Fish Broker???

dh350twin · Jul 8, 2017

So i realize one thing recently, were all in the same boat! We all love our hobby and we all search hi and low for the best quality fish\corals at fair pricing. We all admit our LFS are falling apart.

Personally I was trying to find a pair of bandit angels for a fair price and was not having any luck with my normal google searching, LFS, online vendors, etc. so I took it upon myself to find wholesalers who could get them and deliver to my LFS. And next I knew I had my bandit angels.

So I had heard in California(I'm east coast) they have fish brokers that you contact and they find you your fish that is the best quality for the fair price. So I started thinking we as a group could do this.

So i will get it started and invite anyone looking for a certain fish whether it is a simple everyday fish/coral or a higher end rare fish/coral to pm me and I will do what I can to locate who can or does have it.

I encourage anyone else who has good connections to chime in and let us know if we can pm you as well. Let's try and help each other out.

Maybe this could be an avenue to help one another,
Don

Lowefx · Jul 8, 2017

Fish pricing has gotten WAY out of hand within the last few years.

Fishfinder · Jul 8, 2017

Where on the east coast are you?

dh350twin · Jul 8, 2017

Fishfinder said:
Where on the east coast are you?

Maryland

LatinKing · Jul 8, 2017

Lets see those bandit angels!

LatinKing · Jul 8, 2017

Please share where you got them from and price shipped. Curious what kind of savings. Those are beautiful fish, lets see the pair.

dh350twin · Jul 9, 2017

LatinKing said:
Please share where you got them from and price shipped. Curious what kind of savings. Those are beautiful fish, lets see the pair.

Pm sent

eatbreakfast · Jul 9, 2017

dh350twin said:
Pm sent

Why pm?

dh350twin · Jul 9, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
Why pm?

Not sure if I can post a wholesalers info

eatbreakfast · Jul 9, 2017

You can post a business' info, as long as your not affiliated with them.

dh350twin · Jul 9, 2017

eatbreakfast said:
You can post a business' info, as long as your not affiliated with them.

Ok I wasn't sure. I'm not affiliated with anyone. I searched everywhere and found a place in Hawaii called New Vision Aquatics. And had them shipped to my preffered place to buy tsmcorals

ebushrow · Jul 9, 2017

You can use me as a fish broker....but there are rules and things can be sent directly to your house and bypass the LFS....the issue is, with a broker there are no credits given for fish that arrive dead, nor any guarantee on them once they hit your tank....not a really good way to go generally....

now with your bandit angels and other high price/deep water fish....much more care is taken with them from netting, to making it to the store ....not nearly as much with a flame angel or a yellow tang.

dh350twin · Jul 9, 2017

ebushrow said:
You can use me as a fish broker....but there are rules and things can be sent directly to your house and bypass the LFS....the issue is, with a broker there are no credits given for fish that arrive dead, nor any guarantee on them once they hit your tank....not a really good way to go generally....

now with your bandit angels and other high price/deep water fish....much more care is taken with them from netting, to making it to the store ....not nearly as much with a flame angel or a yellow tang.

Interesting, thanks for chiming in. What kind of rules? I do find the notion of a fish Broker interesting

ebushrow · Jul 9, 2017

dh350twin said:
Interesting, thanks for chiming in. What kind of rules? I do find the notion of a fish Broker interesting

There are minimum dollar amounts you need to attain in order to place the order...generally 500.00. There is a 15% fee for sourcing livestock through specific channels....again, no DOA or 24 hour guarantee on fish, corals, or inverts....shipping, box charges, and heat or cold packs are always your responsibility. You have to have a tax I'd and business license to buy from them....you can get great stuff till your orders reach 5k or more per week ( so no bounce mushrooms or whatever is hot at that time). These are not my rules, but they are the rules I am held by.

I can bypass much of this, but sometimes not.

dh350twin · Jul 9, 2017

ebushrow said:
There are minimum dollar amounts you need to attain in order to place the order...generally 500.00. There is a 15% fee for sourcing livestock through specific channels....again, no DOA or 24 hour guarantee on fish, corals, or inverts....shipping, box charges, and heat or cold packs are always your responsibility. You have to have a tax I'd and business license to buy from them....you can get great stuff till your orders reach 5k or more per week ( so no bounce mushrooms or whatever is hot at that time). These are not my rules, but they are the rules I am held by.

I can bypass much of this, but sometimes not.

Thank you for filling us in. Was curious how this worked

Confuse · Jul 9, 2017

First off, there are a ton of people here in Southern California who have unauthorized access to wholesalers by passing themselves off as "stores" (e.g. "online" stores or "garage guys" or people who sell livestock out of their garages without being an LFS and without overhead). I don't think I'd call them brokers. They're just guys with access to the wholesaler who will sell below retail because they have fewer costs. There are other guys that do transhipping and that's how they get their things. Have you noticed all those facebook groups with crazy looking "aquacultured"

:cough::maricultured::cough:

corals lately? Yeah...There are no guarantees and the quality is based on the wholesaler or transhipper they get their specimen from. I mean, there was a guy on craigslist selling gem tangs a few months ago here. LOL

dh350twin · Jul 9, 2017

Confuse said:
First off, there are a ton of people here in Southern California who have unauthorized access to wholesalers by passing themselves off as "stores" (e.g. "online" stores or "garage guys" or people who sell livestock out of their garages without being an LFS and without overhead). I don't think I'd call them brokers. They're just guys with access to the wholesaler who will sell below retail because they have fewer costs. There are other guys that do transhipping and that's how they get their things. Have you noticed all those facebook groups with crazy looking "aquacultured" :cough::maricultured::cough: corals lately? Yeah...There are no guarantees and the quality is based on the wholesaler or transhipper they get their specimen from. I mean, there was a guy on craigslist selling gem tangs a few months ago here. LOL

And that is making it hard for us to get good quality for a fair price

ebushrow · Jul 9, 2017

Confuse said:
First off, there are a ton of people here in Southern California who have unauthorized access to wholesalers by passing themselves off as "stores" (e.g. "online" stores or "garage guys" or people who sell livestock out of their garages without being an LFS and without overhead). I don't think I'd call them brokers. They're just guys with access to the wholesaler who will sell below retail because they have fewer costs. There are other guys that do transhipping and that's how they get their things. Have you noticed all those facebook groups with crazy looking "aquacultured" :cough::maricultured::cough: corals lately? Yeah...There are no guarantees and the quality is based on the wholesaler or transhipper they get their specimen from. I mean, there was a guy on craigslist selling gem tangs a few months ago here. LOL

True!

ebushrow · Jul 9, 2017

dh350twin said:
And that is making it hard for us to get good quality for a fair price

Partially true....the other fact is that disease is ramped in most wholesalers system leading to big losses at the store ends...thus high prices to make up for losses. Just look at all the disease threads over the last 6 months.....the fish come from only 12-18 wholesalers in the U.S. (fish wholesalers at least)...transshipped fish are even worse IME.