Possible New Rift Supplier

[capester]

Hi all,

I have managed to convince a local fish shop to have a go at supplying Tangs. I have spoken with the manager/ owner and told him that there is no point going into it half hearted and just having the usual species at ridiculous prices so he has asked me to find out which species he would be best to go for. He is willing to post them out for a charge as well as collection from his shop (Nottingham). He will stock the basics as well but realizes he needs to provide other species too- maybe even an order service.

We have found a fairly decent supplier but, obviously, he would need to fulfil minimum orders for them to ship. He can get European tank bred and acclimatised wild caught also. There is the scope to go into Malawis too but there are already plenty of outlets for them.

Soooo, basically I am looking for input as to which species would be popular and a rough idea of the quantities people would want of each type. (He says there may be a job in it for me if it takes off !). Don't be shy, ask away- even really rare stuff, you never know!!
Cheers

 

[kiriyama]

Well done, wish my LFS would do this sort of thing, still toying with the idea of offering to do a display tank for them for there Multis.
Why don't you start off with shellies/first interest fish like Multis , Occies, Brevis then various Tropheus(spelling?), Fronts are always sought after then you could set up the rarer stuff like Tang Gobies and the lovely xenotilapia species such as papilio or flavipinnis
Also Telmatochromis species are very hard to come by,, nutters though lol
Just my two cents

 

[capester]

Thanks for the reply. I thought about having the "bread and butter" Tangs, such as shellies, leleupi, julies etc and then having a Fronts, Trophs etc for the bigger tanks owners. The key thing would be to establish a display tank with the rarer, more impressive fish too (featherfins, xeno's, jumbo cyps etc) and heve these available to order.

However, judging by how this thread has been recieved and a few similar ones I have posted on other forums it looks like it is too much of a risk due to lack of interest. Shame really as Tangs are very under-appreciated. People seem to be scared to death of giving them a go due to how "difficult" they are to keep (by and large they aren't!) and how expensive they are- a pair of julies for £10 doesn't seem overly expensive to me but people think " I could get 7 neons for that!". Unfortunately the only way the prices are going to come down is by making them more popular! It's a vicious circle.

Maybe we should sell them as Malawis and everyone would be beating a path to the door!

 

[kiriyama]

Thanks for the reply. I thought about having the "bread and butter" Tangs, such as shellies, leleupi, julies etc and then having a Fronts, Trophs etc for the bigger tanks owners. The key thing would be to establish a display tank with the rarer, more impressive fish too (featherfins, xeno's, jumbo cyps etc) and heve these available to order.

However, judging by how this thread has been recieved and a few similar ones I have posted on other forums it looks like it is too much of a risk due to lack of interest. Shame really as Tangs are very under-appreciated. People seem to be scared to death of giving them a go due to how "difficult" they are to keep (by and large they aren't!) and how expensive they are- a pair of julies for £10 doesn't seem overly expensive to me but people think " I could get 7 neons for that!". Unfortunately the only way the prices are going to come down is by making them more popular! It's a vicious circle.

Maybe we should sell them as Malawis and everyone would be beating a path to the door!

I have seen Brichardi and Lelupi in a Malawi tank holding there own, a pair of Julies for a tenner ? Wish I had seen that, I had to pay 8-9 quid a pop when I got mine, I have Sumbu Dwarf fry at the moment and as much as I'm excited by this and especially how hard they are to come by, I'm not looking forward to taking them to LFS, is there a market for them to be able to sell them ? How much will people be willing to pay etc etc, it's a shame .... As you say if more people kept and bred Tangs then they would become more affordable, just because they are not the most colourful fish in the world they are not the least interesting..
Just my two pence......

 

[clay]

are tanganyika cichlids harder to keep than the malawi mbuna? just curious. im thinking about the future of my tanks

 

[kiriyama]

are tanganyika cichlids harder to keep than the malawi mbuna? just curious. im thinking about the future of my tanks

My answer would be no, just careful stocking, I'll leave this one to the experts though, what do you guys think ?

 

[paulchef]

are tanganyika cichlids harder to keep than the malawi mbuna? just curious. im thinking about the future of my tanks

My answer would be no, just careful stocking, I'll leave this one to the experts though, what do you guys think ?

hi im paul in barry southwales looking for malawis or loal supplier many thanks