Trinituner Reefers, Saltwater Aquarium Fish Keepers

[cck2]

FS salt water aquarium 2ftx2ftx18" tall and stand light complete with 2 clown fish auto top off 12lbs live rock
$3000 pm for more info

[x-man]

Yeah x-man.... Raj is your guy to check.

OK, I checked the place....
Is there any cheaper place in Trinidad??? No seriously.

You know, I am not poor (thank God), but I am not a billionaire neither to pay 900 dollars for baby blue hippo tang which can die literally day after I buy it....
I don't know for you guys, but I find that kinda rude. Especially because that fish cost 20-30 bucks in the states. Also some other fish which friend of mine in NY bought for 10 bucks is 600 ttd here or something like that....
Also to give 1000 or 2000 dollars for 1 cm big coral frag.... or 400 dollars for one small ordinary xenia frag? Come on! That softie is like pest in aquariums... people are giving it away for free sometimes because they don't know what do do with them...

I do understand that it needs to be more expensive here than in the states because it needs to be imported, and many fish don't survive... etc...
And I am very much aware that this is very expensive hobby, but this is really tooooooooooooo much!

Prices in Trinidad are insane and very rude if you ask me.
I know that generally everything is very expensive in Trinidad - because it's an island and most of the stuff needs to be imported, but sometimes people really exaggerate.


I will check one more place and one more person that I got contacts... and then I'll decide about this.
But I am not happy.

[HondaB20B]

All I can say is good luck with that.......... The other places if its not the same prices, its the fish in poor health or not quarantined properly. Again, good luck on your quest.

[x-man]

Yeah, I guess that is a reality.

[thatlife]

I was by raj yesterday. Most of his stuff sold out so it looks gloomy there

he got new fishes today but they have to be quarantined first.

[greenlime100]

The prices are high down here and there really is no real competition. And well for most of us, or at least me, once you get that first nemo it becomes addicting and somehow money comes out to buy coral and fish at the end of the month despite the high price.

I guess this is the way things will end up being until another seller enters the market on some scale to be considered competition.

Exactly the same way the bmobile was until Digicel came....that's when prices went down.

The unfortunate reality....

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

[kyhamil]

I think i should look into importing fish on a serious, it go be a hobby for me so i wont charger much...

[HondaB20B]

I think i should look into importing fish on a serious, it go be a hobby for me so i wont charger much...

Hey guys i thinking of selling out my system... im getting busy and i dont have the time to even enjoy it.... 36x24x22 high main tank, 38x18x18 sump...

WAIT WAIT...................... you now say you selling out cause you aint have time to see after one small tank........................ now you talking bout importing fish on a serious?


IS TUNA AND SNAPPER YUH TALKING BOUT RITE????

[kyhamil]

I know but its a gd business idea... and i have the space for it on a small to medium scale

[HondaB20B]

It is a good idea but also costly just to set it up on a small to medium scale. The chiller alone going to be a 1 or 2 HP along with a big protien skimmer for 1000gal +................... just that alone is around 25-30K. Then we aint talking the propper lights. A good size RODI unit. Salt (reef crystals) for 1000 gal is going to run you $3000 and you depending on load and stuff you gonna be doing 200+ gal water changes weekly. Even more if you bringing in your own fish and have to do quarantine. Remember when you have to quarantine these fish you will be adding antibiotics or copper which is deadly to coeals and inverts, so this is a separate unit. And This water has to be changed daily. So again you will be doing dailly water changes along with weekly. If you using the basis of running 1.5 X the water volume for live rock, you talking 1500lbs of live rock........$$$$$$$$$. Or thats alot of bottles of bacteria............... and the list goes on and on

[HondaB20B]

It is a good idea but also costly just to set it up on a small to medium scale. The chiller alone going to be a 1 or 2 HP along with a big protien skimmer for 1000gal +................... just that alone is around 25-30K. Then we aint talking the propper lights. A good size RODI unit. Salt (reef crystals) for 1000 gal is going to run you $3000 and you depending on load and stuff you gonna be doing 200+ gal water changes weekly. Even more if you bringing in your own fish and have to do quarantine. Remember when you have to quarantine these fish you will be adding antibiotics or copper which is deadly to coeals and inverts, so this is a separate unit. And This water has to be changed daily. So again you will be doing dailly water changes along with weekly. If you using the basis of running 1.5 X the water volume for live rock, you talking 1500lbs of live rock........$$$$$$$$$. Or thats alot of bottles of bacteria............... and the list goes on and on

[kyhamil]

Yeah and you eh talk about live rock, livestock, the actual aquariums, piping, foundations and ponds etc... that y i doh complain about price here i know the background

[HondaB20B]

Yup, you talking about 60K for the least to start

[x-man]

Hmmmmm idea of making competition is great!
I had the same ideas.
Someone said here it is too much to organize and prepare everything - but, if more people join together in that business it can work well.
Also it would be very good because prices would become normal and acceptable for much more people in the country so business would logically grow because majority of people would rather have reef tank than fresh water tank...
But, in this way one or two people have complete monopoly in the country and they can charge as much as they wish because we don't have a choice.
And that is very bad.

Here, in this video you can also see prices in US (for example):

phpBB [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGUvGIeRQtU

You can see that they are selling coral frags for only 5 to 30 dollars (which is 32 to 190 TTD only). And much bigger frags than here.
You know, US and Trinidad need to import fish and corals from the same area. Trinidad is maybe even closer than US. And how is possible that there is so big difference in price?
Simply because of the monopoly.

Prices are simply rude here
So I guess I will be forced to build my aquarium for a very long time, because i really can't give thousands and thousands of dollars just like that - for hobby... My Trini wife will kill me haha I can't tell her how much money I'll spend on my hobby

[HondaB20B]

Its not that easy X-man...... you ever found out how much it costs for the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) permit, the shipping from the US to trinidad (CAL or AA), how much to clear customs and then is who you know. Not only that, You still have to look at the survival rate of the stuff. i have been going by Raj for the last 5 1/2 years and seen him bring 5000US worth of fish and corals in and loose 3/4 of the stuff. Their are other guys i have seen a total wipe out of stock in 2 days. You ever went on line and see zoas on sale for all kinda 50US............. and thats for 3-5 polyps. And their are many other corals. Men get pissed when Raj sells one mushroom for 3-500TT....... The same mushrooms sell for 35-50US. I hit the US (Atlanta, Miami & Houston) 3-5 times a year and i go multiple petstores and mojority of corals i see at raj are nearly the same prices or slightly less. So his markup is worth it in most cases.

[Redman]

So I guess I will be forced to build my aquarium for a very long time, because i really can't give thousands and thousands of dollars just like that - for hobby... My Trini wife will kill me haha I can't tell her how much money I'll spend on my hobby

You not alone breddo.

[HondaB20B]

So I guess I will be forced to build my aquarium for a very long time, because i really can't give thousands and thousands of dollars just like that - for hobby... My Trini wife will kill me haha I can't tell her how much money I'll spend on my hobby

You not alone breddo.

actually all of my hobbies

[x-man]

So I guess I will be forced to build my aquarium for a very long time, because i really can't give thousands and thousands of dollars just like that - for hobby... My Trini wife will kill me haha I can't tell her how much money I'll spend on my hobby

You not alone breddo.

actually all of my hobbies

Good to know I'm not the only one
And what is the worst, this is also not my only hobby

[x-man]

Its not that easy X-man...... you ever found out how much it costs for the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) permit, the shipping from the US to trinidad (CAL or AA), how much to clear customs and then is who you know. Not only that, You still have to look at the survival rate of the stuff. i have been going by Raj for the last 5 1/2 years and seen him bring 5000US worth of fish and corals in and loose 3/4 of the stuff. Their are other guys i have seen a total wipe out of stock in 2 days. You ever went on line and see zoas on sale for all kinda 50US............. and thats for 3-5 polyps. And their are many other corals. Men get pissed when Raj sells one mushroom for 3-500TT....... The same mushrooms sell for 35-50US. I hit the US (Atlanta, Miami & Houston) 3-5 times a year and i go multiple petstores and mojority of corals i see at raj are nearly the same prices or slightly less. So his markup is worth it in most cases.

OK, I am not expert in this field.... I understand that everything is very complicated and hard.
I'm just sharing my thoughts.
But I am sure that competition is never bad thing.

I love reef tanks. And I already had one before I moved to Trinidad (my nephew has it now), so I also have some experiences from before. And I know for sure that wasn't so much costly hobby for me then as much is it now here. I was spending at least 50% less money before.
Only once fish that I bought in the pet shop died to me.
It was some Banggai Cardinalfish, and it was my fault because that fish did looked strange in the shop and I still bought it because I like that fish and I wanted it in my tank badly... and I didn't have the patience to wait.
Also once I had damn ich infection, but I solved it putting fish in the quarantine tank and keeping reef without fish for 2 months - which was the worst thing ever . But, surprisingly, I didn't lost any fish then.
Although, I must admit I never had more than 10 fish in the aquarium because I always loved having more corals and invertebrates - you know, having everything mixed. Which is also good because small number of fish makes water quality much higher.... but you still have fish to watch and enjoy in aquarium...
And I was always very careful for adding stuff in aquarium, and especially buying them in the shop.
Because I always carefully observe fish behaving and appearance in the shop before I buy it.
Also, before I moved to Trinidad, I had friends who also have reef tanks... It was normal stuff for us to share between each other - giving away frags of corals that grow too much in aquarium... and, of course, it was always for free between friends... So that makes the hobby even more interesting.

Also there is one more thing:
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that many corals and some fish are cultivated in the farms?
I guess they are cheaper then? Maybe people should start investing in farms instead of importing all the time.
But, again, I don't know much about business side of the hobby, all the details and complicated procedures... as I said, just sharing my thoughts.

So, now I'm settling everything and in two weeks will start slowly adding stuff in aquarium... But it will be much slower than I expected.

One more thing which is kinda frightening - So many fish dies before reach aquarium. Sometimes it seems like this hobby is very bad because it's causing all that damage. There must be some way to prevent so much fish deaths?

[thatlife]

I have padnas who import and buy fishes from other suppliers other than raj
6 out of 10 of their fishes usually die

for the past 2 1/2 years I lost 1 fish that I got from Raj, and I think it was my fault.

raj has alot of expenses and this is not a cheap hobby either.
HONDAB20B forgot to mention RAJ electricity bill which is extremely high as well and the time he spends taking care of that farm.

[kyhamil]

That life... i didn't even take that into account... but yes thats why i dont vex with the price... i have a video of a fish i saw ddi and id like some1 to help me out with the type... id post a link thia weekend... i nearly took it home with me... the fish was just chilling with me and swimming in n out of my hand n between my legs

[greenlime100]

I have padnas who import and buy fishes from other suppliers other than raj
6 out of 10 of their fishes usually die

Wouldn't simply improving their quarantine system and time increase the survival rate? Raj treats some if his fishes immediately after they arrive and sure enough he too has big losses. But as a consumer we too should make sure what we buy is good quality.

Locally I have no problem paying up to a factor of 10 for a fish, some of his fishes and live stock is reasonably priced but others are up to 200‰ more than a retail price which becomes difficult as a consumer to understand and hence the frustration.

But the bottom line is, we all agree the price is high but we still pay it because we love the hobby and have confidence is Raj as our supplier. I still strongly believe if the market was more competitive prices will come down, but again this surely isn't happening probably for decades to come.


Sent from my GT-I9500 using Tapatalk

[meccalli]

Do like me and mind some french grunts and tomtates with a rockscape lol. They are troopers compared to the other stuff I've copper quarantined from the wild and got ich eventually.

[HondaB20B]

I have padnas who import and buy fishes from other suppliers other than raj
6 out of 10 of their fishes usually die

for the past 2 1/2 years I lost 1 fish that I got from Raj, and I think it was my fault.

raj has alot of expenses and this is not a cheap hobby either.
HONDAB20B forgot to mention RAJ electricity bill which is extremely high as well and the time he spends taking care of that farm.

Yes i forgot that....... it came over 30K.
If i am not mistaken, he changes 2-300 gal of salt water daily. He uses up DI like crazy.

[HondaB20B]

No one even looks at the expence it costed him to do the new setup in the back. It cost him over 200K

[x-man]

I didn't say anything against Raj.
Of course not.
He has his way of doing business and his prices and that's quite ok. It is our choice whether we're going to buy or not. I'm buying stuff from him as well.
I was just saying that competition is necessary everywhere. Because then you get better product and better price.
Regardless if Raj or someone else is your friend, you must admit that competition is always good thing.

As for the costs of their business, nobody will ever invest into something that doesn't brings him profit. Right?

So, logically, sellers look at their interests and we buyers look at our interest. It is like that everywhere in the world.

[cck2]

two clown fish for sale $600 for the pair

[kyhamil]

Send a pic

[cck2]

Send a pic

whats app for pic
4728542

[TheSpecialOne]

anyone had any luck getting clownfish to mate ?