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www.cheapfish.co.uk scam?

Smells Fishy

Member
Joined
25 Oct 2015
Messages
474
Location
Scarbourgh, UK
This site seems to good to be true with the catalog of different and interesting fish but it just comes across as really shoddy. So I'm wondering if anyone here has actually braved it and received something from this site?

Cheers.
 
Cheap?? Realy? Is this regular UK prices? I buy a Trichopsis pumila for € 1.25.. :eek: Almost everything on there is triple the price i would pay in Euro's.
And if my information is correct the minimum wage in UK is few euro's lower too.. Unbelievable, what makes aquarium fish so expensive in your country?
 
I'd agree with zozo, even compared to other shops in the UK prices seem a little high, try Kesgrave tropical on eBay, I bought from them recently and was very impressed, delivery is £15 for any quantity, but service is great, packaged superbly, not in cardboard box but polystyrene box and delivered on a set day before 12.00pm. My experience is you can not go wrong with them.
 
Amazing, despite all, this hobby is still verry popular in the UK.. Much more popular than in our country.. You would expect it other way around that it would be cheaper adding up numbers.
 
OMG, looked up the shop locator from ruinemans.com, very large tropical fish importer.. Also supplies UK with tropical fish.
One of their UK customers is Wildwoods water garden centre they have a webshop.
http://www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/stores/productsinfo.asp?store=54&prod=4238

Pound 2,95 for a Boraras maculatus.. Can you believe i bought them last week for € 0.80 each..
I know they come from same supplier i had to order them because they weren't in stock at the lfs.
 
Zozo, Welcome to the world of UK aquatic retailers!

I was in Hungary for a few weeks over the summer and fish were 1/3 of the price when compared the to UK.

Otto's were €1.20 each, it amazes me how the prices can differ so wildly
 
Well ok i can imagine living on an island makes all import a bit more expensive with air-frieght etc. But then still at Ruinemans wholesale maybe a critter like that for €0.50 each and make that pound 2,95. I suspect somebody tries to get filthy rich over it..
 
And when you want 50 of them.. ....
No idea, i would need to bargin for that. As it mostly works everywhere, don't ask don't get. But i know a little hobby wise LFS with contacts, they would barging to make a name for themself.. The big ones probaly just laugh and say "take it or leave it." Unfortunately i do not have the Ruinemans wholesale prices, only the offer catalogues at their website. Was actualy amazed how much still is wild caught, they make no secret about it.. The T. Pumilas, the boraras maculatus, kobutai, the hara's and oreichtys all are wild.. From the first 30 boraras i had 26 died, this time i have a stronger family. All colored up perfectly within a few days only one perished till now.. :) Fingers crossed.

I respect you guys, i think i wouldn't be in this hobby for € 3,50 each and all dying like flies. That's criminal.. Never realised it was so expensive for you..
No wonder you're all so good.. :rolleyes: Beeing cheap makes a lot of people sloppy and careless.

So it has a possitive side though.. :thumbup:
 
Well ok i can imagine living on an island makes all import a bit more expensive with air-frieght etc. But then still at Ruinemans wholesale maybe a critter like that for €0.50 each and make that pound 2,95. I suspect somebody tries to get filthy rich over it..

Don't see anyone getting filthy rich around here . Shipage costs , business rates , staff , fuel bills soon eat into your profit !


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Obviously yes everyone needs to make a profit and some store owners overheads are going to be higher than others but it's interesting just how wildly prices do vary, as has been said, many of the stores in the uk are buying from the same wholesalers and you probably have to take into account things like exchange rates , freight costs etc but still some stores are so overpricing fish it feels like buyers are being ripped off. My particular gripe is with the franchised stores of a well known aquatic shop brand here in the uk . I have been told by staff who work at one shop near me that every store can only buy from the same wholesalers , so they are all paying the same price but its up to to individual shop owners how much they charge. I have three of these stores fairly near me and the price differences are astounding. Examples would be. Ottocinclus sp. £9.95 . £3.00 . £2.75. Gara flavatra £15.00. £6.00 £9.95. . It goes on and on. I just dont see how anyone can justify charging £9.95 for an ottocinclus when another franchised shop ten miles away charges £15 for 6.
 
Well i might be just to stuppid to get my head around it.. But a fish like a Boraras maculatus wild caught in south east asia is caught and shipped half way around the world to main land europe and i can buy it for a retail price of € 0.80. And everybody is happy and gets a fair share from asia to europe..

And then it is shipped on from main land europe across the channel and the retail price goes up about over 4 times to pound 2.95?.

Somebody is rofling along nicly here no doubt about that..
 
I'm not very clued up on what to expect to for certain fish so I can't really comment apart from i once bought a snowball plec for £40 and my other LFS was selling one for £30 but it looked a lot duller so maybe that's why mine cost more, just because of the quality? Anyway this so called cheap fish website is wanting £65.99 for one! I'm only interested because of the vast selection and some fish are actually cheap for example, a Palembang puffer fish is £27.29 and on www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk they want £49.95, there's probably loads more examples but that's the only one I'm really interested in.

@papa_cee
Yeah I've had a look on Kesgrave tropical before and they have a decent variety of fish, shrimp and snails, got the best deal on Amazon puffers I've seen to date, so that's got my interest. I might ask them if they can sort out a dealio for a Palembang puffer sometime.
 
I know that kesgrave get a lot of their fish from Ruinmans . I once asked him about some red eye puffer fish i was intetested in, he told me to look on Ruinmans and if they had some he would order them for me.
 
Most fish prices are dictated by the rate against the dollar so basic cost price shouldn't be too different between the uk and Europe. From a quick glance their mark up is huge (going by import lists). A fair reasonable markup used to be add the vat and double but this has far been exceeded in the last few years. We are still however paying less for marines than Europe.
Chains associated with garden centres has a price structure. A friend imports a product from the states and they wanted a markup of 75% or they wouldn't even take a meeting as this has to be across the chain. They also have to pay a certain % of what goes through the till before deductions.
 
I have just been looking at an extensive list of fish being offered by someone on aquarist classified , being imported from aquabeek. He says to add 70% to the prices to cover costs. also I was recently shown a wholesalers list of aquatic plants with the average cost of bunched plants being 30cents( us) per bunch and potted plants $1.00 landed price. It's a little anoying to find out that people on mainland Europe are being charged so much less for fish, makes you wonder how much prices will alter once we leave the EU.
 
It's a free market for many things i guess.. And they are likely not bound to prices and can ask what ever they want. In my country i also some times encounter price tags of which i think "How the hell did they come up with that?"

E.g. another hobby i have is keeping my some what German made oldtimer on the road.. Needed to adjust the valves and it needs a special type of wrench to do properly with a minimum risk of damaging adjustmant bolts. Hazet tools produces this wrench, but since it is for a pre 1985 engine not much demand anymore for it. I found one at a local webshop called "Special tools".. Price tag € 79,95 :eek:

Luckely i live e few miles from the German border and it's a German car. and Hazet a german tool brand. So hopped over went to the first best well equiped tool station with a Hazet sign.. And they took it of the shelf for about €20,- And job done. Special tool my @## they are crooks, just saying i need to buy it and if i'm unllucky store it for 10 years without intrest.. So i charge this for dead capital i store.. Actualy very smart everything is payed for before it's sold. I pitty those people having to pay for it if you live to far away from the source.

Same as those little fish in the UK.. Buy 1 and you pay for 6. :)
 
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The price of fish within the same group can vary wildly due to wholesalers supplying from a number of different farms. Ottocinclus can be bought from either side of the world, with difference in quality, loss rates, carriage etc. While it's true shops can set their own price, many follow similar margins, so the variation you see is likely down to the aforementioned factors.

You can blame eye-watering business rates as one of the reasons for the price of fish in this country. Trust me, very few people get rich in the UK aquatics industry, most of the time it's done for love; even some at the top of the tree of big retailers are avid fishkeepers.

Support your best local shop, and maybe they'll have the opportunity to be more competitive, rather than running to online retailers for everything to save a quid here or there. I'd sooner hand pick Apistogramma who have paired up in the corner of a shop tank, than rely on some bloke in a warehouse in Milton Keynes to pick my fish for me and stick them in the post. Not to mention the invaluable advice a decent shopkeeper can give you.
 
Totally agree with supporting small independent retailers, i have been using a shop near me for the last 25 years, he's a great bloke with a passion for what he is doing and always gives good advice even if that means losing a sale for livestock that would be unsuitable for a particular customer. I also get that these chain store sized aquatic shops have much larger overheads , multiple staff to pay , larger business rates etc etc and its obviously the customers who end up having to pay more for livestock and dry goods to pay for the increased outlay of the business owner, thats just life. Whilst i agree that the price of fish can vary for the reasons you mentioned above its not justified to charge nearly £10 for a fish that other stores within the same group are selling for £3.00 especially when they are all paying the same price at the same time from the same supplier. The prices i quoted earlier are no
 
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