Welcome to...the Coral Jungle.

Scott Fellman

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Well, here we are.

New year, new situation. New forum!

Told ya' I wouldn't stay away. Not for long, anyways.

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Just 'cause I sold my ownership share in UC doesn't mean that I've left the reef world, the hobby, or the culture. I didn't move to the mountains to become a monk or go on some long soul searching journey.

Nope.

I'm right here. Where I've always been.

So I guess we can start with the question I've been getting for the last couple of weeks:

"Why?"
"What made you leave Unique Corals?"

Honestly, if you're looking for some drama; some dirt- some rumor or something, you'll be profoundly disappointed. Joe and I didn't have any knock down drag out fights, culminating in me saying, "I'm outta here!"

Unique Corals is not in some precarious position. Nope. No you-know-what- is lurking, about to hit that proverbial fan.

UC is kind of cranking. When I departed, I can honestly say that we were at the top of our game. We had a loyal following of ravenous coral fans, a well-trained staff, customer service that's second to none, and corals that were looking amazing!

And believe me, they still are. UC is still on that positive upwards trajectory. All systems go. Lots of new stuff.

"So really- why? You had the dream career. Every reefer wanted what you just...walked away from. How could you just...leave?"


It was a lot easier than you might imagine. I felt...content.

Yeah. I think we accomplished a lot of what I hoped to accomplish when we relaunched UC back in 2012. We followed a direction- a manifesto, a lot of people called it- to do things a bit differently. We really wanted to push "conscientious/sustainable/responsible" as our mission and mantra.

And I think we did. We walked the walk as good as we could.

I dreamed of creating a community of like-minded reefers; catering to the needs and wants of people who "get it"- and I think we did that.

We wanted to create a brand that was respected as both an honest, high quality supplier of corals, as well as a "clearing house" for progressive reef keeping thought and ideas. A destination for reefers worldwide. A place to come and learn and share- and belong.

I think we achieved that. Sure, in the end, it was more about people than anything else to me. The "almighty buck" was never as important as relationships. We instilled that into our team. Our customer service was- and still is- based on the belief that you treat fellow reefers how you'd want to be treated. Not a novel concept, but one that required dedication to customer service and a belief in what we were doing.

It worked. It still works. Joe, Donna, Dave, Mel, and the rest of the crew at UC get it. All of you that continue to order corals from UC get it.

So...?

I had a nagging interest since I was a kid in freshwater; and a fanatical obsession with marketing to a different crowd, playing with aesthetics and biotopes and all the crazy cool stuff that I've done in reefs- only with freshwater...I've injected this same conceptual thinking into my new venture, Tannin Aquatics. It's been an amazing ride so far- totally different, and amazingly enjoyable! And what's really cool is that I'm like totally unknown to the FW crowd, save a few reef-crossover hobbyists (actually, quite a few, lol). Super cool to start from scratch.

But we're not here to talk about Tannin. You can check the site and get a feel for it if you want, but this is a reef zone here!

Yeah, I'm still biased towards UC. It would be impossible not to be. Regardless, I'm biased towards the reef keeping hobby and "culture" even more.

I have a lot to say. I want to continue to foster discussion and learning, and integration. In a sense, it will be easier now, since everything I say will not deflect back to my company. The skin in the game is my own, not my company's, so I can really speak my mind!

Yikes!

There's a lot to talk about. A lot of things are great in the reef keeping world.

And there is a lot of darkness, IMHO.

Like, I'm completely disgusted with the whole coral auction Facebook thing. It's just my opinion, but I think..It's ridiculous (this coming from a guy who sells "twigs and nuts", as one reefer friend eloquently put it, instead of corals). I think it's ridiculous because it eats away at what I feel is the best part of the hobby...

Sharing. Learning. Discussing. Obsessing.

Sure, a lot of people tell me to lighten up and get over it. Yeah, I suppose I will, at some point. But right now, I've just had enough of watching microchips of common Acropora tenuis variants that can be had for $15-$20 for a maricultured colony being given stupid names and hyped to death at hundreds of dollars. I WAS actually a bit sick of people coming to UC and pointing at a "generic" Acropora colony and telling me that this was the "^%*&%^%^&*" from "______ Corals."

That made me want to puke...pretty regularly.

But you know that. It's one of the things we'll continue to address in my forum: Absurdity. Absurdity at the expense of destroying the culture of pure enjoyment in the interest of some weird hype-driven ride into mediocrity.

Everyone has a different opinion, and that's cool. Reef culture is in constant flux, and that's great. Absolutely cool.

We'll also talk about ideas. Yeah, stuff. And coral and fish, of course. Like, enjoying coral and what makes it tick. We can address the business of coral. We can talk about setting up systems, husbandry philosophies, and equipment. Aquascapes. We can get your feedback about new gear you've tried. We will ask some pointed questions about all sorts of topics.

Hopefully, we'll get some really good discussions going...Some interesting, stimulating discussions.

Maybe we'll have a contest or two..Yeah. I have a few industry peeps who can hook us up with some prizes...

We'll grow
together.

And we'll laugh. We'll laugh at how serious we take some stuff. We'll laugh at our screw-ups, share our successes, and we'll be honest and...okay.

This is a safe place. A fun place. A place where every reefer belongs.

Welcome to the Coral Jungle.

I'm Scott Fellman. I'll be your guide.

Stay open-minded. Stay creative. Stay humorous...

And stay wet.





 
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bmeudy

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Wow. Congrats Scott. Glad I got to stop by a couple years ago and hang out for a couple hours. You made UC the top choice for me and my friends. Good luck on your new ride at Tannin!
 
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Scott Fellman

Scott Fellman

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Wow. Congrats Scott. Glad I got to stop by a couple years ago and hang out for a couple hours. You made UC the top choice for me and my friends. Good luck on your new ride at Tannin!
Thanks very much! Having a lot of fun with the new company, and enjoying the opportunity to continue to connect with R2R members here in this forum!
 

reeffirstaid

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One thing that is influencing the hobby (good, bad or otherwise) is immediate knee jerk reaction to questioning a specific vendor, manufacturer, etc. Anyone who reads consumer reports (not just the magazines, but in general) notices a candor opinion expressed about a product, whether the manufacturer met their goals, a price/value ratio and how legitimate the advertising is. This is common in almost all areas of consumerism, except reef keeping. An example was a post I placed on a Facebook reef keeping group, questioning the goals behind an advertising video for aquarium lights. I then questioned the price of the lights, along with the intent of the video. Reef keepers were responding, people agreed and wanted to discuss it. Before I could even reply with some actual information and statistics, the thread was removed. How can a community of reef keepers grow, expand and gain knowledge - if any potential discussion is squashed because it may mentioned a vendor name - or it might offend a company? How can we make good decisions if we can't openly discuss the legality and ethics of practices taking place in the trade, and touch on their far reaching consequences? Every forum seems to operate much the same, in defending the companies paying the bills, without any open discussion as to the wrong-the right-or the otherwise. I imagine for many new reef keepers, the real jungle is being smashed with a sensory overload of products, and trying to get candid, realistic information on what is needed, what's not, how they perform - and trying to weed through the ethical and legal boundaries that come with keeping endangered animals in captivity.
 
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Scott Fellman

Scott Fellman

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One thing that is influencing the hobby (good, bad or otherwise) is immediate knee jerk reaction to questioning a specific vendor, manufacturer, etc. Anyone who reads consumer reports (not just the magazines, but in general) notices a candor opinion expressed about a product, whether the manufacturer met their goals, a price/value ratio and how legitimate the advertising is. This is common in almost all areas of consumerism, except reef keeping. An example was a post I placed on a Facebook reef keeping group, questioning the goals behind an advertising video for aquarium lights. I then questioned the price of the lights, along with the intent of the video. Reef keepers were responding, people agreed and wanted to discuss it. Before I could even reply with some actual information and statistics, the thread was removed. How can a community of reef keepers grow, expand and gain knowledge - if any potential discussion is squashed because it may mentioned a vendor name - or it might offend a company? How can we make good decisions if we can't openly discuss the legality and ethics of practices taking place in the trade, and touch on their far reaching consequences? Every forum seems to operate much the same, in defending the companies paying the bills, without any open discussion as to the wrong-the right-or the otherwise. I imagine for many new reef keepers, the real jungle is being smashed with a sensory overload of products, and trying to get candid, realistic information on what is needed, what's not, how they perform - and trying to weed through the ethical and legal boundaries that come with keeping endangered animals in captivity.

Very well stated! I think that we have every right to question anything, as long as we are not damaging another party intentionally, or misrepresenting facts. The problem is, no one- well- I should say- few- people within the industry take the opportunity to question stuff. I can't tell you how many times over the past couple of years, when posting a topic on the UC forum, some vendor would PM me telling me to get off my high horse, or to be careful, because I was making the industry "look bad." I mean, really nonsensical stuff!

I believe there are enough intelligent, cool-headed people within the hobby and industry that it is possible to have an open dialogue about stuff without the spectre of threats, legal action, etc. when discussing things in an open, honest manner.

I hope my beliefs are correct!

-Scott
 

HAVE YOU EVER KEPT A RARE/UNCOMMON FISH, CORAL, OR INVERT? SHOW IT OFF IN THE THREAD!

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%
  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%
  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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