The Expensive Danish Reef Aquarium

Hey everyone,

So in this topic, i just wanted to show how annoying it is to be a reef aquarist here in Denmark. For some reason, everything is expensive here. Not that i dont have the money, but its insane. One simple coral piece like candy cane coral can easily cost up to 80 - 90 dollars! Its insane. Aswell as that, we really dont have any stores with great coral. They're all just simple sat up systems, with coral that might not be really healthy. All the live rock you can get around my area, is filled with majanos and aiptasia, and dry rock is actually very hard to find. Websites like liveaquaria where you can get shipped live coral and fish and invertebrates, nope we dont got that. Its illegal to ship live animals in Denmark, so cant get alot of corals that way either, because if i have to, i have to pay top dollar to buy some from a german website, that then will ship in on their own. In my area Northern Jutland, i have only found 2 lfs that sell saltwater. And i only trust one of them, because the other one have only sold me diseased fish, but their coral seems to be better. Anyway, if i have to get hold of any healthy corals, i have to travel all the way to Copenhagen, which is about a 5 or 6 hour drive away from where i live, so that awesome... But, either way i'm in this hobby. I find it really cool to have a coral reef in Denmark, because its so expensive, and many species are hard to find here. For example Emerald Crabs are IMPOSSIBLE to find here, aswell as berghias, and gobies. Really strange i know. Equipment is also generally hard to find in my area, aswell as saltwater tanks. So, for now i almost buy all my equipment from Germany, because those guys are CRAZY with saltwater! I've been down and seen some of their stores, and they're completely mindblowing. Their coral are extremely healthy, aswell as the fish and the stores are gigantic! Its like heaven to me The only corals that i've really seen around here are Candy canes, frogspawn, hammers, torches, kenya trees, leathers, montiporas, acroporas, and stuff like that. Hah, even mushrooms, xenia and green star polyps are hard to find So far i've used 3100 dollars on my reef tank in total, and its only a 20 gallon system. Its pretty crazy... Sometimes, i wish i could live in the US, so that i could get all those beautiful corals! Really like some of the stores over there. But although, i got one unique oppurtunity. I've been working 1 week at the North Sea Oceanarium which is northern europes biggest aquarium, and its coldwater marine displays they have out there. Like ocean sunfish and stuff like that. I've been working with a marine biologist, some zoologists and things like that and it was awesome. I got to try alot of things like helping the diver, feeding all of the aquariums including the big 4,5 million liter one and also helped feeding the seals. But actually these guys told me, that if i would ever start a coldwater marine aquarium (which i have plans of, i might make a topic of what i plan the setup to be like) they would give me fish out there, FOR FREE! Like catsharks, sea robins, flounders and all kinds of stuff :O Because they just bred alot of small fry, which i was around feeding everyday with mysis. So i cant resist, gotta start a coldwater marine aquarium soon, and that is cheap here in Denmark, cause i can just go collect clams, sea anemones and seaweed out at the beach!

 

sounds like you are a wealthy young man

 

That's what I was thinking. lol

 

So? Why does this matter? lol

 

If it makes you feel any better when I lived in Washington D.C. I could only find one saltwater store that was just "ok". Nothing to write home about. But at least you could get stuff through the mail and local club.
So it really varies wildly here.. the U.S. is huge.. Europe is huge. Not every city was blessed by the Saltwater gods.
Lucky for me Dallas has a bunch of awesome coral shops.

Do you guys have an active marine club? If not might be time to spearhead the movement.

 

It doesn't, just an observation

 

That's pretty cool. Good luck with the tank. Any idea what size you're going for? A lot of the fish you listed need very large tanks.

Yup, nothing wrong with that

 

That's an awesome story/life you have there in Denmark.

When you mentioned the USA, I have to reserve comment b/c I'd get nailed for mentioning anything political, etc.

Keep up the good work

 

Where I live in America, it is on the edge of a very small town, in order to get aquarium live stock or supplies you must travel to a neighboring town about 20 minutes away, which only carries freshwater and is not that good quality, to get saltwater it is about an hours drive to a petco, or near 2 hours( with traffic) to a good quality salt water fish store, which is possibly the best I have ever been to however they are sooo expensive talking almost 5 dollars for a blue legged dwarf hermit expensive. So I most always order my stuff from live aquaria however because I live in the middle of nowhere, delivery is spotty at best, also power outages are frequent

 

You guys are making me appreciate what I have here in CT. While our club just lost a LFS that was a HUGE help. There is currently like 4 stores trying to take over where that one fell. One bought all livestock out, and has been selling it at deeply discounted prices plus discounts for the holidays and club member pricing.

Within an hours drive I can hit 5 really good stores price and selection. A handful of overpriced stores and a couple of high end stores. Plus if I was feeling really froggy I could always go into NY.

Yesterday I picked up frags of a Pink Boobies Chalice with maybe 4 eyes, A mengs mummy eye chalice 5 eyes, and a Forest Fire acropora, ended up passing on the Red Plant acro as I had to buy the wife a pom pom crab. Grand Total of $107