I met Jason a number of times...first, when he wildly overcharged me to re-silicon a leaking hex (I did not know any better at the time, it was the first tank I had that needed silicon repair), and had to re-do it twice (and I still had to go in and fix some spots!). Then, I used to drop into SWC to browse-- until I looked at prices and found they were way out of whack (high). I bought a couple of corals (not endangered, I never buy endangered, I research them first) and stopped buying when the corals I got from him would die, and similar corals I got from other shops (cheaper) to replace them flourished. I was glad I'd quit buying from him when I heard about the problem in 2007.
As soon as he realized I was not going to be spending a fortune in his shop, he became terse, even rude when I went in. I observed he was very charming, though, when he had a sucker on the hook who was happy to overspend ridiculous amounts of money for creatures (like the large clams) that would not survive in their tanks (I would overhear discussions about lighting-- he would be selling clams to people with T5HO lighting).
The last purchase I made was many, many months ago, meds I couldn't find anywhere else. As always, he was rude.
And a note of clarification: he did not simply import without proper permits. He imported huge amount of rock and species for which you cannot GET permits because they are endangered.
As for why he would do this? Money, money, money. This stuff sells for a LOT on the black market.
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125 gallon reef, vertex 200 lights, 40 gallon sump/refugium, 2 Deltec skimmers, Mag 12 return pump, Koralia 4 Wavemaker.
(125 gallon freshwater discus planted tank. 40 gallon discus spawning tank, 35 gallon discus spawning tank)
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