Discus Prices

[Cosmo]

Everyone thinks Discus are expensive, and I guess from one vantage point they are. I mean $100 plus for one fish isn't like going to petco and buying some gupies.

But.. from a wider perspective, Discus are dirt cheap compared what they used to cost, believe it or not

I got my first Discus when I was in my mid to late 20s, which was back in the 70s. I'm thinking the first ones I bought were about $35 for a 3in Wild Blue (wilds was all there was back then). After I moved to Los Angeles in 1980 I started buying Discus from an Asian importer, never knew what country they were from (they weren't Chinese) but they has some beautiful little fish that sold for $75 to $100 for a 3 incher, thinking back I believe this was the beginning of today's domestic Discus, although none back then had anywhere near the color variations available today. Kind of like fancy Wild Blue's with a little bit of a flair. They used to call me first whenever they got a shipment in, I think I had 6 tanks at the time, mostly small ones.

Anyway, you might be saying that this sounds like Discus cost the same in the 80s as they do now, right. I mean, $75 is $75 right?? Not exactly.

Unfortunately, the dollar has lost a great deal of it's value over the years. In the early 80s you could buy a nicley equipped Chevy Monte Carlo SS for 12 Grand - Camaro would have been about the same. Most "non Cadilac" cars sold for between 12K and 14K - and I'm not talking stripped down models. Today these same cars would cost upwards of 30 or 40 grand or more.

So, had the cost of Discus gone up in a similar fashion, we would be paying 3 or 4 hundred dollars for a 3in Discus today, yet the price is still in the neighborhood of $75 (depending on the fish of course). Why?

Back in the day all or most fish available were wilds. They had to be caught and transported in relatively small batches. The Discus farms in Asia were at best in their infancy, and there was no such thing as German Discus that I was aware of.

Today they are raised on highly efficient farms for pennies each and shipped in large quantities. at least, that's my theory.

and I'm sticking to it

fwiw

[rickztahone]

I have been spending a lot of time on the darkside boards (SW), and some of those guys pay upwards of $300-$500 for corals. If you ask me, we may be better off with colorful discus rather than colorful coral, lol.

[Rapture]

Discus are somewhat expensive, but I came from the reptile hobby, where the first albino ball python was purchased from Africa for about 80 grand, 20 or so years ago. Now you can get those for less than $200. It seems like Discus are generally more difficult to breed, raise and sell than ball pythons. :P

[Las Vegas]

I'm pretty sure back in 1987 was when I first bought my first order of Discus. It was an order out of a tropical fish magazine. 6 small Discus. I remember 3 marlboro reds and 3 diamond blues. They came in somekind of express order. I spent $500 on the order and I know the price because my ex-wife used to yell it at me always! So I don't think the prices really changed. The quantity of colors have and people have priced accordingly. I remember once when I first saw a Tangerine color Discus back then and it was at a LFS in Santa Barbara, Ca. It was $200 and I had to have it! That was an expensive Discus back then. Now days, I can see the same colored Discus at a LFS for $25. So have Discus prices gone up? Yes and no but it just depends on the color. In my humble experience/opinion.

[Keith Perkins]

Funny Mark, I was thinking of posting I have no idea how much the discus I bought 30 years ago cost me but I bet if you found my ex-wife she could tell you.

[DJW]

If you ever want to calculate the price of something in "today's money" there are consumer price index calculators like this one. Its fun to play with the numbers. Some things though, like real estate and cars, don't translate that well.

http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc....980&year2=2016

[Las Vegas]

Funny Mark, I was thinking of posting I have no idea how much the discus I bought 30 years ago cost me but I bet if you found my ex-wife she could tell you.

Ha! We understand each other!

[briztoon]

Come to Australia.

http://livingreefaquariums.com.au/di...m-by-tony-tan/

[Disgirl]

This reminds me about my first discus. It was about 1988. My fish club took a field trip to Baltimore to see Gwynnbrook Farms, a discus hatchery. We all left there with our little styro. boxes filled with $25, 1 1/2" baby discus. I got 5 I remember. That was an expensive trip for us all, what with a motel, several meals and gas. But we felt it was worth it.
Barb

[John_Nicholson]

Well said. I still sell my small discus (4 inches and under ) for $10 per inch. I promise I am not getting rich...LOL.

-john

[Cosmo]

Never told my first wife what each Discus cost me

[Keith Perkins]

You perhaps could have saved a lot of time Jim if you had.

[Cosmo]

You perhaps could have saved a lot of time Jim if you had.

If you're implying that may have impacted the marriage, nothing could be further from the truth but I'll not go into the long horid story...

My original point was that although Discus prices are similar today to the prices they were in the 70s and 80s, the value of each of your dollars is far less today than they were back then so the fish are actually much cheaper today - excluding the exotic strains of today that weren't available back then.

[Keith Perkins]

If you're implying that may have impacted the marriage, nothing could be further from the truth but I'll not go into the long horid story...

My original point was that although Discus prices are similar today to the prices they were in the 70s and 80s, the value of each of your dollars is far less today than they were back then so the fish are actually much cheaper today - excluding the exotic strains of today that weren't available back then.

And with that I would definitely agree.