About ETF Wholesale
Fish, shrimp, plants, tanks, water chemistry — if it’s aquatic, I’ve spent years obsessing over it. This business didn’t start in spreadsheets or boardrooms. It started with wet hands, fish rooms, and real tanks.
Before ETF Wholesale ever existed, I owned a pet shop outside the UK and was already importing fish. The UK business began online, selling and importing aquatic products through an online store but also via platforms such as eBay, while gradually starting to supply other aquatic shops and visiting them personally. Over time, the business expanded to include a full bricks-and-mortar aquatic shop, which after more than two years was replaced with a larger property.
Like most independent shop owners, the goal was simple:
sell healthier fish, offer more interesting stock, and avoid repeating the same lists everyone else in the UK was selling.
That’s where the problem started.
Buying from big distributors usually meant:
- The same fish as every other shop
- Stock that had passed through too many hands
- Fish chosen for volume, not condition
So I did what most shop owners want to do but rarely can — I started importing directly.
At first, it worked brilliantly.
The fish were better. The choice was better. The condition was better.
Then reality kicked in.
Most overseas suppliers don’t want to sell “a bit”. They want large minimum orders — far more than a single shop can realistically sell before tanks fill up and cash gets tight. I didn’t want to lower standards or go back to average stock, and I knew other shop owners were facing exactly the same frustration.
That’s how ETF Wholesale happened — naturally.
Instead of importing for just one shop, I began organising and reselling imported fish through consolidated import orders shared with other retailers. This way:
- Suppliers’ minimums were met
- Shops gained access to better fish
- Stock stayed interesting and different
- Everyone avoided mass-market quality
ETF Wholesale is literally run by a shop owner, for shop owners.
Not by an unreachable manager hidden behind layers of salespeople, and not by someone who’s never had wet sleeves, algae on their hands, or a tank full of fish that should have sold by now.
This is a small, independent business, and that’s intentional. It means I care about every customer and every order — because I’m running the same kind of business you are. You’re not an account number, and your order isn’t “just another box”.
I understand:
- What it’s like when tanks are full and sales are slow
- How frustrating “average” fish can be
- Why condition matters more than saving a few pence
- How tiring it is when everyone has the same stock
Supplier and farm selection is based on quality first. Wherever possible, fish are sourced directly from farms, and where stock is wild-caught, the supply chain is kept as short as possible — less handling, less repacking, less stress.
In many cases, fish remain packed by the exporter or farm, with no UK middleman handling them. Stock can be collected directly from the arrival airport, from our Colwyn Bay (North Wales) premises, or delivered by agreement.
Most imports arrive monthly, with a minimum order of one box.
And because I’m always looking for ways to make shop life easier and selling simpler, I took things one step further and built another tool for retailers.
That’s AquaBay — an eBay-style platform created specifically for the aquatic trade, where shops can list and sell their stock online.
The idea is simple:
help shops sell more, reach new customers, and make better use of the stock they already have — using a platform built by someone who understands aquatic retail from the inside.
It’s just another way ETF Wholesale supports shop owners, not only with better fish, but with better tools.
ETF Wholesale exists for one reason:
to help aquatic shops get better fish, more variety, and healthier stock — from someone who genuinely understands what it’s like to run an aquatic business, because I’m doing it too.