Updates Archive

This page includes a file of our older updates for reference.
Please see our Current Updates page for news!

Current Updates

April 28, 2022

Tonga is now back open and will be shipping soon!

Please see the following page for a link to a new .pdf list ...

Tonga Corals

April 21, 2022

Hi fish friends,

Hope all are well and your fish are fat!

There will be a Kupang corals shipment arriving to LAX on April 27th, please see the following page for photos of some of the available corals ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

Currently, the Philippines and Bali areas fish and inverts are shipping with Wednesday arrivals to LAX, Thursday to you. If ordering, it's best to have your list completed by Thursday or Friday. We often get a last minute update on Thursday night or Friday. If any adjustments need to be made, we can get them sorted out before our order cut-off on Saturday afternoon. Fiji fish arrive on Tuesdays to LAX, Wednesday to you.

The Tahiti tang man is out on a three island tour, we hope he's getting some Black Tangs! Have your order standing if you want one, or Achilles and White-tailed Kole. Vietnam's next ship date remains unknown, my guess is it'll be a couple of weeks at least.

We have another guy in Kenya who has worked with the regular Kenya people that seems to be more responsive to working with us. He can send some soft corals, for instance, that the big guy just won't bother with. The big dude wants to sell $50-100K sharks and not little fish. So, the next updated list on our .pdf page will be new, though much looks the same. There will be some new items on it, and more to come. We presume there will be a shipment in a couple of weeks or so. In the past, they've had some great zoas and shrooms. I am sure the coral boxes will have some other fees like CITES permits and will weigh a lot more than fish boxes. So expect boxes of them to cost about a hundred dollars or two more than a fish box on the inbound per box charges.

Sri Lanka is currently off-line due to an economic and political crisis.

Tonga is still off-line since the volcanic eruption.

Tonga Undersea Eruption

Here are some new customer photos you might like ... Annularis Angels, Achilles Tang and others ...

Customer Photos '22

Happy fishin'!
~birdfish

March 23, 2022

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on March 30th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

March 9, 2022

First, the big news is that there are finally once again direct flights from Bali to LAX. So, it is no longer a two-day pack time -- it's back to the old one-day as it was before. So we are lifting our previous 'do not buy' advice. New lists are up for Bali Nusa and Irian Jaya fish now. There is high demand since many things there have not been very easily available recently and stock turnover seems high.

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

Kupang is shipping again for March 16 to LAX, new pics and list are up. We expect acropora to be added to the list soon.

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

The EU has disallowed any wrasses to so much as pass through in a sealed box. This is a problem with shipments like Kenya that went through Germany. Now arrangements are being made for it to go through Heathrow in the U.K., so they can still ship wrasses to us! Trying for next Wed. the 16th to LAX.

Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Kenya, are on average once a month for shipments. Fiji and Cebu are weekly. Tonga of course is over and out since the volcano. There has not been much for Australia, there was a stop for a survey, and things have not gotten back to normal since then.

Call or e-mail if you have any questions about scheduling or need a list. Generally the .pdf page has usable lists.

Spring is on the way!

~birdfish



February 25, 2022

Acropora have been added to the Kupang availabilities ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

February 22, 2022

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on March 2nd ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

February 10, 2022

Hi fish folks,

We generally give politics a wide berth here as regular readers know, there isn't any. However there is an issue currently before the U.S. Senate that could completely change the tropical fish hobby and business as we know and love it. This is not hyperbole, the fish hobby and biz is in critical danger.

Please consider checking out the link below to find out more, or what you can do. Contacting your Senators is the stage we are at now, like right now, as this has passed the House. Thanking you in advance for your kind consideration.

2022 Lacey Act Info

~birdfish



February 9, 2022

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on February 16th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

January 28, 2022

We apologize for the delay as we awaited the Kupang acropora availabilities!

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

January 26, 2022

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on February 2nd ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

January 20, 2022

Manado corals will be arriving to LAX on January 30th, a current list can be found as a link on the following pages ...

Manado Corals

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists



January 13, 2022

Additional corals and acropora have now been added to the Kupang pages shown below.

January 11, 2022

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on January 19th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

January 6, 2022

Hi fish friends,

Hope you all had happy holidays with plenty of cheer! Shipping has been a disaster out of LAX for the last ten days or so. Some shippers have been picking shipments back up that couldn't go out, starting two days before Christmas. It is supposed to be caught up and sorted out by the end of the week. Toss on the airport closures due to the storms and 20 thousand cancelled flights, whoo boy!

A Kupang shipment came in on Jan. 5th, so the next one will probably be Jan. 19th. There may be another Indo shipment coming in about the same time. Tonga is scheduled to arrive LAX on Tues. or Wed., Jan 11-12th. They were getting prepared to ship for this week, but it was cancelled due to the post-holiday shipping situation. Vietnam does not have a date set yet for their next shipment as they have some serious freight space issues.

In fish, Fiji and Cebu are back on regular weekly shipments and will come in next week. Fiji will be Tues. to LAX, Wed. to you. Kenya and Cebu are Wed. to LAX, Thurs. to you. Sri Lanka is getting their boxes together for their next shipment, so get your order in if you want some in a week or two!

There will be more Tahiti maxima clams Jan. 18th to LAX, but no fish yet. They still have issues intra-island, getting to and from the outer islands where the good tangs are.

Happy New Year!
~birdfish

Tahiti Clams Photos

December 28, 2021

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on January 5th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

December 21, 2021

Hi fish friends,

We wish you happy holidays and a Merry Christmas! Safe travels if you are doing that! We also would like to thank everyone for their support again! We really appreciate it!

As most of you know, getting livestock has been a whole 'nother beast this last year without regularly scheduled air service for much of the Pacific. You have to place orders and wait for them to get a shipment out. Everything is on charter flights with freight rates doubling from some places. In general, freight will be easier after the holiday season.

I just read that Bali only had 45 tourists from Jan. to Nov., losing 80% of their economy this year. No flights except for charters, so it is $20 per kilo (was $6-7) and a connection instead of direct flights, requiring about a 50 hour pack time total. It is too much and too long for how they pack. There is some little bit of flights out of Jakarta, so some Indo corals (lately) and Kupang corals (regularly) have been available that way. They will both ship in January. The inbound boxes are about $700-750 each though. Ouch. We used to sell boxes of 20 Indo corals for $400, including the corals!

Australia has been closed for coral surveys. Tonga has been having Air New Zealand and Covid problems, so after coming every three weeks for months, has not come in a couple months. We expect it to get going again in early January. Fiji remains closed for corals to the U.S. They have been shipping soft corals to the EU and Asia. Their softies are not all that great anyway, it is the Acros we want. Vietnam softies have been every month or so as they can get freight space out. Great zoas and shrooms.

In fish all the Bali areas are offline presently. Which includes Irian Jaya. Philippines Cebu is good for lots of variety and inverts. The best fish are Kenya and Sri Lanka. I.O. fish. Same as it ever was. Powder Blues that live. Fiji is good too, and likewise all hand and net caught. We lost Hawai'i this year for fish. No flights from the Marshalls so all that stuff has been unavailable too. Tahiti has been shipping some Black, Achilles, and White-tailed Kole Tangs, as well as their great Maxima clams. Gem Tang has been what I would call fairly available this year which was nice to see for a change. But no Yellows!

So now you are up to speed on the current situations. Send an e-mail if you want to receive a weekly or so e-mail with an excel file with lists and schedule news.

Thank you all for your continued support!

Have GREAT holidays!

~birdfish



December 7, 2021

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on December 15th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

November 10, 2021

Hi fish friends,

Hope all are doing well and your heaters worked when you plugged them back in. Just a quick update on things going on, and not, out in the fish and coral Indo-Pacific.

Most of the island sources remain without scheduled air service and all are charter flights only, which is very expensive. Bali freight is now $18 per kilo, up from $8. Repeat all over the world. We are hoping when scheduled air service returns, the rates will go back down. At the present, air freight is the only way to get anything to the U.S. to sell before Christmas, so space is being bid up by industries that never use air freight. Chaos ensues. Order early, with a large helping of patience please.

Australia is all but closed for some coral surveys. Vietnam soft corals, Kupang with all types of corals, and Kenya fish are all booked to arrive next week, last chance to order for these shipments is now. Fiji and Cebu are weekly and both have good fish. Sri Lanka is coming every few weeks as they can get space, also with great fish. The Kenya fish are outstanding. Vietnam is great for shrooms and zoas, and Kupang for Acros and LPS, lots of good corals there, but a bit pricey. Tonga has not been able to get a shipment out in a couple of months, Covid finally got there this fall. There is some Australia in tanks in L.A. which is currently not shown on the website, so please inquire if interested.

Send me an email if you need any lists!

~birdfish


Contact Us


November 9, 2021

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on November 17th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

October 13, 2021

Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on October 20th ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

August 18, 2021

A Kupang shipment will be arriving August 25th ... orders need to be received by Friday, Aug. 20!

Photos can be seen on the following page ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

There will be a shipment coming in next week from Australia, the .pdf page is now available here ...

Australia Tranship



August 12, 2021

Hi fish friends,

An update on the happenings (and not) out in the South Pacific and Indo-Pacific.

The airline that has been the lifeline throughout the Indo-Pacific islands during the pandemic, China Air, is not flying to Bali right now, so there is currently nothing coming out of that area.

For the Philippines, Cebu is coming via Emirates Air and Dubai! It is almost two days pack time to LAX and so not 'nearly perfect' as usual and there are always a few doa now.

The best fish are Indian Ocean, Kenya and Sri Lanka. Kenya and Sri Lanka are long trips, but the fish are packed well for it, and almost no doas in every 25 box shipment. There are fewer fish per box, but good sizes and the best health and quality.

Fiji has been shipping nearly weekly. And, their cultured live rock is looking good!

Tahiti has been once a month or so, when there is a charter flight with maxima clams, Black, Achilles, and White-tail Kole Tangs.

Kupang is off and on, sometimes only premade assortment boxes, other times 'a la carte' ordering is available. This is because CITES has been a can of worms and Manado has not been able to ship lately because of it.

Vietnam is once a month or so when they can get a flight. Tonga is the same. They have both been excellent to outstanding. For both, you have to have your order in and be waiting, as when they announce a ship date it is sold out in a day or two. We just have time enough to fine tune it. Neither of them ever send new lists. Tonga has the best wild Acropora boxes, a dozen big whole colonies per box. The Euphys there are pretty nice too.

Australia has been offline a bit, one of the northern Oz guys might getting a shipment together soonish.

There is still essentially no scheduled international air service for many places. It remains all charter flights only everywhere and freight space is bid (bribed) for, it is so limited. We are constantly being hit with freight surcharges per box, most of which we are just eating to keep your pricing steady as can be in calamity and chaos.

As mentioned in the previous update, most of the fish sources are shipping at reduced salinity to help with longer pack times. Test your shipment when it arrives and match your acclimation water. Most will be anywhere from 1.018 to 1.020-21, but any might be lower or higher. Have some reduced salinity water, extra freshwater, and salt ready to go for acclimation to make any needed final adjustments before acclimating.

As a rule, far over 90% of the lists are always the same. Some places that don't ever send new lists are Tonga and Sri Lanka. Kenya does sometimes, but it will be 95% the same, and the same goes for Fiji. It is the same fish at each source for a few decades now. Usually the .pdf pages will have a current usable list for an order for any given source.

Don't hesitate to holler or drop a line if you have any questions.

~birdfish

May 20, 2021

Hi friends,

Here's what's new ...

There are supposed to be new 2021 CITES permits and quotas issued soon for the Indo quadrant, which includes Bali and all the other islands in that area. Kupang has been the only regular source the last few months for Indo area corals, every few weeks. They bought all the unused quotas everyone had left over and have been putting together shipments, which are great. Australia has been all but dead lately. We suggest Tonga, though they are slow, the corals are fantastic! Vietnam still wins for shrooms and zoas, great rocks on the last few shipments.

Greatly affecting everything and anything, there continues to be mainly chartered air service (with higher freight rates, of course!), with little to no regular international scheduled flights. Many sites are once a month now, for example Tonga or Vietnam. You have to order to have your name on the list to receive in the next shipment. Think and plan way ahead if you can, then please be patient.

Kenya and Sri Lanka have been monthly or so, and worth the wait. There have been some Tahiti fish and clam shipments with Black and Achilles Tangs. Hawai'i is over and out, and no flights from Marshalls in a year or more as well. Bali has missed a few weeks now because China Air quit flying their charters there due to the current Covid outbreak. There is scuttlebutt about Tonga collecting fish again. Cebu remains every week or so, as does Fiji.

There has been a big change in the inbound fish shipments. Pack time has increased due to various regulations and rules on charter flight shipments. Most fish shipments now are packed about 40 hours, or more, in transit from origin to LAX. The shippers have reduced salinity to increase dissolved ox in the water. The fish are now mostly coming in at about 1.018 for salinity. This means you should adjust your acclimation and QT water to this ahead of time ... best would be to acclimate them into QT and then raise it slowly over a week. Of course, acclimation water must also match. Test and match each shipment when it comes in. You have to do a proper slow drip acclimation*. Scooping water is not an acceptable method for this. They really need to go into reduced salinity QT, not straight into 1.026 after a quick acclimation. (If not prepared or set up to do this we ask you not to order fish.) When scheduled air service returns, we expect the pack times will get back down to just a day and this will change. For now this is the new program. Inbound tranship coral salinity has not been altered, they remain in open systems pumping from the sea.

There are plenty of great fish and corals to be had, you just have to be extra patient to get them. As long as your order is in, it will come in the next shipment from that source. Check out the photos for Manado or Kupang corals to see what has been coming in from there, recent links to those pages are below in earlier updates.

~birdfish

*  Acclimating Article

April 28, 2021

There will be a Manado coral shipment arriving to LAX on May 2nd ... a .pdf link for box selections can be found on the following page ...

Manado Corals

If you're interested, let us know as soon as possible!

Update - April 29th: This Manado shipment is now sold out

Please send us an e-mail if you wish to get on our mailing list to be notified about the next shipment.

April 27, 2021

A Kupang shipment will be arriving to LAX on May 5th.

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

April 14, 2021

A Kupang shipment will be arriving to LAX April 21st.

Our order cut-off is April 15th ... new photos and pricing information can be found here ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

March 31, 2021

A Kupang shipment will be arriving to LAX April 7th.

Our order cut-off is April 1st!!   (No fooling!!) 

Here are the new photos and pricing information ...

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

March 17, 2021

Hi fish friends,

There is a new Kupang photo page and list for a shipment arriving at LAX March 24.

If you hurry you could get some.  

(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)

Kupang Corals Main Page

We are waiting on the next Tonga and Vietnam shipments, both are pending, but it could be a week or two, or more, but we can still add orders on.

The greenhouse has some great Australia corals, clams, fancy anemones, and fish. Ask for a new list if you need one.

Fiji, Bali and Philippine fish are regular weekly to LAX, Sri Lanka every couple or few weeks.

~birdfish

February 11, 2021

Some new frags are currently available ...

Frags

January 20, 2021

Hi all,

Here are some of the happenings in the fish and coral world.

Most of the scheduled air cargo service around the Pacific remains shut down and nearly all are on charter flights, which are, of course, more expensive. There are some recent increases on some things reflected in the freight per box prices.

The Philippines and Bali area fish shippers are all shipping weekly. Fiji is weekly and great quality fish. Sri Lanka has great fish, but is a bit irregular of schedule every few weeks. They often have some Red Sea fish available.

Probably the biggest news so far recently is that Hawai'i fish seems to have closed down. They are not renewing any commercial fishing permits, effectively closing the hobby trade. There are lots of fish that are endemic there, which will be largely unavailable now ... Achilles, Chevron, Yellow and Kole Tangs, Potter's Angel and Wrasse, Four-spot and frembelli Butterfly, and, for the most part, spot Teardrops in any numbers, they do show up elsewhere in low numbers (as might the odd Four-spot). Black-banded (Bandit) Angel is another Hawai'i endemic, like their Flame Wrasse. It is a major blow if you ask me. I grew up on lots of these fish. It was close, so cheap, all hand-caught, so hardy, the best Moorish Idols, sad to see it go. We presume this will not affect the Marshall Isls. fish transiting, when that becomes a thing again. Currently, Covid has them offline now. They were the main Flame Angel source.

In the coral world, most are waiting for their new 2021 CITES permits. The Indo area folk, and Vietnam, do not have them yet. It used to be allowed to ship your leftover, unused quantities at this time of year, but not any more. There is Kupang every couple of weeks or so and the following link is a great guide to get a list ready for an upcoming shipment. Most shipments are fairly similar.   

There is Tonga where you can still á la carte order. They just had a ridiculous long period when they could not ship mostly for flight scheduling reasons, but should be every couple of weeks or so again now. They have A-grade Acros, Euphys, Acans, and leathers, everything really is outstanding.    Tonga

There are occasional Bali shipments of corals, recently some have been 15 Acros and 5 assorted corals in a box, premade boxes, in other words. There were Australia corals this week into LAX, as usual with very little notice. But the 12 colonies for $1200 Acro boxes came in. You have to be ready to pounce fast to get the very short supplies nowadays.

One last reminder, no telling what might show up on the Greenhouse list, always worth keeping an eye on it.

There are lots of great corals and fish coming in now. They often require some patience, and readiness to jump, to get. There will usually be a hiccup in shipments around Chinese New Year in a couple of weeks, so plan ahead for that. It can be a week or two off for some sources.

As always, if you have any questions ... contact us!

~birdfish



December 16, 2020

Manado corals are coming in on December 20th ... see photos on page linked below and ordering information on the .pdf page.   If you hurry, you can get some Manado corals on Monday!

Manado Coral Photos

December 3, 2020

Available once again ... Fiji cultured live rock, see the following for details!

Fiji Cultured Live Rock

November 24, 2020




Hi fish friends!

We want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you have a good one! Cranberries, stuffing, and Pumpkin Pie are hard to beat.

We wanted to share with you a picture a fine customer just sent us. This is a box of Tonga Acropora from last week. The photo was only under actinic, I think, so it's dark and hard to see them well, so we adjusted the lighting slightly, but you can get a good idea of what to expect.

Special thanks to Rob B. for the photo!

Most importantly, this was right after nearing 60 hours in the box! The first leg from Tonga to LAX is a day. Then the corals are 100% changed into new bags, water and ox. Because cargo stations close early now, after shipping to the east coast, the box wasn't available until the following morning for pickup. This made the LAX-to-customer part about 36 hours. The photo was essentially right out of the box. Give them a couple weeks and they will be outstanding!

Our Tonga Acros are great in size, color, and variety. It comes every 2-3 weeks or so. Sometimes more, other times less. Place your order to be on the list for the next shipment. Figure a dozen Acros for $1200, roughly. You can also order á la carte from the Tonga list, and their LPS, Euphys, and softies are as good as their Acros. They rarely update their list, so if you have one, it's still good.  

Our best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Be well and play it safe!
birdfish



November 12, 2020

Hi all,

Check out the new Kupang coral pics for the next shipment currently scheduled for Nov. 18 to LAX. You can download (or ask us for) a list with the size and price of each piece, from the link below the photos here ...

(older page has been removed & replaced)


To explain a bit about the Kupang ... we know in many cases the prices border on ridiculous. There are also some things that are reasonable, all things considered. It is a new deal since the Indo area re-opened after the couple-year shutdown. This is how it has been since they re-opened. They watch what is paid online for things and price accordingly. One can put together a box of the less costly items and get 20 A-grade colonies for about $1500, everything included.

Acropora when available, which is most shipments, run $50-100 for each colony. They are often 18 to a box. So a box will be roughly $1600 for the low end, $2500 for the high. All included. Some folks get boxes of 18 assorted A. tenuis or millepora, these often run about $1800-2000. There are also Acro pics on the Kupang '20 page.

In other news, due to the lack of international scheduled air service, it is very difficult to get freight space on the very limited charter flights. Often it is taking a week or two extra beyond the usual 'next week' to get shipments. It is a hurry up and wait deal. You have to order to be on the list, then wait seemingly forever, and all of a sudden, voila!, there is the shipment. Patience is the key item you need.

Tonga and Vietnam are both still shipping great corals, both are fairly regular, and A-grade corals. There are fish from the Philippines and Fiji weekly, almost, and when flights from the Marshall Isls., that and Hawai'i come in to the greenhouse. Sri Lanka is great, but again, we have to order and wait for them to get freight space.

As always, if you have any questions ... just contact us!

~birdfish



September 8, 2020

Hi fish fans!

Well there went summer, and here comes fall! There are lots of fish and corals coming in weekly, or every other for some corals. There is tons of great stuff to be had. Ask for a new list for the most recent update. Still free.   The .pdf pages with lists are usually updated monthly.

There is still very little scheduled international air freight service and almost all is on charter flights, which about doubled the freight rates from some places. Fish boxes are now more like $400 and corals $600 for the inbound per box landing and handling charges.

For domestic shipping it is easy if you are somewhere Southwest flies. Or a direct Delta location, but Delta is still not doing connections for perishables. We are using FedEx a fair bit, and have only had one issue. In general it has worked great, for not much more dough.

There have been semi-regular shipments (every couple or few weeks) of cultured corals from Kupang and Bali. They are much more expensive than they were prior to the two year shutdown. They are watching the prices for frags on the U.S. intertubes and jacking colonies accordingly. These are very high quality, of great health and color, a box of Acros is running $1600-2400. They are big 3-4" A+ grade whole colonies.

There are some photos of recent Kupang colonies here ...  Kupang-20

A new page on the cultured Bali corals is here ...  Bali Cultured Corals

Tonga ships every few weeks and they have great wild Acro colonies, awesome LPS and SPS, outstanding softies, and even á la carte ordering. A dozen Acros is about $1100 from there, all included up to LAX drop-off for your flight.

Vietnam is also shipping monthly or so, but has been slightly irregular of schedule lately. The zoas and shrooms remain fantastic though. You have to be ready and wait for the word that shipment is on.

There are often Hawai'i and Marshall Isls. fish in the greenhouse, besides a bunch of other odds and ends, like Blue-dot Jaws lately, Black Tangs, some Kenya fish, and so on. Lots of Tonga and other corals too, often A-grade clams. Plus you can cherry-pick the list á la carte. Crabs and snails too.

There are frags of various types available, many for $25 from Tonga and Vietnam, the super fancy Taiwan Zoas are $30 each for 3cm square tile covered. They are awesome.

Please don't hesitate to shoot us an email and ask any question you might have.

~birdfish


Taiwan Zoanthids



Some recent updates may be seen here ...
Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

Contact Us



June 23, 2020

Hi friends,

Here are some updates on what is coming in now. Of course, the situation is rather fluid and dynamic. Things can change alot, quickly. We hope some good old regularly scheduled air service begins soon. There is more happening than I am at liberty to say in the way of future coral availability. Here is what I can tell you ...

Delta is not accepting perishable bookings for connecting flights. So your nearest Southwest airport is your best bet. FedEx is an option for some things to some places, sometimes, not for Sunday or Friday arrivals to LAX though. Not always possible because they close at 6 p.m. at LAX (!) and often shipments (like Tonga) are not even cleared for pickup yet. A FedEx coral box coast to coast is about $250 (double air-freight). It's about $100 for a small box of a couple dozen frags, for instance.

All international freight is on charter flights only. There is no regularly scheduled service. So there are surcharges from various sources, depending on flight lengths and such. For most of the fish sources it is about $50 per box over the old regular prices. For coral boxes it can be $50-200 more than the old $400/box standard. There are new higher per coral CITES permit fees, and a new export inspection fee at all Indo areas.

There have been Bali and Kupang shipments (with Acros). The Kupang is $600 per box to get it here. There are new permit and inspection fees, and the charter cargo is $14 per kilo! Bali will be at least $500 per box. That is just the inbound landing and handling charges. Add the contents and your domestic shipping from LAX. Neither is a regular scheduled thing yet, but they are happening, you have to order to reserve a box, and wait. Demand far exceeds supply.

For easy to get A-grade corals, you can't beat Tonga. This guy's stuff is awesome. Acros, Acans, the best Pink Stylo, great leathers; and, every couple of weeks usually, sometimes every week. About $1100 for a box of a dozen full whole wild Acro colonies. The only problem is he keeps raising prices.

There are occasional shipments of Hawai'i fish which show up on the Greenhouse List monthly or so. Lots of neat rarer stuff there! Great clams there too, and some Blue-dot Jawfish now as well.

There are Australia corals on the Greenhouse List, and on a seperate 'Oz house' tanked Oz list. No Acros lately though. Vietnam has had trouble getting space on the charter flights out lately, been a month now.

The Bali area tranship fish sources all join together and ship for Wednesday arrival to LAX. Thursday to you. Lombok, Irian Jaya, Bali Nusa and Tanjung, all four, come in on the same charter flight. So you can get a box from each all together.

Cebu has just begun shipping again, it remains Sunday to LAX. Fiji ships fish weekly, recently they have been Wednesday arrival to LAX. Sri Lanka is shipping every few weeks or so, and are great hand or net caught I.O. fish. Tuesday June 30 is next scheduled arrival.

There are fish and corals coming in regularly, but you have to plan ahead, and have patience. Let us know what you want and we'll tell you the best place to get it.

Good fishin'!
~birdfish



May 18, 2020

Hi friends,

We hope you are all doing well under the circumstances! Here is some news from the fish and coral world ...

There are some shipments coming in from various places, while we continue on standby for others. Our people in Indo and Kupang have yet to get another coral shipment out. They keep trying, we keep waiting. Vietnam has mushrooms and zoanthids available right now, but no ultra soft corals or anemones.

Since charter flights are being used right now, we're having to pay extra for freight, so some pricing is affected. Supplies are so tight you have to order to get on the list to reserve any boxes you need. There are three boxes of orders for every one box to be had.

Australia shipped recently again. It comes in on a semi-regular basis, but you have to order to be on the list to get a box since demand exceeds supply. It's a dozen medium to large colonies of A-grade and better (the shipper is the biggest there and calls them ultra), $1300 for a box.

There are some new great Australia corals in the greenhouse, and Blue-dot Jawfish! There is another 'tanked Oz' list of stuff that is A-grade, tanked in L.A. Ask if you are interested. There are frags available of several sorts right now, including Tonga corals, Vietnam shrooms and zoas, and some other fancier stuff.

Tonga is regular and dependable, as well as great quality pieces and at least a bit of selection for 'a la carte' coral ordering of good sized wild colonies. It is very highly recommended. Acros, Acans, the soft corals, all is A grade and better. It is currently expected to arrive LAX on May 21st, so there will probably be another shipment some time soon. If you have seen unimpressive or crummy Tonga, it was from the other shippers we don't use, the cheap ones with the cheap stuff.

There are some fish coming in from Bali. They are on charter flights and they cost $100 per box more, than the regularly scheduled flight freight was, but it is a start at least in getting the ball rolling again. Most of them are now $350 per box inbound landing & handling charges. There will be no discounts on the inbound per box charges while we are having to pay charter flight freight rates. Sorry! To make this possible, several shippers all ordered at once and Irian Jaya, Lombok, and Bali Nusa, are all shipped together. For the current shipment, Wednesday is the LAX arrival day, so the scheduling has temporarily changed from the usual Sunday LAX arrivals. We expect when regular service resumes the freight surcharge will disappear and the regular schedule will resume. There are still no flights out of Sri Lanka, Kenya, Marshalls, Tahiti, etc.

It's the same situation with Fiji, yes fish are available, but only via charter flights. No live rock until regular priced air freight resumes. They shipped some of the cultured 2.0 via boat, you might smell it when it gets to L.A.    Inbound Fiji fish boxes are now $300 landing & handling per box. Fish selection and quality is great. It'll come in next week. The pilots and crew have to QT at the airport for two weeks when they get back. So can only do it so often, they run out of crew.

We can FedEx some things to some places. It has been on average been $125 for a fish box, $150 and more for a heavy coral box, under a hundred for a box of a couple dozen frags. FedEx is not available for anything that arrives LAX on weekends, but it works for the greenhouse, frags, tanked Oz, etc. Just send us an e-mail if you're interested!

Be well all, play it safe!

happy fishin'!
~birdfish



April 13, 2020

There are a few boxes of frags available.

Both the Vietnam zoa and shroom frags, and the Tonga assorted corals frags (including some Acros) are again available in limited numbers! Order now if you want some by sending us an e-mail!

Tonga Frags -
Assorted, farmed in L.A., great size & varieties
Minimum 20-25 pieces per box; plus box & packing

Vietnam Frags -
Zoanthids & Mushrooms
Minimum 25 pieces per box; plus box & packing



March 23, 2020

Hi fish friends,

We hope you are all doing well, safe and sound. For the most part, lots of international shipping has been shut down presently. Australia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines have no international flights out now. Many airlines are not flying international routes, such as Quantas, on which much freight moves from the Indo-Pacific.

Further, in California there is an order for 'essential' travel and biz only, which means shipments cannot be processed at LAX in order to ship. So it seems lots of sources are on hiatus momentarily. Many shipments were stopped this weekend, as well as those due in this week. They are trying to get in whatever they can of course. It will take a few days to see what's up, but I suspect at least this coming weekend (the 29th), as well as the following week, many things will not be available. We will just have to wait and see what happens now.

There will be another Indo coral shipment as soon as they can make it happen. Boxes are Acros only or mixed corals only, and order asap if you want one as soon as it goes. Fiji (fish) and Tonga (corals) remain open so far. Viet Nam is also trying to ship as soon as they can. Some places remain open, but part depends on the situation in CA for the handling at LAX.

In the mean time, we suggest watching your fish and corals!  
Consider what a great stroke of brilliance it was for you to have something of such interest, beauty, and entertainment for these rainy days.

We will keep you posted here as anything changes.

stay safe, and be well!
birdfish



March 9, 2020

We'll keep you posted on this! Word has it that there may be some live rock available from Indonesia some time very soon! It will be an Indo or Bali type coral rock with purple coralline on it. It will be more expensive than the old stuff was, but it will be real deal Indo-Pacific fresh air freight live rock. There might be a few boxes coming in soon.

Here are two new photo pages for your viewing pleasure ...

Tahiti Clams

Tonga Acropora



February 19, 2020
A new Indonesia corals list ...
Indonesia Corals


February 13, 2020
A new Kupang corals list ...
Kupang Corals



February 10, 2020

Hi all,
We will have a new Indo corals list available shortly. It will all be cultured on cement disks. No anemones or live rock. We will have more info soon!
~birdfish



January 21, 2020

Hello fellow fish feeders,

We hope you are having a great winter!

To keep you up on the latest news ... Yes! the area within the Indonesia CITES enforcement quadrant will resume coral exports to the U.S.  This includes places such as Bali and Kupang, among others. We will announce here when we have them available. At the present time, the following is the situation to the best of my knowledge. Maybe others have different people and experiences ...

My 'big fish' talks to a 'big fish' on the CITES board. He told me that there are currently no valid export permits for corals. There are no valid health certificates for them either. And there are no quotas yet set for them. They do not know what they can and cannot ship. It is said live rock and anemones are off the table, done, all corals will be on cement or other, cultured. So many things have to happen before anything can be shipped out. It will likely be a couple of weeks at best, maybe a fair bit more. No one knows including a 'big fish' that sits on the CITES board. It will happen, but this will take some time.

That said, friends, I have seen many places open, close, open, rinse and repeat over the decades. After a long shutdown, upon reopening, you usually wish you would have waited a couple of shipments until they got the wrinkles ironed back out. I would love to see it happen some other way, but am still waiting. That is the history of this sort of thing, just so you know, while you wait with bated breath and credit card in hand.  Our people do it right, and when it is ready and right, we will have it and announce it here.

On the various frags that we often have available ... they are out. The Aussie frags, Tonga mixed frags, and the Tonga Acropora frags all sold out, we are waiting for the next batch. They go quickly, think ahead when you want to order to be in line in time. We expect them again in a couple of weeks or so. They are growing.

Meanwhile Tonga continues to dazzle with a good selection of hard LPS and SPS corals, as well as soft stuff. Vietnam also remains great for shrooms and zoas in particular. Both are every couple of weeks or so, and again, think ahead when you want some. And there are lots of great fish in the sea on all the various lists!

~birdfish



January 13, 2020

Now available ... Tonga acropora frags!

Tonga Acropora Frags



December 16, 2019

Hi friends and animals,

We wish you all a very Happy Holiday season!

Here is a big end-of-year news happenings roundup ...

There are some considerations regards shipping and supplies this time of year we want to remind you about, and, give some updates on current coral news.

First though most have probably heard, there has been some news from the Indonesia CITES enforcement quadrant. That means the whole Indo/Bali/Jakarta/etc. area. They will resume shipping corals at some time in the future — aquacultured only, no anemones or live rock. There is no timetable set for the opening though, estimates run six days, weeks, or months.

Vietnam is seeming to be under lots of pressure to close. It is not known if or how long it will last, just so you know how some insiders feel about it. Get it while you can. Fiji is trying hard to get corals going to the U.S. again, if nothing in a week, it will be months again before another chance. Fiji will probably not ship (fish) the next two weeks as, like Tonga, the middle-of-the-week arrivals won't work due to the Christmas holiday.

Tonga is awesome to stellar, amazing, and incredible, outstanding A-1, 5-star stuff, and a regular thing. But they will not ship the next two weeks due to the holidays falling mid-week. It doesn't hurt to place your order to be at front of the line for when they resume in January, maybe the 8th to LAX.

Shipping can be a bit dicey to secondary locations, especially the week prior to Christmas, so it depends where you are, but often big hub destinations are doable. Generally everything is open and easy by the day after Christmas, until the weekend after New Year's, which can be busy when everyone goes home, seemingly from LAX (Rose Bowl traffic, etc.). Check with us pending where you are so we can check the cargo situation.

In addition, a number of the suppliers close for at least a week or two over the holidays. So some things might not be happening for a brief period. Please always feel free to ask whaddup.

So now you are all caught up on the latest.  

Again, we wish you very Happy Holidays!

~ birdfish & company





November 19, 2019

Hi friends,



Take Ten Special

For a limited time only, take ten off!

Take TEN percent (10%) off of anything on the Greenhouse list, with the exception of crabs, snails, shrimp and clams.    Greenhouse List

Take TEN percent (10%) off of the following frag boxes!
Australia Frags & Corals

Fancy Frags (Australia)



There are some new Ultra Vietnam zoanthid frags available which are awesome.
Check out the pics here ...

Vietnam Frags

Take TEN percent (10%) off of the contents of tranship fish and invert boxes.

Fish List Central



To order with the special pricing, send us an e-mail so we can send you a payment link button to click and follow which will include the special discount, or you can simply use the birdfish e-dress to make a Paypal payment.
birdfish@livestockusa.org



There has been some talk of Fiji possibly opening back up but nothing has happened, they are still fish only and the cultured live rock to the U.S.   Indo/Bali remains off the table. Tonga is great, especially Acros and brains, but softies too. The various Australia available is stellar (see the Greenhouse list). Vietnam is the place for soft stuff like shrooms and zoas, but has been getting far more intermittent of shipments lately. More CITES problems. There are people in a couple of places outside the Indo area trying to get stations going, as well as a live rock place being worked on elsewhere. Hopefully in the not too distant future there will be some additional coral and live rock options on the table. All the fish shippers have seemingly almost everything you could want and remain easy to get.

Wishing you & yours a Happy Thanksgiving!
~ birdfish



September 24, 2019

Hi fishy friends,

Hope you had a good summer! It is supposed to be over, but seems to not want to let go yet in some areas.

Some great news is a big price reduction on the Fiji cultured live rock. $1.00 per pound. So it is $6.25 per pound now! Which is what the last real deal stuff was. The ordering buttons should be fixed by time you read this.     Fiji Cultured Live Rock

There are lots of choices for Australian corals, all tanked at a few places in L.A., but any of it can be put together to make an order. It is A-Grade to stellar stuff. There is a new Queensland source, as well as a new western Oz source, so lots of neat corals are available. Be sure to check out the Greenhouse List, some are only listed there on the .pdf link.

There is no news on coral exports from the Indo CITES enforcement quadrant, or Fiji. Don't hold your breath. Yes people are trying to get them back open, but nothing yet, and now for over a year. Easy to close, hard to open. One says maybe something soon. People are working on opening in other places as well, but none are up and running yet.

Besides Oz, the Tonga corals are great, especially the Acropora. The Tonga LPS and softies are both good as well. For shrooms and zoas, Viet Nam is very good to outstanding.

~ birdfish

Australia Corals



August 14, 2019

There are some recently-shared photos of Fiji live rock on the following page you might wish to check out ...

Fiji Cultured Live Rock

There is also a new Hawaii fish .pdf page linked on the following page in the "Fish" section here ...

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists



July 3, 2019

Happy Independence Day!

Just a couple of quick things...
There is a bunch of great Australia, mostly tanked in L.A., easily had. Save the prices - LOL. Those  Aussie Box Lot Specials  are great, both the frags, and the wild pieces.

There are some new Australia coral photos on this page:    Customer Photos 2019

Tonga has some great corals and a bit of selection for old fashioned 'a la carte' coral ordering, hard and soft, and good Acros.

Nothing happening on Fiji or Indo area coral shipping, they remain closed. There are three different places in the Indo-Pacific where folks are working on getting coral shipping facilities going again, all outside of the Indo CITES enforcement quadrant. So with or without Indo or Fiji reopening, there will be some more coral options in the future. Can't say when, likely a few months, maybe more, but one might get going sooner.


Not to brag, but I think our pink Flaming Carnation is the best anywhere ...




Our Electric Urchin can't be beat either ...




And when our Starwarz Spaghetti Leather goes off, it's a sight to behold ...




Our exclusive Exploding Acropora will make your friends green in the gills with envy ...




Have a HAPPY FOURTH!!

~ birdfish



April 18, 2019

Hi all,

A few news items. First, We have a new Tonga thing happening, so hard and soft corals are available 'a la carte' from there now. They have great Acros!

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, it sounds like Viet Nam is not going to stay open. So if you had thoughts of getting it, do so sooner rather than later. It does not look good, it may close in the near future. There are no more large combo rocks available from there already. Indo and Fiji are both still offline for coral exports to the U.S., there is talk something might happen in Fiji. There is cultured live rock now from Fiji, a bit expensive, but good encrusting coverage from being under water two years, and so something that will work in a pinch.

All the various tanked Australia corals are A-grade fantastic. You will not be disappointed. Use the Fish or Coral List Central pages (links at top of any page) to easily see recent updates, or e-mail and ask for one, we can send an Excel file with a dozen or so tabs.

~ birdfish


Tonga Corals

Box-lot Specials - Viet Nam

Live Rock Photos & Pricing -  Fiji Cultured Live Rock

Contact Us

A reminder ... we cannot e-mail to Comcast accounts, you'll need to give us another e-mail address to receive e-mails from us or you can try white listing us.



March 27, 2019

Here are some customer photos from a recent order of Viet Nam ("Regular") corals ...

2019 Customer Photos


There are also a few nice fish photos shared with us by customers on the following page ...

Philippines Fish


Pinecone Fish


Pintail Fairy Wrasse



March 8, 2019

A new page of customer-shared coral photos ...

Australia Corals Photos



February 18, 2019

Hi all,

There is Fiji live rock! They found it! The lost rock. It is cultured and made from a combination of cement, oyster shell, and coral sand and bits. It has been under water two years now and looks great. It is not real old eroded coral pieces, but the overall effect is pretty close to what regular Fiji live rock looked like.

Here are a couple of photos of it. Additional photos can be seen on our Live Rock Photos & Pricing page. The boxes will be 48 pounds, $7.25 per pound. A box then is $348. Current schedule has it arriving Thursdays with Fiji fish shipments, so Friday to you. Send us an e-mail if you want to place an order for the next shipment, or use the link for ordering live rock on the page below!

~ birdfish

Live Rock Photos & Pricing -  Fiji Cultured Live Rock

Contact Us








February 5, 2019

Check out the recent photos of Australia Acros!

Australia Acropora Photos



January 21, 2019

Hi all,

Here is some news about some of what's happening out there in the fish and coral land of the Indo-Pacific.

Indonesia and its neigbors like Bali, Kupang, Manado, etc., remain closed for coral exports. Still people are working on it, still nothing. Eventually, there will probably be cultured corals again, but no live rock or anemones. Fish and inverts are generally unaffected and available.

In Fiji, the closure there is being worked on as well, da man is there working on it, and probably something will happen to allow corals out again, but like Indo, no more live rock. And they will be more expensive when they reopen.

Vietnam remains unaffected, so good shrooms, zoas, and some leathers can still be had there with good pricing.

Tonga which has been a key fill-in for the last year, has an issue. We are going dark on it for the time being. No Tonga coral orders will be accepted for now. Sorry! There is a bacterial problem in their water.

From Australia, there are shipments every month or so of a dozen assorted Acropora or Euphyllia boxes, and as often tranship a la carte ordering. Oz is the only current source for Acroporas and other hard corals now. At least they are still shipping, but of course at the high-end of prices.

The great news is that there are a couple of new box-lot specials, tanked in L.A., of Australian corals, with both frag and wild options. These are an outstanding deal for the prices. The $20 frags are huge, and the bigger overgrown frags are the size of medium to large corals. The wild mixed box are mostly medium sized.
Here is the link with some photos:
Tanked Australia Frags & Corals

For live rock, there is a guy on an island in the Pacific right now setting up to ship live rock. We are hoping to hear in the next couple or few weeks if it is ready to go. So there is light at the end of that tunnel, it is getting closer, and soon there will again be 5-star, AAA-grade, real deal, air freight fresh live rock from the Pacific. I am guessing it will be higher too. They are working on the freight rate negotiations, which is most of the cost of it.

So, for Acros or hard corals it is Aussie or the tanked specials. For softies, it is Viet Nam. For live rock, hang in there baby!

~ birdfish



January 7, 2019

Happy New Year all!

We hope you had a great holiday season and Santa found your tanks!

There are good hard corals available from Tonga and Australia. There are good soft corals available from Viet Nam. Tonga has some few softies. All the usual fish sources are open.

Just to update a little bit on the hard coral export ban from Fiji and the Indonesia areas, those remain in place. People are working on things and we will have something up here as soon as anything breaks. The Indo area closure includes Bali, Kupang, Manado, Java, any of the Indonesia area sources.

Currently there is no fresh air freight Pacific live rock available. People are working on things, we'll have news here when it breaks. Tonga and Australia both have great Acropora if that is your heart's desire.

There are some new Australian coral frags we have available, a page will soon have some info & pix up of them, and for Aussie LPS they are a great deal.

The .pdf lists page has recent copies of all the lists. E-mail us and ask to be put on the weekly mailing list which gets you a weekly updated excel file with most current offerings.

birdfish@livestockusa.org

Wishing you a happy & healthy 2019!
~ birdfish


Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

Contact Us





We want to wish all of you HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Thank you very much for your kind support.
We wish the very best for you and yours!





November 21, 2018
Wishing all of our visitors a Happy Thanksgiving!



November 8, 2018

Hi all,
Just to give a bit of an update on the availabilities situation. As for fresh real-deal air-freight live rock, there is still nothing currently available from the Pacific as Fiji and Indo areas were the main key sources. Both are closed for coral and live rock exports currently. Another source may open next year. It was close, almost happened, but unfortunately, went up in smoke.

Also, there is no good word out of Indonesia for either live rock or coral exports being allowed again yet. There is, however, a lot of fake news that's been going around about Indo being reopened, but our advice is to not hold your breath! The Fiji and Indo issues are not connected, but both stopped all exports of corals, which includes live rock.

Indonesia will have some announcement in January, but our sources are not optimistic. So, for the time, Fiji and all Indo area sources remain closed for coral and live rock, which includes Bali, Kupang, Manado, and anything else in the Indonesia CITES enforcement area. Viet Nam is not affected by the Indonesia closure and is still shipping soft corals, zoas, and shrooms. Fish are completely unaffected and no part of the coral shutdown. For instance, Bali is still shipping fish and inverts. The .pdf pages are a good way to see what any currently available source has. The Tonga list rarely changes and Fiji only every month or so. They all have pretty much the same things the last 30 years.

The only hard corals available now are coming in from Tonga and Australia. Tonga is great, and fairly consistent, nearly weekly. Australia is a bit overpriced and comes in about once every month or so plus or minus, take or give. Both have great Acropora, whole wild colonies of very high quality.

There have been lots of good rare fish available from several of the sources, Gem Tangs, A. kingi (Tiger), C. joculator and Scribble and even Clarion Angels, Port Jackson Sharks, Flamboyant Cuttles, all kinds of great stuff. A little bit of Red Sea too, via Sri Lanka or Philippines RVS.

Keep in mind that shipping can sometimes be a bit dicey to some areas around Thanksgiving due to the travel load. If you want something before then, act soon. We watch the weather very closely as we have been having to use heat packs for shipments up north, while not in the south. For instance, sometimes when hurricanes were headed in, some shippers cancel shipments and wait a week. It can happen any time with winter storms too, if they don't like the looks of things, occasionally shipments get delayed a week. It helps to be as flexible as possible. Often suppliers close over Christmas and into the New Year a week or two as well. Plan ahead.

happy fishin!
birdfish



September 6, 2018

Hi all!

Hope you had a great summer as it winds down to a close...

A couple of updates on happenings out there in the big ol' sea. Tonga remains the only consistent (almost weekly) reasonable coral source open that has hard corals, besides Australia, which is neither consistent or reasonable. Tonga has very nice to excellent corals, they are not cheap, but they are not low-end small ugly pieces either. That is the other Tonga place that we don't carry or offer. Vietnam is open for softies, if you like zoas and shrooms, they are outstanding, and almost weekly.

The Indonesia CITES enforcement quadrant (includes all adjacent islands like Bali, Kupang, Manado, etc.) remains closed for export of corals and live rock. Fiji remains closed for corals and live rock as well. Many usual sources are not available now. Hopefully something will change. There is word of the possibility of something on the horizon in fall, maybe, from Indo quadrant.

While a permit was obtained to bring some high-end live rock in, things have since gone sideways and now it does not look to be happening. There is no air freight fresh real deal live rock available from the Pacific right now. Did you hear the whoopin' and hollering of cheers from Florida?  

There are things being worked on, but nothing currently is a go. A different coral source is being tested this week that is not in the Indo CITES enforcement quadrant, so there might be another coral source soon if it works out well. We'll see.

Meanwhile fish are unaffected by all the coral CITES issues. There are, in general, good supplies due to the 'summer slow season' and there are lots of juvenile, young, and smalls of stuff available from many sources. There are some rarities too, Gem and Purple Tangs, Tiger (kingi) and joculator Angels, and lots of neat stuff if you scan the lists carefully. Great clams in the greenhouse too.

To get a weekly excel file update via e-mail, just send us one asking for it. The .pdf lists on that page (link below) are updated monthly at least and can always be used to make an order. Several of the suppliers do not update their lists, like Tonga, Sri Lanka, and Fiji. They have many of the same items as they did 30 years ago.

A big hat tip and thanks to Alan Z. from north Jersey for this great photo of a Vila Fairy Wrasse he got from the greenhouse. Beautiful photo of a beautiful fish!



~ birdfish

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

Contact Us



July 24, 2018

Hi all!

We have a some new photos up on our Customer Photos page thanks to a couple of real nice people that sent us some pix of their corals.
Customer Photos 2018

The Tonga corals are outstanding, and for hard corals are the only option now. There are a few new photos here ...
Tonga Coral Photos

There will be some fresh real deal live rock very soon, it is being worked on, we are anxiously waiting, permits are in hand, and it could be any week.

For corals and live rock, Fiji and Indonesia areas remain closed. This also includes Bali and Kupang, any Indo area sources. Vietnam is not affected, so great shrooms, zoas, and softies are still available there.
Vietnam Soft Corals

Fish are not affected by the coral closures. All the usual places have fair to good stocks in general now, since it is the summer slow season here. Now is the season when young fish 'fallout' onto the reefs. So there are tiny, small, and juvenile of some fish available on some lists now that are seasonal. We have seen tiny Clown Triggers, Blue Tangs, juv. Regal Angels, etc., that are a once-a-year thing.

Send an e-mail to get on the weekly mailing list and receive a regularly updated excel file of source lists.

~ birdfish

Contact Us



May 17, 2018

Hi all!

Tonga corals are on! Do ya wanna Tonga? Now is the time!

In case you have not heard, there has been a ban placed on Indonesia coral exports. This includes live rock. It is believed to be temporary, and is expected to get fixed, but no one can say when. So far it is like Fiji redux.

This does not affect fish, and is only for areas within the Indonesia CITES enforcement quadrant. So, for instance, it does not affect soft corals from Viet Nam. But it does close all the Bali Acro places, Kupang, anything Indo or Java, or any of the adjacent islands. In many ways this is very similar to what just happened in Fiji, and again without advance notice whatsoever to the industry.

So at the present, Viet Nam soft corals are the main source for zoas, shrooms, and assorted softies. Hard corals supplies are virtually non-existent. Unless you wanna Tonga. There will be a Tonga shipment, currently scheduled for May 27th to LAX, the 28th to you.

Tonga is what we called 'almost Australia', or, 'poor man's Australia' for years. It has a limited diversity, but, the types are all different from the Indonesia area stuff. Big fancy colonies of great colors and health, and lots of unusual stuff not generally available from the Indo area sources anyway. Big thick branched Torches, big fancy Acro colonies, amazing colored encrusting Montiporas, great zoas and shrooms. Besides Acros, it is an area of somewhat low diversity within the groups, only single or a few types of each, but all different and unique types of pieces compared to what you are used to seeing elsewhere. Generally Acro boxes are all different, they do have a good variety of species of them.

Call or e-mail for a list, you have a few days to get an order together, done and placed. Acro boxes are estimated at a dozen large colonies and $850 total including everything except the domestic shipping LAX to you, which you pay the airline when you pickup.

~ birdfish

Contact Us



May 1, 2018

There's a revision regarding the live rock mentioned below ... arrival is now scheduled to be May 13th.

April 26, 2018

Hi all!
There will be some Indo-Bali live rock coming in next week. You can place your order by using the Java-Bali payment buttons on the "Ordering Live Rock" page link below. It is very limited, so act fast if you want some! Sunday, May 6th to LAX, Monday to you. It is mixed pink and purple coralline on old coral pieces.   ~birdfish

Ordering Live Rock

Indonesia Live Rock Photos


Here's a beauty for you. Look at that Cleaner Wrasse, isn't that spectacular? Oh yeah, well that Gem Tang isn't too bad either! That Cleaner Wrasse thought it hit the ich jackpot when it saw the Tang go in the tank. Probably thought "I can live a month off this fish," then it got over there and had its mind blown when it saw it was a Gem Tang. There are some few available right now from the greenhouse at $1200 each, 3-4".   Fancy fish!







April 2, 2018

Currently, there are no corals available from the Indonesia area CITES enforcement quadrant, which means Java, Bali, Kupang, Flores, Manado, everything in that area is offline right now. This is an annual thing when the new CITES quotas and permits are worked out. It can take a week or two, sometimes more, for everything to be settled and for it to all come back online. There may be some cultured stuff (Acros from Kupang) allowed out in the meanwhile, so stay tuned. The weekly mailing list is the best way to know what is happening any given week. If you'd like to get on the mailing list, please send us an e-mail.

This does not affect Viet Nam, so if shrooms and zoas were what you were looking for, no worries. Currently that is scheduled to go on April 8th and 22nd. There is talk of Australia shipping again soon, so if high end is what you want, be ready to jump when they announce, probably in two weeks. Word is Fiji is going to come back online, and is not affected by the Indo quadrant deal so when it comes back up, there will be more options. Hopefully soon, we will keep you posted!

If you are not familiar with how tranship pricing works on the lists, please read this new page that we hope will answer all of your pricing questions ... About Marine Livestock Lists

One last note, there will be some small Gem Tangs available with next weekend's shipments. They are 2.5-3" and $1200 everything included (F.O.B. LAX).

~birdfish

Our E-mail
birdfish@livestockusa.org



March 29, 2018

Hi all,

Live Rock Alert!

There will be some limited bit of Indo (Java) live rock coming in to LAX this weekend. There is only a little bit.

There are some photos here ...
Indonesia Live Rock Photos



It is $6.25/lb., about 50-lb. boxes. Let's call it $300 per box. You can Paypal that amount or we can send a link button to click and follow for that amount. Monday to you.

I can't overstate: act fast!

birdfish



February 8, 2018

We have some recent photos from an order of Kupang corals you may want to see!

They are at the top of the page linked below ... here's a sample ...



Kupang Photos



January 22, 2018

In regard to Fiji live rock and corals ... please inquire as to current situation as there currently is a chance of availability.



January 3, 2018

Happy New Year!

We hope you had great holidays! Congrats on making 2018.

Just in case you haven't heard, Fiji is OFFLINE presently. We don't know what is going to happen, but for the moment we unable to accept orders for Fiji liverock or corals. We'll keep you posted! Of course, we are working on other liverock supplies, but at the moment, there is no real deal stuff to be had.

Kupang is the best bet right now for good assorted corals. They have great A+ cultured Acros, and are available just about weekly like clockwork. For soft corals only, Viet Nam is outstanding in the shroom and zoa department. Anems too. They are every two weeks, next one probably on January 14th.

Keep an eye on this page, or sign up for the weekly updates to stay posted on changes.

Happy fish and coral hunting!
birdfish



November 29, 2017

Hi friends,

We want to wish you all a very happy Holiday Season! We also would like to thank all of our great customers! Without you we wouldn't be here. We really do appreciate your patronage. Our very best to you and yours, which includes your tanks and inhabitants. 

During this time of year, shipping is not usually a problem until the last few days before Christmas, but supply sometimes can be. Many of the suppliers close for a week or two just to avoid the whole thing, usually from Christmas into the first week of the New Year. Some will stay open and ship right through it though. Of course we watch the weather like a hawk this time of year so we know how much to heat pack, where.

Fiji Pukani live rock is coming in fantastic. Check out the couple of pics Terry L. from Phoenix just sent us. It is the real deal lagoon-to-you fresh live rock. Terry has had every kind they ever made (LOL) and is what I would call a expert level connoisseur of live rock.

There are fancy Acro shipments, monthly or so, from Bali usually either the Premium or the 'X' folks ship, one or the other. Kupang has been good and consistent for mixed coral boxes, and their cultured Acros are great. Fiji has been outstanding as always for wild Acros and mixed boxes of corals or fish. The Bali and Philippines tranship fish are coming in great too. These are the highest quality suppliers.

Just send an e-mail and let us know what you want or are interested in, or call, and we will direct you to the best place to get it. The .pdf pages are updated monthly or more and you can always get a good idea of what is to be had with whatever is up. Note that the .pdf pages are often updated and changed, so if you wish to bookmark, please make sure it's the main .pdf index list (link below) and not the individual .pdf pages.

Meanwhile, have safe and happy holidays!
~ birdfish



Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

Contact Us



October 13, 2017

Hi all!

Check out the new photos of some of the current Fiji Pukani live rock coming in. There are some large pieces that look great. The regular is awesome too. Fiji corals and fish are always world class A grade.

Fiji Pukani Large Pieces Live Rock

Short video on youtube

We will soon have cured live rock available in smaller quantities than the 44 lbs. box. The system is nearing ready and should be "rocking" in a month. That floor was way more uneven than it looked. So for those with smaller tanks, or if looking for just a piece or two or few, we will soon be able to help you with small quantities of cured live rock.

For beautiful assorted wild Acro colonies, Fiji is the place. For zoas and shroom rocks, the Viet Nam boxes are best. For mixed boxes of corals, Fiji and Kupang are both great, check to see which what you are looking for. When Bali-C does (cultured) Acros, they are worth getting too.

For fish, it is mostly a matter of which place has what you want. All of our sources are of the highest quality available. There are cheaper guys at every source. We think these are the best. Remember the lists barely change and you can order off a two or six month old list and get a 98% fill rate. Some don't update their stock numbers, they are just an average of what to expect or not, to give an idea of what there is a lot of and little of. Just so you know if you just want a box of items they have one each of, it probably will not happen.  

Thursdays at about 6 p.m. is order cut-off, as it is already Friday over the date line and the orders have to be there when they get to work that morning, our Thursday evening. Our Friday is their Saturday, too late to order anything. The only thing you can still order on Friday is Fiji, if done early in the day. You can always Paypal our e-mail address. You don't even have to order anything ... LOL 

Keep an eye out on weekly list updates: There are occasional Vanuatu fish shipments coming in, the LAX Greenhouse List will have them for a week or two until gone. They have a bunch of great stuff you don't see from other sources. See the recent Vanuatu list on our .pdf lists page for an idea of what they have now.

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

~birdfish



June 29, 2017

We apologize to our customers with e-mail accounts at live, hotmail, and msn. We cannot currently (for the last week) send you an e-mail without it being returned to us undelivered. We can receive from you, but are unable to send to you. So please call, or send us a message from another e-mail account, if possible, until this issue is resolved. The MS e-mail system apparently has our ISP's server blocked for some unexplained reason (it wasn't us) ... no problems with yahoo or gmail, it's only a MS e-mail system based issue.



June 27, 2017

Hi fish friends!

We hope summer fun is finding you! Remember if you are near water to look for fish.       Guess I didn't need to say that to y'all.

There is a new page of photos that our wonderful customers have sent us in the last few months. There are some amazing looking reefs, and some outstanding corals. Check it out! A bit heavy on the Acropora, that's how those goes.  

2017 Customer Photos


Lots of corals are coming in great, Fiji and Kupang are the two most consistent, regular, dependable nowadays. Viet Nam is fantastic for soft corals, if you like shrooms and zoas. Between those three you can get most of what you need. See our Corals List Central page or the .pdf pages to see where has what.

Coral List Central

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists


The super rare high dollar stuff is more irregular and you just have to be ready waiting to throw money at them when they announce. They are all very limited and are nearly sold out when they announce. This is how it is with Taiwan Zoas, Australia, Premium or X Acros, etc., all the specialty sources.

Lots of great fish are available from Philippines (some Gem Tangs recently!) and Bali, and the I.O. fish from Kenya and Sri Lanka are outstanding. Keep an eye on the .pdf pages as those are updated monthly; although if you have a list from a few years ago you'll see 95%+ of it is identical. The LAX Greenhouse List usually has a little bit of Sri Lanka, Kenya, and often some Vanuatu fish on it, with tanked pricing in LA.

If you want a weekly Excel file updated set of lists, just send an e-mail, we'll put you on the list. If you ever have trouble calling, try the 855 toll free #, some callers have trouble getting through at the 866 #.

Contact Us

Happy fishin'!
birdfish



April 6, 2017

Hi friends,

There is a hiccup with Indonesia coral availabilities, as last years' quotas, used or not, expired on March 31st. Currently, there aren't any CITES permits for coral export from Bali, Kupang, Indonesia (Jakarta), and all the assorted smaller places in that area. There is no word so far on when the new quotas and permits will be issued and we can only wait to hear something and it's all off-line for now.

Until something breaks, some are trying to get permits for the fancy cultured Acropora. We had expected a list of choices from one of the sources this week, but nothing yet, so we're not sure if that will happen. Don't get me started on how we can't get permits for aquacultured products under the current system, which is utterly ridiculous!

Fortunately, this affects the Indo quadrant only. This means that Viet Nam, Australia, Fiji, and Tonga are all fine. Speaking of Tonga, we will have a new Tonga list out again shortly, which should help fill the void. They have a limited list, but their corals are great. There are some Vanuatu fish coming into the greenhouse again now, as well as some Kenya, so you might want to see what is in the greenhouse!

Here is a note we received today (Apr. 6) about the Fiji Pukani live rock that went through yesterday.
"Everything went without a hitch. Finished up rinsing and placing rock in the tank and all I can say is 'WOW' and thank you. That is the 'GOOD STUFF' for sure. I could hear the life soaking back into the rock not to mention what I saw. Keep up the good work. ;)  Thank you David M. in Mass.!"

If you want regular weekly updates ask to get on the mailing list. Meanwhile we hope that spring is finding you!
~birdfish



March 8, 2017

Update on Australia corals ... there is a shipment scheduled for arrival on March 28th.

Updated Note: There has been a delay with Australia corals, partly due to Cyclone Debbie.



January 17, 2017

We hope you are having a happy New Year! It is off to the races, we are already over half way through the new month! Did you see that Ruby Sea Dragon at our Facebook page link or on our Links page? What an awesome animal! Semi-prehensile tail, sorta like horsies!?! In our view of sea dragons, it is a game changer.
Links Page

There are lots of different things coming in, but many of the shall we say non-standard basic places are a bit less regular than the clockwork of Philippines or Bali fish. So you have to be patient sometimes. There will be some fancy Bali Acros shortly. Australia is shipping (Wed. 18th) again, there is a wee bit of Red Sea via Sri Lanka, there will probably be some clams and Tonga again shortly.

Keep your eyes on the weekly excel file update (send an e-mail if you wish to receive it automatically) for the latest weekly shipping news.

At the risk of being redundant ... here is a note we just received about a box of Fiji liverock shipped last week: I am not kidding when I say it is the real deal old-school Fiji live rock.  

Re: Fiji Live Rock - Date: Jan. 16, 2017
"So far so good. Going through the curing process and it looks as though I may have some surviving coral. The colors are phenomenal and it's the best quality live rock I have purchased. Most of the hitchhikers were dead in the bottom of the box which was great! We had 4 or 5 brittle stars, one small mantis shrimp, 2 crabs, and a bristle worm. I spent a few hours investigating with flashlight for anything I may have missed and couldn't find anymore. For this amount of fresh live rock, I couldn't have asked for more. I will buy from you again and have already recommended livestockusa.org. I can't wait to see what becomes of these rocks." - Gianna D. - Augusta, GA

best!
birdfish






December 21, 2016

Season's Greetings!
We wish you all happy holidays! Our very best to you and yours! We thank you very much for your support, and are honored to serve you. Be safe, stay warm, have fun, get plenty of turkey, ham, and nog!

There may be some hiccups with shipping the next two weekends with the holidays falling on Sundays. Some may ship for during the week arrivals, like for Tuesday or Thursday.

One we just found out about is the fancy Bali X-Acros. They will be shipping for Thursday the 29th to LAX, Friday the 30th to you. We will be sending a list out with the contents of the two box options you get to choose between today. Ask if you want to see contents lists and you aren't on our mailing list.

Fiji just had a major rain event with flooding ( in case you don't have the "Fiji Times" bookmarked like birdfish    ), so they couldn't ship this past Monday as they usually do. We are waiting to hear when they will be able to ship.

In case we don't talk before then, have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, Festivus, and have a healthy and Happy New Year!

Thank you all very much for everything!

Our very best regards,
birdfish



November 29, 2016

Hope you all got enough Turkeyfish!

Wanted to mention a couple of things about Acroporas ...

Bali-C cultured are up and running again, with species picks, and often even color selections. They are ON for this Sunday to LAX, but orders have to be in by Wednesday, Nov. 30th. Please ask if you want a list. You can order assorted, but picks are available and most of the places quit doing that.

Then there are two of the super fancy high-end cultured Acro sources in Bali worth doing. Both ship irregularly and with little notice, so you have to be ready to jump when they announce. We often only get a couple of days notice and there are only a few boxes available. They make assortments up for each shipment and send a list of what will be in the A or B box. You get to choose which, yes or no   ... (no cherry picking).

Here is one of the recent offerings from the "X" place at the link below so you can see what types they deal with. It is top of the line A-to-Ultra Grade and better, world class stuff. Send an email to get on the updates list so you will be notified when it is "ON".

~ birdfish



Hi all,

Hope fall is finding you and your tanks well! Mainly we want to offer a friendly reminder that the weekend of Thanksgiving (Sunday the 27th) can be rough for shipping out of LAX. So many travelers are going home that Sunday night that shipments can get bumped off the "red-eye" flights. Mostly it's flights to the big major cities that are affected. Often, if you are at a destination with a morning flight on Southwest, there is not an issue, although some major destinations (larger cities) can be. The first three weekends in November, however, are not a problem. Think ahead and plan early for the holidays!

There are great corals coming in from Viet Nam, Fiji, and Jakarta, weekly. With some of the high-end things like Australia or Premium Acros or Zoas, you have to be ready and waiting as we often only get a couple days notice. If you want to be notified when they are "ON", just send a note asking. Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Fiji all have World Class A-1 fish coming in too.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, Turkeyfish!  
~ birdfish



September 13, 2016

Hi all,

We hope you had a great summer! The heat is fading, finally. Below is a note from a customer about the Premium Acropora that come in from time to time. These and the 'X' Acros are both great. If I said all this you would think I was seriously over-selling...LOL. They ship every month or so when they feel like it or run out of coconuts and clams. You have to be ready to jump though, we get about a day's notice to get orders in and it is sold out.

There are some more expensive Australian Acropora available from time to time as well if the X or Premium Acros aren't high enough priced for you. They are coming next Tuesday the 20th of Sept., about 10-11 to a box for $140 each piece. Some are whole colonies, some are the big broken branches. Ask for a link to see the pics of them.

You can also call or e-mail us to ask to get an Excel file with a bunch of current updated lists from many different sources.
~birdfish



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple of notes we recently received from Mark H. of Colorado ...

"You guys do amazing things. That box was beautiful ... even the packaging was pretty ... every knot perfect ... and the pieces ... well, these guys named themselves appropriately. They're in the tank for an hour and we're already getting some polyps sneaking their little heads out. Now I wish I had gotten A AND B ... silly me for being responsible ... or something ... you tell these guys they're awesome for me next time you speak with them. You have a good evening too sir ... ya'll made my day!"

(A second note ...)
"The lights went out, so it's too dark to tell who's who at this point ... but they didn't send me box A according to the packing sticker. They appear to have sent everything I wanted from both lists, and left out the ones from list A that were less exciting to me. Almost like they could read my mind ... I mean sure ... there's no purple Caroliniana, but there's a mystery valida and abrolhosensis ... and I always fancied a valida ... on neither list, but on the sticker ... maybe it's in the tank. I can't wait to play detective in the morning.

20 of the 22 pieces were also bigger than expected ... 4 or 5 of them were at least double what I expected. The one Monti was as expected ... the other (undata) is way cooler than I thought (my brother thought it was an acro cuz of how its growing) the other "little" guy might be the valida, cuz it's awesome looking, even if dwarfed by his friends ... the only piece that broke a bit was still bigger than expected even after fragging itself twice en route.

Very satisfied customer here ... I had to tell you twice, and usually I just keep my mouth shut and smile when I'm happy. I'll be sure to tell anyone who asks where they came from. Keep doing what yer doing, it's good.

I forgot the best part of the story was my brother at the unboxing ... as we're opening it up he says to me, 'so how much did you pay for this one box?' And gets a little bit of the eyebrow raise going on like I was crazy ... then he sees the bagging job and compliments it ... something about he's been tying bags for 15 years and these guys know what they're doing ... then as he cuts open the first bag for me it immediately turned to 'holy %^#! bro' ... I think he musta said it 20 of 22 times ... the only other was 'what's this?' (Monti) and 'this one's broken, but still huge' ... by the end of it he was very impressed and he's not an easy one to win over. Big time kudos"

Premium Acropora



August 15, 2016

Some more nice photos have been shared with us by a recent customer ...

Fiji Nano Corals



July 15, 2016

We're happy to share a handful of photos shared by a couple of our recent customers!

These may be seen on the following pages ....

Kupang Corals

Vietnam Ultra


July 7, 2016

There is a new list available with Red Sea fish ...
see .pdf page shown on our Red Sea page!
Red Sea


June 28, 2016

Hi friends with wet hands,

First we want to wish you all a Happy Independence Day! We hope you have a great Fourth of July! What a great holiday ... picnics, barbeque, maybe something near some water (keep an eye out for fish!)... stay safe, hydrated, and have fun!

Second we apologize for being too busy to keep this page as current as we wished we could. Ask for an Excel file with the most recently updated set of lists anytime. Most of our .pdf pages of those same lists are regularly updated; most of the lists usually stay the same. Just check to see if what you want is ON, or for the most recent update.

Due to the holiday, a few things are coming in on Monday this coming week instead of the usual Sunday. Such as Viet Nam and Bali Blue. Also, if not too many of you do it, we can have a box tanked overnight in the greenhouse if you want something that is coming in on Sunday if you won't be around Monday to receive it. We'll ship it out on Monday for Tuesday arrival to you.

So far here is what we know for this coming week ...

Sunday to LAX, Monday July 4th to you:
Kupang Corals
Lombok Fish
Bali Tanjung Fish
Bali Nusa Fish
RVS Philippines Fish
Cebu Fish (Philippines)

Monday to LAX, Tuesday July 5th to you:
Vietnam Box-lots
Bali Blue Fish
Kenya Fish
Fiji Fish & Corals

~~~~~~~~~~~

Good fishing!
birdfish

Marine Livestock .pdf Lists

Contact Us



May 23, 2016

Check out these premium acropora!
Premium Acropora

Most current article ...
On Arrival
Discusses some examples of what you may expect when corals arrive.



April 25, 2016

Hi all,

We hope that spring green is finding you well! There are some new corals from Ambon available, which are a wee bit pricey but great. Check out the new page of photos ... Ambon Photos

There is also another new page with pics of some of the super-fancy Taiwan Zoas which are a once every couple of months or so thing. You have to be ready as we only get a week's notice when they are coming.

Taiwan Zoas Photos

Fiji Acros have been fantastic as usual, and the air-freighted real deal live rock is great! The Viet Nam zoas, shrooms, and softies have been outstanding as always too.

For fish, you can't go wrong with Kenya, they are great I.O. fish. There have lately been, every couple of weeks or so, Sumatra fish, and it is very good too. Fiji is always all hand and net-caught as well and also excellent quality fish.

We will soon have a couple of more articles up, so remember to check back and keep an eye on this updates page. One will be on how tranship corals appear on arrival, another on zoanthid toxicity. Birdfish is very busy.   ;)


April 7, 2016

Here are some recent customer comments to share with you!

"The two blueline angels are awesome ... Thank you so much for your expert service!"
Best Regards,   Alan C., S.F. Bay Area, CA

(These fish were out of the greenhouse.)

~~~

"We got the live rock; it's in the tank. BEAUTIFUL. Thank you; I will surely contact you when I'm ready to add corals!!

It looks beautiful; lots of orange & purple on it. Some soft stuff sponges I guess and one little crab was still moving. One little clam didn't close up so in the trash; another one closed tightly; he went in the tank. TONS of dead sea stars in one box; put a few in where I can watch them to see if they come back. The rocks smelled great--no funk at all; just salty; little iodine.

All in all, I am extremely happy with what I got from y'all--excellent quality; *LOTS* of little things too numerous to name just out of the box. Can't wait to see what manifests itself over the next few months. Just like the old days!!"
Karl & Tanya P., Cleveland, OH

~~~

"Man the rock is......stinky!! Haha, no it was great! Really, really, fresh! Overall, the rock was awesome man! Very porous, almost perfect pieces. It was covered in red, pink, orange, purple, and a little bluish coralline algae.

There were two clusters of acropora that appear just skeletons now, although one still had a purple hue. Some plate corals, and I'm pretty sure I cleaned off some dying mushroom looking coral. There are some circular green with with stripe corals that are still live but I can't identify. Several dead brittle stars, a few dead bristle worms, a couple dead crabs. There was also a few sea slug looking things, and a few unknown to me worms. All those were doa too. I am starting to see trails in the sand through the front pane, so some life is starting to stir. :)

I have been doing water changes daily...about 25-30 gallons. Taking 3-6ppm ammonia down to 1-1.5. Been cycling since Saturday. Have the salinity around 1.020-1.021 and the temp 71-73, just like you said. Have only had light on while I'm doing the water changes. I am hoping to go to every other day, or every few days here soon. I think with the next water change, I'm going to situate the rock into the places I actually want them in the tanks. I have them spread out now for circulation purposes. Thanks again for everything man!"
Jeremiah G., Louisville, KY

~~~

"The Fiji Pukani is awesome! What impressed me the most was the size of the rock in addition to the quality. I wasn't expecting such large pieces and was very appreciative of them. I can't wait for the rocks to come-back to life to see what sprouts out of them. Thank you Mitch for making this all happen ... it was painless picking them up at the Air Cargo Terminal. I'll be happy to tell anybody that calls that you guys are the BEST! Keep up the great work!"
Willie C., Ontario, CA


March 22, 2016

Hi all!

Check out these photos that just came in from Ray U. of Maryland of some Fiji Acros he just got ...








Additional new photos can be seen here ...
Fiji Acropora Photos Page


These are Tonga zoanthids from the greenhouse ...




Thanks again Ray U. for photos!



And here is a Ricordia (of a rock-full) that has been coming in the Viet Nam boxes. We can't guaranty anything specific in the mixed boxes, but lately the boxes have been having two rocks covered in these beautiful Rics.


Thanks to Robert V. of Grand Rapids, MI for his photo.

You can also see more of Robert's photos on our ...
Vietnam Photos Page


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Here's a recently shared photo of Fiji Pukani live rock ...

Thanks to Frank C. for photo!



Recent photo of Fiji acropora ... thanks Richard V. for pic!


March 5, 2016

Hi all!
Sorry to be slow between notes here! We've been busier than a one-eyed squid in a school of sardines.

In case you hadn't heard there was major Cyclone Winston that hit Fiji. There was lots of damage, the worst on the north of the two major islands. Here is some info about it ...

Fiji Cyclone Winston's Damage Highest in South Pacific History
Weather Page Details

Relief Efforts - Think Pacific

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is a note we just received a couple days ago about the air-freighted real deal live rock we get for you.

The Fiji Pukani is awesome! What impressed me the most was the size of the rock in addition to the quality. I wasn't expecting such large pieces and was very appreciative of them. I can't wait for the rocks to come-back to life to see what sprouts out of them. Thank you Mitch for making this all happen ... it was painless picking them up at the Air Cargo Terminal. I'll be happy to tell anybody that calls that you guys are the BEST! Keep up the great work!
Willie C., Ontario, CA

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Note that you have a day or a few to get any Indo live rock orders in, a shipment is scheduled for March 11 or 12 to LAX so far. It could float a few days, but it is on with a planned arrival late next week.

If you have Excel on your computer, ask for our most recent updated availabilities. Otherwise the .pdf's on our .pdf lists page are updated fairly regularly and usually still 98%+ accurate. Only the rarest items change. There is lots of great stuff coming in as usual.

I hear birds singing, spring is on the way!   :)
~birdfish



January 25, 2016

This is a new photo page featuring Viet Nam soft corals ...

Viet Nam Ultra Photos


January 13, 2016

We hope you all had a Happy New Year and enjoyed the holiday! Again, we want to thank you for your interest and support! We really appreciate it!

In general, the overseas suppliers are all on their normal schedules. Everything is coming in as usual. The MLK holiday doesn't affect shipping, but in early February there will be Chinese New Year for which some sources go off-line for a week to celebrate. March sometimes starts to have CITES issues as the prior year allotments run out.

Now is a good time to order for most places. Fiji just missed a week due to bad weather and consequent bad seas, but a rare event. Their corals and fish are great, usually every week.

So you know not to worry, we pay real close attention to weather, and of course lots of heat packs to some areas are the norm now, four to six per box if need be. We even heat pack live rock when and where neccessary. Most weeks we can get to most destinations without problem.

Just got this today ... thought you all might like it. This shipment was bumped from the direct "red eye" flight it was booked for and went out in the morning, arriving in the late afternoon, which is not uncommon, and not anything to worry about.

Randy F. from VA wrote:
Re: Bali Acro Shipment
Got back to the shop last night at 9:00 p.m. Opened the box, stuck my hand in there, the bags were cold. Thought they were all gonna be dead. Started opening bags. Bag after bag after bag, water was crystal clear, coral full of color, 100% survival. These coral did not shed any zoanthellae. My last Bali order same thing. Late Monday evening pick up, and 100% survival, lots of color. Bali travels well. I got 22 pcs. Don't know what you substituted but it was a very good box. I'm happy, and a little tired today! Thanks Mitch

~~~~~

The above note is fairly typical of the results we get.  :)
~ birdfish


December 10, 2015

Hi all,

Just a quick note about shipping schedules as we approach the holidays.

The week prior to Christmas is the hard week to ship. Besides the additional passenger load of holiday travelers, the U.S. Mail load is heavy with cards, and mail takes precedence over fish shipments. The week in between Christmas and New Year's is usually fine with no problems, all the people and mail have moved already. New Year's falling on a Friday is good as most will have travelled back home by that Sunday Jan. 3rd, and so that shouldn't be a big problem either. Order cutoffs will still be the Thursday prior to those holidays, on the "Eves," but earlier is better before the suppliers split for the holiday.

We do not yet know which shippers will be closing when though. Some do take a week or two off, often between Christmas and New Year's, and or the week after New Year's Day. So, often a source or two will be off-line a week or two. There are often are alternatives too, so inquire.

Actually, Ramadan later in January and the Chinese New Year just after that, often have some Indo sources shut down for a week or two. We will post when we know if a key source is going off-line for a holiday break.

We did get a few hundred pounds of some awesome fresh Fiji live rock in this week and by all accounts it was spectacular. We don't know when the next shipment will be yet, be prepared to wait a bit, but it will be more than worth it. It is limited, so best to place your order to be in line.

Here is a note we just received Wednesday, Dec. 9th:
"The rock is fantastic. Great shapes, unbelievable colors. I am very happy with the rock. It is just like Vanuatu. Thank you for getting it for me on such short notice."   - Terry L. from PHX.
Terry is what I would call a live rock connoisseur. He knows his live rock inside-out, has had every kind they ever made, and calls it like it is.   ;)

Happy Holidays!
~ birdfish




November 25, 2015

Hi all,

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a great holiday! Don't gobble too much turkey!
(Whoever figured out how good cranberries went with turkey deserves the Medal of Freedom IMHO.)

In some wet news ... Fiji Acropora and the nano boxes (which are big smalls) are coming in great. There is a hiccup in the air-freight fresh Fiji live rock supply momentarily, which should be fixed any day now. Indo live rock is off-line presently and the Fiji Pukani has been better the last several months anyway. Shoot us an e-mail if you want any fish or coral lists.

Mostly, we are thankful for all the great folks that have supported us over the years! You! We have the best customers in the world. I mean cool people, nice people, real people, good people. We thank you very much!

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving!
~ birdfish



November 4, 2015

There are some beautiful Cocos Island Maxima clams in the greenhouse right now, but probably not for long! They can be included with any coral or fish order.


Cocos Islands Clams
(sorry about the surface motion blurr)




October 26, 2015

Sorry we've been too busy to keep up on all fronts! We thought you might like to see some comments received this past month regarding various shipments. If you are wondering about Fiji Acros, Jakarta WYS, Kupang, Fiji Pukani live rock, Viet Nam boxes, here are other's words on them...

Re: Jakarta WYS - Oct. 19th
"The corals are being acclimated now. They look to be ok for the most part. I think I got about 90% of things that I really wanted. Subs are great too though. Got a notice from paypal the the refund has been issued to my card (for the difference in estimate and received). Thank you for your great service!! Much appreciated. Very happy with the corals and the whole experience over all. Not all zoas opened up last night so I can't wait to get home and check them out. I service a couple of reef tanks and supply the owners with a few frags here and there but with these newly acquired beauties I should be able to take my coral farm to a new level as well. Once I recover some of the cost of the last order I'll be looking to add more variety.
Thank you so much!!"
Val G., Denver, CO

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Kupang - Oct. 19th
"Got a nice box with more pieces than expected. Pretty sure I ordered a yellow finger coral and they sent green also. The green leather is actually bright green and open ;)   Everything looking great btw. Everything opened up nicely as soon as it hit the tank. The 2 fish are in great health as well, eating like pigs a couple hours after being in tank. I appreciate that. Will definitely be ordering again.
Thanks again,"
Glen D., Alamagordo, NM

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Fiji Pukani Live Rock - October 9th
"Fiji is once again A Grade rock. One piece that they sent may turn out to be THE NICEST PIECE THAT I HAVE OWNED and I am probably at the 500lb. point of my rock experience. It's a honeycombed piece a little bit bigger than a football with some unknown patches of growth, fully encrusted with coralline. Nothing dying and a sweet smell, it went straight into the Tuskfish tank along with another sweet piece so that I can baby them. (My algae scrubber is fully mature but really only idling with all the rock filtration I have a small bioload.) Another BIG score for my system! If someone asked me for a rock recommendation at this time, I would say Fiji. THANK YOU SO MUCH."
Andy B., Pittsburgh, PA

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Vietnam Ultra (Rare, Premium & Limited) - Oct. 12th
"Well, got the heavy box of Vietnam Ultra Soft Corals today from the airport before 2pm. The combo rocks are certainly amazing like you told me!! These rocks have a couple different types of sinularia and sarcophyton on them, various zoanthids, rhodactis, ricordea, green star polyps and a few other oddballs that I'm not sure. The guys that repack these corals do a great job as well, no leaking bags and the combo rocks are probably five pounds or more, no leaking! The bags were double or triple bagged, with some dry newspaper in between the two dry bags which helps protect the corals. Need to brush up a bit on my Vietnamese though.   :)  "

... and on a prior Vietnam regular shroom box ...
"I see another box of them in my future too! They fill the tank in really nice and the colors are really bright. I wish there would have been more blues and reds, but all of the shrooms looked great."

both above from:
Dave B., Saint Louis, MO

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Fiji Acropora - Oct. 23rd
Subject: Eagle has landed
"The eagle is back at the nest. All eggs look great with only 1 out of 15 that bleached out . I'm more than satisfied . Walt sent the real deal again !! Thanks again for the super service ! Always top notch, I'll be in touch again soon."
Matt B., Illinois

Photo of acro in bag upon arrival ...


Thanks for the photo Matt!


These customers said it better than I could, and y'all would think I am selling instead of just tellin' it like it is. Everything IS great! Fiji Acros are awesome, as is the fresh Pukani live rock from there now. The Jakarta WYS is great, so is Kupang, and Viet Nam is hard to beat for softies like shrooms and zoas, those Ultra combo rocks are awesome. Sure you might get a dead here and a sub there, but you mostly get a box of things that just are not available locally for most folks. Or if so, they are double the price, or more.

Send an e-mail if you want the most recent list (excel file) of availabilities.
Happy fishing!
~ birdfish


September 15, 2015

Here are a couple of recent customer comments regarding Fiji Pukani live rock and Bali-Prop cultured Acroporas ...

Fiji Pukani Live Rock ...

"Thank You Very Much! This is VERY nice rock! No dense pieces and excellent variety of life. A grade for sure.   :-) "
Andy B., Pittsburgh, PA
Sept. 10th


"Hi ... I wanted to let you know the Bali-Prop acros are outstanding, all alive, and very healthy. I couldn't be happier. I've taken some pics but need to play with them to get the right color representation."
James D., Portland, OR
Sept. 3rd



August 11, 2015

Hi all !

We hope you are having a great summer and some nice va- or stay-cations!

There is scuttlebutt about an Indo (Java) live rock shipment coming up shortly. So if you are thinking about it, get your orders in soon and quickly. Of course, the real deal air-freighted Fiji is now available weekly with fish and coral shipments.

Lots of good corals and fish are coming in lately. For soft corals the Viet Nam is hard to beat, some mighty fancy stuff shows up in that Ultra box. I never saw a hot pink finger leather coral before.

Fiji wild Acropora are amazing as always and their other stuff is just as excellent, SPS, LPS, softies, and the hand-caught fish. The Bali cultured Acros are great, but intermittent, every few weeks on average. Fiji is weekly like clockwork. And don't forget that Fiji nano box if you want a bunch of growouts, they are great good sized smalls now.

We have fish coming weekly from Kenya for those that want something different (Indian Ocean) than the usual. We have a couple of great Philippine suppliers with excellent fish, as well as four Bali shippers that have great fish. Just ask for a list if you want to see availibilities.

Besides Fiji and Bali cultured Acros, most weeks Kupang ships and is great for assorted coral boxes. Most weeks one of the Jakarta guys is on, either the WYS place, or the real inexpensive one (Jakarta-T). Some weeks Tonga is available too.

You can always check the Fish or Coral List Central pages for recent pdf format updated lists that you can download directly with a click. Most of them are mostly the same all the time with just minor changes any given week or three.

We hope y'all have a great end to your summer!
Stay cool!
birdfish



July 1, 2015

Check out the new ...   Tonga and Tahitian clam photos   on our Greenhouse list!

There are also some new pics of some Ultra Vietnam thanks to LLaura who shared some with us, and you!

Customer Photos

Have a Happy & Safe Independence Day!



June 29, 2015

If you are looking for Java (Indo) live rock, it is scheduled for the week after July 4th.
Orders must be placed by Thursday, July 2nd. It will be about a month or two until the next shipment arrives.
Fresh, air-freighted, A-1 Fiji is available almost weekly or nearly-so.



June 1, 2015

Hi all!

There is a wee bit of Tonga corals coming in again! We don't know if this is going to become a regular event, but there are some of these World Class corals now available. They are on par with Aussie corals for color, quality, and variety. A bit pricey compared to the old days, but cheaper than Aussie and there isn't anything like it. It is very reasonable for the pieces you get. As for Tonga live rock, we very highly doubt the rock will re-open.

Kenya (I.O.), Philippines and Bali fish are coming in great, as are Kupang and Fiji corals. The Bali cultured Acros are astounding, you just have to wait a week or two or three between shipments, but always more than worth it. I have fraggers telling me they are seeing stuff they have never seen. WYS fancy high-end Jakarta is every two or three weeks, ask for the next list if you want to see what they have.

Note many of the source lists are up on the fish or coral list central pages. They change barely by a few items per few weeks. There are some lists available as .pdf's, so you can read them with Adobe.

~ birdfish



April 28, 2015

Hi all,

There are a few things going on you should know. First, there is some fresh real deal air-freighted Fiji Pukani live rock available that is very good. So although there is yet to be an Indo live rock shipment this year, there is now an alternative, for real deal air-freighted old-school live rock. Everyone has said it was good to great.

The annual CITES quotas for the next year of coral exports from the Indo quadrant have been set in April as usual. But they have been slow to get the new paperwork (permits) into exporters hands and some have not shipped the last few weeks. A live rock shipment is merely awaiting the new 2015 permit.

Even cultured Acros have been thin due to CITES, but great. We have a few different Bali sources and they each have a slightly different list. On average, each one ships about once per month. On most weeks, one of them is 'on'. You should try all three. Kupang's are great too but assorted only, no picking species like Bali.  

Fiji has a hot water problem that has only affected the regular Acropora. They have the cultured nanos and some few large-XL sized, but none of the usual great medium wild colonies (the 12-15 pcs. boxes).

New photo page:   Fiji Acropora Large-XL

Australia has had a terrible typhoon season and has not shipped in months. We are waiting to hear from them, but they won't ship until everything is great. The runoff silts everything up, colors fade, so they don't ship.

Some few Red Sea type fish are available about once a month via Sri Lanka or Philippines.

Here is a current e-mail we just received from one of our customers who got a few boxes of Fiji Pukani live rock last week ...

"The rock has exceeded my expectations .... there is so much life on the rock ... I think there are literally 7 different colors of coraline algae - greens, pinks, reds, oranges, purples.

There is lots of other encrusting life as well. Three several inch sponges (2 orange, 1 red) survived. There are these beautiful little dark maroon and bright green tube-like structures clustered on one rock that lived. Lots of kinds of macro-algae.

There are these incredible light-blue dots on one of the pieces of rock that look like some kind of small growth. On one of the larger rocks, there must have been an encrusting SPS coral they removed because I see 3 separate areas-patches on the rock where the SPS seems to have survived! I don't understand how the SPS is living given my ammonia levels, but it is. I've already given a little VHO light each day because I don't want the SPS or coraline algae to die.

I have a clean-up crew in there, so I'll monitor the algae growth. There is a small dime-like dark purple encrusting organism with little hairs that is beautiful - I have no idea what it is. The list goes on and on. And to top it off, last night when I put on a small strip of LED blue lights, some of the red encrusting coral (it must be soft coral I think) were glowing neon colors! I had never seen anything like that before as well.

The rock was packed very well with a great variety of small, medium, and large pieces.

I feel sorry for people who by dry rock because there is no way they'll ever have the diversity of life in their tank without fresh-shipped rock like this."

Thanks,
James - Portland, OR



Bali and Philippine fish are great as usual and easy to get. The Vietnam softies are awesome too. E-mail us any time and ask for the most recent updated lists, or to get on our regular updates mailing list.

Happy Fish!

~ birdfish



Live Rock Photos & Pricing

Fish List Central



March 23, 2015

Check out the new page with some Bali-Prop Acro pictures of a box that just came in ... Bali-Prop

The Sri Lanka and Kenya lists are now up in pdf format at the Fish List Central page, and at the bottom of the new Indian Ocean article. If you want to see what is goin' round in the way of I.O. fish currently, you may see lists below.



Indian Ocean Fish Article

Fish List Central



March 18, 2015

Here are a few notes we received in the last couple of weeks, both on shipments of Bali-prop cultured Acros and SPS. The first one is a link that has photos (washed out, not with the best color) of some of the Acros, one neat comparison shows how they are paler when they first come in, then afterward with about a week of light (#17 & 17a).

First, here is Ray's thread at the Chesapeake Marine Aquarium Society message board ...
Ray's Thread   (pictures begin at Post #44)
_______

Bali-Prop comments from Randy ...
"You did me good ... I'm happy, happy, happy. 100% survival on arrival. One looked pale in the bag. I thought he had shed his zeo, but once acclimated and under lights he's a yellow-gold with pink tips. He's a short little fat thing with three branches. One branch is going to display, the other two are going to my home system. Got a couple *very* nice neon yellows. One going to display, the other is going home with me. Got a couple deep teal with pink tips, greens with teal tips, purples. I've got to place another order to sell to my customers cause I'm keeping half of this order for myself. Oh, and the montipora are as nice as they come. Excellent color and growth pattern. Anyway, Thanks ... I'LL BE IN TOUCH!"     - Randy F., Virginia
_______

And, some nice comments from Jerry ...
"Got the coral and tangs, they look pretty good will see what they look like in the tank. I think a couple are not what I ordered but they still are nice.   :)   "    ..... a few hours later a second e-mail....    "They are opening up and they look awesome amazing color glad you steered me in the right direction again."     - Jerry S., Nebraska

~~~~

Bali-Prop is not every and any week, usually every 2 to 3 weeks. It is limited so the thing to do is get your order in, or as you know it, hurry up, and wait.   ;)   Next planned is March 29 as of right now. That can change, but it came in the 1st and 15th, and is planned for 29th now.



March 11, 2015

Our latest article ...
Indian Ocean Fish



February 25, 2015

Hi all,

Here is a quick rundown on what is coming in this week. Arrival day to you is a day after the LAX arrival day. Ask for any list you need, as they become available we will send (or use the last one you received). Order cutoff is Thursday late afternoon.

Arrival to LAX on Sunday:
Philippines fish and inverts - 3 suppliers
Bali fish and inverts - 3 suppliers
Bali-Prop the best cultured Acropora
Sri Lanka with Red Sea fish - RED SEA!
Surabaya corals - good and inexpensive
Kupang corals - great variety and quality
Lombok fish
Irian Jaya fish
WYS Jakarta GMP - fancy premium corals
Jakarta T
Vietnam regular and ultra grade premium boxes

Arrival to LAX on Monday:
Kenya Africa - I.O. fish

Arrival to LAX on Tuesday:
Fiji - great fish and corals (no Acroporas now though)

Note: Australia is back up, but not every week (not this week)

Still free: ask for any list you want to see!
birdfish

Our E-mail: birdfish @ livestockusa.org



February 19, 2015

Check out the new photos of some of the corals currently coming in from Kupang. It is one of the best places for a box of cherries. These pix are of corals shipping this week.

Kupang Corals

There is some bit of Red Sea coming in via Sri Lanka now ... ask for a list! They have a fair selection of the Red Sea specialties, not to mention all the great I.O. fish from Sri Lanka and the endemics from the Maldives.

Australia is back up and running, finally, so that is again another option available every couple of weeks.
The 'Aussie-B Box' special is a great deal on Great Barrier Reef corals.

See below on the Dec. 18 update for a description of the Aussie B box special.
Keep warm!
~ birdfish



Our E-mail: birdfish @ livestockusa.org

Our Toll-free Phone Lines:
(866) 874-7639 or (855) 225-8086
Monday through Friday
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Central Time)



February 3, 2015

Hope you all are doing well, not too cold and not too snowed in! Here are a couple great specials.

Jakarta coral special - 20 coral colonies for $600. These are not tiny frags, but excellent quality colonies from Indonesia. Here is the list of selection options here:

Indonesia Corals Special

And these Viet Nam softies are fantastic pieces for the price! A 25-piece box of Viet Nam soft corals, spectacular mushrooms, zoas, and mixed soft corals, for only $650, or only $26 per piece! You can get half soft corals and half shrooms, or in thirds of each category: softies, zoas, and shrooms. Or all of one. Have it your way, just let us know how you want it. These are large pieces and outstanding quality.

To see list of corals for this special please see link below for Viet Nam list, but note that in order to receive the special, you must use the ordering button below! Thank you!

(No longer on special)

Vietnam Soft Corals

Meanwhile we hope you stay warm!
birdfish



January 27, 2015

We have very recently moved our website to a more efficient server ... our apologies during the transition, just in case some of the pages have not loaded for you properly! We hope to get all of the wrinkles out soon! Thanks for your patience!



January 8, 2015

Happy New Year all! We hope you got plenty of fun, food and family. A few of the foreign exporters are still not back on line yet, but most are back up and shipping. There are corals coming from Fiji, Bali, Kupang and Indo, great fish from Bali and the Philippines (not to mention Fiji and Kenya), and cultured Acros are usually every couple weeks and are back up from the Java-Bali-Kupang (Indo) area. Red Sea is still off-line.

Our last live rock shipment arrived in December. We do not currently have a date yet for the next shipment, although it should be in a couple or a few weeks from now. Sometimes we can get a box or a few tacked onto a coral shipment in the meanwhile, but not always. We ask for your patience since fresh live rock is so limited right now, it is always sold out in advance. There are no extra boxes, so you have to order and wait to get the real deal air-freighted, but we guarantee you'll be glad you did. There isn't anything else like it nowadays. Note there is some Tonga boat rock out there, but it looks like Fiji boat rock, deadish concrete. Coralline may grow back but that is usually about it.

Keep in mind on the horizon out in April there will be the annual CITES permit meeting and quota-setting in the Indo area, which means they will probably run out of permits for some types (most popular) of corals starting in March. Think and plan ahead!

The Fiji Nano corals are outstanding. They have grown out quite a bit and are at least a good sized small now. They run silver dollar (2") size and up to 3" per colony. You can get all Acros, all hard corals, all soft corals, or a third of each, or half each of two categories. It is a great assortment of all the cultured corals from Fiji. They are ON SPECIAL NOW, for $18 per coral, F.O.B. LAX, no additional charges. That includes the re-ox and Fiji box and packing charge that is normally extra.

See pix on our Nano Corals page.
Note ... the color in the photos is yellowed or washed out due to poor lighting for the photos.

~ birdfish



December 18, 2014

Hi all!

Just a quick update. Due to the holidays on Thursdays the next two weeks, the order cut-off days will be Wednesdays ... which, of course, means Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. Birdfish will be here and sober to take your order on those days, but not too late. ( LOL )  But we know how busy those days can be so it might be good to plan to get your orders in by Tuesday for the next two weeks, so you know you are free on the "Eves!"

Thank you all for your support and interest, we really appreciate it! Happy Holidays to you and yours, and that includes your fish! Our best wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year!

birdfish & Mrs. birdfish




P.S. Check this out!

Note this NEW Australia SUPER SPECIAL!
Coming in December 21st.

Usually during Australia OFF weeks there is another shipment that is a great deal. Every few weeks this super special is available. It is a "shipper's choice" B-grade special. You get one box with 20 medium corals, an all different assorted selection of above Australian Great Barrier Reef corals. Most of these will have been collected as A-grade. Many report that with proper care, feeding and light in a couple to a few weeks they are A-grade. They became B-grade during the process, and then put on special. They were the less than 5-star stellar pieces. Some were A-grade, but with a ding off a corner, a broken branch, etc., so now it is B-grade. The boxes usually have a good number of the high end favorite items like an Acro, a Scoly, an Acan, a Torch, a Lobo, etc., among the selections.

It is only $800 F.O.B. LAX ! NO additional charges. An amazing 20 Australian corals for $40 each and your Great Barrier Reef is on the way! The boxes are limited in quantity and the way to get one is order and the next shipment you are in. If you order the week prior to it happening, you can order on a Wednesday (Thursday at latest) and have them the following Monday. But best to be ahead of the curve a bit since very limited. To order, please send an e-mail or call.



December 6, 2014

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR THIS YEAR!

LAST CALL for live rock this year! The shipment is scheduled for next weekend or early in the week after. There are a few boxes left available, but order by Wednesday! You can get branch, shelf, regular or large pieces ... just let us know which type you want. Hurry up and click the button before it's too late!

Also note since a lot of coral shippers' schedules are every other week (most fish are every week), there is only one more chance for many to ship before the mail load might start causing problems.

Order now if you want some new corals before Christmas!

birdfish



November 20, 2014



Live Rock will be coming in December, but if you want some you need to order in advance, ASAP. It is a very limited supply now, it will sell out since there is just one source for the real deal 5-star A-1 stuff we are famous for. Shown here are a couple pictures they sent of the next shipment. It is in vats curing awaiting export date. Those who get their orders in early will be sure to get this beautiful live rock. Current forecast is mid Dec. arrival to LAX (and you).




We have added a short bit about shipping in the winter and cold
to our Shipping Information page, so you know you don't have to worry about it.
You may check it out here:   Hot & Cold Shipping


Wishing you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!


November 10, 2014

Here is a great special offer for you, but it won't last and is very time-limited!

On the Bali or Philippine tranship fish boxes, they are both on sale for $250 for the inbound tranship charges per box. This covers the international air-freight, foreign box and packing, U.S.F.& W. and Customs clearance at LAX, with re-acclimation and re-pack at LAX. Then add the contents of the box (the fish you choose for the box), and the domestic shipping LAX to you.

Bali Fish List       Philippine Fish List

E-mail us for a current stock list!

Check out these pics of the Fiji Nano corals, these are 2" plus some pushing 3" and you can get all Acros, all hard corals mixed, all soft mixed, or any combo thereof.

Nano Corals



October 28, 2014

Hi folks!

We have a new page featuring some new fancy zoas from Indonesia you might like! You can check them out here ...

Indo Zoas

We have created three new short slide show videos of leathers & softies, shrooms, and polyps which are currently coming in from various suppliers. Some of the slide shows are smaller photos than we would have preferred, but they are some of what is coming in now. They are featured at the bottom of each of those pages, as well as on our YouTube Channel.

Polyps

Shrooms

Leathers & Soft Corals

We're sorry to report that our Fiji Super Special is over. The good news is that it's not going back up to where it was before the special! The regular price for a box of Acros is now $650 (they were $675 before the Super Special). This is for the large-XL or the medium Acros, and the assorted boxes of corals you choose. Large-XL will usually be 7-10 pieces, the medium 12-16. Sizes fluctuate a bit and pack is adjusted to make the best box for your order. Fiji has great hand-picked fish and corals!

Fiji Corals List


Also, Vietnam has a small price increase so we have to end those specials.
The fancy Vietnam "Rare, Limited & Premium" ultra box with the insane combo rocks, shrooms and zoas is back to $900 as it was before the special deal. It is still a steal. The regular boxes of Vietnam softies, mushrooms and zoas are also back to their regular prices, which are also a steal for the rare unusual and not run-of-the-mill types you get.

Vietnam Fancy Zoas, Soft Corals, Combo Rocks
Vietnam Mushrooms, Polyps, Soft Corals


Here is a good special .....
Below in the October 15th update, there is mention of a 6 piece box of the Viet Nam Ultra Rare Premium Combo Rocks. If you order that we will give you one of the Med.-Lg. Alien Green Flower Leathers for free with your order! It is normally a $40 coral on its own, and double that or more in a store. You can cut it in half and have two $40+ corals.



October 15, 2014

Here is something new and exciting!

You may have seen photos of our Vietnam Combo Rocks on our Box-lots page
for the "Vietnam Rare Premium and Limited" box.

Until now, the "Fancy Box" has contained an assortment, with a 24-piece minimum per box.
We are now able to offer a box containing SIX pieces TOTAL!
This is SIX big rocks covered in ultra shrooms, zoas, and often a softie.
You might even get an Alien Neon Green Flower Leather in the mix!





Everyone who has received these has been blown away.

They are cultured with a combo of ultra shrooms, zoas, and sometimes a soft coral of some sort. These types of pieces have been have been cracked, cut and chopped up to sell for $200-300 for what was on a single rock.

See more photos here

The box of 6 pieces is $525, or $87.50 per rock. As usual, the air freight from LAX to you is paid to the airline when you pickup your order. So if you were drooling over those pix, but could't handle the whole 24 pieces, here is a way to just get the Premium Combo Rock part, which are stellar ultra show pieces each and every one.

On a related note, you can also get anything from our Greenhouse List easily added to any order or ordered separately.

Beyond snail and crab lots, there are no minimums besides making up a box worth (if you aren't getting anything else). It is a small selection of a few dozen neat items regularly kept in tanks on hand, like Yellow Tangs, Flame Angels, Alien Green V.N. Flower Leathers, some clams, snails and crabs, Blue-dot Jawfish and a small selection of fish running from Fairy Wrasses to Passer Angels. All tanked and eating.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here are a couple notes from customers from last week's live rock.

October 9th - Java Live Rock
The only problem I have is that I wish I had a bigger tank so I could put more rock in. The pieces of rock are awesome, much better than I had ever hoped for. I am soo happy that you talked me into getting the Indo rock. I am totally blown away by the quality and the unique shapes I received. When I placed the rock in the tank last night it came out so much better than what I had pictured it would look like. Thank you for making this the easiest and best experience, I can not say enough good things about the rock.
Thanks, Kevin H.

October 10th - Java Live Rock
Great man. The algae (macros) were great looking. The newspaper kept most of the moisture on the rock. I am 100% satisfied man, best live rock in the U.S. Thank you so much.
Patrick R.

October 15th - Java Live Rock
It looks great, seems more like branch rock than previous shipments, and a bit denser so there's less. However, the quality is amazing. When I picked up the rock to put it in tubs, there were things literally crawling on it, this is the freshest I've ever seen. Good timing, the Molecular Bio class will be doing scrapings for their experiment in metagenomics TODAY! Thanks for coming through again, everything worked out great. Talk to you soon!
Jason V., M.A., M.Phil., Lecturer
Department of Biology - State University of New York at New Paltz

October 1st - Fiji Acropora - 12 pcs.
Thanks for everything. Very nice and healthy pieces!
Ryan M.


Note:
On the Fiji Acropora we have a large box and a medium box. The counts are estimates. The 8 piece Large can be 6-10 pieces. The 15 piece medium can be 12-18 pieces. The fewer pieces indicates larger pieces were used. Which cost more and take more water to get here (freight). So if you get a 12 piece box, they were bigger than the planned 15, and Walt made a call that these were the best box he could make for you. He may have had 18 good, smaller ones too. Same with the large. They average 8, so that is what we estimate it at. If only 7 fit in a way that they will arrive alive it is because they were bigger, they cost us more, cost more freight. So whether a box is 6 or 18 pieces, the price is the same. We just try to get the size you want, mediums, or larges, or nanos if you want them (40 to a box).



September 19, 2014

Taiwan zoanthids are featured on our latest youtube slide show ...





August 21, 2014

Just to keep ya posted on happenings..... Red Sea is offline for the time being, all the Indo area (Bali, Timor, Kupang, Java) corals are coming in great, and so are Bali fish. Viet Nam and Fiji both are excellent now too, see the specials in prior updates below. Some live rock is supposed to be getting ready to ship soonish, get your orders in if you want some real deal fresh air-freight live rock.

One of our customers has been selected as Tank of the Month at the Washington Marine Aquarium Society web page. Click the link for a new video with lots of good footage and some stills below to see the fish.

When I told Coral Hind how great his tank looked he said something to the effect of "in no small part due to all the great fish I got from you." I like it more for other reasons, but, yes there are lots of our fish in there, perhaps most of them. I see lots of our Bali, and some greenhouse stuff..... and they all look great. The tank is beautiful, so we wanted to share it with you...... Thanks and Congratulations Coral Hind!

Here is another recent customer comment ... in an August phone conversation, Bob M. in WA had this to say about the Fiji 10 piece special with 6-7 LARGES that he and a couple buddies split ...  "We couldn't believe how big some of the pieces were. I never saw a yellow spaghetti leather like that, it was so big we could make two large larges out of it. I saw a red favia just like the one you sent, online at one of those fancy shops for $180. Same piece. Yours were great, huge, we were very happy." If you want some XL corals, it is the way to go.

Fiji XL Corals Info

Then this note is regarding a recent box of the
Vietnam Fancy Zoos, Soft Corals, Combo Rocks
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2014
"Thanks - got the corals beautiful animals, specially the combo rocks, couple didn't make it , by the smell of it used to be mushrooms, :)   lots of eagle eye zoas, overall good deal, thank you. In a month would like to try lps and sps if you don't mind. Thank you." - Al K. in Florida



July 28, 2014

Check out the new China Sea Zoanthids available in this one minute video slide show, they are beautiful.



Here is a reminder about some current $600 special sales.

Any of the following boxes can be had for only $600 right now! There is something for everyone with special deals on boxes of mushrooms, zoanthids, and soft corals from Viet Nam that are great. Fiji has the best wild Acros, and their other assorted corals are A-1 too, you pick what types go in the box with the regular corals, the Acros are assorted.

Softies
Vietnam 22-24 large mushroom colony rocks ($27 ea.!)
Vietnam 22-24 large zoanthid rocks, mother colonies, 3-4 types
Vietnam 25 soft corals assorted, about 8-10 types
(you can get a box half zoas and half shrooms)

Hard Corals
Fiji 10 corals 6-7 Lg and XL, 3-4 medium
Fiji Large Acropora, 8-10 to a box
Fiji medium Acropora 12-16 per box
Fiji mixed box of 12-15 medium pieces of your choice.

Hope you're having a happy summer!
~birdfish


July 8, 2014

Here are some new extreme zoas from S.E. Asia ... small and expensive!






This mini super red carpet anemone is 2+", maybe 2.5" across.







July 3, 2014

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
We hope you and yours have a great FOURTH OF JULY!

Here is some news......

There is some Tonga boat rock that just got here and it looks surprisingly good! It will be a hard cure but shapes are typical Tonga great, and there are colored corallines on it, so it remains entirely salvagable with proper care. It will take a couple or a few months of care, but it will get good in time. Great project rock!

Tonga is notorious, in particularly, for their shelf and branch live rock and is now shipping this once again ... it may be via boat, but with the unique shapes it offers, it's a real treat! If you want some live rock you don't mind spending a little time working with, this would be great for that.

There is shelf, branch, and regular available at $3.25 per pound, with a 100-pound (2 box) minimum, as the boxes weigh 50-pounds. There is also another source which does not require a minimum, however, the price is $3.75 per pound for a 50-pound box.

There is no date yet set for the next air-freight fresh Indo live rock shipment, they are collecting orders, the rock is in the vats and essentially cured. Many of you know the drill ... hurry up and order, then wait, just when you are about to give up, it will come. All of a sudden they announce it's coming and it's over and done until next time. They don't order extra.

Just to remind, there is a $600 sale (see most recent prior update below) on Viet Nam boxes of soft corals, zoos, and amazing mushrooms, all of which are outstanding! These are the best in their class, fancy fancy soft corals and especially the mushrooms, at the best price, less than $30 each for 20 large covered rocks, many will be types of mushrooms you haven't seen.

There is also a box of 10 Fiji mostly large to extra large size corals for $600 as well, you pick the pieces in it (it might only be 8 pcs. if just large Acropora). Again, scroll down to earlier prior updates for a special button for it where mentioned.

Bali fish are coming in great, so are cultured Acropora. Kupang and Timor have great selection of a very high grade of Indo area corals. Check out our Coral List Central or Fish List Central lists, as most of them are 99% the same all the time. Fiji has great wild Acropora colonies, and good fish too, besides their 40 piece nano-box.

A new slide show has been added to our Live Rock Photo Gallery, which features a variety of live rock over the years.

'sea ya!'
birdfish



June 17, 2014

Super $600 Summer Solstice Sale!

Have we got a deal for you! Here are a of couple of super $600 Summer Solstice specials that might interest you!

Vietnam mushrooms, zoos and softies
First, we have some really great Vietnam soft corals coming in. What we call 'the regular' is named such for the regular shipments, compared to the other Viet Nam supplier, whom is more irregular. Perhaps that word though gives the wrong impression, as the pieces are outstanding compared to many other soft coral sources. Big pieces (softies) or rocks covered in shrooms or zoos. Hand sized pieces. Covered. In colors. Like Indo was 20 years ago. These are the 'regular' boxes of Viet Nam as described on out Box-lots page. But they aren't regular pieces, they are big, world class, awesome beauties.

The mushrooms avg. 22 pieces per box, some boxes may be 20 or 24, most are 22. The regular price is $675 ... order now for $600! This is barely over $27 per mushroom covered rock. These are big rocks covered in shrooms of all different colors. (Pix can be seen on Box-lots page.)

**Note ... although descriptions or photos may be viewed on the Box-lots page, please use the ordering buttons on this page which automatically adjust for sale pricing!

Vietnam Box-lots

Same deal on the "regular Viet Nam" box of 20 zoanthid rocks, or on the mixed box of 25 softie corals, which can be 23-27 pieces, most are 25, $600! See list of types on Box-lots page, it is a great variety of all the best shrooms or softies, there are four colors of zoas. The softie box at $600 is $24 per coral, a steal! You can even order a box of half and half of the shrooms and zoos, figure 20-22 pieces, about ten zoos and 11 shrooms of each, big rocks covered in mushrooms and zooanthids. $600!

Again, this is not the super ultra rare limited combo box supplier, but the regular one. The 'regular' are likewise typical Viet Nam A-1 5-star awesome quality pieces. This is the best mixed mushroom box you can get anywhere. You will get lots of shrooms you never saw. Piece size is Large to Extra Large.

Vietnam Mushroom Rocks -
Mixed box will have mostly one of each kind they have. Green Stripe, Marble, Violet Blue, Light Green and Light Blue Ricordea, Maroon and Green Striped Maroon Discosoma, Green Discosoma, Red, Green, and Blue Velvet, Dark Red Tonga, Asst. Tonga, Blue Tonga, Green and Purple Tonga, Green and Orange Tonga, Blue Bull's-eye, Orange Ricordea, Neon Green Ricordea, Purple Ricordea, Green Ricordea, Green and Purple Ricordea yuma, Neon Green and Metallic Discosoma.

Vietnam Zooanthid Rocks -
Zooanthid rocks include four main types of zoos from Viet Nam ... mixed colors, red, green outside with red center, bright green.

Viet Nam Mixed Soft Corals -
Soft coral assortment includes Foxtail Hairy Tree, Sabellastarte, Sinularia pavida, Yellow Finger Leather, Yellow Toadstool Leather, Blue Echinogogia, Sea Fan (Purple, and Red & White), Orange Tree Alcyonium, Blue Clove Polyp, Gorgonians, Dendronepthya. Two or three of each type make the box.

Acropora -
For you "SPS heads," we have a super special offer on Fiji Acropora. A 15 piece box of assorted "fancy colored" (as Walt calls them) Acropora is also on sale for $600. These have been coming in very nice folks! This is $75 off, and a steal for these types of pieces at $40 each, five dollars off each full wild colony head. But jump on it, this won't last long! Fiji arrives to LAX Wednesday, to you Thursday.

Anemones -
If you want a box of anemones, the regular Viet Nam place is also the spot. Sometimes it takes two weeks to fill the orders, but they try to ship every week (it's the regular place). The anemone box is 50-60 anemones mixed of all types: Colored Carpet (most are super neon green), Long Tentacle, Saddle, Bubbles, Tube, Sebae, and some various assorted types. The carpets will be a foot plus when open, this is the best anemone box available, there will be very few to no DOA, like everything we handle. Only the best here folks, or we don't sell it. This box will be estimated, and settled after we know if you got 50, or 60 anemones. They are $15 each. So we estimate at 55 pieces which = $825. If you get fewer we will refund the difference, if you receive more, you'll owe us a few bucks.

Ordering tips:
Please send an e-mail with your phone and airport after ordering, if you aren't sure we already have it. Remember for most sources, cut-off for orders to receive the following week is Thursday. It is already Friday over there and they have to finalize permits to ship so need a list in hand by then at latest. It is always even better if you order by Wednesday, but Thursday is cut-off for most sites. We can still get a Fiji order in on Friday since it doesn't ship on the weekend like the Indonesia area sources do.

See ya at the $600 Summer Solstice sale!
:)
birdfish



June 10, 2014

Hi all,

Check this out! Here is a movie slide show of an awesome tank worth seeing, it's just a few minutes long. This cool cat Francisco sent us a bunch of photos of his tank and corals and we wanted to share them with you. The corals are from our boxes of Fiji, Kupang, Timor, and Vietnam. Sweeeet stuff there!

Note - If slide show appears pixelated, adjust your youtube settings wheel (resembles a gear) on the bottom toolbar on the video screen, which is at the left side of the right hand group of icons, second from the left, to HD after you have started the slide show and it will correct the resolution setting.



If you have a tank full of our live rock, or corals, you can send us a set of pix, maybe a half mb each, they don't need to be big, and we can put up a slide show of your tank. Or send a video of it, say 10mb, and we can put that up. Thanks!

Just a reminder, we primarily sell hobbyists directly, all you need is a shipable U.S. airport, no permits. We also do sell to stores and businesses, with different pricing IF you have a biz license, FNS or DBA, only. With documentation that proves you can be a long term regular customer, you can get a better deal. Please don't say you are a store or biz if you don't have paperwork that says so. Then you'll feel uncomfortable just asking for the regular lists. Which you'd be better off having than not.  

We sell some coral farmers, clubs, and group buys, but the latter two are not really a biz that is going to buy every month for a long time, so please consider the difference between that and actual wholesale customers that buy monthly forever. We do give deals to regular repeat customers (just ask Dave-LOL), and those that buy multiple boxes. Ask, but be honest about your situation please.

We have excel file lists with many different suppliers on them, free for the asking, you can check out a dozen fish or coral suppliers lists, Australia, Bali, Fiji, Timor, Kupang, Viet Nam and others. 90% of which are the same the last 10-20 years for species, only prices have changed, guess which way.  

Our prices are a little higher in some cases, because we just don't handle the cheapest stuff that is so widely available. We get the best but it is never the cheapest. Maybe some of you have noticed that ... ? It's a matter of, "Do you want the real deal or do you want cheap?" The only way to get both is to buy one of each! They are never the same thing. Good ain't cheap and cheap ain't good. We'd rather explain our prices once, than have to apologize for our quality forever! Sometimes you even have to wait an extra week or two for it, because there just isn't that much of the real deal good stuff.

Corals are coming in great to fantastic, outstanding to amazing, Kupang, Timor, Fiji, for hard corals. Viet Nam for soft, that "Rare, Premium & Limited" box is off the charts mind-blowing for zoos and shrooms, not to mention that alien green cabbage. The price is going up, so order it now if you want one at this price. Fish are very good, always a couple dead fairy wrasses, but overall great. There is no date yet on the next live rock shipment, the last one was great, another should be coming soon.

Ordering live rock now is a hurry up and wait deal, try to order ahead of time, the importer decides to get it the day it sells out, when one of two big kahunas says "I need it." So there is little notice and time. Except the wait between ordering and receiving, which seems to take forever according to all accounts. ;)

Have fun out there folks!
birdfish



May 6, 2014

Hi wetheads,
The wethead is not dead, at least here, we're for them! The GREAT news is that the new CITES quotas for the year have been settled and permits for hard and soft corals are being issued! There are some types that are still very limited and their prices will stay high, the rare fancy stuff. The per piece cost is $1.25-$1.50 now, per rock or coral, just for CITES permit charges.

With the new permits, there will be another live rock shipment shortly, everyone loved the last shipment a couple weeks ago. Get in line quickly though (hurry up and wait), it will be soon, and it sells out.

Bali fish are coming in well, if you can get a box (15-30 fish) at a time it is a good way to get fish you might not be seeing at your local store, and fish that haven't been in the trace element deprived disease farms of some of the L.A. wholesalers. We have a couple of very, very high quality suppliers to choose from.

Check out these Fiji Acros that came in last week. These were a couple out of the box of a dozen larges.





Thanks to Francisco M. of Miami for the great photos!

Send us an e-mail and ask for the spreadsheet (excel file) with a bunch of fish and coral lists from 10 or more sources. We can send it in pieces as a text file in body of email if you don't have excel. But it will be a long scroll down. ;)

Acropora Sale

~ birdfish



April 22, 2014
Happy Earth Day!

Our Earth Page has been updated, with our
collection of interesting links from over the
last several years grouped together by category ... Earth Page



April 14, 2014

Fiji Super Special

One box of Fiji mixed non-Acropora corals with 10 pieces in it, 6 or 7 will be large or extra large size, very big pieces ... $600 special price for a limited time. Pick what you want in your box from the Fiji corals list, except for acropora, as they belong to a separate special. Send a list of 12 with 8 designated lg-xl's, so they can better fill your order.

For a large mixed Acros only box they are 8 pieces per box, at $75 each for 8, so the same $600, but with 8 pieces.
This is a photo of part of such a box that just came in last week ...
the Red Lobo and Pipe Organ are the sm-md size.

Expect some stunning wild large-extra colonies worth twice the price, some will be large, some extra-large, as you can see in this photo ...

If you want some big corals of the types Fiji has (see link to their list below), this is a great way and place to get them. Note Walt has two sizes, sm-med and lg-xl. The sm-med. Red Lobo and the Pipe Organ are still of very nice size. Some of the lg-xl sizes will be huge show pieces as you can see.

Fiji Corals List

With these roughly half of retail prices, we expect you to be willing to absorb one dead if that happens. Usually there are none.

happy Fiji!
birdfish



April 11, 2014

Hi friends,
We thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with you ... look at this picture of a Kupang (Timor) Stylophora the day after arrival (on left), and in 30 days when it graduated from quarantine to display tank (on right).



This photo is also featured on our new article that offers some tips on receiving tranship corals.
Receiving Tranship Corals

And, a close-up of this beautiful stylophora is shown on our ...
Timor Corals List

Live Rock Update ... the 2014 CITES permits are about to be issued soon, but until then live rock and many corals are being held up awaiting the new permits. This situation is supposed to break at any time, and some corals are still available each week. Fiji corals are unaffected by this situation and are very good as usual. Fish are also unaffected, save maybe seahorses.

A couple of new photos have been added to the top of our Customer Photos page, two which include recent pics of Fiji corals.
Customer Photos

Just a reminder ... we have Excel files available free for the asking of current fish and coral supplies, as well as an acropora master list that has which species are available from which suppliers. Send us an e-mail if you would like to see this ... if you need .xls instead of .xlsx, just let us know.

Regards!
birdfish



March 20, 2014

Hi all! ...and Happy Spring!

It is that time of year when the annual CITES permits for export run dry in the Indonesia (INDO) enforcement area. They've shipped most of last years' quotas, and can't ship until new permits are obtained, which will go against this upcoming years' quota. We believe that the big CITES meeting this year is in late April, however provisional permits will be issued and used meanwhile. March is always the big squeeze month for this. Don't get me started on not being able to ship all the cultured corals you can grow...... ;)

This coming week (23rd) there are no Bali cultured corals for instance, but there is Kupang, Fiji, and Tonga (the latter two which are not Indo quadrant enforcement zone). So there is something available each week, but Indo supplies are tight. And ... yes! Tonga is back up and running for great wild Acropora and Montipora in particular, but no live rock. About a dozen corals to a box makes it the fewest piece box available. Ask us for their new list, although it is mostly the same.

There has not been any live rock yet this year, or for the last couple of months last year for that matter. That is about to change ... the folks in Indonesia will be shipping very shortly, there have been issues with freight space and permits both. They've had permits one week and no freight space, another week freight space and no permit, most weeks neither so far, but again, this is about to change. A shipment is cured in the vats and ready to go, with shipment supposedly to be imminent.

We have some very exciting live rock news in that we now have some air-freighted Fiji available, of the Pukani flavor. Which is as close to "old-fashioned" Fiji as you can get. It is very porous, great shapes, lots of color and life on it, the real deal right stuff. We are taking orders for it now and it will start shipping next week. This will be shipped from Fiji with the weekly coral shipment, that's right, air-freighted! FRESH!

There is also special order XXL available, which may take an extra week to get and which will entail a crate fee ($35), but they will get you a 2-3' piece if you want. The regular boxes will be 60 lbs. with good sized pieces, the XXL will be heavier boxes of course.

See our live rock page to see pictures or order some.
Live Rock Photos & Pricing

Vanuatu is being worked on for live rock, permits are in-hand, air-freight logistics are the last hurdle to clear, and if that can be settled Vanuatu will reopen for live rock as well, should be shortly, maybe a couple of weeks. They are shipping fish again but no longer filling orders specifically. Three to four box assorted orders is it for now. Great for stores, but not for individuals. So the custom box order filled to specs is out for the time being.

Bali fish are coming in great too now. Check out the lists at the Fish List Central page, or ask for the latest one, they have a very nice selection available. There are 1-2 dead in a box of a couple dozen fish, generally a wrasse or somesuch that is a known poor shipper.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to holler at us on one of our toll-free lines, and remember, if you use Sprint in particular you may have to use our 855 number that rings to a cell. Send us an e-mail if you can't get through. We have been told by some Sprint customers that they hear a message that says our number doesn't exist via their Sprint service. As we have been told, this could be occurring due to Sprint and the local telephone company (for our landline) having issues regarding the connection fees, so Sprint gets cut off (then plays a tape to their customers that our number doesn't exist.) Far beyond not cool in my book. AT&T usually comes through fine. We're in a carrier war zone, awaiting your call!  

~ birdfish



March 4, 2014

Hi all!
Fear not, spring is on the way! It has been a very cold winter for most of the country. For our packing, we have been using lots of newspaper and 5-6 heat packs per box and have shipped right through it with no problems. Before heat packs, the industry was built on newspaper for insulation, it is magic if the box is properly layered with it, plus it absorbs any leakage. We use the 40+ hour heat packs as well, saving 15-cents on the 20-hour ones is not a shipping risk we will take.

For something new and different we now have a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) way of ordering custom coral boxes. These come directly from the exporters in Indonesia and Timor. They are the suppliers we have long worked closely with that have the highest quality of corals. They are offering their best cherries in a new format now, making boxes of WYSIWYG corals available directly from the source.

You can learn more about these on ...
WYSIWYG



February 10, 2014

If you're looking for some real rare and fancy stuff, check these slide show videos out of Australia and the most mind-blowing Timor you ever saw! Timor is available on a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) or nearly so, basis every so often.

This is how you get the cherries of the cherries. Here you will see acanthastrea, blastomussa, red zooanthids, and other radical stuff.

Note - If photos appear pixelated, adjust the settings wheel on the bottom toolbar on the video screen, which is at the left side of the right hand group of icons, second from the left, to 480p or HD after you have started the slide show and it will correct the resolution setting.

Australia -



Timor -





February 4, 2014

Check out our new 'tips' article on hot water.

Hot Water


We have some new assortments of aquacultured Nano Corals from Kupang and Bali ... giving you a choice now between three supply sources and mixed nano boxes!

From Fiji, we have a 40-piece box of acropora, or mixed hard and soft corals; from Kupang we have an 80-piece box of acropora; and from Bali, we have a 36-piece box of acropora and SPS. Standard coral sizing is: Large, Medium, Small, Super Small. Super small is Nano. They are about 2" pieces.

Nano Corals

Here are some details on the new sources of Kupang and Bali:

Kupang Nano Acropora Box - The Barn Buster
80 pieces of assorted aquacultured Acropora, nano size. $10 each piece F.O.B. Kupang. It will be an assortment of the species and colors they farm, likely 20 or more different species in every color. Then add tranship cost of $300 per box for the international shipping, CITES, the U.S. F. & W. clearance, foreign box and packing charge, and re-ox at LAX. Total $1100, plus of course you pay the domestic shipping LAX to you to the airline when you pick up. You should have them at your door for $15 per piece, after and including your domestic freight. The Kupang cultured Acros are great, you just can't pick and have to take assorted. They know how to make a great assorted box.

In 3-6 months they will be good sized smalls, in 6-12 months nice mediums, and a year on, larges. Their regular cultured Acro assortment box is 17 medium pieces at $45 ea., $765.

They need a minimum of one week to put the nano order together. They ship almost every week, but orders placed on normal cutoff of Wednesday (Thursday at latest), will not come that next Sunday in three days, but the Sunday after that to LAX, in 10 days, and on Monday to you at your airport.

Bali-DNR Nano SPS Box -
We can also get a box of Nano Acros and SPS from one of our Bali suppliers, they are a little bigger so piece count is less, it is 36 Nano Acros (some Montis if you want) in a box. They are $13.50 each ($486), F.O.B. Bali. The various inbound tranship charges per box are international freight, Bali box and packing, clearance (Customs and Fish & Wildlife), and re-ox at LAX, again, $300 per box. Plus an Indo/Bali CITES permit fee of $1 per piece. Add domestic shipping LAX to your airport. So the box totals $822 or just under $23 per piece, and you can pick from their list of 25 or so Acros and Montis to fill your box. See the Bali-DNR nano list if you want to pick types instead of order mixed assorted. It is great stuff.

Fiji Nano Box -
Of course Fiji has their GREAT Nano box as well, 40 pieces, you can order it as an all Acro mix, all hard coral mix (which will be part Acros), or all soft coral mix, OR a two or three-way split, yes, you can have it your way. They are $18 each plus $20 Fiji box and packing and the $20 reox in LAX. Makes them $19 each leaving LA. Add domestic freight paid to airline when you pick up, and so $20 or $21 each to you at your airport. Fiji is usually a Tuesday at LAX, Wednesday to you. Though some weeks Thursday LAX, Friday to you. These are absolutely fantastic pieces, a great selection of everything Fiji cultures and has to offer. As Walt says, "tiny but nice!"

birdfish



January 22, 2014

And now for something completely different....
to get the new year off to an exciting start,
here is something neat ... we put a couple of
short videos up that some of our favorite customers sent us.

They can be seen here: Videos

There are just a couple for starters.... some Bali fish that just came out of acclimation, and some large Fiji Acropora that just came in. We thought they were cool and wanted to share them with you.

We would like to ask you, our favorite people, to send us some short clips like these, say 30 seconds or a minute, so as not to be too big or long. Show us your tanks, or fish, or corals, and we'll build a collection of them for all to see. If you have a short bit you would like to share we would really appreciate it! You can tell us in the video or in a note what the focus is. Don't forget to tell us if or how you want your name referenced and maybe the size of tank, coral or fish to help explain your vid. Show us the fish, coral, or live rock you got from us. We'd love to see it! I'm sure others would too!

~ ~

As for livestock, this just in, fish and corals are up, live rock is down.   All this and more..... film at 11, or at the link above. ;)

There hasn't been a live rock shipment in a long time, we're expecting word on the next one soon. It will be an Indo area live rock, either from the big island of Java, or adjacent Bali. Both are very similar, old dead coral pieces encrusted with colorful coralline algaes, often some bit of macros too.

Fiji boat rock is always available, but the real deal fresh stuff island-to-you live rock is a hurry up and order, and wait and wait thing now, unless you get in right before a shipment.

Bali fish are coming in good from a couple of the suppliers. We have an Excel spreadsheet with a half-dozen or more fish lists on it, from Bali to Kenya, Fiji, Philippines, and Red Sea. Send us an e-mail if you want a copy..... let us know if you want other than .xlsx, say in dear old .xls format.

One of the Bali Acro farms (we receive from three different ones in Bali) is running outstanding these days for cultured SPS pieces. Big grown-out colonies ... you can pick what types you want. If you want to pick species, this is where we get them from. The assortment boxes (where they pick types) are a little cheaper than picking species, with excellent 3"+ colonies. This great pick-your-species place has 3-4 to 5 inch colonies. You can order assorted from there too, but still the price is a couple bucks a piece higher from that supplier. They know what they have. It is stellar stuff, great health, color, and sized colonies.

We also have an Excel spreadsheet of the various Acro sources so you can compare several different places lists if you are looking for a particular species, it is free for the asking and comes with a money-back guaranty, just e-mail us a request for the Acro-SPS master list.

So send us a short video of your pride and joy if you please, we'd love to see it! And don't hesitate to ask for a spreadsheet for fish or Acro-SPS availabilities. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail with any questions, any time.

birdfish



January 6, 2014

We hope you had great holidays and wish all of you a healthy and happy New Year! Lots of the country has been on the cold side lately. Here's a tip ... in an emergency, a big roll of bubble-wrap can do wonders to retain heat in a tank.

Most of the fish and corals are shipping as though nothing is going on, as normal. We're using a lot of heat packs though. There have been only a few storms so far that caused localized short embargoes in a few spots as far as the airlines go.

Here's some updates and news for you ...

Vanuatu and Tonga remain 100% off line for fish, coral, and live rock.

The only fresh, real deal air-freighted island to you live rock is from the Indo area, roughly once a month, but not always. It may come from Java one month, adjacent Bali the next, based mostly on who will spend CITES quota allowances on it. Either way the live rock will be great classic "Indo" rock. It is worth waiting for, as it is covered in life and color! Unless you get in right before a shipment, plan on a wait and order way ahead of when you want it! Also, Fiji boat rock is available, but with a two box minimum.

For corals, our Bali cultured Acros are coming in off-the-charts fantastic! Fiji wild Acros are also running great now. You can't go wrong with either one. In stores, they'd go for at least double the price.

Our Fish or Coral List Central pages is the easiest way to view a variety of pages to see what is available. And, as always, you are welcome to send us an email!

Best wishes for a great 2014!!



Our E-mail     birdfish @ livestockusa.org     Contact Us





Our E-mail     birdfish @ livestockusa.org     Contact Us

Happy Holidays!



November 18, 2013

Here is a recent customer comment that was shared with us about Java cultured Acros and SPS ...

"They were picked up earlier and have been dipped and placed in the tank.
There were two pieces DOA (out of 20). The ones that are alive are amazing already.
Will make great additions - not possible to find such show pieces - especially at that price.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Beth G., MI


SUPER SPECIAL:

Order this week to get $75 off a box of corals:
Java or Bali cultured, Fiji, or Vietmam! Just use the regular ordering buttons, we'll refund $75 as soon as we receive your payment with your order ... or, send us an e-mail and we'll send you a payment button with $75-off. This will pay most of the freight on the box for many of you.  

Order cutoff is Thursday every week, but Wednesday is better, especially for Java or Bali cultured, which may have Wednesday cutoff many weeks. Neither one comes in every week. Both are ON for Sunday the 24th at LAX, the 25th to you. It's better to order by Wed the 20th. Bali and Java cultured corals are running great-to-fantastic, great Acro and Monti selections ... see coral list links below!

Java Cultured Corals List

Bali Cultured Corals List

Fiji Corals List

Viet Nam Soft Corals List



Vietnam has some great fancy zoas and softies, besides the ultra zoas, the fancy rare box usually a bright green flower (cabbage) leather, green to the bone, one customer sold his for $200, another cut up a single combo rock and pieced out the zoos and stuff on it, for $300. A single rock from the special rare fancy box. This box is a bunch of ultra grade softies and zoa cherries, Vietnam's best of the best.

Also, Bali fish are good fish, although it's best if you order a couple of boxes at a time, about 40 mixed size fish.

In the "you can't get it anymore" department, both Tonga and Vanuatu are both completely off-line, nothing from either site is available now, no rock, no fish, no corals, nuthin'. Manado live rock is also currently off-line.

Java is the only live rock available right now that is the real deal air-freighted island-to-you live rock. Shipments are erratic, but the rock is GREAT and well worth the wait, which can be a month if you happen to have just missed the last shipment, for instance; a couple weeks easy if you get in line mid-cycle. Sorry it's a hurry up and wait thing now as it sells out in advance of shipment, every box, since there is only one source, demand exceeds supply. It's in vats curing for weeks prior to shipment, so does not hard cycle ... quick and easy, essentially smell-free. Hopefully it will become more regular after the holidays.

In case you need a giggle, or perhaps missed this back in the day ...... here is a guy who needs a license for his pet fish, Eric........ (Monty Python)







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birdfish @ livestockusa.org

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October 9, 2013

JAVA LIVE ROCK UPDATE -

The next shipment will likely be late October or early November. Be sure to order early to make sure you are "in and counted," ... and then wait. The ol' hurry up and wait drill, we're sure you know it!

Here is a comment we received from one of our customers from the recent shipment of Java live rock ...

"I picked up the live rock this morning and it was amazing! Even better than the first time I bought live rock from you. The rock was just as requested, large show pieces. For each box there was two huge pieces (watermelon size) and maybe 4 pieces the size of a cantaloupe. You simply cannot buy this in a store. It has to be island direct. I know that my first aquarium was so successful because of your live rock. I have no doubt it will be the critical piece of my 300 gallon reef tank this time. To me, this is the most important investment into a stable, thriving aquarium. No store bought machine can ever do what live rock does for an aquarium and live rock isn't truly live rock unless it is directly shipped from the islands. Thanks again."   Graham S., Charlotte, N.C., Oct. 2013



September 25, 2013

Tomorrow, Sept. 26th is cut-off for ordering Java live rock, expected into LAX sometime next week! Bali fish are coming in great, as are all of the corals. Stocks are good, so sizing is good and suppliers are entering their spring season, so the weather is good in most places and will get better until typhoon season hits.



September 9, 2013

Just for fun ... this is one of Birdfish's favorite songs!





(Link to read lyrics)
Click on "Show More" at top of description to see lyrics.



LIVE ROCK UPDATE ... Although we do not have a firm date
on its arrival, we are hoping to see a shipment of JAVA live rock
in a couple of weeks from now. As usual, it sells out, so be sure
to plan ahead to make sure your order is in line if you would
like to get some! This is really nice live rock!

More info & photos!




August 15, 2013

Java Live Rock Arrival -
The next Java live rock shipment is currently scheduled to arrive to LAX on Sept. 3rd. So most of you would receive it on Wednesday, Sept. 4th.

It sells out, so if you'd like to get some, order now so you can make sure you are on the list!



August 6, 2013

Vietnam specials!

Vietnam special boxes are coming in this week, order by Thursday. Both suppliers are shipping, one with the regular (excellent) assorted mixes: 22 shrooms, or 20 zooanthids, or 25 soft corals. This week the supplier has offered a discount, so the price to you is $600, plus a $20 re-ox fee (new bags, water, and ox). These boxes are a steal folks! Great pieces, coverage, and colors.

Vietnam Mushrooms, Polyps, Soft Corals

The other supplier has the Rare Premium boxes with ultra zoos and shrooms ... 24 pieces for $852. They are offering $50 off a box this week. So let's call it $800 ... $52-off. See our Box-lot Specials page for some pix of these spectacular pieces.

** For either Vietnam special, use the regular price ordering buttons and we will immediately send you a refund for the difference between these special prices and the regular prices. That difference will pay a lot of your domestic LAX-to-you freight. Depending on which box you order, it is $50-75 off, essentially a couple of free corals.

~ birdfish



July 31, 2013

We have received a confirmed (freight space booked) ship date for the next live rock shipment, finally! Thursday Aug. 8th is the arrival date at LAX, Friday to destinations (YOU). This is JAVA live rock, formerly most often just called "Indo" rock, and famous for a reason.

The rock is collected, cleaned, in the holding vats (concrete runs) awaiting shipment. There have been freight space problems recently that precluded shipment. Typically in the winter and spring when it is the busy season, they do not ship this rock as each piece counts as a piece of coral against their allotment quotas and there's more profit for a piece of coral. Summer is the slow season, so they will ship live rock now, but it won't last long is my guess. Get your orders in ASAP if you want any, it will sell out and there won't be any extra boxes like the good ol' days.

Tonga, Vanuatu, and Manado all remain off-line presently, though Manado will hopefully have a shipment available by the end of August. Think a month ahead is the rule of the day when considering timing of fresh air-freighted live rock nowadays. If you order now you can get some next week, and there is no telling when the next shipment will be.

To order, you may use the Manado live rock ordering buttons, typing "JAVA" in the notes section of your order or send us an e-mail.

Live Rock Ordering Page

I'm not confident about Tonga and Vanuatu live rock at the moment, and suspect Manado will get back to shipping again, but no dates are set yet. Hopefully Java will ship every couple of weeks for a couple of months.

If you want the real deal fresh live rock straight from island to you, the only way to get it is to hurry up (order) and wait (for shipment) with a large dose of patience. You only set up the foundation for your tank once, and, like your house, doing it right is critical to success. You won't ever forget the outstanding quality of fresh rock, you will quickly forget how long it took to get.

~ birdfish



July 22, 2013

There is word of an incoming Java live rock shipment! Java is where the long-famous Indo rock is from.

It is very high quality, excellent live rock. The incoming shipment is hoped for late this week, perhaps Thursday or Sunday, and a day later to you. To order, you may use the Manado ordering buttons, as it is the same price (there is no next Manado shipment date yet), noting "Java live rock" in the comments area of your payment, along your phone number, or, send us an e-mail.

It will be good sized pieces of old dead corals, with great coverage of coralline alga. Order ASAP if you want to get in on it.

One must be very patient if you want fresh air-freighted live rock these days, shipments are intermittent. Plan way ahead. There is not much notice when shipments get arranged now. If you order right before a shipment you can get it quickly, but we can't tell far in advance since the annual summer slowdown has scheduling, er, rocky.

Bali has some great fish coming in, e-mail if you want an excel spreadsheet with a bunch of lists, we'll have the fish lists up shortly. Just ask to see Red Sea, Vanuatu, Bali, Fiji, or other fish lists.

~ birdfish



July 2, 2013

Hi all,

Just a reminder ... for many sources, Wednesday will be order cut-off this week, as there won't be the normal transactions on Thursday.

Check out the new Australia tranship list if you are looking for Chalice, Acropora, Scolymia, Acanthastrea.

Australia List

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

~ birdfish



June 27, 2013

Fiji Tukani Live Rock

There is some Fiji Tukani live rock that has just arrived in the U.S. Like all Fiji live rock, it is boated here, but it just got here, and is fresh as it gets, and it looks pretty good.

Check out this picture they just took after opening one of the boxes.



It is boat rock, so it might cure hard (a month plus), and take a while to come back to full blazing colors, but it clearly has a lot of the right stuff on it, and will color up well in time. It is amazingly airy, as you can see, each piece a collection of nooks and crannies. For sumps, refugiums, a pod city, it would be excellent, and if you are patient, for a display tank.

The boxes are 50 pounds and there is at least a two-box minimum. Please contact us if you are interested!

Two boxes are $2.65 per pound and $265.00.
Three boxes are $2.60 per pound and $390.00.



June 17, 2013

Since all things must pass, so must our special sale pricing on Fiji, Banda, and Bali corals. When we can get a deal from a supplier we love to pass it on to you in the way of a discount. They are usually looking for a few extra boxes of orders and their offers don't last forever.

Meanwhile, if you want a special deal, call or e-mail us with what you are looking for and we'll make you a special offer. Try the cell number if the landline toll-free won't connect (usually calls from cell phones).

We tranship fish, that is, boxes of Bali, or Vanuatu, or Irian Jaya fish, for instance, packed per your order from their stock lists, at the point of origin just like the coral boxes. You pick the 10, 20, or 30 or more fish (pending size) to make up your box. It is a great way to get fish you aren't seeing at your local store. But you should have a QT system for them, as for anything brought in direct. Shortly we'll have a some fish lists up you can persue for items you may be looking for. You can't just get one or two fish, unless show sized and they fill a box.

If you can't wait to see a list and have excel (or can translate that), send us an e-mail and we'll send you the lists in spreadsheet format.

We have put up a couple of new articles ... see our articles section, one is on QT (quarantine), one on tropical terminology, and another is the comments I sent to U.S. Fish & Wildlife about the proposed listing of some corals as endangered. You might find something interesting in one of them.

:)
birdfish

Article Links



June 3, 2013

We have some new specials going on from Banda, Fiji, and Bali!

BANDA -   For mixed assortments of SPS, LPS, zoos, softies to shrooms, the new source at Banda has fantastic corals folks!

Here is one of our recent customer's comments about the box he received:

"Picked up the corals, everything looks good ... they must have been out of a couple things on my list but they sub'd a couple that look kinda cool I think, whatever they are. Only one dead torch stinking in the bag, but they look good, overall happy with Banda corals. Thanks for the good service and you'll be hearing from me again soon. :)"

Jerry S., Lincoln, NE ~ May 2013


GET TWO FREE CORALS or $70 off on a box of Banda Corals!

Please e-mail or call us with your "want list" from the following page, using the payment button on the bottom of the page to order.

Banda Corals List


FIJI -   For Acros, if you like wild, you'll love our Fiji colonies, most baseball-sized on average, big wild, full colonies.

Order a box of 10, 12, or 14 pieces
(whichever they choose)
for only $575 ... a HUNDRED $$ off the regular price!

For most, this will pay the shipping on the box to your local airport!


BALI -   For cultured Acros and other corals, try our Bali box. You may either select 18 corals from their list, or receive a box of deep and shallow mixed for only $600. This is $75 off the regular price, which equals getting a couple free. This will almost pay your freight!

Bali Cultured Corals List

These very special offers will expire soon!!



May 20, 2013

And now for something completely different....

FLORIDA BOXLOT SPECIALS: ONE WEEK ONLY!

FedEx to your door, everything is included!

Selections are one box per descriptions below of either St. Thomas Polyps, Red Flower Anemone, Green Flower Anemone, Ricordea florida

BOX #1: 20 Red Flower Anemone - $620

BOX #2: 10 Red Flower AND 10 Green Flower Anemone - $470

BOX #3: 30 Ricordea florida - mixed colors - $320

BOX #4: 20 St. Thomas Polyps - $420

BOX #5: 10 Red Flower Anemone & 20 Ricordea florida - $500

Pricing includes EVERYTHING:
product, box charge, heat/ice packs, and shipping via FedEx STANDARD OVERNIGHT to your door.

Orders must be in by May 27th, will ship on May 28th, to you May 29th!!







May 9, 2013

Hi all,

Check out our new "Coral List Central" page. It has lists of most of the currently available corals from many sources in one easy place.

Coral List Central


Manado live rock arrived in late April and was fantastic! We are waiting for the next shipment, which is hoped for by late May. They can only gather, clean and prepare it so fast. It is the only real-deal fresh, air-freighted live rock currently available and is as hard as ever to get. It sells out, of course now that it is the only fresh live rock available, so place your orders ASAP to make sure you get in on the next shipment. Orders placed a week before a shipment might be hard to fill until the next following shipment if it is already sold out.

Tonga has opened up on a limited basis for some corals only, no fish, no live rock, yet. Just a couple shipments so far, there seems some ironing out of details to be done yet. We're watching it closely.

Our non-mainstream Fiji Acro guy has the best wild full heads you can get, he's slow, but worth the wait. These are not the regular Fiji Acros you see commonly, there is a very limited supply of this best stuff.

The cultured Indo area Acro colonies (Bali, Java, Banda, Kupang) are excellent quality and size (3"+, many are 4"). Most have species lists to choose types and often colors from.

Bali, Banda, and Kupang (Timor) are great for overall general variety of Indo area corals, if you want a mix of everything, from LPS to SPS, softies, shrooms and zoos. Each has some of the scarcer items on their lists.

Banda is a new source and the corals are excellent. Order an assorted box of 20 mixed corals, and get two corals free. Normally it is $35 each, $700 for the box of twenty, we will refund $70 or have them put two extra corals in the box. That is 10% off the regular price, and only 31.50 per coral! The mixed box is any average priced coral from their list, you pick which 22 you want. Not valid with any other offer. Use the button to order. The discount will just about pay your freight on the box.

Banda Corals List



May 2, 2013

This week we have a very special offer for a box of Java acropora. These great cultured colonies are normally $45 each, estimated at 17 pieces for $765. Order by May 8th and get the box for $700, which is $65 off the regular price. We will rebate as soon as your payment goes through, just use the ordering button. This will pay the major part of the doemstic freight LAX to you. It is almost $4 off PER coral. The Java is excellent, and size is 3" plus full colonies as in the pictures, many are 4". You can order assorted or you may pick species, and even in many cases, the colors, from the Java cultured SPS list below. You can pick other items besides Acros if it tickles your fancy. Just send us a list of 20 you want, as they can be out of one type or another, or don't have permits to export that species this week, etc., at any time. Not valid with any other offer.

You may see the species list here:   Java Species List

To see example photos, scan through our Acropora Page.

To order, please go to our Ordering Acropora page, scrolling down to the Java ordering button.



April 21, 2013

Hi all,

Live rock in particular, but coral supplies too, are somewhat tight now, at least for the fancy rare stuff, there is enough of the standard basic good corals. Live rock has been quite scarce and hard to get. One shipment so far this year of fresh air-freighted real deal live rock. Supposed to be more soon, the dam will break shortly.

As the CITES quotas continue to be reduced, the prices on rarer corals go up, and they are rationed. The fancier corals are often taking a couple weeks to be shipped.

Hopefully Tonga will get back on line soon as is being said, and it will get back to normal consistency shortly.

If you are interested in rock or flower anemones, please send us a note for a special deal.

Banda is a new coral source, which is very good, priced somewhat lower than many other places are now. The Banda Islands are nestled within the Maluku Islands or the Moluccas, east of Java, in Indonesia.

Please see our new Banda Corals List.

They have a great selection available from one place.

Keep an eye out, as we're making a "coral list central" page with links to each area's lists all on one page, to make it easier for you to find what you are looking for, or to know what comes from where.

Cultured Acros are great from Java, Bali, Kupang, and Banda, all of the Indonesia area sources. At most you can pick species, some allow color choices for some species. Ask for the lists if you can't find the links.

Also there is a great selection of cultured Acropora and other corals in the nano size from Fiji. The best wild Fiji whole colonies can take a couple weeks to get, but are well worth the wait. Just as a reminder, Indo areas run 17-20 corals per box, Fiji wild 10-15, usually a dozen lately, the Fiji nano come 40 per box.

The Fiji nano are called tiny, but they're extremely nice cultured frags. If you can get some friends together to go in together on a box and get say 10 or 15 each, it's a great deal. They will be an assortment of all the Fiji Acros, cultured nano sized. You can also get the Fiji nano box of 40 in mixed soft corals, or mixed hard corals, or a combo of Acropora, hard, and soft in the box, giving a great mix of all Fiji has to offer. At $18 each, $720 for 40 pieces it too is a great deal. (+ add $15 Fiji box charge).

These may be ordered from our Corals Information Page.


SPECIAL SPRING SALE NOTICE!

Here is a very, very special offer you won't see often. We invite you to take part in our Special Spring Sale.

For coral orders placed by April 30th, we will refund $60 off of every box. After your order has been placed, you will receive a $60.00 refund as soon as your payment clears. That is more than one free coral for every box ordered.

Check out our Box-lot Specials for what are already some terrific deals, take another $60 off those prices. Depending on what you order, it could be $2-3 off of each coral in the box, or at least 1.5 free corals in the box, unless you custom order super rare stuff, in which case you'll still get one free.

Remember, you must place your order by April 30th. This special is for coral boxes only, not live rock. Not valid with any other offer.



March 14, 2013

We'd like to to share a few pictures with you of a few neat items shipping these days. From Bali ~ there are examples of the awesome Euphyllia (Torch) and the Montipora they culture there.









From Vietnam ~ there are some of the fancy zoanthids from the Vietnam Super Fancy Zoanthids section on the Box-lots page.





We hope you have enjoyed some of this "eye candy!"

Photos courtesy of www.stlsaltwatercritters.com

March 7, 2013

Word has it that Tonga will be re-opening shortly!

The next Manado live rock shipment is supposed to be coming in soon, so if you're planning on ordering, now is the time, as it could be sold out next week.



February 26, 2013

Hi Folks,

We have a couple of updates for you.

The first one has to do with a telephone communication issue ... for instance, if you try to place a call and receive "dead air," especially if your call is being made from a cell phone. You can now call the following cell phone number, also toll-free. The number is: (855) 225-8086

**Please do not send any text or data messages.**

Next, we thought you might be interested in what we've been hearing from customers about some live rock and corals that have been shipped recently. So, the following are a few unsolicited customer comments from the last month.

A special thanks to these customers for their kind comments!

Re: Feb 2013 Fiji Acropora Shipment
"Everything arrived safe and sound. Whomever packs these corals does a great job.  All 15 Acros are colorful and beautiful whole colonies.  All arrived packed in plenty of fresh smelling water.  They arrived at about 66 degrees Farenheit, which is not bad at all considering that they spent time in the belly of a plane.  Thanks for your insight and great communication. "
Jim B., Denver, CO

~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Feb. 2013 Manado Live Rock Shipment

"Got the rock ... looks absolutely fabulous and smells just like the ocean. Thanks for everything   :o) Including some pics of this amazing LR! You guys are the best!"
Thanks again,
Doug C., New Jersey

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Feb. 2013 Viet Nam Super Fancy Zoos
"I have to say these zoos are excellent quality. We can definitely do business with this supplier. Half of them are opening up in the first two hours out of the box.  You can see good color even when they are closed while taking them out of the bags.  They added some extras, uncommon mushrooms, even a coco worm and other softies.  No deaths and very well packaged. All smelled fresh out of the bags. So happy with this shipment. Thanks for your work."
F.M., Florida

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Re: Feb. 2013 Manado Live Rock
"Thank you so much for such good service! On my order of live rock I'm highly impressed. I could tell that it is fresh because it did not have a bad smell to it and I'm sure that my curing process will be less time.  I've never done business with anyone else and I never will you all are my friends!!  Just as soon as I set up my cylinder tank I will come back at you all for 2 more boxes of live rock."
Thanks,
Earl M., Lexington, Kentucky




January 21, 2013

We have a new box of mostly mixed fancy (rare) zoanthids and soft corals from Vietnam. There is ample supply of the regular zoas and soft corals from Viet Nam, but these are very limited and very special, as they are the fanciest of the zoos from there, truly spectacular.

The box is a mix of 24 pieces, which is one third of each of the following ... fancy zoas, mixed combo rocks (mostly zoos), and Grade-A soft corals, which is a mix of mushrooms, leathers, zoos, a soft coral assortment.

Please see our Box-lots page for more details!


In other news ... shipments from Vanuatu have ceased for the time being, with no fish, live rock, or re-open date in sight.

Just a reminder that many of the sources or importers ship every two weeks, especially those that originate in the Indonesia area (including Bali), so how quickly you can get something partly depends on if that source came in last week, or if it is scheduled for the upcoming week.

Java Fancy Zoas and Java Acros are scheduled for next week, so orders are best placed by Wednesday the 23rd.

That's all for now folks!
Stay dry and keep warm!

~birdfish



January 15, 2013

Update on MANADO LIVE ROCK ...
it is expected to be coming in on January 22nd (to LAX)   !!
In other words, as of today, Tuesday, you have a couple of days to get your order in ... ordering by Wednesday is better than Thursday to be sure you're in!

Also, check out the new Bali Box-lot Specials! Bali arrives every other week, and is on for this Sunday the 20th at LAX.

Box-lot Specials



January 6, 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We wish all a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year! A very big THANK YOU to all of our customers for your patronage, we really appreciate it. We will continue to do our best to offer only the highest quality live rock and corals, and at reasonable prices, besides providing what we hope is as great a customer experience as you've ever had. Though due to the economic turndown, we regret there will no longer be boxes of roses and chocolates with your live rock.   :)

We still have some phone issues from some inbound long distance carriers (cell mostly) so please try a land-line, or a couple of the numbers if you have trouble, or e-mail, and we'll call you. We're here, awaiting an opportunity to be at your service.   :)

For live rock, there is a little bit of good old-fashioned Tonga available on a limited permit, which is nearly weekly, but it won't last long, a couple of months is what it appears, unless and until the permit is extended or a full permit is granted. Over Indo way, the Manado is great, it runs about once a month, depending on a big wholesaler order. Vanuatu is hoped to re-open again soon, but still offline presently.

For Acros, Java is the best cultured, and the slow guy in Fiji (10-14 days to fill order) is the best of the wild, though the Tonga gives it a run for the money. Tonga besides great Acros has the best encrusting Montipora.

No matter what you are looking for, please don't hesitate to ask (send an e-mail) if you don't see what you want, there are lots of limited sources of all kinds of things we can get for you. But we can't do one fish two fish, one coral type of stuff.

A gentle reminder... we do not ship outside of the lower 48 states and Alaska, e.g., no international.



Nov. 27, 2012

Hi all,

We hope you had a good Thanksgiving! With the peak holiday season just ahead, now is the time to remind that many of the importers and exporters close down from just before Christmas to after the New Year and there is also the holiday Ramadan in January that can affect Indonesia supplies. There are a couple weeks now in which we can order and get everything before the year-end close down of some sources and locations. It's not a complete and total shutdown, there will usually be a few sources shipping during that period, if it is what you are looking for.

For live rock, the current situation is this:
Fiji is always available. The Manado has been a once a month thing, and orders need to be placed soon to get what will likely be the last shipment of the year, in mid-Dec. or so. It is invariably sold out. There is some Tonga live rock available now on a limited basis, most of the prior flavors: Branch (big or small), shelf, Eva, Deepwater, Fusion. Vanuatu is still not back up and running.

Java cultured Acros are great, every two or three weeks, Walt S. Fiji is OK weekly; slower (10-14 days) other supplier is better for Acropora, and Tonga has great Acros and Montis, e-mail if you'd like a current list.

Think ahead, you need to order soon to get it before Christmas.   ;)
birdfish




October 2, 2012

Check out our Live Rock Photos & Pricing Page ... the Tonga Red Branch and Fusion live rock is once again available!! Also, there is now cultured live rock available from Tonga.

Live Rock Photos & Pricing



September 25, 2012

Aqua-cultured Nano Corals from Fiji and Tonga

There are a couple great box-lots of aqua-cultured nano-sized corals available. These are aquacultured frags that are small, but awesome pieces. They are approx. 2", or "silver dollar sized" (old), depending on the shape and type of pieces.

You can get a box of all their hard corals, or soft corals, or acropora. And you can even get it half or half or with a third of each.

The Fiji box has 40 pieces, the Tonga box is 50 pieces. They are $18 per piece. On the Fiji, there is a $15 box charge, which is included in the Tonga. As always, plus domestic freight from LAX to your airport which you pay to the airline when you pickup.

If you are looking for sellable frags, or to grow out some frags, or to cover a reef wall with a selection of Fiji or Tonga, these are ideal pieces.

To order, see our Corals Information Page.

The Fiji box is $720 (+box), the bigger Tonga box is $900. There is little to no overlap in what these sites have available as far as species mix goes.

Normal arrival day is Monday to LAX, Tuesday to your nearest major airport. Everything is repacked in L.A., getting new bags, water and ox. Quality is A-1, 5-star, outstanding.


* LIVE ROCK NEWS *

Holy coralline rock man, there is some aqua-cultured TONGA live rock available! A permit has been issued for the one shipper left there to export some aqua-cultured live rock. Yes, of course we are plugged in and can get it! It is a man-made rock made from coral rubble and bits and cement. A guy named Walt put this rock under water three years ago and it is said to look great. We're waiting on pictures, but wanted to get the word out ASAP. It will be in 50 lb. boxes, $5.75 per pound. So $287.50 per box and shipped air freight from Tonga. Just to reiterate, this is not wild coral pieces but man made, artificial aqua-cultured live rock.

Important Schedule info ...

MANADO live rock is coming Oct. 2, get your orders in! Thursday is cutoff, Wednesday is better. That goes for everything every week in case you did't know.....  :):)  Thanks! Sometimes with live rock I can get a Friday order but not with corals unless Fiji or Tonga, and Thursday is better fill, Wed. a little better fill. Your order is across the dateline within a matter of hours of you placing it, so earlier is better. They have longer to know what you want and put it together.



September 18, 2012 -

Here's a great deal for the softie fans!

Vietnam Box-lot Super Specials

Vietnam has some fantastic mushrooms and soft corals (they don't allow hard coral exports), and here we offer a couple of box-lots that might be of interest.

Like everything, you pay domestic freight to the airline when you pick it up, about $100 a box.

Order by Thursday to receive Monday.

A) Box of Mushrooms - 22 pcs. per box, $675

Mixed box will have mostly one of each kind they have. Green Stripe, Marble, Violet Blue, Light Green and Light Blue Ricordea, Maroon and Green Striped Maroon Discosoma, Green Discosoma, Red, Green, and Blue Velvet, Dark Red Tonga, Asst. Tonga, Blue Tonga, Green and Purple Tonga, Green and Orange Tonga, Blue Bull's-eye, Orange Ricordea, Neon Green Ricordea, Purple Ricordea, Green Ricordea, Green and Purple Ricordeo yuma, Neon Green and Metallic Discosoma.

These are whole rocks covered in very, very nice shrooms at less than $31 per piece.

B) Box of Zooanthids - 20 pcs. per box, $650
($32.50 per piece)

This is twenty pieces of their four main types of zoos ... mixed colors, red, green outside with red center, bright green.

These are very nice rocks covered in beautiful zoos.

C) Mixed Soft Corals - 25 pcs. per box, $700
($28 per piece)

This is a 25-piece box that has an assortment of their main types: Foxtail Hairy Tree, Sabellastarte, Sinularia pavida, Yellow Finger Leather, Yellow Mushroom Leather, Blue Echinogogia, Sea Fan (Purple, and Red & White), Orange Tree Alcyonium, Blue Clove Polyp, Gorgonians, Dendronepthya. Two or three of each type make the box.

These will be added to our Box-lots Specials page shortly ... in the meantime, if you wish to place an order, please send us an e-mail or give us a call.


Here are a couple of comments from the last Manado live rock shipment ...

Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012
From: Lisa
To: birdfish

The pick up was so easy!! Rock is in the tank ... you were right, it was worth the wait!   :)

~ ~ ~

Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012
From: Kent
To: birdfish

I just got all the rock into the tank and it's freakin unbelievable!
I'll send pic's soon!!

Kent
P.S. Your information was spot on.
Had no problem at all with the pickup ... thanks!

~ ~ ~

And from the last Java cultured Acropora shipment:
(from a repeat customer)

Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012
From: Em
To: birdfish

Am happy with my corals. Thanks, Em

~ ~ ~

It's always great to hear!!

Don't miss our live rock sump sale! Some of the fancy pieces have been sold, but there are still some great rare Tonga and Marshall Island pieces available!

August 22, 2012

The big news this week is that Vanuatu live rock is OFFLINE for now! Right now, Manado is the only available fresh real deal 5-Star air-freighted live rock. Vanuatu will eventually re-open, but we do not know how soon at the moment.

Due to the changes in live rock supply and availability, we have will be offering a higher grade of Fiji boat rock shortly, just working on the details for it. Since there are so few choices at the present, we feel it may serve a purpose for some now.

Tonga Acros are coming in great as usual, as are Java cultured, and the slow Fiji guy can't be beat, but you have to wait two weeks.

Although our land line incoming long distance phone issue persists, we have been informed by more than one customer that the second number of these two worked for them on a second or third try! There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason for this, but if you cannot get through, simply send an e-mail with your phone number.

(866) 874-7639 or (855) 225-8086



July 30, 2012

First, Tonga is back on-line shipping outstanding corals just like the good old days! Call or e-mail us for a current list ... if you have trouble calling us, please send us an e-mail with your phone number and we'll call you.  (866) 874-7639 or (855) 225-8086

Second, there are two new fantastic NANO coral boxes available, one from Tonga and one from Fiji. They are silver dollar (old-fashioned type, not new) sized for the shorter broader types, and 2" or so tall for the more vertical varieties (Acros). These are cultured pieces of the highest quality.

You can order just acropora, hard corals, soft corals, or mixed. Tonga is 50 pieces per box, Fiji is 40 pieces per box. They are $16 a piece F.O.B. LAX, everything included, no additional charges except heat or ice for the box and the domestic freight you pay the airline when you pickup. So, the 40 piece Fiji box is $640 and the 50 piece Tonga box is $800.

Third, a reminder you can email us for an excel file with lists from a dozen places on it!

We're working on a new mineral supplement for you, so keep your eyes out for that soon..... :)

Again, if you have trouble calling us, please send us an e-mail (birdfish@livestockusa.org) with your phone number.

If your call doesn't go through please see the FCC link below to file a complaint, as well as one with your long-distance carrier in hopes of this problem getting solved!
FCC - Long Distance Calling Problems


Some recent items of interest ...

Live Rock Sump Sale - Super Summer Coral Sale

New Pictures of Manado Live Rock



July 11, 2012

Check out these pix of the last Manado live rock shipment. Many thanks to Jess M. for sending them. As you can see, it is beautiful live rock, the real deal fresh and covered with color and encrusting growth of various types, corallines, halimeda, etc. The next shipment is currently scheduled for a window of the 22nd-26th arrival to LAX, exact date not yet set firm, but that is the plan as of today. Get your orders in soon to make sure you get some of this beautiful live rock.

Live Rock Photos & Pricing



July 3rd

Wishing everyone a happy Fourth of July! We have a treat for you if you are looking for individual pieces of cured live rock ... check out our Sump Sale to see what we are offering from our personal stash! !! Includes pieces from Tonga and the Marshall Islands !!

Here is an update on the telephone problem that may exist for some of our customers (based on certain long distance carriers, as described in our "Special Notice" further down this page.) Again, if you have trouble calling us, please send us an e-mail (birdfish @ livestockusa.org) with your phone number.



June 27th

One of our customers sent us some photos of his Fiji live rock ... which you can see on our Live Rock Photos & Pricing Page. (Photos taken right out of the box upon receipt.)


Special Notice

If you have tried to contact us and cannot get through, it may be due to a problem with the long-distance services of Sprint and Verizon coming into our area via landlines, according to our local telephone company. So, callers to our toll-free number or long distance number may be experiencing problems and receiving nothing but "dead air" when they attempt to call.

Apparently, this is not affecting everyone, but we have had multiple customers who cannot get through using their hard-wired landline, yet they can get through using their Verizon cell phone. Also, Sprint customers have not been able to reach us, but if they use an AT&T phone, their call is placed without any problem. As far as we know, there is only a problem if your long-distance carrier is Sprint or Verizon.

So if you try to call and get dead air, please complain to your phone company that you are unable to complete a call to a number in the area serviced by Southwest Texas Telephone with the area code of "830" (with a toll-free option.)

Most likely, you may be a Sprint or Verizon long-distance customer; if not, perhaps your carrier contracts on their lines. But, please do complain, as apparently not enough people are yet. :) (Squeaky wheels get grease.)

Meanwhile, in order to reach us if you are unable to get through on the phone, please send us an e-mail with your phone number and we will call you.

We apologize for any inconvenience ... our local phone company, and long-distance company are working on the problem from their end, but it is an inbound issue on those (Sprint and Verizon) landlines only.

birdfish



June 6, 2012

Leroy Headlee - In Memorium

It is with great sadness we learned of the passing last week of Leroy Headlee, founder of Geothermal Aquaculture Resource Foundation (GARF). Leroy was a pioneer in the industry and had a truly great "wet thumb." Much of what is a major segment of the saltwater hobby today, fragging corals, owes a big share of its popularity to one of its orginal founding believers and promoters, Leroy Headlee. He was ahead of his time in many ways, and certainly he left us too soon as well. He didn't just know about keeping and fragging corals, he knew everything from major pond-keeping to breeding angelfish, he was the real deal aquatics man through and through that knew his stuff.

I have several old (20 years?) aquarium magazines that have Leroy's articles, on breeding angelfish, and one of the big marine ones early on, setting up the bulletproof reef (or somesuch) it was titled. As one that had done both, I am very critical of articles, and thought they were both great. Little did I know when I was reading them, I would become friends with, and gadzooks for a decade, a supplier to him. (Yes, many of those frags y'all got a long time ago, was our Tonga, Fiji, and Timor.)

He had a great way of making complex simple and that "bulletproof" article got a lot of people to take the leap into saltwater, by making them see they could do it. Leroy did the same thing with fragging. He got LOTS of people to do it, to try something they might have been afraid of. Nearly two decades ago (at least) he was cutting Acros, and he spread his knowledge freely, far and wide. The truth is, there were some industry people that felt he shouldn't be spreading these secrets. Leroy created another industry teaching others what he learned, and it has spread like wildfire.

He had a great positive influence on many, that will be felt for some time to come. The new generation of fraggers might not realize how what they do in some ways can be traced back to Leroy Headlee's pioneering work to teach everyone how easy it is to keep marine, or how to frag stuff. Just as the books people read today are written by people that grew up on Axelrod, though today's newbie might not know who he was.

He was a nice guy, a good man, funny, knew how to love life and live happy, and I'm sure will be greatly missed by many who knew him. Our heartfelt condolences go out to all of his friends, family, and especially to his dear wife, Sally Jo, whom was the light of Leroy's life.
~ birdfish



May 28, 2012
Our apologies ... we have been having a bit of trouble with our toll-free number phone line!
(866) 874-7369

If you have tried and could not get through, please send us an e-mail. This problem is currently being fixed!

Also, we now have coral lists available on Excel to e-mail ... if you would like one, please e-mail us!

E-mail: birdfish @ livestockusa.org
(Remember to remove spaces from e-mail address if copying from this page.)



April 19, 2012

We have some new articles on our Earth Day page.
Have a Happy Earth Day!

Please keep in mind that live rock and corals often only come in every couple of weeks ... so, if you order right before the next shipment, it will be quick, but if you order just after one came in, you may have to wait a week or two.

Note ... Tonga corals are available in a 14-piece box again, so it's not the 30-piece "monster box" that it's been.

Also, some of the coral sources are only shipping every two weeks, such as Java acropora.



April 3, 2012

In order to share a variety of websites and articles, we have created a Facebook page ... add us to your "like" list for future updates!



March 25, 2012

We have now have Fiji air-freight live rock available on our Live Rock Photos & Pricing Page and you may place your order on our Ordering Live Rock Page.



February 15, 2012

Some changes in availabilities are coming soon! The new CITES permits, as in every year recently, have severely restricted another few species and individual numbers. There is a new list of corals from Indonesia on our Hand-collected Hard & Soft Corals page.

We will soon be offering tanked stock of fish and corals ... the lists will be up in about a week or so. You will be able to select from a current stock list and get shipments nearly any day of the week.

And, if that's not enough, you aren't going to believe it, but Fiji air-freight live rock is once again available at a good price. It will be up on our Live Rock Photos & Pricing Page soon. Many of the Indonesia area types of live rock are no longer available, as each piece is being counted as a coral against shipping quotas, so the exporters do not want to use their permitted allotment up on a piece of rock, instead of a coral.

So, keep your eye on the webpage for these and other new things we will be bringing you this year.



January 16, 2012

Happy New Year! We hope you had good holidays! We are working on re-doing lots of the pages on our website, so please bear with us as we work on it. There will be some new things coming very soon we think you'll like.

Manado live rock is really coming in great, as is of course Vanuatu as always. The other types of live rock are currently off-line. We expect Vanuatu before the end of January, and the first Manado of the new year will be coming in on February 6th.

The coral shippers are starting to get back up and on-line.

The mixed boxes from Kupang, Timor are really great. $700 or $35 per piece for large whole colonies with a great assortment of twenty mixed corals ... hard corals, softs, shrooms, zoos, etc., the perfect tank stocker. These are the nice big $70-100 pieces in most stores and all will be the best colors and good size.

Please see our Box-lot Specials page.



We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and we hope you have a GREAT Holiday Season! We'd like to thank all of our fans, supporters, customers, readers, we appreciate your stopping by, and patronage!

Many of the sources overseas normally shut down for the holidays, and some already have done so. Fiji and Tonga are still shipping great wild Acropora colonies, and Tonga great encrusting Montipora. The best cultured Indo area Acros for the last six months plus are Kupang, 17 avg. pcs. per box, $45 each, $765 for the box, $800 if they put in 18 pieces ... these are better than Bali or Java and many different types come in the boxes, but no choices, just assorted, and you will be very happy. Most of the live rock is already done until the New Year with Vanuatu's final shipment for the year is most likely on the 18th.

We will have some new exciting things to offer next year so keep an eye peeled and check back soon!

Our very best to you and yours,
Mitch
(birdfish)

Current Updates

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(855) 225-8086

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birdfish@livestockusa.org

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