Hi! I wanted to say up front that I'm really impressed with your forums and the creativity and passion that you all are showing for your new breeding initiative. You go, MASM!

I have recently started a classifieds website that is dedicated to captive-bred marine animals. My hope is that this will give local hobbyists a single place to see what captive-bred animals are available locally, with the hope that some at least will start looking for captive-bred aquarium stock before moving on to wild-caught alternatives. I've talked to several LFS owners who claim that they would buy more captive-bred livestock if they could only find it, so I also hope this website will give store owners a chance to buy captive-bred and locally where possible. (I know that captive-breds are starting to show up more and more on wholesale stock lists, but it still seems better to me to get stores to shop locally where possible.) I also hope to help out local breeders by giving them a place to get more exposure for their stock.

I've already emailed Tal with the offer, but I also wanted to extend the invitation to all of you. It occurred to me that there's no reason why I couldn't open a section of my site to MASM to help with your breeding initiative if you all would like me to do that. Basically, I would just make a link off the front page to take you all to a Michigan section of the classifieds, where I would create a structure similar to what I did for Colorado.

http://www.ummfish.com/classifieds/

By the way, I have no plans to add a BBS to my website. I'm not trying to compete with what you all are doing here. Just hoping to add some functionality to my local clubs' BBSs and, if you all are interested, maybe do the same for you.

Good luck to all of you with your breeders' challenge! I hope many of you will discover a new passion for breeding marine ornamentals. Mainly because all us geeks love company. But also because I believe that the coral reefs that I love could use any break that we can help to provide for them.

Best,

Andy

Thanks for the kind and thoughtful offer, Andy.  Glad to see you here! 

Andy,
 
You can disregard my email.  I replied to it before I got on the forum and saw this.  Looks like a pretty cool idea.

Save a Reef... Frag Your Own! Save a Fish... Breed Your Own! www.fishtalpropagations.com

hmmm great to see andy here (I'll vouch, he's an awesome guy).

On the forum side of things I'll state that Andy's reason for not having one is the same as mine with the copepodgeek site.  In any case, he's put an idea in my head.

I'll plop a second post on his Co-Op classifieds site just for MASM, I just shipped a bunch of Nassarius out to Brian Plankis from RSF that I had received through RSF (when it was dibs) to hopefully replenish breeders.  I've got a post up for colorado breeders currently but since I want to see propagation I'll do the same for Michigan breeders.

What I'm offering is simple... ANY registered breeders at Reef Stewardship Foundation in areas where I'll be sending stock will receive a starter stock (6-8 snails) for approximately FREE.99....  in any case, I'll be delivering some stock to Denver for distribution.  In any case, I'll do the same for registered (RSF registered) breeders in Michigan.

What I'll need is simple....  a single person to ship the stock to (address of course).  and anybody interested should respond to my post at Andy's Co-op site with their screen name from the RSF forums www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org and thats it!!!

In any case I will supply around 6 breeders with snails, shipped and delivered free of charge I just want to make sure the receiver actually makes an effort!

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

What a swell offer.   Thanks for including us.  I'm sure someone will be interested in the snails.

Save a Reef... Frag Your Own! Save a Fish... Breed Your Own! www.fishtalpropagations.com

I hope so really, I want to see these little guys gain popularity they're great to have and while small do just as well as the larger Nassarius species.

The biggest upside is that they're breeding mechanisms allow us to keep them breeding successfully in captivity with relative ease.  This is huge in my book.

While I really want to make sure the people who receive these snails are active in the Reef Stewardship Foundation, I hope to be able to ship a lot of these guys to anyone in the future.  In fact, I hope these guys go nuts everywhere and shipping isnt a problem.  But I digress.... I'm a nutcase

The reality is it takes active members in an active club to protect what we all have been initially invited to this hobby for at one point or another.  It's not our reefs but all our oceans that are changing and in constant danger and the only answer is that we all work together for solutions no matter how small.

I feel like I'm preaching here (those that know me know it's not my style) but by god I'm into this!!! and any group thats active in research and education rather than the typical garage sale snap up is worthy of praise in my book.  And consequentially, well worth donating a whopping few dollars in shipping for the cause!

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

Thats cool Andy! Ill have to stop by and check out the site.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges

Where can I find some documentation on Breeding them?

Chad Penney - MASM President
My Build Journal
Agis quod Adis

JRC.

I'm planning on breeding trochus and nassarius snails.  I'll contact you at RSF.  I'm Rook over there (and everywhere else) too.

Rook

cmpenney,  theres a lot of info over at RSF on how to breed them (they were originally DIBS snails to begin with!).

Rook, I'll toss you down for 8 on my list here, I'd like to get at least 4 breeders out there active on the things!

Andy,  I'm diggin the Co-Op site for sure!  I think it's going to come in handy for a lot of people in the area!!

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

Thanks for the warm welcome! It's nice to see all of the familiar names, too.

The front page of the classifieds had 562 views yesterday alone, which suggests to me that there might be a lot more people interested in finding captive-bred stock than even I thought. And that really cheers me up. Thanks!

Joe, I just posted on the Co-Op Site and Posted on RSF the other day to get in on your Nassarius offer. 

I think Jeremy was also interested in getting a starter as well. Was there anyone else that wanted to do this for the MBI?

Chad Penney - MASM President
My Build Journal
Agis quod Adis

Joe I read though all the stuff on RSF about the Nassarius and there wasn't much about system design there. Can you take a quick look at: http://www.masm.org/mforums/tm.aspx?high=&m=32484 

And let me know if that system layout will work?

Chad Penney - MASM President
My Build Journal
Agis quod Adis

So, I want to thank MASM for their support on my little classifieds site. I have gotten the go-ahead from you all to open up a section of the site for the use of MASM club members. So, it's there for you to list for sale (or want to buy) captive-bred animals. If you need new categories or any other support, please let me know. 
 
I let the people at MASC (the Colorado club) know that your section is there, and I suggested that it might benefit everyone involved if they would list in their ads whether they are willing to ship their animals. Might I suggest the same to you? Maybe this could be a way to open up a whole new market for your animals in another state? I've also told the owners of fish stores that have told me in the past that they are on the lookout for a source of captive-bred animals about the site. Hopefully, enough ads will be posted there that fish store owners will begin to regularly browse the site, looking for stock.

And might I remind all you Michigan coral farmers that you, too, are helping to keep wild corals in the oceans. You are more than welcome to use the site for your listings, too, if you wish. There's a whole section there for you. Thanks!


Andy

I've pinned this thread to the top Andy. Hopefully we start getting some people with stock they need to move soon. 

Chad Penney - MASM President
My Build Journal
Agis quod Adis

Andy,
 
Thanks for hooking us up.  Once everyone gets rolling this could be a helpful program for all concerned. 
 

Save a Reef... Frag Your Own! Save a Fish... Breed Your Own! www.fishtalpropagations.com

andy, I hope the mandarin in your avatar is someone elses..

it's sooo...

skinny....

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

LOL I thought maybe he liked beer as much as I do, But I didn't want to say anything. I heard Mandarins are very sensitive about their figures...

Chad Penney - MASM President
My Build Journal
Agis quod Adis

actually a funny thought

remind me when I get back from thanksgiving to post my mandarin, I own smaller golf balls...  Andy, we gotta get that fish fed!   it's starvin

Because it's all about the plankton!
~J      

That is a VERY nice avatar pic Andy. Im jealous.

"The only thing they can get me for is running a funeral parlor without a license." - Gacy.

http://www.youtube.com/user/D3monicUrges