Re: NANFA-- Black Hets./Black Mollies

Joshua L Wiegert (jlw-in-dune.net)
Sat, 15 May 2004 16:33:35 -0400

I think you owe me a quarter.

80% losses between source and home aquarium is ... well, just way too high.

In my experience, it's probably about half that -- still rather high.
Wholesalers lose -a lot- of fish (depending on the wholesaler, they may not
even be truly cared for. The job of the whole saler is just to hold the fish
between fish farm and aquarium shop, not to care for them... and a lot
don't.) The fish store loses quite a few fish, as well. For freshwater,
it's not too bad -- depending onw hat they're dealing with. Fish like
guppies, neons, african cichlids, although often hardy in the home,
experience someo f the highest losses. Barbs, danios, and other hardy fish
experience fairly low losses, barring accidents (disease, leaving the cover
off the tank... If you leave the cover off a brand new shipment of 100
zebra danios, 85 of them will be on teh floor in the morning.) Other
retailers dream over mark ups like you see in the aquarium store. A zebra
danio that you sell for a dollar might cost 15 cents. A swordtail that you
sell for 2.99 runs between 45 and 85 cents. However, between food, medicine
(I have a friend who runs a store who claims its more economical to flush an
average tank of fish than to treat them.... as far as I know, he still
treats them. :), electricity, misc. supplies, and labour (one of the most
expensive aspects), you are lucky to break even on freshwater.

For saltwater, however, 80% isn't too high. Saltwater is a funny thing. In
any other business, if you had a high risk item, you could mark it up as
much as you want -- look-in-diamonds. Saltwater, on the other hand, is
marked up LESS THAN freshwater. Most stores lose money on saltwater. (Many
wholesalers don't even guarantee their saltwater.) I'd guess that, between
ocean and home aquarium, about 80% is right. A good aquarium store may lose
as much as 30-50% of their stock before selling it (and that's, again,
barring bad accidents. I've seen a dead cubicus puffer or soap fish wipe
out an entire inventory, as well as heard tales of stores pissing off a
customer to find a bar of soap or a chlorine snowball in their saltwater
sump). A poor one, on the other hand.....

--
end
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><,DARWIN,>
Joshua L. Wiegert
AIM UID: JoshuaWiegert                     ICQ UIN: 276060292
Feel free to contact me by any of the above means for any reason.
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Irate Mormon" <archimedes-in-bayspringstel.net>
To: <nanfa-in-aquaria.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 3:24 PM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- Black Hets./Black Mollies




> Quoting Bruce Stallsmith <fundulus-in-hotmail.com>:
>
> >
> > My experience in the industry was working in an LFS when I was 16-17.
This
> > was when you could often find neon tetras 10 for a dollar, for
perspective.
>
> I did my time in a couple of LFS's too - even installed the fishroom for
one of
> 'em.  Also worked for a major distributor in Atlanta.  Your 10 for a
dollar
> neons reminds me of what Wm. T. reported about the first neons to enter
the
> country - somebody bought 'em for $50 each!  And that was when $50 was
real money.
>
> What is sad is how many fishes are lost during each step of the supply
chain.  I
> would bet a 1932s quarter that fewer than 20% of fishes make it from
source to
> destination (home aquarium).  How many live past the year mark?  <1%.  The
> numbers are worse for marines.
>
> --Irate
>   Charter member, DNRC
>
> To me, it's a good idea to always carry two sacks of something when you
walk
> around. That way, if anybody says, "Hey, can you give me a hand?" You can
say,
> "Sorry, got these sacks."

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