Biota Yellow Tang review

[9975]

That's a great business model @Biota_Marine. Nothing like taking advantage of people. Capitalism is one thing but that's a joke

 

[Zionas]

@Biota_Marine Is there any chance you can ship internationally to Asia?

 

[Mjl714]

I have no affiliation with @Biota_Marine, but with the recent stop of exports by Hawaii, and the large volume of people that have or would like a Yellow Tang in their aquarium, I figured I would share an experience of the Biota Yellow Tang I just received. Initially I attempted to find some reviews of their livestock, however the only thing I could find was posts from multiple years ago and marketing or trade show type articles.

You can purchase these specimens either directly from Biota, your LFS, multiple online sellers, or in my case, I purchased from @AlgaeBarn. Prior to purchasing, I reached out directly to Biota inquiring about what little information I found about the quality of these specimens other than their early releases from a few years ago which a number of them had erosion issues. To my surprise, they responded extremely fast and assured me that those issues have since passed as their processes have evolved.

I placed my order, it was delivered via Fedex directly from the Biota facility in Fort Lauderdale. The styrofoam container is of high quality, the fish was double bagged and included two heat packs as it was sent to me here in the frozen tundra of North Dakota. The fish was quite active prior to acclimating which was a good sign as usual and after floating the bag, opening and adding/replacing liquid from the bag, the fish was released within about an hour into my QT system. The fish was shipped in a roughly 1.020 salinity water so the acclimation process took a little longer than I normally like.

The fish is roughly the size of a 50cent piece, maybe a little smaller, and is still fairly translucent with its yellow colors starting to show. The fish is actively exploring the tank along with a small Tomini and Royal Gramma that are also starting their stay in QT. First feeding with Rods frozen and the fish actively fed after only being placed in QT a few hrs prior.

Thanks for the review, I was wondering how these captive breeds are doing. Any update? How’s the little yellow tang doing In QT?

 

[Sandersonville]

That's a great business model @Biota_Marine. Nothing like taking advantage of people. Capitalism is one thing but that's a joke

I think it was a smart / necessary business decision to raise their prices.

They went from being an optional source of Yellow Tangs to becoming one of the only / primary sources overnight. That is going to slam them hard and create some new and unexpected / unplanned for challenges they’ll need to address.

Increasing their pricing will give them additional $$$ to do this and to help expand their operations to accommodate the new demand. I see no reason they should not have raised their prices like they did and wouldn’t be surprised if they jumped again. Long term (years) as things scale, prices should actually go down.

They have a pretty huge responsibility to the hobby for these fish right now!

 

[9975]

I think it was a smart / necessary business decision to raise their prices.

They went from being an optional source of Yellow Tangs to becoming one of the only / primary sources overnight. That is going to slam them hard and create some new and unexpected / unplanned for challenges they’ll need to address.

Increasing their pricing will give them additional $$$ to do this and to help expand their operations to accommodate the new demand. I see no reason they should not have raised their prices like they did and wouldn’t be surprised if they jumped again. Long term (years) as things scale, prices should actually go down.

They have a pretty huge responsibility to the hobby for these fish right now!

I'm not going to argue this point but you don't raise prices due to increased business, you use the profit from sales.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Supply and demand really. Also If live aquaria and fish store raise there prices. As biota being a supplier to these places it’s only right to raise their prices. If a supplier sells publicly and is cheaper then their wholesale clients, that’s is not right to them. I’m sure that is a huge chunk of thier business.

 

[hds4216]

That's a great business model @Biota_Marine. Nothing like taking advantage of people. Capitalism is one thing but that's a joke

This is the textbook definition of capitalism. Supply decreases while demand remains the same, so they can charge significantly more. If you don't approve of this you don't approve of capitalism.

 

[tfeeken]

Thanks for the review, I was wondering how these captive breeds are doing. Any update? How’s the little yellow tang doing In QT?

Little guy is doing great. Feeding like a monster. Handled it's first transfer and H2O2 bath following Humblefish Hybrid Tank Transfer method and ate upon feeding right away which was about 5 min post transfer.

 

[Biota_Marine]

That's a great business model @Biota_Marine. Nothing like taking advantage of people. Capitalism is one thing but that's a joke

Hey 9975,

We actually were asked to raise our online pricing by Local fish stores around the US. Our wholesale pricing to them has stayed the same while I've heard the remaining wild caught pricing has surged to insane amounts. They had customers walking into their store wondering why they should purchase it from them rather than direct to online so to make it easier for the brick and mortar stores that supported us over the years we agreed to make that change and follow suit to the other online vendors. There was no malicious intent in that price increase and I can assure you there's no one to be taken advantage of, people can simply choose to not purchase the fish from our online site and instead support their brick and mortar stores.

 

[Biota_Marine]

I'm not going to argue this point but you don't raise prices due to increased business, you use the profit from sales.

Also this is correct, there is an unprecedented need for this species in which we were producing a few thousand a month there is now a gap of 25000 individuals a month so the support we get on this species and others allows us to increase and hopefully eventually fulfill this demand. Basically overnight we were asked by every country on the planet to have tens of thousands of yellow tangs and in reality that is going to take time and an incredible amount of money.

 

[Biota_Marine]

@Biota_Marine Is there any chance you can ship internationally to Asia?

Unfortunately, we don't ship to Asia at the moment. The progression of our Exports has been Germany>UK>Portugal>Canada our next steps are likely going to be into the Asian market but I think that is going to start with direct shipment from our Palau facility and our US produced products will follow suit shortly after we've established our partnered wholesaler out there.

 

[ca1ore]

I'm not going to argue this point but you don't raise prices due to increased business, you use the profit from sales.

I would be curious to have you explain this. Makes absolutely no sense to me. When demand increases but supply is constrained, prices go up. If supply can easily scale to increased demand then prices don’t necessarily go up.

 

[gentlefish]

Thanks for the post, cute little buddy. I am happy to learn that prior concerns have been addressed, an while my YT is 11 years and healthy, I helps me to understand that captive bread YT is the way to go (200 $/11 years=5 cents/day)

 

[Zionas]

I would be very, very happy once you start shipping to Asia! I’m sure you’ll find a market in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China (hobby is growing here), Japan, Australia and so on!

 

[Samsquanch]

I purchased my biota yellow tang last year, he's doing great. I got mine from a LFS that had captive bred as well as wild caught. I hope to see more people getting into breading, perhaps in the future we'll see more fish we love being captive bred

 

[Zionas]

I’m sure that would make all of us happy.

 

[DaneGer21]

Picked up a remaining Hawaiian from NyAquatics 2wks ago! 3” for 89$! Super happy.

Can’t wait for more captives though!

 

[Tamberav]

$200 for an animal that can live 20 or 30 years is really inexpensive.

 

[Zionas]

Yes exactly. When we factor in their lifespan, I would rather pay significantly more upfront for a healthy and clean fish, rather than maybe needing more than one or several attempts to keep that fish.

 

[Steph72]

Yes exactly. When we factor in their lifespan, I would rather pay significantly more upfront for a healthy and clean fish, rather than maybe needing more than one or several attempts to keep that fish.

I agree