Why DreamFish and not panda

So i was having a chat with Theo over email and i asked him why he changed from panda to dreamfish? Also brought up this question "have you ever spoken with anyone from bukit merah arowana or considered doing business with them?"

and theo suggested i post it on here since its a question people may also want to know the answer to. So here is the post.

This is a big question that is going to take me some time to answer, maybe over several days.

Firstly, some background on the arowana trade. Until about 2008-10, Singapore dominated the gold cross back market, with Malaysia playing a supporting role. Many Singapore farms built strong names for quality. While Indonesia dominated the trade in super reds (and still does to a degree), Singapore did a good job at producing more consistently high quality fish than Malaysia.

Of the Singapore farms, Panda had a good reputation. Mr.Kan, owner of Panda, was actually a pioneer in the industry, obtaining the second CITES license to breed the fish in Singapore (Rainbow farm was first). Mr. Kan built up a solid reputation for good quality fish. Along the way he mentored many people who would go on to manage or own other arowana farms, including Imperial, Max Koi Farm, Dreamfish, and Pang Long/Sing, to name a few. For a number of years I had a very good working relationship with Mr.Kan. It would be fair to say he taught me most of what I know about Asian arowana, and the aquarium trade in general. Unfortunately for me, however, Mr.Kan did not really embrace the internet retailing of the fish in a way that would guarantee success over time. What I mean is, when selling a high value fish over the internet like Asian arowana, customer satisfaction has to be the top priority. Unlike a fish showroom, buyers over the internet trust the owner of a farm to supply only top grade fish and to ensure that replacements are provided if a problem arises. I ended up having several instances where customers were not entirely happy with a certain fish, for reasons that may or may not have been fair (depending on your point of view). What I learned, however, was that in the internet arowana business, the customer is always right and the court is public opinion. As a result of a particular incident (see: http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=1460&highlight=panda+hondas3000 ) I ended up deciding to explore other import opportunities.

An Indonesian adventure

My customer satisfaction issues in Canada came at a time when new entrants to the Canadian aro retail market were popping up and competition was fierce. While some of these new entrants went "up market", as in providing what were claimed to be (and mostly were) high or very grade fish, I decided to take a gamble and import BBXB that were aggressively priced from CV Maju in Indonesia. This proved a mix success for me and led to good sales, but also more after sales complaint issues. I found that the quality of BBXB from Indonesia was irregular. Some customers literally hit the jack pot while others felt they did not get what was promised. The problem I had encountered again was quality control. It was lacking to some degree for BBXB. However, the super reds and RTG's from CV Maju were consistently amazing and I never received any complaints there.

Back to Singapore

A few years ago, I decided to approach Nic at Dreamfish about carrying his fish in Canada. He was reticent at first. Nic takes his reputation for top quality fish very very seriously and he was nervous about having me retail his fish over the internet in a public way using my group buy methods. I met Nic in 2008 (thanks to Mr. Kan who introduced us over lunch: http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=3993 ) and Mr.Kan joked (or not really joked, foresaw perhaps?) when he told me to one day import fish from Nic. Thus, I had always had Nic in mind as someone I wanted to import from, but it felt awkward to do so when I had a relationship with a mutual connection. With my "Indonesian BBXB adventure" behind me, and with the passage of time between moving on from Panda, for me it felt right to join forces with Dreamfish. For Nic, I think a compelling factor was my success at using the internet to sell high end fish, my commitment to customer satisfaction, and my honesty. At least that is what I like to think, because for me those are the same reason I want to deal with Nic and his Dreamfish farm. And of course, his fish are consistently amazing!

A final point that may have contributed to Nic allowing me to be his Canadian agent was the entry in a major major way of the Malaysian farms to the global market. More on this issue tomorrow...

Okay, so to continue...a few years ago Malaysian aro farms really came on strong with a huge amount of Asian arowana production. Starting around 2008, a number of farms invested heavily in new production anywhere in Malaysia that they could, but especially at Bukit Merah. When I passed by that lake in 2008 I saw so many aro ponds under construction, it was incredible. I remember thinking to myself, "Wow, in four years when those aros get to breeding age there is going to be a flood of fish on the market." Fast forward four years and that is what happened. However, similar to the situation in Indonesia with BBXB or XB and quality control, many of the new farms in Malaysia have problems. I have heard of this first hand as well as seen it on the internet when looking at photos/videos of some of these Malaysian fish. I get contacted by farms every so often, including Malaysian ones. One of these Malaysian farms ended up becoming a sponsor on this forum and I put them in direct contact with someone in eastern Canada I thought might be interested in importing from them. It seemed to work out for a while, but from what I could see the quality was inconsistent. There has not been any imports from that company to Canada for over a year I believe.

In conclusion, though I have not imported from "Bukit Merah" I currently have no need to. Nic and Dreamfish provide amazing quality fish at competitive prices. Customers are able to get one to one help in selecting high grade fish and often get to choose from videos. In the last couple years of importing from Dreamfish I have had zero complaints. That is very impressive I think and explains why more than anything I do not risk importing from any of the "new" Malaysian farms that are still (in my opinion) working out their business model.

Great read on your aro adventures Theo.