Anyone on R2R living in Philippines?

[SDM]

I am American living in Philippines, have had my 240 gallon tank for about 1 year, would like advice and help from people also living in Philippines. Since I am American I am always getting the higher price quotes then the locals will get. I am also looking for a good place to buy the needed things for my aquarium, test kits, dry feed, etc. I am in QC, fairview.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Bump

 

[SpeakerToAnimals]

Hello! Finally created an account haha.

I'm a foreigner living in the Philippines as well, and I've been here a while. In case you didn't know, as per an outdated Philippine law (which is still in effect), no one is allowed to possess corals, and even dead stony coral structures, unless it's for legit research purposes.

FOWLRs are the only legal option here
But there's a thriving reefing community, nevertheless haha.

For shops, these are a few: Royal Aquatics (LS, equipment, media), The Glass Reef (Media and feed mostly), FEV Marine (equipment). You can check them all out of FB and contact them via their pages.

Cartimar Pet Center is the best place to canvass but yeah, foreigners (I'm one too) get higher prices sometimes. It's best to go there once you're familiar with the prices. The shops mentioned above are legit but pricey compared to Cartimar. Risk, however, in Cartimar is disease because the LS are not quarantined properly.

Hope this helps.

 

[KrisReef]

@SpeakerToAnimals
Welcome to Reef2Reef. I'd like to hear more about the reefing community in the Philippines.
You might start a thread and let folks know what you know about the underground reefs of the Philippines.

 

[SpeakerToAnimals]

@SpeakerToAnimals
Welcome to Reef2Reef. I'd like to hear more about the reefing community in the Philippines.
You might start a thread and let folks know what you know about the underground reefs of the Philippines.

Thank you!

I'd like to, and I've thought about doing it a couple of times before but it's a bit risky. I'm sure there are government agents prowling forums every now and then. I had to visit OP's profile to make sure he's a real person and not bait hahaha. Sorry OP.

Just a month ago one of our biggest reefers got caught trying to export corals so that shook up the community quite a bit. I understand though that he probably had to take such a desperate measure because he, at the time, had quite a big project running and such a small local target market so maybe he couldn't make ends meet.

They let him go but the whole ordeal is still scary to us who just want to enjoy a hobby that the rest of the world is making so much progress with

The government should understand that we're not trawling the reefs, we're just fraging and growing whatever we already have.

 

[SDM]

Thank you!

I'd like to, and I've thought about doing it a couple of times before but it's a bit risky. I'm sure there are government agents prowling forums every now and then. I had to visit OP's profile to make sure he's a real person and not bait hahaha. Sorry OP.

Just a month ago one of our biggest reefers got caught trying to export corals so that shook up the community quite a bit. I understand though that he probably had to take such a desperate measure because he, at the time, had quite a big project running and such a small local target market so maybe he couldn't make ends meet.

They let him go but the whole ordeal is still scary to us who just want to enjoy a hobby that the rest of the world is making so much progress with

The government should understand that we're not trawling the reefs, we're just fraging and growing whatever we already have.

Lol no I'm just like you a normal person that wants a nice salt water tank. I have found a few good people that I can deal with on facebook.

I recently bought an reef octopus elite 200 INT skimmer from a person locally. For 17500 peso $340 USD. I seen it on line for almost 2 times that price. Amazon is showing $650. For it.

I get my fish from the guy that set up my tank. Supposed to be lifetime fish and corals. He is an exporter of fish. He frags the corals and that's how I get mine. My main thing is the hard to get items. I spoke with someone about carbon they wanted to sell me 2 liters for 3000. No thank you. But as I search around on fb I'm finding decent people to get items from. Usually same price as USA.

I'm in fairview where do you hang your hat? @speakerstoanimals

 

[SpeakerToAnimals]

Lol no I'm just like you a normal person that wants a nice salt water tank. I have found a few good people that I can deal with on facebook.

I recently bought an reef octopus elite 200 INT skimmer from a person locally. For 17500 peso $340 USD. I seen it on line for almost 2 times that price. Amazon is showing $650. For it.

I get my fish from the guy that set up my tank. Supposed to be lifetime fish and corals. He is an exporter of fish. He frags the corals and that's how I get mine. My main thing is the hard to get items. I spoke with someone about carbon they wanted to sell me 2 liters for 3000. No thank you. But as I search around on fb I'm finding decent people to get items from. Usually same price as USA.

I'm in fairview where do you hang your hat? @speakerstoanimals

I'm in the Ermita area. Good you've made connections. Only way to get anywhere in the hobby here without busting a hole in your wallet.

You'll come across a lot of stupidly opportunistic people here that you'll get used to just walking away from even as they shout out their lowering prices haha.

The A1 shop in Cartimar is well stocked with almost everything, and they can't cheat you on the prices because they all have price tags.

I can message some of the online groups to you, if you haven't joined any so far.

 

[Zionas]

Don’t get fish from Cartimar. I’ve been there and they have absolutely NO idea what they’re doing. They mix every species imaginable into one tank (Soldierfish in a tank with much smaller fish, anyone?) and lots of dead, wounded, or sick fish.

Your best bet, IME, would probably be TB Marine Pets. The owner there is a hobbyist, he knows what he’s doing. His name is Eddy Sy and I can refer you to him if you want. FEV Marine only sells equipment, but they’re reliable too.

Corals are banned in the Philippines? I swear I saw Eddy with a 250-gallon DT with corals in his shop.

Paranaque also has some shops though I haven’t checked them out. However, I wouldn’t trust the quality of their livestock too much though I can’t say for sure. Paranaque is also relatively far from the city center. TB Marine (Eddy’s shop) is in Quezon so the distance is more manageable.

The Philippines has some great people but the country can be really corrupt and inefficient in many ways. This is unrelated but what frustrated and astonished me when I was there was that calling / texting and mobile data packages were separate. Two telecom companies have a “duopoly” and are unconditionally supported by the government. Internet speeds and cellular network speeds are crap and they see no incentive to ever improve them because of corrupt daddygov and that the people will pay anyway because they don’t have any other options.

 

[martyumengan]

Hey SDM,

Try joining the fb group of Philippine Marine and Reef Aquarium Society.

Also, get your stuff from shopee.

There are quite a number of reefers there in fairview.