Most expensive and rare aquatic plants?
- Thread starter Jag1980
- Start date
Crypt "rosanervig" used to cost over $100 when they were first introduced, now they still go for $60. Rather surprised I don't see them around more, easy plant to grow and look best under low light conditions.
The most expensive plants are those that are not grown commercialy in the USA, and are difficult to import. Many of these plants got into the USA from auction sites, aquabid and Ebay from sellers in Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia where the plants are more readily available and they shipped them direct to hobbyists here either legally or illegaly. Some lucky hobbyists in this country have also gone over to Asia or Europe and brought plants back.
Various Eriocaulon species are popular with amature collectors and they set the prices when they sell them on the message boards. They sell them for 30 to 50 dollars each. In Asia they actually sell for much more than that. A couple years ago I was talking to two different growers in Singapore who imported them from Japan. Their wholesale price to me was close to 100 dollars. I chose not to import them because I did not think any of my customers would be willing to pay well over 100 dollars per plant.
Most Eriocaulon species are not considered easy plants to grow in the aquarium. There are a couple, but the rest are considered by most advanced hobbyists to be difficult soft water plants. It is the same thing with Cryptocorynes. Serious cryp collectors do not grow the rarest species in the aquarium, where they will surely die, but emersed in pots for one reason and one reason only... to get them to flower. Some of these can easily sell for over $100. A few years ago I had a source for semi rare cryps, and I had a couple of public botanical gardens that would pay any price to get their hands on these cryps. They grew them outside not in an aquarium.
Various Eriocaulon species are popular with amature collectors and they set the prices when they sell them on the message boards. They sell them for 30 to 50 dollars each. In Asia they actually sell for much more than that. A couple years ago I was talking to two different growers in Singapore who imported them from Japan. Their wholesale price to me was close to 100 dollars. I chose not to import them because I did not think any of my customers would be willing to pay well over 100 dollars per plant.
Most Eriocaulon species are not considered easy plants to grow in the aquarium. There are a couple, but the rest are considered by most advanced hobbyists to be difficult soft water plants. It is the same thing with Cryptocorynes. Serious cryp collectors do not grow the rarest species in the aquarium, where they will surely die, but emersed in pots for one reason and one reason only... to get them to flower. Some of these can easily sell for over $100. A few years ago I had a source for semi rare cryps, and I had a couple of public botanical gardens that would pay any price to get their hands on these cryps. They grew them outside not in an aquarium.
I don't know what the most expensive aquatic plant is, but after investing money in high intensity lights, fertilizers, pressurized CO2, ADA Aquasoil substrate, substrate heater (which I understand is not really needed), Eheim filter, even the hygrophila I put in my tank ends up costing quite a bit. I might as well buy the eriocaulon...
