lduncan

Quick off the mark chimera, it's not the only name either. Layton

Starting to wonder if people actually know what price they can get retail. Here are prices I can get currenly from shops here. Blue Tang $90 Chromis $20 Clown $25 to $30 Yellow tang $110 to $150 Sixline $50 Layton

Other than the blue tang that is.

Pies, Maybe you should buy from Redwood. Typically their prices are within -+ 10% of those you've given. Layton

Pies, I know what you're saying. But I still think there needs to be an avenue for new people to get into the hobby. The fact is, is that if the volume of marine sales in shops (who don't import themselves) drops, then they will more than likely stop stocking this stuff altogether. People just don't stumble across a New Zealand web site and decide they want to start a reef, they go to a pet store, see a display, and decide that is what they want to keep. Unless of course the pet store no longer stocking marines. Surely you see what I mean? Sure it doesn't help you right now, but it may well do in the future. Layton

Still no answers, does no one know what they want to pay for these fish? yellow tang sixline wrasse ocellaris clown chromis bangaii's blue tang coral beauty anthias Give me some dollar prices. Layton

Well Steve, I expect to see a summary of all you're fish and coral imported, and costs incurred, just to check you're not adding more than your 50% on. Wouldn't want you ripping Peter off Layton

I was just about to post something along those lines reef.

Done.

Personally I think 100% markup for importer, and around 50 to 60% for retailer is fair. Probably averaging to around 60 to 70 dollars for most stuff. Peter, I don't really think we want acro "chop shops" on imports. Frags are a space in the market which need to be meet by hobbyists, or commercial aquaculture I think. Layton

Considering a lot of people are up in arms about pricing. Post what price you think is appropriate for specific items of live stock. Layton

Confirms what thoughts? Layton

Corsier bay. It had the easiest access if you were to collect a lot of water. Layton

Well, I finally decided that I would check out NSW around ChCh. Here are the results from basic tests: Salinity 1.024 Mg 1110 Ca 300 KH 5 NO3 Undetectable PO4 Undetectable Other crap Untestable by me. Calcium is very low, Mg a little low for my liking too. Still no incentive to change. Layton

Don't the makers of Zeovit do an iron supplement? Maybe Brendan could help you out. Layton

I may be wrong, but Flourish mainly contains iron right? I may be wrong again, but I think seaweed relies on iodine more than it does iron. Layton

It's definitely not the most cost effective way to stock a large tank by any means. It would have to be a swimming pool size tank before this was the case. Steve - it won't be a secret for ever. Layton

I don't know how you plan to sell your stuff. Are you going to sell direct only? Or do you plan to sell to shops? Or a mixture of both? Just like now. If I can't get the stuff I want from shops, for whatever reason, I will buy from elsewhere, but shops would be my preference. Chimera, it will cause no marine shops to close, because to my knowledge there are no exclusively marine shops in NZ, like you said, they would have closed quickly. Why is this? Simple, the market is too small to sustain it. But this may cause some shops to close their marine section altogether, reducing the public profile of the hobby. Like I have said in previous post in this thread. Layton

That's not what you need to know though. Anyone can test for that, it's the other elements and chemicals I would be worried about. Layton

Corals "opening up" is not necessarily a good indicator of how happy a coral is. Polyp extension can actually be a sign of stress from what i've read. Layton

Council has good records on water testing, and it looks good to me. Just because people use it without catastrophic problems doesn't mean it's not polluted, or it's doing your livestock any good. Pollutants, depending on what they are, may not kill you're animals, but they may not be doing them any favours either. You're right, I have no experience with NSW, because to me the risk is too high. Not to mention the inconvenience factor. Layton

Initially I thought this debate was about lowering livestock prices. That's the bottom line. Was I wrong? It seems Nick isn't so sure he can do this, Steve on the other hand seems adamant that he can. Steve and Nick won't put people out of business completely, but depending on how the plan to sell their stock, they may well be responsible for some marine sections in shops closing. This is not good for the hobby. Layton

They'll get sick of it soon enough. Prove to me it's not polluted I say. I know ASW won't be polluted. Can't say the same about NSW, it may or may not be, and that's risk enough for me. Layton

new record i guess practise makes perfect. Layton

There are also other issues with supply, for example Redwoods have been waiting months for CITIES stuff to come through for a coral shipment, they have no control over that. Layton