also usually discount that pric by about 20% for buyer who picked up instead of having them shipped.

I am not far outside NYC and over the years I have had buyers fly in from Colorado, Kansas City and Chicago because they spent enough that the 20% discount was worth it. The reason for the discount ws that I did not have to guarantee live arrival, If the shipper killed the fish I was the one responsible not them. Given the prices of the fish, one box replaced could be well over $1,000. The folks who picked up were buying anywhere from $2,000 to $12,000 worth of fish with the discount.
 
I can't say that I've ever looked at that calculation... usually either I want them, or I don't at the listed price...
I have a hard time, sometimes, buying fancy little Plecos, that are small, yet expensive...

but I was looking at these today...


& in my mind, I actually thought "ouch... that's $70.00 an inch for fish"... might be worth it, & I have bought fish at that price, before, but my mind never went to price per inch, before... maybe I didn't expect it to be so small, for that price???
I feel like this is the same for shrimp! $40 for half an inch sometimes...
That fish is really pretty though, looks like a small salmon
 

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