Anyone use Aquaristic.net?

Anyone ever buy from this lot (German shop)?

www.aquaristic.net/index_en/index.html

They seem pretty cheap and standard shipping to Ireland is €19.98 (don't seem to ship by weight unless it's an aquarium).

Example: Eheim Professionell Thermo 2322

Aquaristic.net - €119.98
Kilkenny Aquatics - €259.00

Or is that just a bad example?

Just looking at the plant substrates and fertilisers, seems cheap.

Just goes to show how much we are being ripped off over here.

Id have to say thats probably the best price you will get besides E-Bay.When it comes to Eheim there is no competition.

You have got that right Peter.I have been going on about this for years.The only thing is its the same few hobbyists in Ireland paying out the cash to the few greedy LFS's.Not all are bad.Therefore nothing will ever be done about it.Take for instance **********.Selling tank bred fish for wild caught fish prices.I give my fish away now rather than see people pay ridiculous prices.
In Germany fishkeeping is huge,therefore it is REGULATED.Something that would have alot of LFS owners crapping their pants if it were to happen here.Someday hopefully.

EDITED BY ADMIN.

think I'm going to order a few bits off them in the next few weeks. Really nice professional looking website too.

thats a hell of a site, here is one i have used wirh good results.
stores.ebay.co.uk/Fish-4-u_W0QQcolZ4QQdi...ZQ2d33QQftidZ2QQtZkm

has any one seen or know of a site that deals with any testing equipment apart from the normal chemical tests. i.e. like a pH meter, of wich i already have.

Here's another good online German retailer www.aquaristikshop.com/cgi-bin/neu/webshop.pl?t=e_kontaktform
I have used both of these online shops, got good service from both, one was quicker with delivery than the other, cant remember which one, one of them took 5 days for delivery the other took 10, but both packages arrived safe and sound, well packaged. Just be aware if you are buying external eheim filters they more than likely dont have the filter media included. They both sell the Eheim 2211 filter, great little external filter for a small tank, these as far as i know are not available online or in the shops from the UK or Ireland.

perhaps we should all club together and open our own aquatic store to save getting ripped off and show the world it can be done. with all our heads together from fish,plants& retail experiance and the right site pretty sure a good few aquarists would be with us.

I've set up a web only business before (ie. no shopfront) and it has it's difficulties. Setting up a good site is not the issue. Driving hits is difficult enough, but can be done. I think the killer in Ireland is shipping. So your prices (including shipping) must be good enough to be cheaper than anywhere else. An Post are brutal, and unless you are big enough it means trotting down to the post office with a shipment, queuing up and sending it. Interlink is the best (I think), but you are looking at €18 ex VAT for each delivery.

Prices wise you are looking at about €50 a year for your domain name and hosting, and probabily about €700 for quality shopping cart software. To be safe you'd need to set up a limited company too, which would cost you about €200. Then you have your two monthly VAT accounts. To be honest it's a full time job for one person, as I've found out.

All that said, if someone does decide to try setting up an online shop, I'll be glad to help where I can. I'm a web developer by trade (isn't half the world?). Hope I haven't sounded too negative. I have to admit it's one of the best things I've ever done, and the fact that I'm the boss is great!

John you make a fair and valid point.I would agree with you to a certain extent.My main concern is tank bred fish being sold for more than they are worth.ALL LFS'S do it.IMO tank bred fish are just as good as wild caught as long as they come from a good line etc etc.

LFS's buy cheap fish from regulars and sell them for usually a 1000% markup.So if a LFS buys 20 cichlids for €20,they will be sold for €200 or €10 each.Where is the fair trade in that?Also I know that ordered fish from the likes of Glencraig or England are not as cheap but still a huge markup is slapped on.

If on this site we managed to organise an auction or a big meeting we could make great connections with other hobbyists who keep similar fish or have fish you are interested in getting,cutting out LFS's somewhat.I know I rather give my fry away than see someone else make profit from them.

Chris,

I fear I didn't make myself altogether clear? I was referring to Fishkeeping 'hardware', I was just trying to illustrate the vast difference in Wholesale prices within the EU. I can remember (showing my age here) when the European Community was originally being sold to us in UK, and I heard it said here too, that the Community would mean that everything would cost the same, no matter what State you were in. I was a bit dubious at the time and my mistrust was well founded! Now fish - that's a different story!

I agree with you 100 per cent there!

It's a bit of a sore point with me how little a retailer will give for fish which are mostly in far better condition than those he gets, and pays GOOD money on shipping for. In England all I ever was able to get was credit towards other fish (at retail price) or dry goods or food (also at RRP). I think a sort of 'Fish Co-operative' would be a great idea, be interesting to see what others might think.

Cheers,

John

Absolutly. Great idea.

I've had the issue before wne I was getting into this hobby first of not researching my fish enough. So some out grew my tanks, and the only choice I had was to give my fish back to the shop. To me that pissed me off a bit for 2 reasons 1) this shop was profiting twice on the fish 2) on returning to the shop over the next week, the fish had gone from a good home (all be it a bit cramped), to a shop tank which was not nice at all. I would have much rathered giving the fish to someone who would have given them a decent home.

You have got that right Peter.I have been going on about this for years.The only thing is its the same few hobbyists in Ireland paying out the cash to the few greedy LFS's.Not all are bad.Therefore nothing will ever be done about it.Take for instance Wackers on Parnell Street.Selling tank bred fish for wild caught fish prices.I give my fish away now rather than see people pay ridiculous prices.
In Germany fishkeeping is huge,therefore it is REGULATED.Something that would have alot of LFS owners crapping their pants if it were to happen here.Someday hopefully.

hi as many of you know I work in tropical world@wackers, just in reply to your point, we check our prices against our competitors and seem to come out cheaper in most cases (most of my customers tell me the same).Sometimes there may be a price difference but that happens in all shops (the reality of retail.) If it weren't for dedicated people (not greedy, we often do ourselves out of sales if fish are not suitable for customers) who run fish shops most people would not have any fish to even warrant a site like this.Terrible amount of back biting goes on, with lots of differnt agendas being persued. I would warrant you have no idea how much it actually costs to keep a fish house with over a hundred tanks running? or staff it with three people? or feed all the special diets? and pay rent in a city centre location? that's a lot of €2 danios to sell. We are the only specialist shop left in the city centre! we are competing against shops and garden centres that are in the suburbs.We also get very high quality stock from a scource in the U.K. we have to fly this in as opposed to a local van delivery that a lot of other shops use.this supplier allows us to have some of the more unusual species that you wont see anywhere else.Sad day if this kind of bitchin continues and we have to go back to just keeping mollies and guppies.My two cents.

hi as many of you know I work in tropical world@wackers, just in reply to your point, we check our prices against our competitors and seem to come out cheaper in most cases (most of my customers tell me the same).Sometimes there may be a price difference but that happens in all shops (the reality of retail.) If it weren't for dedicated people (not greedy, we often do ourselves out of sales if fish are not suitable for customers) who run fish shops most people would not have any fish to even warrant a site like this.Terrible amount of back biting goes on, with lots of differnt agendas being persued. I would warrant you have no idea how much it actually costs to keep a fish house with over a hundred tanks running? or staff it with three people? or feed all the special diets? and pay rent in a city centre location? that's a lot of €2 danios to sell. We are the only specialist shop left in the city centre! we are competing against shops and garden centres that are in the suburbs.We also get very high quality stock from a scource in the U.K. we have to fly this in as opposed to a local van delivery that a lot of other shops use.this supplier allows us to have some of the more unusual species that you wont see anywhere else.Sad day if this kind of bitchin continues and we have to go back to just keeping mollies and guppies.My two cents.

Agree fully with what you are saying. I mentioned above that I run my own webbusiness. My business has no shopfront, and so the overheads are very minimal. I only pay my own wages, stationary, equipment, and % of light and heat. If premises rent came into the equation, I'd be looking for a job very quickly. I think any city center shop, with multiple staff, rent, light, heat, insurance would probably need to be turning over close to the €1m mark annually (depending on markup of goods) to stay afloat.

But that is the great thing about webbusinesses. You can be located in the arsehole of nowhere, and as long as your shipping provider can get to you easily, you're grand. Thats how the webstores can do stuff so cheap.

All that said I'm also a consumer and I don't want to spend more than I have too.

we check our prices against our competitors and seem to come out cheaper in most cases

Please Gavin,will you give me some more credit than that.Dont play the martyr card.

If it weren't for dedicated people (not greedy, we often do ourselves out of sales if fish are not suitable for customers) who run fish shops most people would not have any fish to even warrant a site like this

I think you are wrong there.Look at a few of the UK forums,a few of which I am a member and you may be educated as to what prices people are getting wild caught fish for, never mind tank bred.

I know you get a lovely range of fish in and alot are sold at reasonable prices.On the other hand alot are sold at high prices.None are sold at cheap prices.We all have to make a living?You are so caught up in your own affairs you refuse to see the light.Im not condemning anyone here,but are you saying that you sell cichlids for fair prices?

Sad day if this kind of bitchin continues and we have to go back to just keeping mollies and guppies

How stuck up are you?Do you think you are some sort of mecca for fishkeepers.

Number one,if you are talking retail, fish dont really count beacuse they are not regulated and therefore dont have a RRP.

Number two,what the hell are you talking about back biting?I am entitled to voice my opinion on fish related matters on this forum,as is everyone,wheather you like it or not!

Number three,You know full well Wackers has a long list of aggrieved customers just as well as I do.You dont actually perform anything special,all you do is get in a decent selection from England.Im sure other shops will soon follow suit in Ireland.Though some dont need to,they get good enough fish from within Ireland.

I would warrant you have no idea how much it actually costs to keep a fish house with over a hundred tanks running?

You "warrant" That I would not know how much it costs to run 100 tanks etc etc.I tell you what I do know,you are overpriced.Being a city centre business you get maybe 10 times more custom than suburban shops,even at those prices.

I havent even brought into question the quality of your fish.I know I have been stung with poor quality fish,and after browsing a few forums and talking to a few LFS employees around Dublin this is a regular occurrence.

Hi,
I absolutely agree that we are bein ripped of in Ireland. As you will probably guess I am originally from Germany. I seriously considered ordering a new tank from there because, including shipping, it is cheaper than just buying the glass over here. It's a 200*60*50 tank, 12mm glass. It cost approx. 500€ including shipping. The web page is www.welskeller.de, they also sell on ebay.
However, I found a certain retailer in Midleton who makes his own tanks and he offered to make it for 580€. I finally ordered from him. It just saves me the wait. It's only 10mm glas but that should be OK with a height of 50 cm.
I order all my hardware from Germany. Just to give you one example, I ordered a 2000 l/h powerhead for less than 23€ including shipping. 2 year warrenty and uses only 25 Watts. Anybody in Ireland who can beat that?
You can also get very good plants on ebay. I haven't ordered any for a while but Tony Vaughn was quite happy with what he got.
Surely, if you can bring stuff in for less than half the price you have to fork out in Ireland any business could do it cheaper.
I would love to do it part time but that probably wouldn't work. If I was single and didn't have a mortgage to pay and two kids to feed I would consider doing it fulltime...

Hi Everyone ,
I just got our 1st tank yesterday (Kilkenny Aquatics), We now have 6 little fish in a cold unfiltered tank 170l ... and a delighted 3 year old boy .

I have looked for German sites as they have better prices for most stuff , I found Zooplus.de €45 for a Eheim 2213 filter including sponge wadding etc. , their Irish site www.zooplus.ie/shop has the same filter for €54- ( same price in NL, but the French have it for €50). KK Aquatics offer the filter for €95 BUT I'm not sure that I'm comparing like with like and to be honest they are so helpful , I would not begrudge then an extra tenner.

Anyway , :arrow: my question , has anyone used Zooplus.ie :?:

PJQ

if it says eheim 2213 on the box that's what you get. The only difference could be the filter media even though there are only sponges available for the 2213 if I remember correctly.
I don't use Eheim filters since I think they are overprized in any country but the price difference would not surprise me

Answer My Own Question !

Yes oin fact I ordered my stuff from www.zooplus.ie/shop , prices of course better than Irl , took one week as goods come from DE . Just out of curiosity , I checked the prices on their DE site , result ; on an order of €157 I paid €20- more than a German customer would . I am not complaining .
For anyone shopping , Zooplus might be interesting for smaller orders as P&P is €3.90 and free for orders > €39- .

PJQ

I think when we said no naming shops we were banging our heads off a brick wall.
Your heart might be in the right place but try playing a different tune on the fiddle Chris.
The amount of bitching going on here is unbeliveable.
But some places do charge astronomical prices for fish. But I love it hen the fish you are waiting on finally arrives. If it is a quality rare fish then most of the time I will pay the asking price.

If on this site we managed to organise an auction or a big meeting we could make great connections with other hobbyists who keep similar fish or have fish you are interested in getting,cutting out LFS's somewhat.I know I rather give my fry away than see someone else make profit from them.

We have a buy and sell topic here and hardly anybody uses it so I don`t think having a weekly group hug would make any diference.
I once asked someone to hold a fish for me and I drove 30 miles up the mountain to this person and he has sold it. Are tropial fish centres really living on the edge, or is the price of a Porsche really that expensive.
I can`t remember the name of the shop. :roll:

I was in Wackers yesterday.

I gotta tell you all that Gavin in person is as sound a bloke as you'll meet.
Plenty of time to give advice, and even had the patience to listen to God knows how many stupid beginners questions I had.

As for the prices, well I can't comment on the fancy fish, but for ordinary community stuff like Tiger Barbs for example, I think they were 50c dearer than the two other LFS I frequent.
For a city centre store I think I can handle that.
Not to mention the fish were larger than those I had previously bought, and had much better markings.

If I didn't have to go shopping with the missus I might have snared another couple of Barbs on the spot.
Oh, and I'd lose hours in that reptile house. Unbelievable!

I think we all have to get real here. Any aquarium goods and fish are a lot more expensive in this country than abroad. I would not buy any hardware over here. It's so much cheaper to order it over the net. And if you include shipping and you are still a hell lot cheaper than the same article over here, you know you are being ripped off by your local LFS.
While I do agree that for example the fluval and Eheim stuff has to be shipped over here, warrents a small mark-up, I don't think that in some cases more than doubling the price is justified. The shop on the internet have to make money as well and in a lot of cases they sell over the net and have real shop operating. So they also have to pay wages, rent, etc.

As for fish, first of all the quality is crap in a lot of cases compared with the stock I brought abroad and the choice is limited. I bought cardinals for 58 cent per fish in Germany recently. This was no special offer and is not a wholesale price. The cheapest I could find in Ireland was 2 € per fish almost 4 times the money for the same fish.

LFSs have to get real. We are being ripped off, no apologies.
And before somebody tells me to go home if things are so much better, I will for my annual shopping trip. Anybody want to join me?If you buy even a reasonable bit of equipment and fish you 'll more than make up for the flights and hotels.

Anto,

Im not looking to create an anti LFS militia here??All I am suggesting is an quarterly auction which will create a community of fishkeepers in Ireland and a great chance to exchange stories,fish,advice etc.It is done to a huge extent in the states,less so in Europe but still with great sucess and LFS still manage to stay open so maybe I put my point across wrongly.

Chris,
great idea. I'm in. And I wouldn't worry about any LFS closing down anytime soon because a few enthusiats are having a bit of a trade.
I'm usually throwing out a pile of plants every month or so. Just in case anybody is interested

Holger

I think it is a great idea.
I will start it off. I am selling a wide variety of Synodontis catfish, anyone interested please let me know.