Biggest Aquarium Market in the World? - GuangJoe's South China adventures.

[Guangjoe]

Hi all - I live about 15 mins drive from the (in)famous Huadiwan pet market in Guangzhou. I have been visiting there for the past ten years - and have seen the place go through many changes (for the better, I must add!). Gone are the wild caught tortoises and turtles, and there was a huge crackdown on the sharks in the marine section.

I plan on making many more videos abut the new location, which looks to be absolutely unprecendented in scale. You can see the new spot here:

And some videos of the original location here:

2020:

2017:

2016:

Please consider subscribing, if you have an account. I am going to make these much more regularly, perhaps weekly as the new spot opens - and will respond to comments in terms of filming what people's specific interests are. I am unfamiliar with marine life, for example - so any requests of that nature would be so welcome - I love to learn and be informed - and will get footage of new areas for me within the hobby!

Thanks,
GuangJoe

 

[JuiceBox52]

Wow! Much bigger than the one in makassar Indonesia that I visited!

 

[Guangjoe]

Wow! Much bigger than the one in makassar Indonesia that I visited!

Yeah, it's pretty crazy - and they are actually ramping up in scale - the new place is going to be ridiculous! As I stated in the video, I do hope this is ultimately a good thing. I know that seems contradictory, but I'd rather these shops/distributors were in one centralised, much more organised and monitored location. The current market seems a bit on the wild side, literally and figuratively.

 

[BoningKnife]

Wow. It really is a different world. The scale of the place is incredible.
Id love to hear more about your fishkeeping experiences in China and how it compares..

 

[Guangjoe]

Wow. It really is a different world. The scale of the place is incredible.
Id love to hear more about your fishkeeping experiences in China and how it compares..

Yep, insane. I'm going to make a planted balcony pond, heavily filtered and with a bunch of plants. Might stock with guppies/endler's/other livebearers...going to invesitage the irrigation system around my wife's family's bit of farmland...as they seem to be stocked with some form of mosquito control fish? Guppies perhaps? Mosquito fish? Will video my findings!

 

[Lajos_Detari]

How are the prices of the fish?
Are they cheap?

I guess they must have many wild caught marine fish.
Try to video the corals and the marine Angels fish which are stunnings.

Do they have wild caught Apistogrammas or South American fish?

 

[Guangjoe]

How are the prices of the fish?
Are they cheap?

I guess they must have many wild caught marine fish.
Try to video the corals and the marine Angels fish which are stunnings.

Do they have wild caught Apistogrammas or South American fish?

Prices - I intend on making a 'How much?' video but to be honest, I don't recognise many of the fish - I'm good on community fish and african cichlids. A rough guide to give some perspective -
Bristlenose plecs - 35 RMB for 4x 3cm fish
Guppies - 25 RMB for x20 - slightly more if going for specific special colour breeds
Arowana (standard silver variant) about 150 RMB for a 15cm fish
Mbunas and other assorted African cichlids cost about 70RMB for 12 fish
Tetras, danios, zebras are about 20RMB for 30.

Wild marine - Yes, they used to have lots of wild caught marine fish in previous years - check out my oldest video - you can see sharks in one of the stores - they would run you about 2000 RMB each. (roughly 300 usd).

The marine section is all but gone. There is one shop remaining and they are super strict about filming - been shooed away many times. They just seemed to stock the obvious - Tangs, clown fish, etc.

I will be sure to investigate the South American fish...all I've noticed are rams and oscars thus far.

Maybe I could make species specific videos?

 

[Stan510]

Kind of hard to see such top of the line Goldfish and Koi just stuffed into boxes...after no doubt getting spacious ponds to grow up in.
Plus,rare to see anybody in ANY of these vids buying fish!..no shoppers with fish bags. The work for sellers to bring the fish,then take them home all the ones that don't sell?..hard to comprehend

 

[Guangjoe]

Kind of hard to see such top of the line Goldfish and Koi just stuffed into boxes...after no doubt getting spacious ponds to grow up in.
Plus,rare to see anybody in ANY of these vids buying fish!..no shoppers with fish bags. The work for sellers to bring the fish,then take them home all the ones that don't sell?..hard to comprehend

Yeah it is tough viewing. I do find it fascinating though, as awful as that makes me sound. I have a profound love for animals, but I also know that as an individual, I don't have the power to change this system. Does that make me complicit, I don't know. I haven't bought from this place before, at least.

I think to be honest, the vast majority of fish that we as keepers have had or currently have in our tanks started out life under similar conditions. At least I can say that these distributors and sellers have a certain duty of care in that they need to keep their livestock alive and healthy in order to maintain their overheads. This is something that you don't see with the corporate fish sellers such as Walmart, where it is a very small part of their business and model and so the animals are afforded less care.

The water seems to be very clear and healthy, and I have only seen a FEW dead fish in the tanks, something that cannot be said for big establishments such as supermarkets and Pets at Home, etc. Having said that, when dealing with livestock on such a scale, these fish are perhaps less important as individual animals - perhaps the dead are just quickly removed and we don't see it?

TL;DR - difficult to attribute blame or pick a 'side' in this situation. I would be interested in other people's perspectives.

 

[BoningKnife]

I remember an article in PFK last year in which the main focus was on the upside down nature of Chinese aquariums in comparison to the Western world's. The whole sump on top thing, do you have much experience of that, if so what do you think on a day to day basis?
Given a little more time I expect they will be more common in our own market. Not because they are wanted in the market, just if aquariums like that are already being mass produced and considered more affordable in China i would have expected its only a matter of time before they start trying to expand that market.

 

[BoningKnife]

There are undoubtedly cases of cruelty to animals in every sector which involves them in China. I get the impression efficiency takes priority over wellbeing. The thing is, it's a cultural thing. It's not people being nasty, it's people who's entire thought process is different to ours in regard to certain things. It doesn't make them bad people, it's just a cultural thing, they don't understand our perspective because by and large most have never had a reason to consider it, but hopefully it's starting to change a little now. Especially after the limelight covid has put onto the relationship between the Chinese people and animals.


Just to add, this is nothing but the opinions of someone on the outside looking in. The OP is much better placed of course.

 

[Guangjoe]

I remember an article in PFK last year in which the main focus was on the upside down nature of Chinese aquariums in comparison to the Western world's. The whole sump on top thing, do you have much experience of that, if so what do you think on a day to day basis?
Given a little more time I expect they will be more common in our own market. Not because they are wanted in the market, just if aquariums like that are already being mass produced and considered more affordable in China i would have expected its only a matter of time before they start trying to expand that market.

I used to see them, but from the markets here - they are much the same as in the West. Standard sump below in the cupboard. I will add it to the list of separate videos - I could dedicate a whole video to just the aquariums themselves!

 

[Guangjoe]

There are undoubtedly cases of cruelty to animals in every sector which involves them in China. I get the impression efficiency takes priority over wellbeing. The thing is, it's a cultural thing. It's not people being nasty, it's people who's entire thought process is different to ours in regard to certain things. It doesn't make them bad people, it's just a cultural thing, they don't understand our perspective because by and large most have never had a reason to consider it, but hopefully it's starting to change a little now. Especially after the limelight covid has put onto the relationship between the Chinese people and animals.


Just to add, this is nothing but the opinions of someone on the outside looking in. The OP is much better placed of course.

I just want to say that your open-minded, international mindset is much appreciated. It is never wise to apply your home country's culture or paradigm to another's.

The values are...different. For the enthusiasts who buy from the market - guarantee they love and respect the animals - you just need to see the humongous tanks dedicated to a single arowana as testament to that.

Like all things, there will be a wide range of knowledge within the hobby. Some people keep a goldfish in a bowl, some people have co2-injected planted tanks which they regularly check the water paramaters etc. I try not to be snobby about it, but just do my best for the fish in my own care.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Prices - I intend on making a 'How much?' video but to be honest, I don't recognise many of the fish - I'm good on community fish and african cichlids. A rough guide to give some perspective -
Bristlenose plecs - 35 RMB for 4x 3cm fish
Guppies - 25 RMB for x20 - slightly more if going for specific special colour breeds
Arowana (standard silver variant) about 150 RMB for a 15cm fish
Mbunas and other assorted African cichlids cost about 70RMB for 12 fish
Tetras, danios, zebras are about 20RMB for 30.

Wild marine - Yes, they used to have lots of wild caught marine fish in previous years - check out my oldest video - you can see sharks in one of the stores - they would run you about 2000 RMB each. (roughly 300 usd).

The marine section is all but gone. There is one shop remaining and they are super strict about filming - been shooed away many times. They just seemed to stock the obvious - Tangs, clown fish, etc.

I will be sure to investigate the South American fish...all I've noticed are rams and oscars thus far.

Maybe I could make species specific videos?

Thanks for sharing with us and for bringing the world to us...
It's interesting to see the different parts of the world and especially the "different species of fish"....
It's very therapeutic and I have never get tired of looking and browsing through videos of fish, invertebrates, birds, etc...

In fact, I often like to visit the 6 LFS that are within 15mins drive from my house before the lockdown.
There are many beautiful fish from small to big...
But for marine fish, I will have to go LFS that are far away.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Thank you for sharing!

That place looks huge. I would probably empty my wallet before I got past the first exhibit!