Know of a good fish list online?

[Cory]

I'm thinking of trying to tackle having a retail store fish list. Which in theory sounds easy but in practice is pretty hard. Anyone have some good examples?

Things I'm thinking about, can I take the time to sort them by type? So all loaches with loaches etc. Can I find a good system to include prices, and possibly a many or few to say how many we have in stock.

Ultimately I'd like to find the best possible work flow from invoice to displayed fish on the web somewhere with the least manual input possible... Which might not be easy.

[Fish Folk]

I find that user-friendly types of fish lists  tend to be on sites that ship: GetGills, AquaHuna, TheWetSpot, etc.

Preuss Pets in Lansing, MI teases samples. The Fish Place / That Pet Place in Lancaster, PA lists more of a detailed list, but it is more buried in the website.

Maybe if you had a large collection of good photos to draw from, a way to keep price points and stock quantities accurate, pre-written fish descriptions and care guides drawn up, and a webpage design with easily organized blocking, an AI assistant could be programmed to list available fish — given carefully crafted instructions.

Edited Tuesday at 10:59 AM by Fish Folk

[PaleoShrimp]

Dallas North Aquarium lists their stock, when it came in, and the price. It doesn’t show how many are in stock, but having the arrival date is helpful if you want to choose from the best options. I have no idea what the workflow is like on their end, but it’s the best stock Iist I’ve personally seen. 
https://dallasnorthaquarium.com/livestock/

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:08 AM by PaleoShrimp

[gardenman]

From a consumer perspective, fish shopping is a leap of faith. You don't know what's happened in that tank with those fish before you walked into the shop. You might see a tank with five perfectly healthy-looking Oscars and not know that they just arrived yesterday and twenty were dead in the bag, another twenty-five died overnight. And the five that are still alive, might not live through the day despite looking okay now.

I've always liked the idea of a fish shop listing their supplier of the fish in a tank (local breeder, importer, wholesaler, etc.) the number ordered, the number that came, any DOA's, deaths since arrival, medications used, illnesses identified, date arrived, number sold, etc. It gives the consumer all kinds of information they could use to make a more informed decision. Take those five Oscars mentioned above. Even with that history, if you find them in the store a month later after having been treated and know they've lived a month longer than their peers and are thriving now, you'd feel safe buying one or more. 

At least locally, there are quiet periods where the record-keeping could take place. Weekends tend to be chaotic, but during the week there are quiet times when record-keeping could be done. A simple dash for each fish caught from a tank could be marked down as they're caught and bagged to indicate the number sold. It's doable on even the busiest days.

[Retrophyllum_minus]

On 9/17/2024 at 8:53 AM, gardenman said:

listing their supplier of the fish in a tank

I'd love to know if they were wild caught or tank raised, imported or locally bred. But I don't think you'll get many stores who want to list the actual name of their supplier/wholesaler if that's what you meant. If not, my apologies. 

[gardenman]

On 9/17/2024 at 10:13 AM, Retrophyllum_minus said:

I'd love to know if they were wild caught or tank raised, imported or locally bred. But I don't think you'll get many stores who want to list the actual name of their supplier/wholesaler if that's what you meant. If not, my apologies. 

I don't see a real issue there. Most of the big wholesalers don't sell to the public but have catalogs available online. If you list Segrest Farms as a wholesaler you deal with and a customer looks at their catalog and wants you to order fish for them from Segrest, it's something of a win for you. You have a guaranteed buyer who will take the fish almost immediately upon arrival. If you're around a LFS when they get an order in, the boxes are typically labeled as to where they came from, so it's not a secret. If they're unpacking fish from a Segrest Farms box that's their supplier. Many keep the empty boxes around to pack larger orders in so if they're packing your fish in a Segrest Farms box, that's their supplier.

[Retrophyllum_minus]

On 9/17/2024 at 10:32 AM, gardenman said:

I don't see a real issue there. Most of the big wholesalers don't sell to the public but have catalogs available online.

Fair enough. I've got an LFS thirty minutes away and another an hour away. The first seems a bit more secretive about that, the second gets things mostly from local breeders. But I suppose that all depends on the LFS and the owner's personal preferences. I think what you say makes sense, completely. 

[mynameisnobody]

Daves Rare fish just upgraded his site. It is flawless in comparison to what it was. 

[Cory]

Thanks for the links. Getting some info helps. I'm looking to do a basic list to start, it could become more involved over time, but I don't want this to become a dedicated employee just to upkeep a list. In marketing, a list like this may lose us money as well. Oh they don't have the specific fish I'm looking for, therefore they don't come in and fall in love with a fish they weren't aware of either. So for now it's keep it simple and test the viability of such a list, which is a big undertaking already from previous experience.

[NOLANANO]

We're only allowed to talk about Dan's Fish and Aquahuna per the guidelines...

[mynameisnobody]

I’m assuming the big guy has the pull to discuss whatever is asked. 

[Guppysnail]

@Cory maybe not the type of list you were thinking but my lfs does one each order week. They send out their order form the wholesaler sends them of available to order each week with their prices omitted. They highlight which are coming in and another color for in stock. They then allow you to say which you would like sort of wish list so they can keep up with customer wants vs just ordering the same old things. 
they are a small store and Keith handles this process and it only takes about 15-20 minutes to do.  
Those lists are already categorized so it would be an easy place to start if you use your order form and plug in whatever is not on it as you get time. 

[NOLANANO]

On 9/17/2024 at 12:02 PM, mynameisnobody said:

I’m assuming the big guy has the pull to discuss whatever is asked. 

Sorry if my sarcasm didn't come through text. I was just joking as if the big guy was new. 😂

[mynameisnobody]

@NOLANANO no worries buddy, text can be incredibly inconvenient.