Fragalot!

[DAVE]

Originally Posted by reefwars

it will for sure, summer is also the downside.... alot of these business do freswater and koi so summer they kinda forget about saltys:P



your right ,absolutely it does, i do get the priviledge of ordering with the lfs too , so even if they dont order the things i need or want i order them myself through them, even then from the wholesalers/divers i still dont get what i ordered lol

from my understanding they are usually happy to let anyone order as the more they order reguarily the better choices they will get come next order.....seems all the larger stores have first choice for corals that come into the country as they can afford to bring in on average 100+ corals


when it comes to zoos most lfs tell me its too hit or miss on what they order so unless they get too see pics( not everyone sends them pics) they are afraid of getting stuck with bland common colors. zoos aare hard to identify by name and the names and flaavors change too often.

i imagine its close to the same for sps as well right??

Yup, for the most part. Even with SPS it's very tough to know exactly what you are going to get from the supplier. I do however think it is a little easier with SPS since you can order the exact species and colour (although, the colours are not always what they seem, by the time you get them)...shipping stresses, lighting issues, time spent at the packing facilities...etc.

Name brand SPS corals are not going to be purchased overseas from the supplier..... for the most part. BUT, it can happen and it does happen once in a while (from my experience). Most stores I have talked with also request lots of photos from the suppliers, but as you said they don't always get them. Another issue I have noticed (similar to what you touched on with Zoos) is that stores normally have to bring in X amount of coral in order to get X amount of AAA grade coral. This ratio can be lowered if the stores increase there quantity or the frequency in which they order.

at least in my experience....

Dave

[fishytime]

[reefwars]

from the stores point of view in a big city if they dont have something i like im walking out and on to the next store, so in order to keep my business they either half to pony up in advance and take the risk of ordering and hoping i like it or that it sells or allow me to order for myself ,pick out what i like and they get to increase their order size and there fore their "ultra" selection...this is especially true for aussie stuff where the word "ultra" has gone mad

getting the store to let you have the ultra selection is a different story lol especially when you get to see the prices.....lots of markup on high end selection....people get greedy when they see this......makes for a stupid market


zoos then have no real ids , their of the same class and no really species ids so on the order sheet it likely says:

xl-polyps red/green
med-polyps blue




that could basically mean anything , now adays pics are more common so the nicer stuff gets ordered a bit more then it did years ago but still goes out to the larger retailers.

at least off the ultra selection the colors are better guessed , so safe to say any red/black combos of ultra are going to be decent


there is actually a decent demand for saltwater say here in calgary i can guarantee it, the problem is the lfs arent interested in a change of business.