- Joined
- Mar 6, 2020
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I’m going to add a third perspective from what I know about my situation so far. It’s really ironic how I live not too far from where most Marine fish and corals in the hobby are collected from (Guangzhou is a couple hours away from the South China Sea which expands into the broader Indo-Pacific, West Pacific and Central / South Pacific).
One thing that makes me sad is how I read about all of your livestock selections AND equipment and being in a developing country, we have a much harder time getting access to much of it. There’s a bigger hobby just across the border in HK where @ScottR is but going there and buying livestock isn’t an option for me due to border controls.
I try my best to source Western stuff before going back and starting my tank, but it’s still pretty hard because I have to rely on international shipping and many don’t ship. Plus the hobby in China is just so new that I guess a lot of people in both the hobby and the industry are still figuring stuff out.
Being a Chinese-Canadian with a native command of English it’s only natural for me to believe in you guys and your way of doing things, whether US or EU. However I am not sure if even the LFS in China have become “enlightened” to Western advances. I see so many people keeping Tangs in way undersized Tangs, even multiple Tangs and they think it’s okay. Tank lids / mesh tops haven’t really caught on while I believe they’re absolutely required. The overall selection of livestock in China excludes pretty much all Atlantic species with the Royal Gramma being the only fish making somewhat frequent appearances.
If the wholesalers are being honest, I sometimes see CB Blue Tangs and Foxface Los on their import lists. That may be one thing that’s yet to happen in the NA or EU scene.
Overall for my first tank I’m not going to do any really fancy corals, my goal would be to stock it with fish and corals that I like and have ready access to. Hopefully the end result won’t be too bad. No BRS, no Sustainable Aquatics, WWC, Diver’s Den, Blue Zoo etc.
The hobby in Taiwan is somewhat bigger and I’m also registered on a Taiwanese forum but I find the people there more reserved than you guys here. I haven’t checked out the hobby in Hong Kong.
Perhaps Japan, South Korea, HK and Singapore are further ahead than China though I can’t say for sure. What really impressed me was browsing through Reef Builders and seeing a Japanese hobbyist’s tank with almost exclusively super rare, very deep water fish.
There’s no way that I or the hobby here will be able to match any of you guys Coral for Coral, fish for fish, equipment for equipment any time soon. I’ll have to be content with what I get.
For now my goal is to learn the ropes and aim for the health and longevity of what livestock I can get (which will always be a goal at any point) rather than variety or really “branching out” to more stuff.
One thing that makes me sad is how I read about all of your livestock selections AND equipment and being in a developing country, we have a much harder time getting access to much of it. There’s a bigger hobby just across the border in HK where @ScottR is but going there and buying livestock isn’t an option for me due to border controls.
I try my best to source Western stuff before going back and starting my tank, but it’s still pretty hard because I have to rely on international shipping and many don’t ship. Plus the hobby in China is just so new that I guess a lot of people in both the hobby and the industry are still figuring stuff out.
Being a Chinese-Canadian with a native command of English it’s only natural for me to believe in you guys and your way of doing things, whether US or EU. However I am not sure if even the LFS in China have become “enlightened” to Western advances. I see so many people keeping Tangs in way undersized Tangs, even multiple Tangs and they think it’s okay. Tank lids / mesh tops haven’t really caught on while I believe they’re absolutely required. The overall selection of livestock in China excludes pretty much all Atlantic species with the Royal Gramma being the only fish making somewhat frequent appearances.
If the wholesalers are being honest, I sometimes see CB Blue Tangs and Foxface Los on their import lists. That may be one thing that’s yet to happen in the NA or EU scene.
Overall for my first tank I’m not going to do any really fancy corals, my goal would be to stock it with fish and corals that I like and have ready access to. Hopefully the end result won’t be too bad. No BRS, no Sustainable Aquatics, WWC, Diver’s Den, Blue Zoo etc.
The hobby in Taiwan is somewhat bigger and I’m also registered on a Taiwanese forum but I find the people there more reserved than you guys here. I haven’t checked out the hobby in Hong Kong.
Perhaps Japan, South Korea, HK and Singapore are further ahead than China though I can’t say for sure. What really impressed me was browsing through Reef Builders and seeing a Japanese hobbyist’s tank with almost exclusively super rare, very deep water fish.
There’s no way that I or the hobby here will be able to match any of you guys Coral for Coral, fish for fish, equipment for equipment any time soon. I’ll have to be content with what I get.
For now my goal is to learn the ropes and aim for the health and longevity of what livestock I can get (which will always be a goal at any point) rather than variety or really “branching out” to more stuff.