WholeSale Question

[AquaJern]

I was wondering if anyone knows how to contact a wholesaler, or knows about the process of getting a coral and fish supplier for a saltwater store?

[billsreef]

The first step is getting a business license Then take a look at the ads in the aquarium magazines and the trade magazines.

[GreshamH]

FAMA is a great start.

[acrohead500ppm]

haha wholesale indeed!

[billsreef]

BTW, if your going commercial (which is the only way a wholesaler will give the time of day) you will want to review the commercial aspects of Reef Centrals [ua] so that you can stay out of trouble here Basically, if your commercial (and having wholesale accounts would make it so) you can't use the selling forums here.

[hahnmeister]

Some, like Quality Marine or ORA require that you have a physical store-front (not just a web-page) to buy from them. How they check this, I dont know (photoshop anyone?), but that seems to be their deal.

Otherwise, the bare minimum is that you have a business liscence, as well as a minimum balance amount. Then they will send you a list, and then based on that list, you order what you want. The challenge most of the time is meeting the minimum order amount ($500-$1000), and then keeping it. The other challenge is that sure, you can get some stuff dirt cheap, but the flip side of that is that if you order '6 anthias' or '12 zoa rocks', you will very likely get all males or all the same zoa rocks.

Lets just put it this way, if you are under the misconception that you can simply call up a wholeseller and order 'one of these, about 4" would be good, oh, and 6 of those, all different colors, etc'... you are in for a shock. If you think you can 'cherry pick or ask for pictures or something, you are wrong. Wholesellers are there to move merchandise, not cater to every little interest you have as a hobbyist. You have to think like you are a store when you order.

There is also the importer option (bypassing the wholeseller even). The hitch here is that sure, almost every fish you want is only $1-3, but shipping is where the costs come in. You often have to have a minimum order of 16 boxes (hundreds of items), and there is no absolute that they are all going to come in alive even (its these losses that produce the higher costs for the fish at the wholeseller level).

Anyways, I think you will find that there is a very good reason for why fish cost what they do. Often the best deal is to find a reputable LFS that has reasonable prices, and ask if you can get in with them on their orders, and just buy from them. Often, they will offer you a discount for ordering (and making sure to pick up what you order right away). They dont have to sit on the merchandise (worry about selling/keeping/feeding it). Often times, if the store knows you will be ordering alot like this, they will sell to you at a minimal upcharge from the wholesellers cost. IMO, thats really the best deal in most cases. Also, if it dies in transport, its not your problem.

[Whalehead9]

The other thing is that in order to get the really good stuff you will need to buy repeated large orders to get a reputation with that wholesaler. Most wholesalers will not give their best stuff on a onetime outfit making a minimum purchase. get in good with a good LFS, unless you want to start a business, they will do the heavy lifting for you.

[hahnmeister]

Thats true too. Sure, there are some places like 'Fish Heads' that wont allow 'jobbers' in the warehouse, as in, you have to order for shipping only... they dont allow people to shop in person otherwise all the good stuff would be cherry picked and what gets shipped is never as good. But still... its not like you are going to get their 'best stuff'... of course, another way to put it is that if it is your first time ordering, maybe they want to send you their best stuff to retain you as a customer.

[A.T.T.R]

cherry picking rocks. to bad the "cherrys" we get in fl wholesalers are the common stuff in CA

[maxalmon]

As mentioned above, most of the wholesalers require some type of proof that your in the "trade" this can vary from proof of a yellowpage add showing your business address and phone # to providing invoices from other well know wholesalers, this is to weed out the general public and protect the LFS and onliners.

[ouuduy]

lets just all get together and order a large amount !

[JaredWaites]

Also starting an fish store is quite a venture...here I'll post some information to get you thinking.

Lets start with the basics:

How are you planning on filtering the water? Are you planning on using air lifts and a nice size air pump? Or a centralized filtration unit like say Petland, etc. uses. The only problem with a system like this, is you can't prevent disease from spreading from all the tanks, but its preventable if you know what your doing and have quarantine tanks. Air lifts will be cheaper to run and maintain, but I doubt you'll be growing corals with it efficiently, especially SPS as they need a lot of water movement to gather nutrients and grow.

Keeping temperatures constant is the key to an aquaculture facility maintaining healthy and viable specimens, which also helps in keeping them disease free. Is this place you are talking about opening up located in a store that has a central air system? Meaning air conditioning? Can you add ventiliation if not? If your using halides to keep your corals, how do you plan to keep the water cool enough? I mean all of these things are things that need to be thought of before investing in such a business...if not failure is certain.

[hahnmeister]

Well, to order from a wholeseller doesnt require all that. Many have only a $500 minimum order, so you can have 1/2 inverts and corals, and the rest in fish. Thats not alot. Even a $1000 order isnt that hard... esp when you break it down between multiple people. Ive been in on wholesale orders a few times, and we never had a problem with room. The corals and inverts just went right into the frag systems (we all have our main tanks, and frag tanks, sometimes on their own systems) after a good dip. The fish went into rubbermaid stock tanks, with their own large protein skimmers and plenty of water. They get treated wide wide-range meds, and we held them until we were mostly sure they were healthy. Then the healthy ones went into the other tanks, sent to their final homes, etc. When you order wholesale, be sure to have multiple people in on the deal. This helps keep your minimum up, and allows each person to take part of the order for QT and holding... so its not all one person's responsibility. Usually though, the fish come in very healthy. Fish that come in from Quality Marine in particular, are always more healthy than the fish from any of my LFS's... almost to the point of not even QTing them. Its after they sit in the crappy LFS systems for even a day that they pick up stuff.