Pleco prices

[Zebrapl3co]

Hi, It is just me or have you guys notice that plecos in general are getting more and more expensive?
This really worries me as I think more and more of the plecos are being over harvest and yet most of them we don't even know how to breed them.
Specifically, the green phanton/emerald and blue phanton pleco. These two are on the very top of my favourite plecos, and very little is known about breeding then. I think only on one case of verify breeding did it happened and that was at a zoo in Germany (I think).

Another one that raise my eye brows is the leapard frog pleco. These are pretty easy to breed and they used to go for $19.99 4 years ago. But now, I see it going at $69.99 each. What then heck happen there?

[Zoban]

Part of it is that stores have socially engineered us for years..

We buy a product, they raise the price, we still buy the product.

With more and more people wanting the different plecos and other fish types it only makes sence that the store are going to try and raise the price and thus thier profits when we still buy at the new price.

Another is the costs of exporting and even breeding locally have all gone up be it the paperwork involved or the gas for the plane right down to the hydro that powers your lights and pumps.

Minimum wage has been raised a few times over the last few years and is scheduled to go up again soon I believe. This brings us to the actual overhead costs of the store that have gone up.

Though in the end I do agree and would love to see Leopard Frogs back down at the 20 dollar and under range..

[Rush2112]

Suffice to say that the more available the pleco, the lower the price. If Leopard Frogs were agoing for $20 each a few years back there must have been plenty available then. I have asked numerous LPS to get them over the last 2 years and finally a few of them responded lately. For the high price, they must either be hard to get from the wild or in fact not many people are breeding them.

[jackson]

Lucky had them for 35 at around 3-4'' if you asked for the bigger ones in the back.

$69.99 must be a big Al's price tag

[KnaveTO]

I think part of the issue here is popularity. As more and more breeds of the fancier plecos became available they became popular. No longer were we keeping the fish for the sole purpose of algae control (as erronious as that was). Now we keep them as pets. Furthermore now there are more and more stores carrying them and thus the demand increased on the wholesaler. More demand than supply has always lead to higher prices.

Furthermore importing and exporting permits and their fees has probably gone up at the Brazillian end (and the Canadian end soon as well). There are such a myriad of fees associated with the transportation of these fish and all have been increasing over the years to pay for all the new 'security' measures as well.