Stores moving away from SPS

[rfc]

Ive noticed a couple of stores in NJ are moving away from SPS corals. The Fishtank on route 46 has dropped them completely. And Absolute Fish in Clifton seems to have less these days compared to last year.

When I mentioned this to another dealer he told me its hard for many retailers to make money on SPS corals. Growth in this hobby was increased with the introduction of the 'all in one' cube tanks but they are really only suited for low light corals. Thus the retailers are following the money.


What do you think ?

 

[tosiek]

Also, alot of acro's don't ship well from suppliers. Less people wanting them + the loss on shipping.
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[fritz]

I think it's difficult to maintain a "proper" sps tank in a retail environment. Also given that slight fluctuations can cause mass browning or a newly introduced specimen can bring pests to the whole tank I can see it not being profitable to a store. Stocking mushrooms, leathers, and zoanthids which are nearly indestructible and have a very high mark up would be the natural choice over sps.

 

[Wes]

the fish tank on 46 changed ownership and the place has gone to hell in a handbasket. They can't even keep their fish alive.

i havn't been to absolutely fish in a month or so but I've noticed they tend to lose SPS on a regular basis. The sps go from "ULTRA" to "FADED ULTRA" for a discounted price after a week or 2, they should be labeled "Almost Dead". I always see stuff w/ tissue necrosis for sale in their tank. I've never bought anything from their SPS tank because nothing ever really looks healthy.

Wild SPS colonies are not easy, and it's probably not easy/profitable to get aquacultured SPS at wholesale. You almost have to aquaculture SPS yourself to make money at it.

Some places do the old chop shop method. Get a wild acro head and chop it up into "frags" to sell them off quicker before it has a chance to fade or die...

 

[House of Laughter]

rfc - sps husbandry is a labor of love not conducive to the forces of free market economy.

In short, what fritz and others have said, as a retailer, it's not cost effective to maintain - UNLESS you have other products people will want to buy and the margin is enough that the loss encurred in the sps system are supported by the store itself.

If you think about it though, eliminating the sps system does 2 things - lops off a financial liability and saves $$ (not that I agree with it - obviously we are doing it as a service)

An additional issue is that retail stores aren't able to pay someone or even find someone with the necessary skills to raise sps.

LPS lives on!!! (kidding)

House

 

[1UCKY]

Ive noticed a couple of stores in NJ are moving away from SPS corals. The Fishtank on route 46 has dropped them completely. And Absolute Fish in Clifton seems to have less these days compared to last year.

When I mentioned this to another dealer he told me its hard for many retailers to make money on SPS corals. Growth in this hobby was increased with the introduction of the 'all in one' cube tanks but they are really only suited for low light corals. Thus the retailers are following the money.


What do you think ?

Last I heard from one of the workers at Fish Tank is that they are not getting SPS in cause they have losted their main supplier. Once new owners came in, bridges were burned.

 

[crox99]

In Brooklyn no one sells SPS:letitallo

 

[fritz]

sps are best purchased by the colony IMO.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

People heard about Jims Prop system and figured they would just stop with the SPS and focus on other corals.

 

[fritz]

Could be. I remember Jim and Russ telling me about all the wonderful acro crabs they were seeing from their suppliers. I hope some of them have made it into the prop system. I guess the frags won't be large enough for resident acro crabs but it sure is nice getting an acro with it's own security force (acro crab). That was my point about buying them by the colony.

 

[Wes]

im going to have to disagree and say buying SPS by the colony are much more difficult than by the frag in my experience.

 

[cybermeez]

I prefer frags too. Captive raised frags tend to do better over the long run. They are are much more forgiving of the pitfalls inherent in a captive system. At the same time they also ease the pressure wild coral collection on the reefs.

 

[House of Laughter]

BINGO! and one of the reasons why we are doing the captive raised system.

Wes, I have found too that the whole colony aquacultured verses grown out or at frag state are much more delicate. I have had this conversation with several respected aquarists and there is a belief (not scientific) that certain corals have genetic limits and crap out OR they have captive raised limits and crap out because of the non-natiev species we keep together,

House

I prefer frags too. Captive raised frags tend to do better over the long run. They are are much more forgiving of the pitfalls inherent in a captive system. At the same time they also ease the pressure wild coral collection on the reefs.

 

[jhale]

my experience with buying sps is that the healthiest specimens have come from other reefers.

I never liked what I got online, the corals would either brown out and take a long time to recover, or worse would not make the transition from supplier/shipping/tank.

The only corals I've bought locally have been at GA. They have a dedicated SPS system that gets a ton of natural light. I like that SPS tank in particular, you can see the color and you can see what the coral really looks like before you buy it. all the sps I've got from them is doing great, they have been all small aquacultered colonies on plugs.

I think the future of corals will be a mix of inland coral farmers and a limited supply of aquacultured corals. imo collecting off reefs for sps is not needed anymore.

 

[thirty5]

The Fish Tank in Saddle Brook just got all their systems back into shape. You should have seen the setup a few months ago. They are getting it back to shape. They didnt even have a UV on the system. I was in there the other day and their stuf is looking much much better. The guy that is doing the system has basically redone it all. It is turning around. Give it another shot.

 

[NYreefNoob]

store's with sps

the lfs up in fishkill has a tank set-up for sps. i do believe it is ran off same sump as other tank's. and from talking to them and other lfs, most of the sps the supplier's have aren't worth buying. nothing like most of the stuff floating around here on mr

 

[Chongpark27]

JawsII in elmsford has colorful SPS colonies they got from their cali supplier. More coming in on this thursday.