african cichlid team leader :)

[ambushman2j]

after a year of pestering and complaining they have finally given me a chance to prove that given the right cichlids at the right price they will move.  my store (the superpet on merivale) is giving me a small budget to order some african cichlids and if I increase the african sales by at least 100% in the next couple months..well, only good things can happen then for me!!..so feel free to drop some suggestions as to what you would like to see (nothing too exotic, but nothing too common either)

[Troy]

ambushman2j : Like Gold fish I would start with the most popular cichlids, varieties that may seem boring to you, But those that will have a highest turn over in your store. Later after you have proven they will sell and are profitable to the store. You can then pick the exotic special species you would like to see the store sell. Develop a customer base (a reputation as a cichlid store); put the word out you will make special orders. Then remember the customers wants the "pretty fish that have those nice colors" not a lot of people want to spend more then 10 dollars on each fish. They want quantity for there dollar " lots of good looking fish in my tank" If you have 7 or 8 hundred dollars in cichlids sitting in a tank and they are 25 - 30 dollars each and you sell 1 or two per week you will soon be back to selling gold fish at 2 dollars per fish. Remember the store wants to sell the customer lots of (stuff!!) fish tank, filter, food, heater...etc... People will spend 100 dollars on the stuff but only 8 dollars on 4 gold fish.

Remember it is a balance! You need to sell the stuff!! And the popular colorful cichlids in order to get a few tanks of the exotic cichlids that you and the other cichlid enthusiasts love to see in the stores like yours.

With all this in mind I would go with yellow labs #1 selling African cichlid then in no particular order Rusty, Auratus, Johanni, Crabro, Lombardoi, BB zebra, Demasoni, Saulosi, Socolofi, Aulonocara Stuartgranti (cheapest Varity) for lake Malawi then a few Tangs Leleupi, Brichardi (your choice), any of the julidochromis. Stay away from the Calvus, Frontosa, and Duboisi.  These 3 are popular but because of the cost and the difficulty of raising them I would be slow on some of the Tangs.

Well this is my two cents, consider it then ignore it if you want. Just remember the aim of all of this is to sell some cichlids in your lfs. Good luck, hope this helps. Cheers..... Troy.  

[Julie]

Hi, your store is my favorite in the area for cichlids.  Where abouts do you acquire your Discus - from local breeders?

thx

[ambushman2j]

troy, we already have alot of those species and they haven't been selling..you don't want to get cichlids that are too common as people will just buy them where they are cheapest and when every store has them it's hard to price them competitively when you have to follow a specific pricing calculation according to cost + shipping, you want to get stuff that is not too expensive, colourful and not too common

jules, we dont really keep discus, we do have 1 right now..which I beleive was a singapore ordered fish..I am not 100% sure tho, they have been talking about ordering more discus however, I doubt it would be from a local breeder tho

[328iGuy]

ambushman

Do you currently have any exotic cichlids in stock?  Please let us know what's there....

Thanks

[ambushman2j]

heh well, when they changed store managers my "trial" run of cichlid team leader kinda went by the roadside .. but that's ok as things are improving anyways.. there's nothing terribly exotic right now, but there will be, right now there's a couple livingstoni, compressisepcs, hap ahli, red x red zebra, socolofi, blue cobalt, maingano (s & m), yellow labs, rusty, fuelleborni, kenyi and auratus..either this week or next week we should be getting some nice ones, oh and we just got some type of aulonacara today, fluvecent I beleive the person said, we are supposed to be getting in the next order stuff like, elongatus, afras, lelupi, other peacocks, and a few others I can't remember at this time

[328iGuy]

Interesting, let us know when they arrive.  I will come by for a look.....

Thanks

[ambushman2j]

They arrived today actually..there was Small frontosa, afras orange back, jacobfrebergi, hap moori, elongatus, leleipi, and one other one I cannot remember at this time most are priced between 8-12$ except the fronts

[328iGuy]

How much are the fronts?  Juvenile?  What size?

Thanks

[ambushman2j]

they were going to charge 29.99$ for maybe 1" fronts but I convinced them that would not be a good idea that they would infact be there till the end of time, so they are charging 19.99$

[328iGuy]

Alright, because I picked up a couple fronts at the Barrhaven SP last week for $19.98 each.....

[ambushman2j]

they were likely even bigger anyways, these were MAYBE 1" if that much

[328iGuy]

Mine are quite small as well, maybe 1" or so.....they dont last long thoujgh once people know they are there and at that price its a steal.

[ambushman2j]

hope so, we only had 6 to begin with..so don't know how many are left now

[328iGuy]

I would imagine they will be gone quite quickly, no worries.

[ambushman2j]

there's now 5 left as of today

[328iGuy]

Hmm would have thought they would go quicker....I think Barrhaven is now sold out.....

I just may pop in to see you...I need to find another tank for a good deal first though....

[ambushman2j]

what are you looking to get?

[328iGuy]

Well I am looking to get on both sides, I would like a nice 20 - 30 gallon setup as well as a nice 90+ gallon setup....

Once most of my fish grow out...they will need a larger tank, the 55 gallon I have now just won't cut it for too long.

[ambushman2j]

our best deals right now are on 75 gallon tanks, we only have 1 larger and it's too pricey for not much, but we have some oceanic 75 gallon tanks for 549$ nice furniture peices, they are probly the best deal in the store, as for the smaller tanks, is it being used for cichlids or plants?