Fish Categories [1188] [Done]

Have y’all ever considered a new category???

Like tarantulas? Or even fish??? Just a thought…

Bugs yes, see: Major invert categories?

Fish, not in the near term, but it’s possible.

It’s called morphmarket not “the fish market” lol

1 Like

I wouldn’t mind fish being a thing. It would be nice to have a better place than ebay to have people sell their bettas and other fish online. If bugs are allowed then fish should be since they are closer to reptiles than bugs.

7 Likes

Selling fish though is problematic with the shipping aspect. It much more difficult to ship fish than it is bugs, inverts, and reptiles.

2 Likes

Shipping them would probably run with the same risks as shipping certain amphibians. A lot of sellers don’t guarantee live arrival of amphibians, but that is for the seller to take care of, not MM. We could at least have a good outlet for them.

2 Likes

True that would be for the seller to take care of, but with someone shipping fish not knowing what they are doing it could be a headache for those that have to deal with unhappy people. There are already two very well established sites that deal only in fish so i don’t feel it would be worth the time for mm to add that as a category.

There are very well established sites that deal with bugs and amphibians yet we added those as well. The people that sell on ebay and ship their animals out could use a better outlet. Amphibians especially could bring just at many headaches given the people selling them might not know what they are doing when shipping them. There are just as many risks with new sellers and shippers for amphibians and any other live animal. I am not talking about bringing in people that don’t know what they are doing though, I am talking about people that have already been selling/shipping fish for a while.

1 Like

Agreed. Been there and done that with fish and on top of all the shipping risk they are extremely more fragile than reptiles and bugs. When I bought in large quantities I would have some bags have 50/50 alive and DOA. I honestly think fish should never be added. So many more problems that comes with shipping them, diseases, those diseases spreading, and some fish being illegal in certain places and becoming a pest. Just so many more additional factors.

A lot of the issues you just listed are already problems in the reptile/amphibian industry. Diseases are always a risk (this is why you quarantine fish as well), so is DOA (especially with amphibians), and there are those that are illegal in some places as well. Frogs/toads could easily become pests in many places if they were to be released.

Shipping precautions would need to be cranked up, but just like with amphibians live arrival isn’t always guaranteed. But this also allows people to be able to find where sellers for certain fish are located, so they don’t have to have sellers online ship a fish they have been looking for.

3 Likes

Good points but I’m still hesitant about agreeing with it as a whole. And let’s just say as a hypothetical situation fish do get added what precautions are made? Who is to say I cant get my hands on illegal species of fish? I wont name any names but a few companies I have bought from will sell certain species of fish that are illegal or somewhat rare/endangered under the table for the right price.

1 Like

People that sell endangered species of snakes (like the black pine snake) will have it listed on the ad that they won’t sell outside of their state unless someone has the proper permit. Same thing goes with people selling turtles under 4 inches in shell length as they are sold to people that have permits for them. It would be up to the sellers/buyers to police the community as a whole, just as we do now. I feel like it would be easier to make sure that doesn’t happen on MM than most places.

3 Likes

I like the idea of fish being added in the future.
A lot of local physical stores are giving up the fight against the internet and taking their business online. One of the best in Manchester UK, closed their doors for good a few years back because a majority of their sales were coming from online.

Shipping would need working out on a individual basis between buyers and sellers. Your going to want different delivery aspects for tetras or tiger barbs than you would for discus, and again for flowerhorn cichlids. The value of the animal will depend the value of the delivery service, and as with reptiles, it is then on the buyer to document/have tests done on the animals for the first few weeks/months.

As for disease, as @ashleyraeanne mentioned, quarantine is just as important in aquatic husbandry as it is in reptiles.

I think if properly thought through it could be a really good addition.

5 Likes

All very good points with this but if it does get added I think there should be a required minimum purchase price. It wouldn’t make sense to just sell one gold fish or one betta when shipping will cost more than the animal and like I said earlier in a separate post what happens if fish are added and then people will request corals to be added or freshwater plans? I think if categories are added one after another it will cause a sort of domino affect of people wanting more and more categories and then it may just become overwhelming. Maybe I’m wrong but think that would happen if we continue added things outside of reptiles.

1 Like

I completely get what your saying and without proceeding carefully we could end up overwhelmed but we would have to work on each and every request individually rather than just say “no more!”. Fish I would say is a reasonable request whereas coral/plants/decoration is a separate market.

All though it might not have been Johns original intention, the site has grew from being a place for just reptiles to a place for basically most non-mammals.

If it is approached in a professional manner I believe it could be pulled off without many extra issues arising.

2 Likes

I guess my main issue is this. I love morphmarket because it is centered mainly around reptiles, amphibians, and turtles. if we start to add more non-reptile related categories then we have now just become another facebook market place or Craigslist. just my 2 cents take it as you will.

5 Likes

I’d like to add to this topic. I’m currently a fish breeder getting in into reptiles and MorphMarket is by far the best animal selling platform I’ve ever seen. Makes buying ball python so easy. Adding fish would increase its users and get more people interested in reptiles. So that alone will help other people’s small reptile businesses. As for it being MorphMarket so it should be for reptiles, fish have morphs as well. I mainly sell different color morphs of bristlenose plecos, super, reds, green dragons, lemon blue eyes, and snow whites, all are listed as Ancistrus sp but are different morphs. Shipping is different then reptiles for sure. One problem that I have seen with people shipping fish is that they don’t do it right. I have bought fish online just to have them show up dead from poor shipping. So having this platform with ratings will help people buy from people that know what they are doing. Bad shipping would result in poor ratings. I personally ship fish with doa policies just like you do here on MorphMarket and at the time of writing this I’m still at zero doas. As for fish spreading disease fish should go through a qt time just like any reptile you purchase. Someone selling fish should know where not to sell fish when it’s illegal just like with snakes. I live in Colorado where I’m not allowed to purchase hognose snakes and if I were to inquire about one it the sellers responsible to say if it’s allowed or not. The cons listed here seem to be the same problems people have with reptiles. Fish would bring alot to the community. Alot of us “fish people” allready own reptiles anyways. We are a large group and would add alot to MorphMarket .

3 Likes

I personally wouldn’t use this for fish, and I have kept alsorts, and if we added fish, then why not mammals too? :sweat_smile:

I think if we add anything other than reptiles/amphibians etc then people would request to add dogs, cats,rabbits, hamsters etc because of all the types you get there and I mean it would only be fair no?

And to to me personally it would feel too much like preloved, Pets4Homes, freeads etc… And I know I wouldn’t use as much seeing all the fish or mammals on here.

This is my place to go to see all the reptile people and get away from everything else. Find the weirdos like me haha

RFUK has a fish etc if that’s what people want? I mean, I don’t use that unless tagged for cresties on the reptile side to help out, as it’s not the best for them, admins can be awful… And people against everything I swear and make you feel like :poop:
But the other half uses for koi so… apparently they’re nice and helpful :sweat_smile:

This is my online happy place :joy:

1 Like

I agree with everything you said but I feel like fish would be a good addition. I think MorphMarket should stay to reptile only but if anything changed I think there should be a new website domain identical to this one for fish. This likely isn’t reasonable now so I would say it’s best to keep it to reptiles only.

2 Likes

There are aquatics already being put in categories.
If placed under its own category I would think if you didn’t want to see it then you wouldn’t select it. They already have axolotls on the page. With the categories it gives you the option to look directly at what you want. If you don’t want to see turtles then don’t select it. And if it’s the forums your worried about, I’m sure there is a way to have fish information/ forums in a separate area to avoid mixing topics. As a weird reptile person as well. I can understand not mixing topics you don’t want to relate to or add to. But I happen to be a wierd reptile and fish person lol. I have 18 balls pythons, chameleons, dart frogs, and 30 some fish tanks. I kinda think of this as an exotic animal page. Kinda the non traditional pets. So I wouldn’t think cats and dogs belong on morph, So i agree with that. The limit of what’s put on morph is for morph to decide. Adding fish would help me out but I will admit its to make my selling easier so I have a selfish bias on the topic. Going to both aquatic and reptile shows both groups are about the same. Both have people that are passionate fun people that just like to spread the hobby. I’m sure there is a way to add fish that won’t change your experience on MorphMarket and keep it enjoyable for everyone.

5 Likes