This page is for regular visitors (or repeat offenders)
who want to find out if anything has been added or
changed on the website since their last visit.
The most recent updates will be posted here at the
top of this page for convenient viewing of new material
or website changes.
Thank you for your visit!
Vietnam Zoanthids
Customers on our mailing list receive updated availability lists created
on a spreadsheet (Excel) that includes pages from a handful of sources
that are scheduled to ship to LAX the following week. To get on our mailing
list, send us an e-mail to let us know you're interested in receiving
the weekly mailer.
Just a quick note in case any Comcast customers peek here.
Comcast seems to have our e-mails blocked, so we're unable to
e-mail you at a Comcast e-dress. You can try white listing us,
but we can't guaranty that will work. If you have an alternate
e-mail address, please send it to us if you'd like to get on our
mailing list or if you've not been receiving our e-mails.
Also, it's pertinent that we have another e-mail address for
you if you place an order with us. Thank you!
May 18, 2022
Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on May 25th ...
Kupang Photos
(Acropora photos are already showing on the availability list & photos.)
May 5, 2022
Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on May 11th ...
Kupang Photos
We expect acropora photos to be available soon.
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 ...
Kupang - April 27th
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 ...
Kupang - March 30
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.
Kupang March 16 Photos
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 ...
Kupang Acropora - March 2
February 22, 2022
Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on March 2nd ...
Kupang March 2 Photos
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 ...
Kupang Feb. 16th Photos
January 28, 2022
We apologize for the delay as we awaited the Kupang acropora availabilities!
Please see the following for photos & details ...
(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)
January 26, 2022
Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on February 2nd ...
(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)
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.)
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 29, 2021
Additional corals and acropora have now been added to
the Kupang pages shown below.
Have a Happy New Year!
Kupang Corals Main Page
(link to pricing pages can be found here)
December 28, 2021
Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on January 5th ...
(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)
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.)
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.)
October 13, 2021
Kupang corals will be arriving to LAX on October 20th ...
(Previous pages are no longer available, please see current Kupang list.)
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.)
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.)
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.)
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.)
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.)
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 ...
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
Our Toll-free Phone:
(866) 874-7639
Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Central Time)
