additions 23.11.10

What about the ricordia and zoanthid craze, you see much of that?

Seems like on some of the US forums the tanks I see in your region are dominated by some very nice sps. Maybe just a generalization not sure, but you must have idea about what the " Hot" corals are there?

 

Ricordia - yes, many vendors are now starting to have these , but not as many colour combos as I see on sites here

Zoanthids - last year , some of the 2 colour varieties started appearing
no names , but zoanthids with definite different coloured centres to the outside - the year before, you could only get, single coloured red, green, pink or brown

SPS - I visit Fangcun and on that aquarium market there are probably 12 stores that do salt water, of which only 3 of them regularly have SPS corals ( others have some , on an infrequent basis)

the 3 that have them regularly, have set ups designed to maintain them for long periods, MH, reactors, skimmers that are taller than me etc.

most of the shops , with basic set ups, T8 twin flourscents , etc prefer to focus on the easier to maintain species rather than risk losing stock that does not survive in less than perfect conditions until its sold

recently I found a mini aquarium market closer to home

there are 12 shops all on 1 street
of the 12 shops - 5 of them specialise in salt water, and only 1 of these does SPS - all the others are softies and LPS

in all 5 of the shops that specialise in salt water
and in 1 of the other shops that was mostly freshwater , but had 1 salt water tank
they all had LPS - Elegance, Torch and hammers - most also had Trachys, Lobos, etc

Steve

 

Very sweet adds Steve! Congrats. I really like acans and will be adding a few in my tank pretty soon.

 

12 shops on one street? I drive 40 mins to get to 1 shop and the next closest one is 25 mins from there.

 

That seems like a awful lot of stores. Must be a huge hobby there or proportional to the populaton size.

So you are very limited in where you can get the sps and pretty much have to pick and choose what looks like it might have some potential.

Thank you for the indepth answer.

 

offensetaken - there is only 1 other shop on the street, its a convenience type shop , selling drinks, snacks etc - its very well thought out.

Corailline
these 12 stores in Shenzhen, most of their incomes are from setting up, and running aquariums in business establishments, may hotels, offices, restuarants etc like to have aquariums and they contact stores like this , get a price for a set up and maintenance contract

they do open to the general public so I can go along and buy 1 or 2 pieces without any problem

my other option, Ill share with you tomorrow ( family in bed now, and its on my good ladies lap top) but one of the Vendors in Fangcun
contacts me using the QQ messenger service facility ( Chinese Skype)
and he will send me files , with images of SPS he has in stock
as he knows me, if I say I will buy something, I will buy it
so today I picked 6 x SPS corals from him (Ill add images tomorrow to show you what I mean) and he will hold these corals until Sunday, when I can go and collect them

the initial 6 SPS corals I got in my tank, where secured using that method
the other 3, have been as a result of seeing something with potential when visiting the shops

Steve