Oculus Aquatics, once a fine dealer of killer corals, sent out an email this morning announce their imminent closure effective today. Oculus had a good run in their heyday and brought in a lot of neat livestock in its four year run. However, Oculus’s time is up and should you find yourself desperately in need of corals this week, we would like to introduce you to some friends of the blog.
If you are a store or a real business with a valid retail/wholesale/resale license, the following businesses would be happy to take your calls. If you are a hobbyist, coral fragger but not in possession of a brick retail location, feel free to suggest these wholesalers to your local coral dealer but please do not call them yourselves.
These fine companies are no mom n’ pop operations, not that there’s anything wrong with that. However, these are the professionals whose work has resulted in lots of “post-worthy” stories for Reef Builders which have enriched the aquarium hobby for all.
Quality Marine is the pinnacle of considerate livestock handling. You won’t find as much corals here as some other places but they are fast catching up with their own wysiwyg, killer AAA grade cultured Acan Lords, a lock on unique exporting locations for clams and tricolor Pectinias and more cultured Banggai cardinalfish than you can shake a stick at. [TAG]
Sea Dwelling Creatures in Los Angeles California has been around for decades and they feature a wide diversity of fishes, the best prices on Marshall Islands critters and wysiwyg for their hottest corals called the Furnace. [TAG]
Route 66 Marine is arguably the top dawg of coral dealers in the country. Eric Camaano, the OG Frag Farmer, has spent at least 15 yrs growing, acquiring and sourcing the hottest corals and many of the crazy coral strains that individuals put their names on originated from Route. If you need any indication of how productive Route 66 Marine is see how many Reef Builders coral stories they are tagged in. [TAG]
Global Reef Supply is a relative newcomer to the consistent slinging of imported wild and cultured corals. But GRS doesn’t play any games, they have very fair prices of lots of stuff and since they try to keep a low profile, there’s not that many stores that know about them, yet. [TAG]
Russo’s Reef out of New York has a passion for exotic fish and corals that often bleeds onto the pages of Reef Builders. It is largely thanks to the incessant borderline OCD compulsion of Russo’s Reef that we’ve been able to enjoy some super awesome animals. If you’re into the oddballs, better call Joe. [TAG]
Exotic Sealife International is another somewhat smaller player who still manages to deal in some really great corals. Florida area fishstores rely on Andrea for a wide range of soft and stony polyps and thanks to her aggressive attitude to obtaining corals, Exotic Sealife often has colonies of stuff you often only see as frags. [TAG]
