paulus Posted May 13, 2003 Report Share Posted May 13, 2003 New to NZ and frustrated with lack of marine suppliers in Wellington so am seriously thinking of starting up myself. However, getting equally frustrated trying to track suppliers of 'industrial-strength' filters etc. Know of anyone who can/wants to help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 13, 2003 Report Share Posted May 13, 2003 Do you want to distribute equipment or fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulus Posted May 14, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 14, 2003 Primarily fish but would supplement this with kit as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 14, 2003 Report Share Posted May 14, 2003 Have you checked out the NZ Quarantine rules? You could of course set up your own quarantine site. Using other sites would make it very difficult to make ends meet as a reseller. The six week quarantine period is very expensive to run. MAF has all the quarantine rules and regs and will send them to you if you are interested. I don't know what it costs for the inspection and licensing or what the cost of yearly inspections is. I believe it is relatively easy to set a site up but it does cost a bit initially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted May 14, 2003 Report Share Posted May 14, 2003 Its a 3 week quarintine period for marines in NZ. Cost of MAF is $150.00 an hour. There is also some other drama and its why a $15USD Yellow tang can be over $200 NZ... There are quite a few Marine importers in NZ. Several in Auckland and Chrischurch. I also know fo a few people who import equipment etc too but its EXPENSIVE. A guy I know in auckland is landing his 1st shipment in August and he is bringin in 400 pieces of coral and another 400 fish etc. He has said to people that if your not bringing it in a bulk all the costs from MAF etc are expensive. I would be very surprised if you could make it worth while by just selling fish. Marine fish consumption is MUCH lower than freshwater and the number of fish per tank is also lower. Good luck though. I would love to see someone in Wellington dealing with Marines. I have heard that Jensens will open a store in Wellington this year, so that is good news. Do you have a marine tank now? I often think the best way would be to organise something with the guy at the Hutt Pet centre (Graham). He would do marines if he though he could sell them, but he is cionvinved he cant. He said to me that he could better use the sapce on extra dog biscuts then marine fish. also they are high maintenenace. Maybee you could work something with him. Good luck! Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulus Posted May 15, 2003 Author Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Thanks guys - I'm convinced there is enough extra demand (even without taking into consideration all the people already into the hobby who are desperate for an outlet in Wellington). Will do some more research and let you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Would help if you did freshwater fish too. Maybe just do some of the less common types. Never hurts to widen your customer base. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Yeah, agree. There is definitely room for more marine fish importers. If a single marine importer really concentrated on bringing in bulk shipments it might just lower the cost enough to get more people interested in them. Lets face it, freshwater fish are imported in thousands per species but with marines you'd be lucky to have a quantity larger than ten of most species brought in. Good luck and keep us posted with what you're up to. 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted May 15, 2003 Report Share Posted May 15, 2003 Yeah I think you could sell marines in Wellington. We are bigger than Whangaraie, which has 2 shops selling marines... I think there is room in Wellington for a Fish 'only' shop. One that acutally makes an effort. Although I agree with the others, having both marine and freshwater makes sense, I think it would be VERY challanging to survive on marine alone. Marines not withstanding. I am one of those people who doesn't only shop on price. Places like Animates are expensive anyway, but what else do I get from them other than what I purchased? Nothing. I would be happy to pay 'top dollar' for my equipment and stock if it came from a friendly, knowledgable and interested shop. When Animates started here in Wellington it was awesome. Clean takes obviously cared for. Sure there fish typically were a dollar or 2 dearer than the Hutt Pet centre but I didn;t care. I brought a lot from Animates for a while. But now, they have less than half the tanks they started with. Most of the ones they have a unclean, full of dead fish and whitespot. And there 4 display tanks are going or gone. Its something I really enjoyed when I was in Auckland last month. I met with people who were really awesome, but the shops (Jansens & Hollywood fish farm) where interested and keen to talk too. And I mean genuinley. Sure they wanted to sell me stuff, but thats fine I want to buy stuff. But the guy I spoke to as Jansens was awesome. I can see how that store has done so well. Sure there stuff is 'top dollar', but to get it from somewhere that was clean, organised, well stocked and staffed the place with interested people, who cares. I wish you luck here in Wellington. And if you do decide to do something I would be happy to be customer number 1. Cheers Pies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eman Posted September 5, 2003 Report Share Posted September 5, 2003 quarantine is only 3 weeks for marines and maf fees are 110 per hour from memory but it is expensive to setup a quarantine room and alot of paperwork but good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris.L Posted September 5, 2003 Report Share Posted September 5, 2003 what's happened about this? did it work out? I think you should import WILD discus, there should be demand for those here if the price is right!~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulus Posted September 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2003 Thanks for the support - still in the investigation phase. Had a lot of help from Redwood Aquatics in Christchurch but an Auckland-based retailer (beginning with J) is busy tying up all the equipment suppliers to sole agency agreements and making it very difficult for any competition. Hope to do something by early next year though.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris.L Posted September 8, 2003 Report Share Posted September 8, 2003 Will you be shipping in Discus ? That could do with a big boost around here Chris- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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