What is the coronavirus doing to aquarium fish availability?

[Terry Martin]

I'd be curious if anyone has good information on this. My son, budding marine biologist, is home from college with the quarantine and we're naturally working on the tanks we started when he was in high school. I've always got my corals locally from the brs forum, Dong and friends so that hasn't changed. But it appears that Live Aquaria's in-stock items are getting scarcer with only the captive-bred getting restocked. Marine Collectors is closed. Are all foreign imports ended? Or just slowed down? Are local fish stores getting new stock?

 

[gobyvin]

I am guessing, but passenger flights are responsible for shipping lots of goods, and since they are almost grounded worldwide, I suspect all goods that travel this way (small quantities, frequent shipments, like live animals...) will suffer greatly due to this change.

 

[gobyvin]

Buy now. May be the last you get for a while.

 

[frank180reef]

It's the flights and shipping

And likely low margin

 

[saltwaterB]

Many reasons for the slow down.
First, its seasonal, and this is when it slows down anyways. When you add the much less frequent flights to move product, and the lack of business open that are ordering product, you get an industry wide slow down. Some places where collection is done are temporarily closed as they are on lockdown. So, like everything else that's effected by this, so is this industry.
But they are definitely not gone lol
Some places are already starting to pick back up.

But let's face it, this is a perishable item, and its very risky for business to bring in perishable items if they are not guaranteed to be purchased. Those basic economic principles drive every industry,but especially this one.

 

[gobyvin]

Yup, I agree SaltwaterB. You know better than me about this industry, I am just a hobbyist. I just think this pile of dung will not be in the past too quickly. I hope it will, but don’t plan on holding my breath for it to happen.

 

[gobyvin]

Buy marinelife like peeps bought all the toilet paper!

 

[Blue Light Aquatics]

Fish and inverts are scarce indeed for imports. Still seem to be able to sneak in a few good coral imports. Tank raised and US waters are still pretty easy to get ahold of, so if you want clownfish, yellow tangs, Atlantic blue tangs and royal gramma you are all good!

 

[dz6t]

The over sea air freight cost is very high right now as passenger flights are so few. That basically eats away profit margin from importers. Also the delay from LAX is terrible due to lack of man power.

 

[saltwaterB]

Yup, I agree SaltwaterB. You know better than me about this industry, I am just a hobbyist. I just think this pile of dung will not be in the past too quickly. I hope it will, but don’t plan on holding my breath for it to happen.

Well I am, lol

Bout to open a shop again, so I need things to get back on track soon.

 

[saltwaterB]

The over sea air freight cost is very high right now as passenger flights are so few. That basically eats away profit margin from importers. Also the delay from LAX is terrible due to lack of man power.

Not if you have good sources

 

[Terry Martin]

Well I am, lol

Bout to open a shop again, so I need things to get back on track soon.

Where will your shop be located?

 

[saltwaterB]

Where will your shop be located?

Within a 10 minute drive of my house, in case of emergencies (leak)lol

 

[GabrielleSimpsonC]

To be honest, during the quarantine period, I did not encounter problems with a shortage of goods. Yes, there are not so many fish, but this is seasonal and should soon pass. Usually I order everything online and do not buy anything in local stores, it seems to me that it is much more convenient ... Even though I live in a very large state, I still rarely go to shops, although some of them are very cool. I think that it is much more convenient when the ordered goods are delivered to you by a courier, as this saves a lot of time. I also prefer to study for a long time the goods that I want to purchase and it seems to me that it is much more convenient to do it at home in front of a computer than in a queue in a store.

 

[dz6t]

To be honest, during the quarantine period, I did not encounter problems with a shortage of goods. Yes, there are not so many fish, but this is seasonal and should soon pass. Usually I order everything online and do not buy anything in local stores, it seems to me that it is much more convenient ...

Are you located in California because that is in your profile. In this case, your should really check out your local resources and you may be surprised.

 

[frank180reef]

Fish and inverts are scarce indeed for imports. Still seem to be able to sneak in a few good coral imports. Tank raised and US waters are still pretty easy to get ahold of, so if you want clownfish, yellow tangs, Atlantic blue tangs and royal gramma you are all good!

Aren't yellow tangs very expressive these days

 

[Blue Light Aquatics]

Aren't yellow tangs very expressive these days

I think they have come up in price from what they were, but are at least still pretty easy to get. Tank raised are going for around $100 and wild collected around $50 -$70 for yellow tangs right now