My Coral Caretaker Job and Livestock Wholesale Explained

I’ve been working in the wholesale part of the aquarium hobby industry for just over three years. It has been a unique and insightful experience that opened my eyes and allowed me to see what and how the wholesale end of the industry works. Today, I’ll be sharing some of my experiences while working wholesale in this industry as well as some pros and cons to working wholesale.

First, let’s break down what the wholesale side of this industry does and the role it plays in this industry we all love so much. As I already mentioned, I have been in wholesale for just over three years, which isn’t technically that long, but I have had my fair share of experiences in that short amount of time.

The wholesale side of the industry is responsible for supplying most of your local fish stores with products as well as importing tropical fish and corals and/or acquiring fish from many breeders throughout the country to provide to the aquatic industry. The wholesalers deal with the many different tropical fish exporters from all across the world to bring fish to their facility to make them available for sale to your local fish or pet stores.

Since we have already established a brief description of what wholesale is, I’ll go ahead and dive into what my job is and where I am located now. I currently work for QGI Aquatics in Clearwater, Florida. We import freshwater fish and inverts as well as saltwater fish, inverts, and corals from many areas around the world.

As of right now, I am the coral caretaker at QGI Aquatics. My job consists of taking care of the corals’ needs, ordering and importing corals from overseas, fragging corals, and managing and taking care of the water parameters in our coral systems. That all takes up quite a bit of my time, but when I am caught up with my tasks in the coral room, I enjoy taking some time to help my coworkers pack orders for many pet stores near and far.

Now, where I currently work, I get to experience seeing and learning more and more about both saltwater fish and inverts as well as freshwater species. This makes the experience much more exciting as I can observe and enjoy all the different critters that come in from all around the world; I also enjoy ordering corals from around the globe.

One of my absolute favorite parts of my job is the ability to see all of the cool and unusual corals that I have never seen or observed a unique pattern that I haven’t encountered in the industry before.

Working in the wholesale side of the aquarium industry has its pros and cons. I’m going to do my best to explain both. In my opinion, some pros to working at this end of the industry include being able to unbox the different shipments from different areas of the world and seeing all of the unique fish and inverts from different regions. However, this part of the job can also be a con, but I will explain that a bit more later.

Another one of my favorite things about working wholesale is being able to help supply local fish stores around the country with high-quality specimens which will eventually end up in the hands of a retail consumer to be observed and enjoyed in their homes and businesses. It is pretty amazing seeing the fish that makes its way from thousands of miles away to our facility continue on its journey and make its way over time to a local fish store, and then, eventually, end up in a hobbyists’ tank.

My list of pros doesn’t end there though! Sometimes, this specific job allows me the opportunity every so often to make some trips out into the local waters near and around the west coast of Florida to do some sustainable collecting of marine organisms to supply to my workplace. This, of course, is done under the proper licenses, making this legal and sustainable for the ocean and our industry.

Finally, another strong pro to this part of the industry is the ability to connect with certain customers and being able to see some behind-the-scenes functions at many different stores to see how they handle their livestock as well as just building relationships with some of the coolest people in the industry.

Now, of course, with the pros, there come some cons. In that respect, working wholesale in the aquarium industry is similar to any other job one might have. Working wholesale means doing your best to have flexible hours as most shipments don’t come in during your normally scheduled work hours. This means that, on occasion, you may have to make some sacrifices in order to be there to unpack shipments.

Depending on flights and delays, some can even arrive in the middle of the night. Fish and corals both should be and need to be unpacked as fast as possible as they have most likely been in transit for twenty-four hours or more. So, if you’re looking to eventually get into the wholesale side of things, don’t be surprised when shipments don’t work within your normal hours and you need to be flexible at times.

Another con would most likely be communicating with the exporters from overseas as many shipments come from the tropical Pacific, which means that many of those countries are sleeping while we are awake. You might have already concluded that this means if you intend to deal with exporters to get in shipments, you may need to take some time in the evenings or early mornings to communicate with said exporters and suppliers to order what you are after.

After placing that order, you will also need to arrange shipping plans and book freight. Thankfully, there are freight agencies that will help with flight bookings from overseas. The final con that comes to mind would be the frustrations we may experience when picking up international imports as U.S. Fish and Wildlife needs to inspect the shipments because they are live animals entering the country.

The reason for this possible frustration is that this can take quite a bit of time after the freight lands for them to inspect said shipment which can get quite frustrating, especially knowing these fish and corals have been in transit for quite a long time, and now, they must sit and wait to be inspected. It helps to put the frustrations into perspective when you realize that they are only doing their job making sure everything is safe to enter the U.S., just as you are working to do your job and keep the species that are arriving alive and healthy.

The pros completely outweigh the cons as cons come with any job. This job has been a unique and life-changing experience for me to be able to see and handle many organisms I never would’ve been able to see otherwise. It has also allowed me the opportunity to do tasks I never thought I would be doing and even to meet people and see many corals and fish that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to observe.

I can’t speak for everyone, but this has been my experience on the wholesale side of the industry. I can’t speak enough about all of the unique and fun learning experiences that have definitely changed my outlook on the hobby. I am truly blessed to be able to work on the wholesale side of the industry.