GreshamH":20mtcz3u said:
Are your LFS customers happy with the quality? Should we ask them to post their experiences? Wanna open that box?
Well, you either got your info from Steve or Burton so seeing as the cat is now out of the bag, I will add my experiences. For the record, in the past four years the store has been in business, we have never, knowingly, ordered PI fish and would never have considered doing so. But, with this said, we have bought from one or two suppliers on a couple of occassions over the years where the origin of the fish wasn't specified on stocklist but known unsuitable species were avoided. However, I first met Ferdie four years ago when I visited a MAC facility in Manila for my own inspections prior to buying from them and liked his collection methods. When Peter informed us that Ferdie was now exporting his own fish, I decided to give him a try and wanted to take part in this study as a retailer.
We have so far received four shipments from Ferdie and couldn't be more pleased with the quality and variety. Additionally, I am able to keep my tanks filled on a regular basis because of the cost savings vs. ordering from LA. Our customers have noticed the difference in quality and variety as well, not to mention the effect that happens in their mind when they see more fish in the tanks. Prior to this, our buying was mostly centered around species from Hawaii, Fiji, Tonga, and Solomons. We still buy the same amount from these areas and now have additional variety.
We hold fish for five days after arrival before releasing them for sale and, so far, have seen less DAA mortality than typical shipments coming from LAX wholesalers. We had 2% DOA on our first two orders but slightly higher on the third and fourth but these were due to logistical problems.
On the third order, customs held up the shipment an extra long time in LAX. After about 50 hours or so in the box, we had Oscar at LAO tank the fish at his facility over the weekend but were pleased to find that the DOA numbers were not near as bad as we had feared. Even Oscar was impressed with the condition of the fish as he was tanking them. If I had ESP powers and could have seen the condition of the fish before Oscar unpacked them, I would have just had him forward the boxes directly on to me rather than tank them.
After the third order, I decided to no longer clear in LAX and I am now bringing direct into ATL. Our fourth shipment arrived with the highest DOA mortality yet, around 15%, and this, again, was due to delayed flights and much longer time in the bag than would normally be the case. The fish came into the US the same day last week that the UK terror threat was announced and, I suspect, it caused some flight delay issues into ATL. However, had I not ordered 150 Green Chromis and 20 Green Coris, my DOA's on this shipment would have been down around 2%. Green Chromis, as we all know, don't like being in the bag very long.
My order sizes, on average, are 8 boxes in size (about 300 fish) and, no, I don't normally order 150 chromis at once. One the third order, I didn't order chromis, nor do I ever order damsels. My order last week was 400 fish and 10 inverts.
I have no complaints. The only thing I had a real issue with was flukes on angel fish on the first order but I was able to clean this up in quarentine. After telling Ferdie about the problem, I have not seen the problem on any other orders.
Do I like Ferdie's fish? Yes, absolutely. Will I continue to buy from him? Definitely. However, I still buy from LA on a regular basis as I cannot, nor can anyone, get everything from one supplier. I still need inverts, corals, and fish from Fiji, Tonga, and Jakarta, and other areas.