I think it is all about shipping costs. Before free or cheap($9.99) shipping, I never considered saltwater aquaria. Every LFS and major chain would charge like $50 for a clown fish and the warranties before internet sales were crap at LFS. Suddenly, about 2002, I discovered SWF and a couple other places where I could get what was $500-$1000 in fish and coral from the LFS delivered to my door for like $100. I was in heaven. Suddenly, screwing up a SW tank meant losing $100 in livestock instead of $500-$1000. Secondly, I could get $50 in livestock and it was several great fish and free or $10 shipping, so adding fish and coral became cheap and easy. Now the price of all livestock (except for the occasional sale) has doubled and tripled and more, and in order to get free or cheap shipping requires a much greater cash outlay. Suddenly, what was a $50 total became a $150-$200 total. So I can't just look at SWF or any old web site and see a couple fish or coral and think, "Yeah, I got $50 bucks I can blow on that fish(or coral)". Now I have to wait for 2 or 3 months and carefully plan what I can afford and how much shipping will whack me and I just say, "Screw it!" It's actually making the overpriced LFS look like a much better value proposition for the impulse buying I used to do online. I don't blame SWF or any other online retailer, shipping has gone way up on both ends. But the days of "eye it, buy it" online are over for me until prices for livestock and shipping come WAAAAAAYYYYYY down. But that is why I think the whole industry is falling like a rock. The internet was the best way to shop and now it's just too dang high and people like me won't jump into SW aquariums because it is too expensive to just buy on impulse like it was.
