price to size question

[acorn54]

i was perusing sunrise tropical website.
i saw 2.5 inch fish almost half the price of 3 inch price of the same variety.! why is there such a huge price increase for only an extra 1/2 inch of growth? this wasn't only for one specific variety but was consistent with all the varieties. they all were almost double in price for an extra 1/2 inch of growth. i don't think this is just pertaining to sunrise tropical but i've seen it with universal discus prices as well as gwynbrook farm discus prices, and others

[RAWesolowski]

Think of 2.5" as a cull point. As fish become larger, you note a better shape, ability to grow and colors. The stragglers are culled by the breeder.

[acorn54]

so if 3 inch costs costs 40 per cent more than 2.5 inch, that more or less means about 40 per cent of the discus at 2.5 inch were culled out. is that correct?

[Rick_May]

no, I don't think their is a relation between the two.
What I think it comes down to supply and demand. it would appear that more people want the .5" larger fish so he's able to charge 40% more. If the demand was for the 2" fish and when they hit 2.5" nobody wanted them then, the price for the 2.5" would drop until people started buying them. simple economics, sunrise is in bisness to make money, thats why anyone goes into bisness.

Now their is something to charging more to cover the costs of culling, but at the same time if 50% were culls the markup would 100%, or double in price. or look at it this way: if you buy 10 fish for 100.00 but 4 or 40% were culls then the actual cost of the remaining 6 fish would be $16.67 each or a markup of 60%. if 25% were culls it would be a 50% markup so for 40% markup to be the result of culls then you would have around 15-20% culls.

[ronrca]

I wouldnt neseccary say 40% were culled out because during that time food, water, power and time went into growing that 1/2"!

[Wolf]

All I can say is it takes a lot of time and money to raise a lot of fish to 2.5 inches. Cleaning tanks and they eat like pigs so the higher cost is understandable to me.

It may just be .5" difference but the fish are atleast a month older, which means you can tell better about quality, it takes a larger overhead for the breeder to keep them before he/she sell it to you... their color will show better.... which means some of the fish he/she held back may be worth nothing more than pushing it to the LFS, which is what adds to the price, I believe.... then again I have seen some sell at $$ per inch of the fish..... in which case I feel the breeder is getting short changed.... :)

[RichieE]

Growing out discus takes a lot of work and a fair amount of money. Anyone doing this on a large scale deserves every dime they can get. I gave my breeders a rest because I needed one not because they did. Rich

[chuck]

You said it Rich!! With the cleaning, feeding, water changes and and I'm just talking about keeping CBW .... ;D ;D ;D never mind the work raising fry!! :D No wonder I'm always tired... :P :-\
IMO Depending on the "strain" the average is about $10.00 inch.

Acorn54... Before you buy anything research the breeder through the forums....you be suprised what you can find out.... :-\

chuck

[erikiiy]

Well, there could be another reason.

He is selling those 2 1/2 inch for 1/2 the price maybe because they are culls. I have been to Sunrise tropical for a few times. Sometimes they have great price on discus. You just gotta decide if they are the quality that you like.

Those 2 1/2 inch discus might the same batch as the 3 inch.

Anyhow, Sunrise does have a lot of nice looking discus. His higher price discus looks very nice.

[acorn54]

well i went and ordered 8-3inch leopard turquiose from tony peng at sunrise tropical. i did alot of research and found most people who bought from him were satisfied. i'll let the group know how it turns out. they are suppose to be at my house tuesday morning