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PeterIMA

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If all the high-end FW species are "illegal" how can you sell them?

I understand that it is illegal to import and sell the golden arowana (Scelophagus formosus) in the USA (but legal in Canada and other countries with a CITES permit saying the fish are farm bred). But, what other species are you alluding to?

Peter
 

Raskal311

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Piranha, fresh water sting ray, alligator gar are a few I can think off. I plan on offering more fresh water fish in general; those cheap $5 fish adds up at the end of the month. Our current freshwater area only adds up to 1500 gallons; I’d like to double this when possible.
 

TuskFish

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Peter, many of the FW fish mentioned are illegal only in certain states. Florida and California, in particular, are every aggressive in banning certain species which could, or already have, been introduced into state waters.


The main reason for my asking the original question is that while the individual dollars per transaction for a FW customer are obviously much lower than the avg marine customer, the fact remains that there are many more FW customers out there to be had. For every 100 aquariums sold in the US, 98 of them will be set up FW. Couple that with the fact that 95% of all people currently keeping marine fish and/or inverts started with a FW aquarium, and it would seem to be good business for an LFS owner to use this as a way to "groom" potential marine hobbyists, teaching succesful husbandry techniques, etc.
 

PeterIMA

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We seem to have a difference of opinion about whether it it profitable to sell freshwater fish or not. Some have stated they can make more selling marines, others point out that the pie is bigger with freshwater.

My question is whether those who sell both freshwater and marine fish buy both from the same wholesaler or whether they buy from separate suppliers. Does it matter?

Peter
 

Jaime Baquero

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Well planted FW aquariums with a nice selection of fish could be as interesting as is a nice reef tank. Serious FW hobbyists are willing to put big money for the state of the art FW tank. It all depends on your display tanks.

As you know FW is easier to handle. Fresh water fish disease can be controlled easier is more economic and to the reach of most of the people, it is also a"less controversial" hobby.

I found is better to buy from a supplier that deals only with fresh water.

Jaime
 

swsaltwater

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It matters who you buy from for the fact that most marine dealers selling FW fish are expensive. Most just have deals with FW suppplies and you simply pay another markup. I order FW from FW wholesalers, and Salt from salt wholesalers.
 
A

Anonymous

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To answer Peter's question directly, way back when I was in it, we bought FW and SW from separate vendors. Salt were (usually and most often) from Quality Marine, freshies were from a variety of vendors both stateside and direct from out of country.
 

Twisted1

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The sad part about ASAP shutting down, is that as a far northern california retail store manager we just lost one of only three easy sources of livestock.
Of the remaining two wholesalers that actually deliver as far north as I am, they are only really capable of stocking me with the "bread and butter" type stock.
now our choice boils down to keep trying to stock our store with common items and see how long we can hold out, or one of us will have to try quitting our full time job and see if we can make the drive down to LA <10 hours south of us> a couple of times a month.
Sadly I don't think there is enough call for exceptional pieces in my area to make that drive worth while.

In my area we have 5 stores that carry saltwater.
One carried a full line of pet supplies, and he changed the saltwater section from 20 tanks to 5 tanks, and turned the live rock bins into turtle tanks, etc...
Another small family owned pet shop closed it's doors last month, and another one eliminated it's saltwater, and freshwater fish section.
That leaves just the two full line saltwater/freshwater stores, and then of course Petco, petsmart.

I'm not sure how long the owner of my store can hang onto the store, but the good side, is he has a full time job, and has his son run the store until he gets off work, so his cost of running the store is down, and his income is up due to his other job.

But until we find a wholesaler that can actually cherry pick for me, we will not have much for a selection.
I am currently working on a way to start going to down south atleast once a month to hand pick corals, but nothing is working out so far.
 

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