The list of livestock I will not bring in to the store. Ple

[Anonymous]

Mandarins
Goniopora
Flame Scallops
Cleaner Wrasses
Blue Ring Octopus ('duh' I know, but it *is* on the list from the wholesaler)


Anything else?

Thanks, as always, in advance.

Peace,

Chip

 

[mrrrkva]

Morish Idols

 

[danmhippo]

If I tell you anything wildcaught, would that just kills your business right away?

 

[Anonymous]

It probably would. I have a tank that's got breeding banggai cardinals, and if there were other easy fish to beed I'd take some more tanks from the store and try them myself. The owners know that I'd love to do it, but there's just no way to stock a store with just tank-raised fish.

I am aware of the concern, but there's not much I can do about it that I'm aware of.

If anyone has suggestions of fish to try breeding other than the banggai's, please let me know and I'll get setups started in-store.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

Adding the Moorish Idol to the list, and I thought of another...the Blue Ribbon Eel. I may just generalize that to ribbon eels in general, since it's far too difficult to get them to eat.

Peace,

Chip

 

[jwtrojan44]

Rock Beauty angels; very poor survival rate.

 

[mrrrkva]

aiptasia

 

[Henry1]

Pinecorn fish
Dyed anemone
Fishes caught with cyanide from the Philippines - usually PB tang, Emperor angel, Clown trigger, Majestic angel, Blueface Angel, Regal angel, Moorish idol.

I'm not sure if a separate segment carrying challenging species (such as Mandarin, Powder Blue, Archilles etc) and clearly indicated "For Experienced Reefers Only" could help prevent 'uninformed' and inexperienced reefers from buying organism beyond their ability to upkeep.
I know this is subjective and may not make good business sense. . . just thinking aloud.


cheers

 

[MattM]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Henry:
<strong>...Fishes caught with cyanide from the Philippines...</strong><hr></blockquote>

Unfortunately, perception lags reality. The Philippines began seriously enforcing cyanide bans several years ago. Cyanide use there is down tremendously from where it was 10 years ago. The bad news is that those agents who were most actively promoting cyanide use by collectors simply moved to other areas, primarily Indonesia.

It is actually rare to get cyanide caught fish from the Philippines these days, but almost unavoidable from Indonesia.

The worst thing about this is that people still associate the Philippines with cyanide collection and so will readily accept an Indonesian fish over one from the Philippines - thus virtually assuring they get a cyanide poisoned fish.

 

[Mouse]

Clown Tang, Powder Blue's and Browns. Any type of shark or ray. & Scooter Dragonets.

Or at least you could leave these as special order items. Infact i would just stock up with small community reef fish. Then when the inevitable dumb people come in asking what pretty fish thay can have next you can just say "any of them", providing of course they have waited sufficient time.

Then you have the Special Order tanks, where you keep the decent fish for those who know. Hell, they dont even have to be special orders. Cuz everyone recons their an expert.

[ April 09, 2002: Message edited by: Mouse ]</p>

 

[Henry1]

MattM,

I hope its really happening that one can regularly get CN-free fish from Philippines at this point. I know much have been done but still a long way to go.
Over here, my LFS is honest enough to admit his stocks from the Phillippines are CN-caught.
You are right that Indonesia is another primary source where fish are CN-caught.

cheers

 

[Anonymous]

Seahorses

(Except perhaps for the one company that captive breeds them and they do okay from this source)

 

[Chucker]

You might take a took at these two threads (as a start) in the Industry Forum-

Unsuitable Species List
USL- Sharks and Rays

I'd also venture to suggest that if you feel pressure from customers to sell critters that you are not comfortable stocking, offer no guarantee on them, and possibly charge a small (say, 5-10%) extra premium to get them for the customer.

 

[livingstone]

It seems to me you are grouping all of your customers into one level of expertise. There are those (not including myself) who have the capability, tank maturity, and refugium/dsb provided food that, IMO, could very well keep a mandarin dragonet, for one example, in good health.

But maybe your "statement" is that these should be banned thoughout the entire industry to prevent their purchase by the inexperienced.?

 

[Anonymous]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Chucker:
<strong>You might take a took at these two threads (as a start) in the Industry Forum-
I'd also venture to suggest that if you feel pressure from customers to sell critters that you are not comfortable stocking, offer no guarantee on them, and possibly charge a small (say, 5-10%) extra premium to get them for the customer.</strong><hr></blockquote>

Well, if I feel the customer doesn't have the experience or capability to keep the fish alive, then I won't sell it to them. I really don't want to kill any fish, regardless of guarantees. Plus, if I don't order it, then it decreases the distributors order a bit. If enough stores do this, then maybe the distributors will no longer carry the fish. Hey, one can dream, eh?

One very good customer was adamant on getting a shark because his daughter wanted one. He has a 75 gallon tank. No way was I going to sell him even the smallest of sharks.

He bought her a 26 gallon bowfront for some freshwater sharks instead.

Peace,

Chip

 

[Anonymous]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by livingstone:
<strong>It seems to me you are grouping all of your customers into one level of expertise. There are those (not including myself) who have the capability, tank maturity, and refugium/dsb provided food that, IMO, could very well keep a mandarin dragonet, for one example, in good health.
But maybe your "statement" is that these should be banned thoughout the entire industry to prevent their purchase by the inexperienced.?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Well, I certainly agree with most others here by saying that some species of animal should be kept in the ocean and not in captivity, but by no means am I excluding any of my customers from buying certain fish.

If one of my customers has a 2 year old 180 with 300 lbs. of live rock & a pair of clows in it, by all means I'll sell him a mandarin.

I'm basing this on the average ability of all my customers combined. There are certain exceptions to the 'rules' I'm setting up, of course.

Thanks for the input, though. It helps me hash things out without resorting to smoking hash.

Peace,

Chip

 

[yellow_dog]

Purple Queen Anthias, wild caught anemones (or at the very least h. magnifica), lavartus butterflies (not semilavartus), other exclusively coral feeding butterflies, orange spotted filefish, batfish, ribbon eels

 

[yellow_dog]

Almost forgot carnation corals/dendronepthya, flame scallops, oysters, tunicates, nudibranchs, basket stars

 

[Gatortailale1]

What are your plans for the fish and corals the wholesaler/distributor includes in the box to fill space or replace an item you ordered that is "suddenly" out of stock. From what I have learned from other LFS operators, this happens on almost every shipment. Despite your best efforts not to bring this stuff in, I think you are going to end up with a small stock of this stuff.

 

[MattM]

Gatortailale -

What we do is write "No substitutions without prior approval" on the bottom of every purchase order.

Distributors will call us when they want to provide substitutes and we say yea or nay on each depending on what it is.

Eventually the distributor will get to know you and it won't be a problem.