Local Fishes

Florida Keys fish collected locally and held in our system until they are eating prepared food. Local collection means a short trip instead of an overseas route through two or three holding facilities, and the difference shows in how they settle in. Stock changes with what is running and what the weather allows us to get to.
What a short trip actually buys you. An imported marine fish typically goes collector, exporter, importer, wholesaler, then store — often two to three weeks with a starvation period at each stop. Every one of those transfers is a chance to pick something up and a stretch of time not eating. A Keys fish is in our system within hours of collection, and stays until it is visibly eating prepared food.
They are also built for your tank. Florida fish come out of water that runs the same temperature range most reef tanks are kept at, so there is no adaptation to a different thermal regime on top of everything else a new fish is dealing with.
Quarantine them anyway. Local collection lowers the risk; it does not remove it. Four weeks in a bare-bottom tank with a sponge filter costs almost nothing next to a display full of coral.
What we can collect depends on season, weather and what the state license allows — the list here is what is actually in the system now, not a catalog. More on how we collect is on the Florida Keys marine life page.