Hobby lives in Middle East

So Im in the middle east right now working with about 20 host nationals and one of them caught me looking at some Fishie stuff online...Turns out the hobby is pretty damn big out here despite the 130 degree weather in the summer lol. I was a little skeptical at first until he showed me a picture of his (had to be) 3-400g tank. I would say it would put 95% of the tanks on this site to shame lol. Over half of them had tanks frsh and/or salt. I was utterly impressed, i honestly couldnt believe it. If i could i would have got a few pics of it for you guys but currently i am unable to due to policy’s. Turns out the hobby is probably 75% cheaper out here than in the states in ref to equipment, and about 95% cheaper when it comes to stock, mostly because of the immediate access to the ocean. He told me he could get a 4-500g tank for 1us dollar a G, i couldn’t believe it. Apparently most of the tanks people have aren’t smaller than 200g due to the heat during the summer.

After seeing his tank i figured he was pretty knowledgeable on the hobby and started asking some questions. I was wrong, well wrong in what i considered knowledge and he considered uselessness. He told me they don’t test anything in the water/don’t add anything to the water except salt which they don’t even test salinity when they do it (he says he goes by taste), he said they can tell what’s wrong by "the Look" of their tank and would never rely on some "stupid" test lol.

Anyways just a tid-bit of info i thought was interesting.

 

Middle east hmmm, a tad vague but I understand.

An acquaintance of mine lives in Egypt, the salt he uses comes from a dried sea bed it's not synthetic salt as we know it. He built his tank from scratch as did the rest of the hobbyist in his group of friends.

Too bad you can not hook us up with some images. Are the tanks mostly sps dominated. Where do they get their live stock? I have heard harvesting from the Red Sea is highly regulated.

 

As far as he sad they go on family/friend trips out to sea and come back with whatever they want. His tank SPS dom but featured everything it seemed like. I just couldnt believe it you'd think or at least i did this would be the last place to see a tank lol. Sorry for the Vagueness really wish i could get some pics for ya guys.

 

ya I am wondering since they can just go get stuff just how much stuff dies do to the whole taste test theory ha ha ha.

Are they like a florist who just throws out the dead stuff and cuts new!!! Got to question that.

I am sure there are plenty that do test their tanks.

 

You could tell his tank was mature...im sure hes had stuff die like most but you could jsut tell with the way everything was growing. I cant believe the taste theory either lol but these guys usually dont lie, but then again......