SOM Clown fish

I agree with Einstiens and Glaspie on this... It's hard to fault any LFS for wanting to stay profitable.

-JB

 

I skipped a couple of people opinions on the matter, but I think I got the gist of what everyones thought it here. While I do agree that his prices are "ultra high" I also understand that he JUST had his building built I think like a year ago and I'm sure this is where the majority of his profits are going to. After he has esatblished his store and has everything settled, which probably wont be a while, I can see his prices coming down.

With this being said, would I pay that much? NO. As much as I like Hung, and his store, its just plainly to steep for me. If someone else wants to, go ahead thats their choice and I see no problem in that.

 

Having been in Hung's shoes, I think Jason(Glaspie69) hit the nail on the head. It is not fair for you to sit here and judge what the man feels his time and efforts are worth. If it was easy to breed a "simple" B&W clown, why is the market not flooded with them? Just as a little background I spent about 2 years looking for my broodstock pair of B&W clowns, paid an arm and a leg for them (Shipping alone was over $100!!!), they left the previous owner as a spawning pair, took me almost 1 year to get them to spawn again. So by now I had invested money in tank equipment, water changes (salt is not free...), food, research material, equipment for my phytoplankton, equipment for my rotifers, supplys galore for the phyto and rotifers, and the list goes on... Now how much is my time worth? Just feeding them often enough to get them into condition takes time. I was going to school at the time and was lucky enough to have a break in the middle of the day where I ran home to make their third feeding time every day. I got about 5000 of my RC posts learning how to rear clownfish fry and try to figure how many hours infront of a computer 5000 posts take.

Then they finally lay eggs... Now you have late nights every 2 weeks trying to scoop the fry out of the tank, standing in the dark, with a flashlight over the tank. Unfortunately something always happens and you lose the first 2-3 batches that you stayed up catching or remote hatching. After a month or two of catching fry and losing them you finally get one or two through to metamorphisis. Great day!!! If I needed those 2 fish to cover my expenses for the last year and 2 months just guess what I would of had to charge. Hung's price is CHEAP!!! /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/tongue.gif

I eventually got better at it and I was raising other clown species and bangaii on the side. The point is that no matter what he charges, you are still getting a hell of a deal on a fish that he has spent a ton of time caring for. If you don't like the price please feel free to look else where, but do not judge him for you truely have not walked in his shoes and do not have a right to put a pricetag on his work.

Another side note: Hung has one of the best B&W A. Ocellaris clownfish bloodlines around. His female is about as close to wild caught as you are going to find in the sates. The only ones that might be close are Jason and Billy's clowns that came from my original pair which were a mix of the TMC (England) and ORA (USA) bloodlines. The reason being that Australia will not allow the collection of black clowns very often and if they do they rarely if ever make it to the states. It is rumored that the US black ocellaris bloodline is already at F8, meaning that they have been inbred back into the same bloodline 8 times. That is the reason why you will see many "bulldog", "stubbies", malformed gill plates, and an increase in misbarring in captive bred B&W A. Ocellaris. That fact alone makes Hung's clowns a good "investment". They are also much prettier than those "freak" clowns everyone thinks are worth thousands of dollars IMO.

 

Posted By Travis on 03/10/2008 9:44 PM
Having been in Hung's shoes, I think Jason(Glaspie69) hit the nail on the head. It is not fair for you to sit here and judge what the man feels his time and efforts are worth. If it was easy to breed a "simple" B&W clown, why is the market not flooded with them? Just as a little background I spent about 2 years looking for my broodstock pair of B&W clowns, paid an arm and a leg for them (Shipping alone was over $100!!!), they left the previous owner as a spawning pair, took me almost 1 year to get them to spawn again. So by now I had invested money in tank equipment, water changes (salt is not free...), food, research material, equipment for my phytoplankton, equipment for my rotifers, supplys galore for the phyto and rotifers, and the list goes on... Now how much is my time worth? Just feeding them often enough to get them into condition takes time. I was going to school at the time and was lucky enough to have a break in the middle of the day where I ran home to make their third feeding time every day. I got about 5000 of my RC posts learning how to rear clownfish fry and try to figure how many hours infront of a computer 5000 posts take.

Then they finally lay eggs... Now you have late nights every 2 weeks trying to scoop the fry out of the tank, standing in the dark, with a flashlight over the tank. Unfortunately something always happens and you lose the first 2-3 batches that you stayed up catching or remote hatching. After a month or two of catching fry and losing them you finally get one or two through to metamorphisis. Great day!!! If I needed those 2 fish to cover my expenses for the last year and 2 months just guess what I would of had to charge. Hung's price is CHEAP!!! /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/tongue.gif" align="absmiddle" border="0">

I eventually got better at it and I was raising other clown species and bangaii on the side. The point is that no matter what he charges, you are still getting a hell of a deal on a fish that he has spent a ton of time caring for. If you don't like the price please feel free to look else where, but do not judge him for you truely have not walked in his shoes and do not have a right to put a pricetag on his work.

Another side note: Hung has one of the best B&W A. Ocellaris clownfish bloodlines around. His female is about as close to wild caught as you are going to find in the sates. The only ones that might be close are Jason and Billy's clowns that came from my original pair which were a mix of the TMC (England) and ORA (USA) bloodlines. The reason being that Australia will not allow the collection of black clowns very often and if they do they rarely if ever make it to the states. It is rumored that the US black ocellaris bloodline is already at F8, meaning that they have been inbred back into the same bloodline 8 times. That is the reason why you will see many "bulldog", "stubbies", malformed gill plates, and an increase in misbarring in captive bred B&W A. Ocellaris. That fact alone makes Hung's clowns a good "investment". They are also much prettier than those "freak" clowns everyone thinks are worth thousands of dollars IMO
if everyone got out of their fish in the whole aquarium hobby what time they put into it nobody would be able to affort a fish. this isnt a by the hour job were talking about.
the time he spent on those fish is no more labor intensive than any other time consuming fish.
you want to talk time intensive? try raising a discus to selling size, it involves changing 100 percent of their water daily, and feeding them every couple hours. not to mention the thousands of dollars in water bills a year. i sold them for 8 dollars a peice and made a crapload of money.
sorry but you cant take anyones time and effort and judge what a price could be, it doesnt add up. i couldnt imagine what someones time would be worth in this circumstance.
your right on one note, if you dont like his prices feel free to look elsewhere.

 

The only reason people do not charge more for their fish in many cases is because they are limited by the price of wild caught fish. Your discus are a good example of that. They also choose not to charge outrageous amounts because they are limited by supply and demand. Right now there is a short supply of black clowns in the area and demand is high. Interestingly enough, so is the price... Once the demand is met Hung will need to stop breeding clowns or lower his price to move them. You also must rmember he is running a business, not a hobbiest completely raising clowns for the challenge and love of the fish. Don't get me wrong, I have never met anyone that loved breeding clowns more than Hung, but he still has to keep his doors open... Also, if time and effort mean nothing, please explain that to my electrician, plumber, and other contractors that seem to want to be paid for their time and efforts... /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

i must agree with travis, eins and glaspie. time is money and anyone that knows hung wonders how much sleep he even gets anymore. he is the busiest man and most hyper guy i think i have ever met. plus one of the smartest guys around. go to the best, pay for the best.

 

Ok, here is my 2 cents worth. I don't like black fake percs. If I did I'd still go get some onyx percs. There are black saddlebacks I think I'd rather have too . AS for a $100 dollar fish well I'd not pay it. If I wanted them though I would not think twice. If SOM is selling them for $200 a fish and selling out I guess the market justifies the price. Sure if you shop around you might find them cheaper than SOM's price. You might wait for months or longer until you find them. You might also get a couple of dead or sick fish after shipping also. A lot of people are sick of the regular clowns. I really do not care for mine but didn't want to wait for a different type when I got them. I really do not care if SOM's put alot of effort into breeding them, but it is great that they have a rare type of clown that most people like but can not get. I guess all I am saying is that if you do not want to pay for a pair of black clowns don't. Just dont sit arround and wonder how cool it'd be having them swiming around your tank either.