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Trends & Products: The Aquatic Sector
Glenn Polyn //December 27, 2021//
Listen to this articleAQUATIC ACCESSORIES
The aquarium hobby is hotter than it’s been in recent memory, with captive-bred livestock and aquatic supplies in high demand. The aquatics category is a pet sector that retailers often find difficult to plan for and navigate. The complexity of the hobby itself, and the wide range of products needed to address every possible issue encountered in the course of fishkeeping, make it hard for retailers to support their aquatics customers.
According to Patricia Carr, category and insights leadership manager for Mars Fishcare North America , the retailer plays the role of veterinarian and educator, carrying responsibility for supporting and troubleshooting the fishkeeper from day one. She recommends that retailers invest in staff training and create simple take-home materials for fishkeeping customers, which ultimately will contribute to reducing attrition in aquatics.
Fishkeepers who are new to the hobby will be seeking help with everything from dietary needs to aquarium maintenance. Retailers who emphasize education to support novice hobbyists will likely also retain regular aquarists, resulting in a boost in revenue in the aquatic sales category.
Marineland Portrait Desktop Kit
This five-gallon glass aquarium features three-stage, hidden filtration with a Rite-Size Cartridge and Marineland Bio-Foam, and it has an adjustable flow filter pump. The aquarium kit also includes bright white and blue energy-efficient LED lights, so fishkeepers can change the lighting to their liking to mimic the underwater effect of sunlight or a moonlight glow.
API Freshwater Master Test Kit
The API Freshwater Master Test Kit measures the four most important levels in freshwater aquariums quickly and accurately, including pH, high range pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. With scientific accuracy for professional results, the reusable Freshwater Master Test Kit comes with four glass test tubes with snap-tight caps and a convenient holding tub for easy storage.
Aqueon Betta Puzzle
This red or blue puzzle piece-shaped kit is great for a single betta, or fish hobbyists can link multiple kits together to form a completed puzzle and house multiple bettas. To prevent bettas from seeing each other when the puzzle pieces are linked, each unit has frosted walls. Each kit comes with decorative gravel, a small plant, betta food and Betta Bowl Plus water conditioner.
Ultum Nature Systems DELTA Canister Filters
Built from sturdy, quality materials, Ultum Nature Systems DELTA canister filters deliver performance, reliability and longevity. With high flow rates, quiet operation, flexible media selection, easy setup and maintenance, DELTA is a powerful essential in the aquarist’s arsenal. DELTA leaves water pristine, providing an unmatched viewing experience.
Betta Worm Shaped Bites
Tetra Betta Worm Shaped Bites is a nutritionally complete worm-shaped food specifically tailored to the needs of bettas and other labyrinth fish. Designed to imitate the size, shape and color of natural bloodworms, the food floats on the water’s surface to appeal to bettas by enticing their natural instinct to hunt.
Fritz RPM Reef Elements
The Fritz RPM Calcium/Buffer System and Fritz RPM Magnesium allow aquarists to maintain a marine aquarium’s calcium, alkalinity and magnesium levels. Fritz RPM Reef Elements does not contain unmeasured and unnecessary ions and metals. Part 1 is formulated to provide the highest purity carbonate alkalinity, and when used in conjunction with Part 2 along with regular water changes with a high-quality salt-like Fritz RPM Salt, it provides the correct ionic balance necessary for healthy fish, corals and invertebrates.
Python Products
Python Products, including the Python HOOK, are proudly constructed using only the highest-quality American-made materials. The HOOK is a helping hand that attaches to Python’s No Spill Clean and Fill for easy and effortless tank refilling. Python products are free of BPA, arsenic and lead.
Brine Shrimp Eggs
Freshly hatched brine shrimp are an excellent food for baby fish, small fish and reef tanks. San Francisco Bay Brand has supplied brine shrimp eggs for the ornamental fish industry for over forty years. The jerky swimming motions of freshly hatched baby brine shrimp are known to trigger the feeding instinct of fish fry. Freshly hatched baby brine shrimp still contain their yolk sac and as such form a food rich in marine derived fatty acids
Coralife BioCube
With a sleek hood, the BioCube’s modern design comes with beautiful LED lighting that can be set white for the daytime or sparkling blue moon glows for the nighttime. Each aquarium is two inches taller than the original, so that owners can have a larger viewing area. The sturdy BioCube pedestal stands pair perfectly with the aquarium. With tinted acrylic panels and slim, black handles, the stand has built-in shelves for convenient storage of food, tools and equipment.
OASE biOrb TUBE
OASE biOrb TUBE aquariums feature a cylindrical-profile with a unique 360 degree view and are available with standard or multi-color remote controlled LED lighting. The TUBE is crafted with durable acrylic, resulting in increased visibility over typical glass aquariums. Available in either a stylish white or black trim, the TUBE comes in four- or nine-gallon capacities and features the patented, five-step biOrb filtration to ensure clear, healthy water and easy maintenance.
Bio-Lux
A bold, new approach to aquarium biological filtration for both freshwater and marine aquariums, Bio-Lux offers an ultra-porous ceramic bio media that incorporates ultra-efficient square and spiral structures, which increases bio-mass surface area by more than three times. Bio-Lux’s ultra-efficient porous feature allows for massive increases in nitrifying and denitrifying bacterial development. Its amazing increases in usable surface bio-mass area reduces necessary space needed for biological filtration up 75 percent. The mesh protector surrounding each piece of media increases its 3D spatial capacity for bacterial development.
Fish Feeder Frank
Fish Feeder Frank is a decorative fish feeder for your aquarium. Simply drop tubifex worms, black worms or algae wafers into the cage and snap on the lid. Drop the cage in the aquarium and watch your fish feed on it like sharks. The fisherman screws onto the side of most glass thicknesses and sits at the top of your aquarium. Great for rimless aquariums and small tanks, the Fish Feeder Frank is good for fish up to three inches.
PE MYSIS FLAKES
PE Flakes are a highly palatable, nutritionally complete fish food designed to enhance coloration and induce an energetic feeding response in a variety of fish. Offered in Saltwater, Freshwater, Cichlid and Goldfish formulations, they contain fresh PE Mysis for a rich and nutritionally complete diet.
CORAL FRAGGING KIT
This premium line is made with Japanese stainless steel, passivated and black-oxidized for superior durability in both fresh and salt water environments. It includes sharp point scissors, a tapered head coral cutter, a large SPS coral cutter, a coral knife with blade, and all-purpose tongs with an angled, rubber-coated head.
NEW VISION V20 FOODS
This marine fish food blend, which is coated with 100-percent pure Antarctic krill oil, is made of four different pellet foods and two flake foods. The flakes are “cold-processed” to provide live probiotics, and the food has essential nutrients and Omega 3 fatty acids. Some pieces float, some sink and some stay in the middle, ensuring all of the aquarium is fed.
LIFEGARD AQUASCAPING
Increase the beauty of an aquarium landscape with these unique style stones and rocks to look like miniature rock formations. These all-natural materials are available in an assortment of sizes and shapes to enhance aquascaping setups.
Paludarium 3-in-1 Lamp
Zoo Med’s Paludarium 3-in-1 Lamp creates a balanced lighting experience in your habitat that helps both plants and animals flourish. Unlike UVB bulbs, which are coated specially to emit UVA and UVB, this lamp has three unique coatings on each of its fluorescent tubes so it provides different beneficial wavelengths. The Paludarium 3-in-1 Lamp is especially good for planted paludariums with amphibians as it doesn’t add any heat, helps amphibian vision (with UVA) and keeps plants happy with proper wavelengths to aid their growth.
