John,

I think you should be a special-order fish vendor, lol. Sign up with Quality Marine and get me some mini dart gobies on the cheap. My LFS wants $30/pop for them - so ridiculous.

On a serious note, I know the storefront got put on hold. You guys still planning to expand into the fish market at some point? WIll you be an online vendor for that as well?

If we do, it would be through a different website name I think, or in a special section called "Fun Stuff" or something. There are a ton of things I would like to introduce to the hobby. Cool little fish and what not. They aren't all the most colorful, but some have great personalities.

The extent of our fish collection will probably just be to harder to find in the hobby reef safe fish and high end fish. I would love to run a French Angel website. That would be sweet....I love those fish! Great personality, interesting feeding, long lived etc...A true pet that you build a tank around, and plan to have for a long time. I have always been fascinated with porcupines and balloon fish as well. Sharpnose puffers, porkfish, high hats, dusky jawfish, orangeback damsels and other larger non-reef safe fish are interesting tank mates too. But all that requires a larger warehouse, new business stuff etc... I don't see myself having the time for it soon.

About the store, it was either go one way and get the local store, (something I do want to do), or get the license and the other things. I didn't think I could afford to go for the license when I planned for the store, but it turns out I was. The license can be sold for its cost or better - something the shop wouldn't be able to do for some time, and the shop isn't as mobile as the license, which would have a greater buyer's market so I went for the license. I figure this way, when the store comes around I can offer my own products, and won't have to rely on wholesalers as much. Also, and more importantly I think, ReefCleaners won't have to rely on wholesalers as much.

I figure that would be the better move because the local economy has been greatly impacted by the recession, and it would be better to wait until the rebound. So, I got another boat, (I have 3 boats), that one has small problems that left me paddling last week, one has an outboard that fell off and has since been difficult to fix/replace, and the other has a transom seal leak....If you ever get a boat, don't. But maybe I will have mine ready when the weather improves.

When they finally print and mail me the license I will probably offer some sort of cool invert every now and then, but I don't see fish on the reef cleaners site anytime soon. Maybe special order or something, the shipping costs go up a good deal with fish, and we have flat rate shipping etc...

Sounds like a good biz move with the license. Sorry to hear about the boat troubles. Paddles ftw. Would you be licensed to collect some of the FL corals? Is that an option?

Add hard-to-find nano gobies to that list of yours. Eviotas, trimmas, and dart gobies would be awesome. I can't find them anywhere and special orders around here are just marked up way too high. I know distributors carry them - I guess they're just tough little buggers to keep alive in a store so stores don't get them.

corals are 100% protected here, I can get a submerged lands lease, (in time...) grow rock and hope and pray for it to land on the rock, but that is about it. Gorgs and zoas and rics aren't true coral and can be collected except for the nicest looking gorgs.

there are some smaller fish in these areas that are cool, but not many of them. Most are in deep water, and unless you specialize in high end deep water fish, the cost to go out there to get a few fish is immense. Shallow water fish are likely to be the only ones I will ever deal with, which does leave out some of the cooler nano fish. Selling fish online is tough. You only want to add 1 fish at a time, but shipping a fish is expensive, so unless the fish goes for big duckets anyway, I can't imagine a situation where it would be worth the cost outside of a group buy or something like that.

I am likely to limit fish sales to local shops, and some aquaculture facilities looking for broodstock. If I end up finding some cool nano sized fish though I will post about it. Lancer dragonets might become available, I just have found no information on anyone keeping these guys, so I haven't tried keeping one yet.

sounds good. good to hear that you're diversifying. i'd def. be interested in some cool gorgs and rics.

have you ever seen white telesto? what do you think of it?

It's really pretty - non-photo?

oh nevermind you found it....

yep, non photo. They are easy to feed, grows fast, and can add some life to shaded areas and keep people from having to build pyramids all the time to max out "coral" space.

I think it's really cool - not sure how a non-photo would fare in my tank. what do you feed it? I don't really have many shaded areas

they dont need shaded areas, but it would probably be best. They don't care about the light, but nuisance algae might grow on them and that becomes a pain. They survive with all sorts of stuff growing on them, but it takes away from their look, unless it is one of the sponges that grow on them. You turkey baster smaller foods onto them. Not sure how I do this without a plug, but our filter feeder formula was originally made to feed them and the purple ribbon and tan whip gorg I have. There are a lot of other products that I am sure would work too though. Baby brine, liquefied fish flake, and some of the prepared "micron diets" would work. They seem to be fond of chopped blood worms too. With the right conditions, (moderate current and bi-weekly or better feedings), they grow very fast, and it can be fun letting a cutting attach to the rock, grow some polyps and move the frag to the next spot. They attach quickly and you can start little new frag patches about every other week. with each larger frag.

The purple gorg you sent me that one time didn't make it in my tank. I think it just couldn't live through the transfer to the new tank. But it sure was pretty. If you have any cuttings next time I order, I wouldn't mind trying again.

what kind of flow did yo have on it? did the purple tissue shed?

No flow at all at first. Most of the purple tissue was gone when I tossed it. It was totally my fault - I wasn't prepared for it and didn't provide it a good environment. I hate when I do that.

oh yeah, with those guys, high lighting, moderate to high flow and you should be good. I have gotten away with a lot with them. Don't feel to bad, I didn't know they shed their tissue every now and then and I threw away a piece of one because it was shedding. I didn't know they did that, looked like it was dying to me.