Green Marine opens the first all captive raised reef shop in Berkeley, CA
38 Comments
The first all captive raised LFS has finally opened. Green Marine opened its doors on Jan 1, 2010 in Berkeley, Calif., and we have to say we are impressed. The store is clean, open and was well stocked with both captive-raised corals, fish and inverts, both from ORA and local breeders and farmers. It was fantastic how full the tanks looked with all CB livestock, and people were more than happy to be buying animals that weren’t going to affect wild populations. Some local skeptics feared that a captive raised LFS wouldn’t have enough selection to satisfy the public, but that didn’t seem to be a problem at all for Green Marine as animals flew out of the store as fast as they could be bagged up.
The idea of an all captive raised LFS has been floating around for years, but its great that someone finally did it. Now more than ever, such a store can be stocked, and stocked well, as local reefers are farming corals and breeding marine fish. Hopefully, the trend will catch on and we’ll see more captive only stores open around the country.
Besides being all captive raised, Green Marines frags come with another innovation – the bulk of them sell for 10 bucks each regardless of species! That’s right, no sexy common name to drive up the price. Frags are grown on acrylic rods the get them above the boundary layer resulting in fast growth, in a series of 12 60-gallon frag systems with alternating and oscillating horizontal gyres lit by two 175 or two 250 Watt MH of varying color temperature. According to co-owner Jim Adelberg, also Reef Hobbyist Magazines editor, each of the current 12 systems at Green Marine will hold a minimum of 1,276 frags. “We’re farming at 181 frags per square foot, and each tank should easily accommodate seven square feet of frag racks which gives of a modest 15,000 frag capacity. Then there is space under the frag racks which should yield another 1,000 zoa/lps frags.”
There are plans for the store to etail as well, but they anticipate a few months time before they are stocked enough to support that leg of sales. With the way animals were flying out the doors on opening day, we can believe that!
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VERY Cool!
January 9th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Way to go Jim! We really wish you the best and I hope GM is so successful that it causes a domino effect across the country. You need a lounge in the store for the Reef Widows.
January 9th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
That photo does not support your commnets about the tanks being clean.
January 9th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Rich, I can tell you the store is very clean and open, not what you get compared to your typical LFS shop. The tanks are clean and new with some experiencing some algae blooms which are typical with any new setup. Having been here in and seeing the store in person, its very nice and with quality livestock to boot. You can see the amount of care that goes into bringing in and maintaining healthy and vibrant CB and TR coral and fish.
January 9th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
Picture 3 – COOKIE THIEF CAUGHT ON CAMERA!
January 9th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Rich, sorry for the confusion, I didn’t say the tanks were clean, I said the store was clean.
And it is – no towering stacks of thanks looming over the shoppers. Its a store I actually felt good spending time and and not worrying something was going to fall on my daughter.
There is algae in the tanks which is being left for the captive bred snails to graze on. I have been told that soon there will be sign-age at the shop explaining this to the people who may mistake the algae for poor husbandry.
January 9th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
sweet, tank raised bumblebee groupers. I’m sure that people will love the fact that they can buy a tank raised fish that will get 8′. Just because it is tank raised does not mean it should be sold.
January 9th, 2010 at 7:06 pm
I applaud the idea, but I think that is a few too many halides to be “Green” . Where are all the LED’s? Of course there are no towering tanks, not enough livestock to fill them.Looks like a “Frag Swap”. I do like frag swaps though. We need all the stores and innovation we can get so I do wish them well.
January 9th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
@Ray, I think you are exxagerating about the BB grouper. They will likely only get to 4 feet in captivity.
A properly driven halide with balanced color adn a large reflector is still the most efficient lighting avaiable today, Shaun.
January 9th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
Good job Jim! Nice seeing Steve in the pic too!
January 9th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
Well I think the term “green” gets over generalized quite a bit, and really has a wide range of meanings. Green in this case means captively grown.
January 9th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Plus the idea of using LEDs over halides is iffy at best. There hasn’t really been any long term success stories I’ve heard of with growing corals using LEDs. Plus it’s Berkeley, the halides help reduce the need for heating the tanks most probably
January 9th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
I like to think that once the grouper gets to about 2 feet you can then eat it–its both beautiful and delicious!
In all seriousness though, I think the $10 frag is going to really change the landscape of coral pricing–particularly when his online store gets up and running. For example, when I went in there he was selling some blue milli (might have been Palmers Milli) frags for $10 each. I bought that frag last year for $80. Darn it!
January 9th, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Hi all, thanks for the kind words. I consider it a privilege to work in a shop that’s 100% captive bred/ propagated. I very much believe the future of our hobby lies in this direction and regardless of how well I do with my shop, I want to encourage everyone to request and insist on attention to good animal husbandry at our local retailers. And the groupers… well, yes, not a smart buy but I was caught up in how cute they were. I’m letting people know how big they get up front and of course haven’t sold one! LOL
January 9th, 2010 at 10:19 pm
And the lighting is indeed very energy intensive. I’ve done what I can to maximize the yield by designing the tightest, most intensive farming system I can but until the tanks are stocked at 2k frags per tank, it is definitely wasteful.
January 9th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Please keep this discussion going because I have a lot to learn about running a 100% CB shop and all input and criticisms are welcomed and appreciated. Thx-Jim
January 9th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
For the record I have halides and would have done the same thing. Sarcasm doesn’t show through on the net. The store is definitely a different approach and I would go if I were anywhere near it.
January 9th, 2010 at 11:19 pm
Very nice, I need to check the store out.
I’ll be breeding maroon clowns, and some gobies, so I’m sure will do some buisness in a couple of months.
I looks like you don’t sell any dry goods? Do you also sell rotifiers?
January 9th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
We will carry a bare minimum of drygoods. I’m happy to pick up drygoods people need but it’s not realistic for us to stock them. I hope to find time and space for a rotifer culture but right now I’m about 20k frags behind schedule! LOL!!
BTW, the shop is all one room that’s only 18′ wide by 35′ long.
January 10th, 2010 at 12:19 am
And I love gobies so please do be in touch.
January 10th, 2010 at 12:20 am
I love the concept of this store. Who knew it that even a couple of years ago that a place could be set up to have so much space. Bravo, Bravo.
About the groupers they are cool and get tame as puppy dogs, and because they are now being propagated they are starting to pop up everywhere. they are very cute, but these are the pacu-redtail cat, of saltwater. I hope they do not become boomerang fish for you, you’ll need a swimming pool.
One question, What about mariculture?
January 10th, 2010 at 12:56 am
I’m really starting to appreciate the acrylic rod propagation more and more as I’ve really been getting turned off by frag plugs. Besides being able to really get more coral in a tight space in the shop. They are quite easy to stick in rock until I find the more permanent home. I think its a great idea I may try and turn my 20g tank into a micro-farm
Picked up two amazing pieces last week, a beautifully, rich and deep colored A. cerealis and another beautiful unknown Acropora with great color and bushy polyps. I think its going to be a great colony over time! Regretting not getting more but that means I have to come back.
January 10th, 2010 at 2:04 am
Maricultured pieces can be very nice. I just got a screaming blue milli from a Bali mariculture shipment. The same shipment contained (tentative ID’s here) soly’s, gomezis, granulosas and a bunch of other desireable species.
January 10th, 2010 at 10:29 am
@Joost’s Reef
If you’re in the Bay Area your right next door to a company that sells the most live rotifers globally. If Jim doesn’t have any yet, he can get them from us, as can you. Jim will be a dealer of ours once he gets more fragging done
January 10th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Yup, I’ll at least be carrying a selection of the Reef Nutrition products. And I badly want to sell live rotis and be a backup for the local breeding community.
“We now return you to your regularly scheduled waterchange.” LOL
January 10th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Way to go Jim!
January 10th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Thanks guys! The corals on rods continue to fly out of the store faster than I expected. And I’m supposed to be backlogging inventory for the online store. Oh well!
January 10th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
Congratulations Jim! I’ll stop by next time I’m in the area.
January 10th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Thanks, and everyone’s welcome anytime. If it’s a Tuesday or Wed (our ‘closed’ days) contact me through the site and I’m always happy to show the place.
January 10th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
Congrats Jim ~~
How does the growing corals on acrylic rod works? Is it an empty center rod or just normal acrylic rod? How does it differ from frag plugs?
Are you only doing “aquaculture” corals, fish and inverts? Or you will be accepting mariculture?
Very nice and clean store, best luck
January 11th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Hi Hubert, the rods are 3/16″ solid acrylic rod. They sell them locally at TAP for 70 cents for a 6 foot length (60 cents each in the 10 lot!). I score and snap them to 2″ lengths and the collars that keep them from sliding through the rack are cut from regular airline hose. The new issue of RHM has a step by step write up of the process so hobbyists and other stores can use this method if they like.I am only selling aquacultured stuff so even though I bring in a lot of mariculture, it only goes out as frags, not colonies. As an aside, I only frag , at most, the lesser half of any colony. Usually I frag the top and middle 25% just to open the colony up for flow and light. This creates our parent stock. Thanks for the kind words and I’m gonna try and keep it clean! We’ll see how that goes! LOL
January 11th, 2010 at 9:56 am
I think it’s time to convince the wife that Berkeley is a great place for a weekend get-a-way.
January 11th, 2010 at 1:17 pm
this is really a job well done, excellent for our hobby !!!
January 11th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Jim,
I will be paying you a visit when I’m ready to stock my 450 dt and 60 ft. Best wishes on the grand opening.
January 11th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
Thanks! I love having visitors so you’re all welcome anytime.
January 11th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Hi Jim,
This seems an appropriate way to respond to this email. The store looks fantastic and judging from the comments it is being well received. One of these days you’ll have to catch me up on all the technical terms, (e.g. LFS or Frags.
Best, Dad
January 15th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Love the reply John! You have one heck of a son there, you should definitely be proud. I catch myself when I’m talking to my Dad too, trying not to drop too many acronyms and “hobby speak.”
January 15th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
Thanks Dad!!
January 16th, 2010 at 11:21 am