reef collection in costa mesa!!!

yeloyoshi · #1 05/13/2006, 12:06 AM

one word....

EXPENSIVE!!!!

raskal311 · #2 05/13/2006, 12:10 AM

Word.....

fish_fanatik · #3 05/13/2006, 12:18 AM

yeah,

it is pretty pricey.

But I do like the layout. It is nice and roomy and they have a lot of nice fish. They had like 3 mystery wrasses, lineatus wrasse, and golden wrasse. Too bad I cant afford them...

raskal311 · #4 05/13/2006, 12:20 AM

Rommy it is, that place must cost them an arm and two legs to rent.

yeloyoshi · #5 05/13/2006, 12:21 AM

$1600 for a acan lord colony?!?!

raskal311 · #6 05/13/2006, 12:27 AM

haha.. I was told that if I bought the entire colony it would only cost me $20per, its a 30+ head colony!!!!

pledosophy · #7 05/13/2006, 12:40 AM

It's weird because the same items at there other location are cheaper. I think there tryong to make up the rent in high prices. I bet if they went after volume they'd do better. It's a shame because the store has such great potential and all but the prices make it a no go for me as well.

hipertec · #8 05/13/2006, 12:58 AM

yup..wayyyy expensive on everything!!!

sps_addict · #9 05/13/2006, 01:27 AM

yes. way expensive. the guy at the register who also gave me the pricing (not Frank or Vu) who gave me the pricing on a sea horse (i know i could get it for $50 elsewhere, but decided to support them), which he said was $80 + 30% off for the opening sale. He ended up charging me $89 + 20% off. Also purchased a red marco algae and he said it was $19 + 30% off, but I got charged $29 + 10% off. I didn't catch it until I got home. So if I ever go there again, I have to check my receipt at the register next time, or make sure Vu or Frank are cashing me out.

besides the prices and the other dude it looks to be a good store.

pledosophy · #10 05/13/2006, 03:12 AM

Did you really buy a seahorse from him? That way sux. They are not CB. They are maricultured. Tehy were raised in ocean pens in Asia. Many of the seahorses from that region are coming down with serious internal parasite problems about 4 months after purchase. If I were you and they wouldn't take it back I'd do a fresh water dip and then treat with a dewormer. You have to treat those maricultured horses just like they were WC.

If he does let you return, check out Draco, or Seahorsesource.com for really good quality CB aquacultured seahorses for less then you paid for that one.

Sucks they were shady with you.

If you ever need any help with the seahorse let me know, I'm a little obsessed.

You can also check out seahorse.org, I'm Kevin over there. Good Luck.

sps_addict · #11 05/13/2006, 03:21 AM

They are willing to fix the charge issue, but due to gas prices and my location from theres, it is not worth going out of my way at the moment to drive there and get the difference. I would use up the difference in the gas. So I will have to stop by there when I am around that area, which isn't frequent.

As for the sea horses. They aren't tank raised like I was told? Since I thought they were tank raised I didn't worry about parasites and such. What are the signs for internal parasites? The sea horses have a skinny stomach and looks to be getting smaller even after feeding 3 times a day x 2 cubes and they eat like crazy, is this one of the signs? I thought I wasn't feeding enough. So should I return them or treat them? Where can I get the dewormer? Sorry for all the questions, these are my first set of seahorses.

Nano-Nag · #12 05/13/2006, 04:33 AM

Steve -

Weight loss is one indication of internal parasites, add to the fact that they are tank raised, and it would probably be a good ideal to start treating them for the little buggers.

I have a pair of tank raised (read wild caught lite) in a 10 gallon quarantine, with the sg lowered to 1.010. They have just finished three treatments of Prazipro, to be followed by
Metro+, and finally Panacur.

I purchased my meds through Seahorsesource.com, but Prazipro, and Metro+ can also be obtained at most LFS.

If you decide to keep your seahorses, make sure you treat them in a quarantine, as some of the meds will wipe out invertebrates and corals.

Good Luck!

Shay

JenDub · #13 05/13/2006, 06:21 AM

hehe, It's sad that when the prices were low everyone griped about their quality, now that the quality has increased all you here is complaints about the prices.

Keep in mind this store is across the street from South Coast Plaza, the old hole in the wall location has been closed down.

Poor Frank, he's darned if he does and darned if he don't

DgenR8 · #14 05/13/2006, 07:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by pledosophy
Did you really buy a seahorse from him? That way sux. They are not CB. They are maricultured. Tehy were raised in ocean pens in Asia. Many of the seahorses from that region are coming down with serious internal parasite problems about 4 months after purchase. If I were you and they wouldn't take it back I'd do a fresh water dip and then treat with a dewormer. You have to treat those maricultured horses just like they were WC.

If he does let you return, check out Draco, or Seahorsesource.com for really good quality CB aquacultured seahorses for less then you paid for that one.

Sucks they were shady with you.

If you ever need any help with the seahorse let me know, I'm a little obsessed. You can also check out seahorse.org, I'm Kevin over there. Good Luck.

Hello So. California,
I am an outsider here, I don't know any of the players, or anything about the situation. I was asked to look at a post, and I do see something worth commenting on.

"Sucks they were shady with you" That could be just brushed off as an opinion, and we all know that everyone has an opinion. If you were running a business, aqnd someone directed it at you, you'd likely see the word "shady" somewhat differently than you do now. It basically accuses someone of deceptive practices.

"Did you really buy a seahorse from him? That way sux. They are not CB. They are maricultured. Tehy were raised in ocean pens in Asia."

Again, I don't know if there's any truth to that statement, or where you are getting your info from. If you can back it up with facts, feel free to do so. If you can't, posts such as what I quoted above could lead to problems most of us would rather not deal with.

Anyone can be an expert in anything on the Internet. A piece of good advice, take everything you read with a grain of salt.

sps_addict · #15 05/13/2006, 10:51 AM

@Shay: I'll treat them just in case, thanks for the link I will purchase those suggested meds asap, and up the amount of feeding for mysis to 4 times a day. How long are they to stay in quarintine? A month or so?

@pledosophy: Having a night to sleep it over, I still do think that they are tank raised. As for being shady (didn't catch that last night )...I wouldn't say they were being shady, since Frank is willing to fix the issue with the price as I said above, but it isn't worth the effort right now due to gas prices being so high.

@all: To continue on with the thread. Yes prices are high, but quality has increased as JenDub said. Dry goods are at a good price, which is in line with other stores in the area. As stated it is a good store. I think they still price match, but I'll have to ask them again

pledosophy · #16 05/13/2006, 11:02 AM

I'm sorry you had to get involved in this thread.

Yes, everything I am stating is my opinion.

I meant the word shady in terms of deceptive business practices. Stating a price and charging a higher one, not giving the promised discount on a purchase, are deceptive IMO. It is very possible it was human error, but if it were my company and I overcharged someone like that, I think I would make more of an effort then to tell them to drive back down. Especially if the customer was a good enough one to buy a seahorse he new he could get somewhere else for cheaper just to support me. JMO

As far as the seahorses being maricultured, I knew this from a visit to the store. The employee there said they were from ORA or Sri Lanka, and they had had them since Sept or Oct., my PM I just received from Frank confirmed it. The breeders in Sri Lanka use ocean pen nets to raise the fry, then transfer the fry to growout tanks at an older age to train to frozen, then ship to the U.S. ORA currently has no on site breeding facility for syngnathids. They do import from asian net pen breeders and sell in the U.S.

Using net pens to breed seahorses is a very effective way to knock down the cost of raising seahorse fry. Seahorse conservationist went to asia to oversee the building and production of these net pen breeders in hopes that they would be able to breed enough seahorses to help satisfy the demand created by the Traditional Chineese Medicine market.

They were not originally designed to produce aquarium speciments, it was just a natural progression IMO.

The practice is not really a secret. The maricutured animals are still better then getting WC's IMO. While they are techically CB since they are held in a net, they are not the aquacultered speciments that many of us think of when we hear the term CB. JMO.

The major problems with these seahorses is internal parasites, which is consistant with what Steve is describing. They can be great speciments if quarintined like a WC seahorse, which is what I was suggesting in the previous post.

I was in error when I said they were not CB they are, they are just not aquacultured.

Many things we put in our tanks are maricultured. It is a very common practice. It is just that with seahorses, there needs to be a better classification then CB, because maricultured and aquacultured seahorses, while both CB, have different needs.

Larry is right. This is the internet. Anyone can say anything they want to and have it taken as fact. If your planning on buying a seahorse, don't take my word for. Do your own research, and prepare yourself. The more you know the better keeper you will be.

sps_addict · #17 05/13/2006, 11:09 AM

Received a PM from Frank and he said if they die (hopefully they won't) within 30 days, he will refund my money full! Talk about customer service.

As for them being tank raised, pledosophy is right. Frank said that they were captive raised. So the dude made a "mistake" in telling me it was tank raised. All is forgiven. I appreciate Franks honest and effort to help!

NicoleC · #18 05/13/2006, 11:22 AM

I'm not sure if it was a mistake. "Captive bred" means wild collected larvae and raised in captivity. "Tank raised" means the larvae were raised in captivity from captive broodstock. Captive bred is usually (but not always) raised outdoors in the oceans, so they are not in a pristine environment like a breeder's facility. Raising in the ocean or with raw ocean water is MUCH cheaper than in tanks, and anywhere warm enough to do so is going to do it that way.

But the terms have become polluted and seem to be used interchangeably in some places, so it's always best to get clarification.

hipertec · #19 05/13/2006, 11:58 AM

Frank is a great guy and runs his stores good. I was just surprised to see that most of the fishes and corals were so expensive.
That being said, if the new store has better prices, the new store will be a great success! Great selection and big store.

yeloyoshi · #20 05/13/2006, 12:33 PM

the store itself is really nice... so i guess i'll take back "one word..." but yah i've been going to the reef collection in HB and i was surprised with the prices at the other store... they gotta price match the other store =)

SkinyChinaMan · #21 05/13/2006, 01:36 PM

IMHO, all prices reflects the expenses to runa LFS. Like myself, I am sure that Frank have a very HEAVY burden with overhead costs, hence alittle higher price. But if the quality is there, that is what really matters. His location is prime in that area also, and belive or not, he will make his share and his own customers for being in that location. Reefcentral reefers are just spoiled overall, and because of all the trades and frag swaps, trust me when i say this, no matter at what prices, us LFS will gain little from the online people. Its been about a year since i have open my store, and i have gotten little response from the RC guys.. 95% of my customers are from new walkins and newbies.

Frank, keep on doing the good job you are doing, keeping high customer service is number one in this and i am sure you are aware of this already.

microbubbles · #22 05/13/2006, 02:08 PM

i'd imagine it's a tough business

ScotchMaster · #23 05/13/2006, 02:11 PM

I went there and the store is nice but the prices are through the roof....I was expecting pricing like the other store...$1600 for an Acan lord made me laugh so hard....Its like we have another tongs! I also went to the guy at the front counter and asked about Frank and how he was doing and the guy said he isnt affiliated with them and made it sound like they let him go or something....It was weird

pledosophy · #24 05/13/2006, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sps_addict

As for them being tank raised, pledosophy is right. Frank said that they were captive raised. So the dude made a "mistake" in telling me it was tank raised. All is forgiven. I appreciate Franks honest and effort to help!

That is rad. That is more inline with the customer service I have had at his previous store. I am glad things were made right with you. Props to Frank.

Nicole I disagree with your definitions somewhat. I have always used the terms as

WC a speciment caught in the wild and then sold as is.

CB a speciment spawned and born, and raised in captivity, usually a aquaculture facility with closed systems.

TR a speciment taken out of the ocean at a young age, raised in a tank, then sold once it reaches appropriate size.

Liveaquaria previously had these seahorses as CB raised in the U.S until they were contacted by a group and realized that the seahorses were coming from net pens. They replaced the CB with TR and took off the raised in the U.S.A line.

NicoleC · #25 05/14/2006, 02:45 AM

Well, that is what I mean about the terms becoming polluted. If you ask a breeder, they will usually give the definitions as I gave them. At this point, I wouldn't rely on any term used to mean one thing or that other; I would ask for specifics.

I like what Inland Aquatics has done with the term "Captive Reared" -- I think it's more clear and easily understood. "Captive Raised" would work, too.