Closing in on 11th anniversary, The Jungle Pet Shop continues to serve Craig's exotic pet and plant needs - Craig Daily Press
Closing in on 11th anniversary, The Jungle Pet Shop continues to serve Craig's exotic pet and plant needs - Craig Daily Press |
| Posted: 26 Feb 2021 03:30 PM PST Craig might seem an unusual spot to find an exotic pet shop. Fortunately for Clint and Leonna Gabbert, the owners of The Jungle Pet Shop in Craig, that changed 11 years ago. With a little bit of creativity and a desire to switch things up, the Gabberts created a first in Western Colorado with the shop. Closing in on its 11th anniversary, which coincides with Clint Gabbert's birthday March 4, The Jungle Pet Shop — located at 29 W. Victory Way — sells many non-traditional pets such as parakeets, mice, geckos and various types of exotic fish, which lines the walls with tanks of fish from all over the world. "Our most popular pets I'd say are our aquariums and beta fish and then leopard geckos and crusted geckos and bearded dragons," Gabbert said. Though his product is very specific to a burgeoning market, Gabbert — like nearly every business owner — had to adjust on the fly in 2020 to stay afloat due to the pandemic, which caused significant supply chain issues. Fortunately for him, he was able to make the adjustment appear seamless, incorporating exotic house plants and specially-made orders of animals for customers. "We started carrying house plants during this whole thing because of supply chain issues; we could've probably had our best year ever. But there was a good six months where we couldn't get any inventory and that really hurt us. We were really out of stuff and barely getting by for two months," Gabbert said. The store sells exotic plants that are rare to find in places in Colorado, unless you're inside The Jungle Pet Shop. "Just tropical plants. Stuff you can't find in a grocery store. More exotic tropicals," Gabbert added. Despite the challenges with the supply chain and the inability to stay stocked on products, the store has seen an increase in sales, largely due to people who were stuck at home wanting to do something. That has been the case with both animals and plants for Gabbert and The Jungle Pet Shop. "The whole pet industry has been overwhelmed through COVID, because everyone is stuck at home and that's a good time to get a pet or an aquarium to work on while you're quarantined or just working from home," Gabbert said. At its core though, The Jungle Pet Shop is a pet store, providing customers with the opportunity in northwest Colorado to purchase exotic animals they can't find anywhere else on the Western Slope. Knowing that, Gabbert has to put in long hours just to make sure he receives his inventory. When Gabbert gets a new supply of fish from his suppliers, he has a long day as the fish arrive early in the morning at Denver International Airport fresh off of a Southwest Airlines flight. From there, Gabbert makes the trip back to Craig as quickly as possible to get the fish into tanks at the shop. "They are flown in to Los Angeles and they put new oxygen and water in the bags if it's necessary, and then flown directly to me in Denver," Gabbert said. "The fish fly in at four in the morning on a Monday and I don't like to have the fish sitting for four hours or five hours. They've already been in the bag for two days, they need to get to a tank as quickly as possible." With the amount of travel involved for the fish, shipping costs for Gabbert to get tropical fish has skyrocketed as a result of the pandemic due the travel costs associated with bringing them from places around the world to his store. "The shipping cost has gone way up. Not necessarily the price of the fish but the cost to get them here, which trickles down to the retail price….I'm having to predict orders for four months ahead of time and it's really difficult to predict what I need four months ahead of time," Gabbert said. "I mean I'm ordering for June right now and hoping that it comes." The store is hoping that the supply chain issues clear up in the near future and that they can continue to get local residents the animals and products to support those animals that they need. In the mean time, the Gabberts are looking forward to celebrating their 11th anniversary as business owners in downtown Craig. moneill@craigdailypress.com |
| Finny business: 'Fish nerd' opening store in Greenbank - South Whidbey Record Posted: 26 Feb 2021 03:00 PM PST A self-described "fish nerd" is sharing his lifelong hobby with the community by opening a new store dedicated to aquarium fish and aquascapes. Freeland resident Jason Blair is one of the newest tenants at the Greenbank Farm. His business, Red Fish Blue Fish, will be open this spring. Fans of the finned creatures can find tanks teeming with nano species of freshwater fish. Blair said he chose to focus on the small fry because they can be kept in smaller tanks compared to bigger species, which are starting to fall out of style. "It's very difficult to carve out room for a 125-gallon aquarium, or even worse, a 250-gallon aquarium," Blair said. "With living space constraints, a lot of people find it more appropriate for a 10-gallon or a 20-gallon tank." His store is home to some uncommon fish, most of which are imported from Europe. Fish imported from other places, such as Asia, may not be as healthy, a lesson Blair learned when he worked at a pet store earlier in his life. "I learned back then if you're looking for quality in the tropical fish that you're getting, don't look at Asia because they specialize in producing a whole lot for a very good price," Blair said. "But in order to sell fish at that very low price, they can't spend money on quality control." Another unique feature of Blair's store will be a wall featuring aquascapes, underwater creations made of plants that can mimic real landscapes. "It's basically just a high-tech, heavily planted aquarium where more attention is paid to the overall chi, the overall aesthetic," Blair said. "It's really a way of putting together a piece of living art." Dog walkers from the nearby off-leash park will be able to take a seat on a row of low sofas and observe guppies, minnows, killifish and other small species swimming around in the soothing, natural environments of the aquascapes. Blair is hopeful he will be able to interest fellow fish keepers in the aquascapes. The mini-ecosystems are a sustainable alternative to tossing some gravel into an aquarium. "A truly balanced, planted aquarium, the fish waste is going to be cycled up into plant nutrition," he explained. "The plant nutrition is taken in and converted into energy by the food and also light is taken in by the plant, and there's your oxygen." Red Fish Blue Fish is a first-time business venture for Blair, who had been waiting for the right time over the past decade to open a fish store. Setting up shop during a pandemic may not have been that ideal time, but it was a challenge he was willing to overcome. Many of the shelves in his store he had to build himself. "I knew that it was going to be pretty insane when I looked at availability of things," Blair said. "I started trying to order things and I realized really quickly, 'Wow, I am going to have to build everything by hand.' And that's exactly what I did." Constraints on the supply chain affected simple items such as filters for the tanks. Plastic manufacturers, he said, have been focusing their efforts on making personal protective equipment. As a result, some parts he has ordered have taken longer than normal to arrive. Although his store is not currently open to the public just yet, fish are available for purchase on his website, redfishbluefish.shop.
Photo by Kira Erickson/South Whidbey Record Longfin panda cory catfish swims around a tank in the store. |
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