# Saltwater hobby dieing



## steve8855 (Aug 23, 2016)

It seems like the saltwater hobby is dieing out. 

What a sad sad time we live in.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Its not really dying out. Indo has closed exports due to, simply put, inconsistencies of export #'s vs legally # issued permits. Many LFS relied on Indo for the qty that they exported. With the price war during the 2005-2017, this means very low mark up per coral AND selling in volume. 

If all they did was sell coral without any other "added valuse" services to bring the numbers in, lack of a regular source of standard fare corals, it wont be long before they run into the red.

This brings up the sticky wicket of brick and mortar (B&M) vs "Basement Operators" (BO) as overhead is significantly cheaper for the latter when Indo was near closing exports as B&M could not compete on that segment. With the rise in popularity of "designer corals" BO were able to capitalize on growing and fragging mostly because...they can afford the time to do so where the B&M cannot.

The Canadian market is significantly smaller that the US. Shipping within Canada also is a mess and significantly more expensive.

Most distributors now will not sell to businesses that do not have a retail storefront or have a higher wholesale pricing structure vs B&M.

Many layers to the discussion but in the GTA, its bloody expensive to operate a marine LFS that solely relies on walk in purchases.


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## steve8855 (Aug 23, 2016)

Can we all just move to the US


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

The issue is CITES and CFIA regulations of livestock, drygoods and shipping rates getting stuff across the border.


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## sohal tang (Oct 26, 2011)

*indo starting back up next week*

I heard that INDO shipments start again next Monday..any truth to it?

Hobby issssss farrrrr from dying but it issssss getting more expensive which might lower the numbers involved but will only increase the disposable income required to be in the hobby....and many will stay in the hobby....and many will continue to join the hobby...the results are just too beautiful to pass up.


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## Sea MunnKey (Oct 2, 2014)

Overall coral prices have sky rocketed even for ugly brown & common corals. Anything considered "Rainbow" colour would require one to dig way deeper into their pockets. No thanks to actinic Blue saturation ... 

I would not move to US strictly for corals as they're much more expensive than compared to prices found in GTA. I missed the $50 bucks sps colony ....


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## loonie (Mar 29, 2008)

sohal tang said:


> I heard that INDO shipments start again next Monday..any truth to it?
> 
> Hobby issssss farrrrr from dying but it issssss getting more expensive which might lower the numbers involved but will only increase the disposable income required to be in the hobby....and many will stay in the hobby....and many will continue to join the hobby...the results are just too beautiful to pass up.


They only permitted fish shipment, not corals. R20 already had a Indonesian shipment during Christmas...


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## Xio (Mar 18, 2019)

They are allowing aquaculture corals as well. Just no wild cultures. Just taking a bit longer to organize by and of January they should be in gta area


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