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What’s the most you have payed for a fish?


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Way back, I kept marine aquariums (in the old Nektonics days of the '70's-80's.) A marine fish was probably the most expensive fish (Mandarin? Rock Beauty? Puffer? Yellow tang?) I ever bought, but it was so far ago I don't remember how much I paid. I don't think I ever paid more than $30 for a single fish though. My "expensive" fish now are Super Red Bristlenose plecos, but I bought them as very young fish (an inch or so long) from Catfishtown on e-Bay and they were on sale. Buy three get three free and he threw in an extra so I got all seven for around $35 shipping included. I had a silver arowana way back, but he was bought as a baby with a yolk sac for less than $10. He cost me a small fortune in food afterward, so buying the fish was the cheap part. Which is always the case. I just spent $6 this morning restocking the green beans for my Super Reds and I'll be doing that again next week. 

Buying the fish is often the cheap part. That arowana easily cost me over a few thousand dollars to feed him over his lifetime. I had a big gibbiceps pleco that ate the big Banquet food blocks ($3 each) like they were candy. I was buying them by the case from a local pet shop. He cost me about $45 a month to feed.  I had him for over ten years. That math works out to around $5400 just to feed him over the ten years. I suspect the pet shop selling me the food blocks mourned his passing more than I did. 

I see the prices some koi sell for and marvel that anyone would gamble that kind of money on a fish. Someone spent $1.8 million on a koi not too long ago and word is it died a few months later. I'd kill myself if I spent that kind of money on a fish and it died in just a few months.

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I actually think my 1 angelfish was the most expensive as far as fish go. Shipping I've paid for other species has been a lot more than the cost of the angel though!

I'm generally a big fan of carefully choosing fish that will "replace themselves," so I don't pay often  - maybe an average of once per year. That means I don't have to mess with quarantine much either.

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On 10/1/2021 at 5:43 AM, Mitch Norton said:

$14 for a Reticulated Hillstream Loach that didn’t make it through quarantine… 

Oh, that’s the worst feeling. 

On 9/30/2021 at 11:50 PM, Brandon p said:

I don’t know how many answers you will get because it was asked two weeks ago and it is still getting answers

Oops I didn’t know it was already a question, I’m sorry.

On 10/1/2021 at 6:26 AM, Tanked said:

I still think $7.50 for an Amano🦐shrimp was too much.

Yeah… their babies don’t even survive in Fresh water 

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I paid $100 each for 2 phantom plecos as a sophomore in college. I had a 128g custom acrylic hexagonal aquarium that they were supposed to go into with a school of angels and neon tetra. 

 

The phantoms didn't make it through quarantine. Neither did a very rare at the time caterpillar knifefish. Then the angels developed a bacterial infection during transport and only made it 2 weeks in their new home. Killed my interest in the hobby for a while. That and I had a bearded dragon to look after whom I adopted.

Edited by Biotope Biologist
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