S. haddoni © Mike Maddox
I'd like to write a short piece about "fad
corals", and the price inflation it causes in the reefkeeping hobby.
In recent years, (mostly due to the popularity explosion of reefkeeping, and
subsequently the large numbers of online coral vendors) various coral species
have become the "in" coral and the prices of these corals have
skyrocketed. Law of supply and demand you say? Higher prices
benefit the reef, conservation efforts, and the poverty-stricken collectors,
you say? Nay. Prices are driven up artificially by a combination of
the consumer's "must have" attitude towards that species and vendors
purposefully restricting the amount of corals they sell in a given amount of
time.
If you've been reefkeeping for five years or so, I'm sure you remember the
"acan craze" (and if you don't, read on).