Fins & Greens Aquatics will be disposing quite a number of our tanks (we have at least 40+ including those partitioned ones) and although in good condition, we couldn't possibly ask for any money and we'd be giving them away on a first come first serve basis (no booking tanks online, once we've decided which tanks to give away we will set a date and whoever turns up on the day first with own transport to take home the tanks wins).

HOWEVER, although I do run several businesses I'm also involved in charity primarily Pertubuhan Kebajikan Rumah Anak Yatim Mak Teh which is an all girls orphanage we've named in memory of my late grandmother. We've been operating for the past 20 years therefore for those who manage to take home anything free, what harm would it be to bank-in a nominal sum to help us in running the day to day operations? It's a privately funded institution meaning everything is borne by our family so an RM10 here or an RM50 there multiplied by many donors does go a long way.

Secondly, we will be clearing all our planted tank stock such as CO2 regulators, etc and this will be in conjunction with the great give away to happen by month's end. Discounts will pretty much be as low as actual cost price as we're changing our business model and planted tanks have no place in our future going forward.

Hope you all take note, continue to support us and will update once we've identified free tanks, stands, discounted products and date on which all of the above is to take place.

Hahah bro not giving away ALL the tanks lah especially not the main tank. Not unless we get a 10ft to replace it.

Please be forewarned the tanks have an outlet drilled on the back of them at the top left hand corner (if you're facing the tank). There are also a few stands, some old cannister filters someone could attempt to get working again if they were so inclined. Really have to go through the storeroom and clear out.

We're also trying to empty out the existing stock so its easier to move things around with empty tanks and get new racks in etc. Pretty much everything is on sale - except for my corn snake that is.

There really isn't much livestock or any stock to be perfectly honest. The reason why we're getting rid of tanks is to allow for renovations and let's face it - the lesser the number of tanks the easier to work around.

Plus going forward, there has to be changes as there are certain sectors of the market that are too crowded and that pushes down margins, etc. From a business standpoint, the shop needs a makeover to keep up with the times - the reality is that LFS are going bankrupt by the thousands worldwide and even locally some have decided to call it a day.

Its not enough to simply sell fishes, aquariums and accessories. Definitely not with current trends in pet keeping. Currently, the first step is to make the shop more attractive, stock-up on moveable inventory and restore cash flow. The shop is recovering financially from mismanagement and misappropriation of funds. New management is needed unfortunately as I've left the problems fester for too long - my fault for placing trust in the wrong hands but no use crying over spilt milk.

Anyway, only time will tell if the shop can be turned around and take the industry by storm or whether its best to call it a day because God knows I have enough companies to worry about and this is by far the one that gives me the most headache yet nothing to show for it.

I have withdrawn from Fins & Greens Aquatics as of Friday (11 May 2012) in the form of a Dissolution of Partnership Agreement followed by a submission to SSM under the Registration of Business Act 1956. It was a difficult decision to make however I must follow the path that makes the most sense financially because as an investment, Fins & Greens was not working out for all the wrong reasons.

Having started off in investment banking and moved onto owning stakes in several businesses some of which I still own and some which I have just bought into, I know the ups and downs of business. I do not mind losing money if the rest of the market is in a recession nor do I mind if the business is unprofitable due to a bad business model for example if I were selling purple unicorns that can fly or something ridiculous (extreme example I know).

But in both of the above, one factor which is the economy I can only do so much - watch costs like a hawk, stock cheap fish but keep up cash flow and focus less on expensive, hard to move inventory not to mention taking home less as everyone would need to make sacrifices. In the second example, I'd have deserved to go bankrupt for even contemplating the sale of purple unicorns for which there is no demand not to mention the fact they do not exist. Therefore it would be entirely my fault that the business lost money and I don't mind absorbing the losses, learning my lesson and moving on.

However, I cannot tolerate leakages especially financial leakages in any business regardless of how significant the amount (by this I mean CBT) and I won't stand for mismanagement and failure to follow what has been clearly outlined as being the roles and responsibilities of the respective people working at Fins & Greens.

Having the benefit of having access to a security company due to my position there in charge of group strategy/new business development, I've placed Fins & Greens under surveillance which the company is licensed to do so by Kementerian Dalam Negeri. In fact, my father also has a security firm with the same licenses however I have never bothered him nor do I depend on him (plus the company I'm with specialize in corporate espionage, surveillance, bugging, etc since most of the employees are from Kor Risikan Di-Raja (Military Intelligence) unlike my father's which I have no idea what their main business is - I suppose its normal security for buildings, cash in transit etc.

Well, back on track - having collected a folder's worth of evidence the partners sat down to discuss on what is the best plan of attack and I frankly admit that the business isn't for me because:

(a) Honestly speaking I'm an end-user therefore I do not possess the contacts in the industry to go it alone; my network exists in an entirely different arena so it is there where I am of most use.

(b) I know a lot of nasty people who do very nasty things; name the crime I know very, very serious people who commit these crimes and continue to do so however of all the criminals the only ones I do not know are thieves. With that in mind, I cannot continue in a business whereby things go missing and there is not trust anymore.

Fortunately, my partner Jason Pang Chee Ming has offered to buy out my stake in the business as he not only has the contacts but also the ability to turn things around. Perhaps financial management may not be his forte but anything to do with fishes, its definitely his area of expertise to which I must bow down to his knowledge.

Although I still do lose some money, there's no shame as even the world's best investors do lose money from time to time and I'm just a young, wet behind the ears entrepreneur who is trying to make it through life. Plus, cutting losses now is always better than having to throw in good money after bad.

Therefore, I don't know what Jason Pang has up his sleeve but I do not doubt he's ability - perhaps he knows something I don't. Either way, business is business and its never personal so I wish him all the best and I do hope everyone here continues to support F&G.

I may not own part of a shop, but I still own monsters and I will be adding to them as time goes on hopefully. Look forward to many more years of seeing this particular niche of the hobby expand.

Regards,
Razlan

Before I answer the queries above, could anyone who has ever purchased anything online from Fins & Greens and banked in money to an account other than the one maintained at CIMB please come forward via PM. I just want to tally the amount of money lost due to unreported sales (meaning I already know, but I'm a double, triple check kind of person).

I know for a fact some of you here have done so previously and I hope you could help me and my legal team complete the records for our own safekeeping. Although what happened resulted in a crime being committed you are in no way responsible because as far as you were concerned it was a straight-forward sale done based on good faith.

And with that I personally will say that no action whatsoever will be taken against you nor are there any grudges etc. As far as I'm concerned, this episode's ending is long overdue and we're just finishing up our paperwork to keep as records. Note: never will you get into trouble for this in the future (take a screenshot of my post and keep it as evidence if you're worried) so please do PM me with the details and I'll strike it off the list as verified, etc to add to the running total of misappropriated funds.

As mentioned above, I do not know the immediate plans for the business.

Really no idea. But the trend of LFS going out of business locally and worldwide has nothing to do with F&G which if there was no mismanagement, is actually very much viable and can sustain itself with reasonable cashflow - its not something I'd personally depend on for primary income but it can definitely cover overhead, salaries and have enough money to roll onto following months.

Relax, no need to get worked up - its a legitimate question and one that deserves an answer.
But what Arawin said is very true. I have no idea what the owner is going to do with the business.

And I hope everyone here continues to do so. Jason knows his fishes, that I'll gladly testify.

Well, it was funded entirely by me until recently. In fact I came on board at time when the business was virtually insolvent. Now its time to move on to other things.

It's actually Durso and they are pretty easy to make (if I could manage, then anyone and I mean ANYONE can) and I pretty much used Google to first understand what it was which was basically a way of silencing your overflow pipe leading to the sump then I went on YouTube to see what difference it made (hell of an invention!) and also how to make one which pretty much involves extending the PVC pipe from the bulkhead upwards until about where the overflow from the aquarium flows into the overflow compartment and then making inserting a T-piece with a downward pointing 90deg bend on the end of the T-piece and the PVC was topped off with a cap which you'd need to drill or else the Durso system wouldn't work.

Hmm.. it sounds ridiculous now that I've typed it out. You're better off trying YouTube seriously but its DURSO and was originally used by the marine tank crowd.

Had both. The paddlefish issue has been discussed in depth and conclusion is that nobody can or has bred them to full size locally and managed its upkeep successfully mainly due to the nature of its diet and how it feeds which is continuously all day and is a filter feeder really not unlike a whale.

What are the dimensions and thickness? Mind sharing how much it cost? With or without stand>

I realize this is short notice but tomorrow all tanks of various sizes are to be given away for free on a first come first served basis, no strings attached - take as many as you please so long as you can transport it home there and then as the premises will be vacated by the end of the day. If you're up for some freebies, head down later (Tuesday 5 June) to:

Fins & Greens Aquatics
18 Medan Hujan Rahmat
Overseas Union Garden
58200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 016-2227772 (Jason Pang/ggming)

From what I know, as of today the landlord has taken back premises since Jason gave notice not long after I left Fins & Greens. Hopefully he's moving into bigger premises or perhaps he's focusing on selling online (one of the companies in which I have a stake does purely online and with such low overhead we made back our investment and started profiting after six months and now we've gone international so its a business model that works so well its a no brainer). Actually, I do hope he's decided to do purely online come to think of it.

Anyway, sorry for going off topic. The thing is, most of the tanks in the shop were mine and I could have taken them all in fact I had a three tonne truck come by but on second thought the value of the tanks vs. the cost of keeping them in our storage spaces indefinitely with no plans of venturing into fishes as a business was not worth it. I had in fact told Jason to keep them for himself but he told me he was shifting out hence the giveaway. I suppose some people who read my FB posting could have gone and taken some while the rest probably left out on the kerb by the landlord.

I guess not many people have my FB, I had posted the offer there much, much earlier. Nevermind, we can still be friends LOL

[PIMPIN]'s Facebook - Razlan Radzi

Hey bro,

Our last PM exchange was you offering to sell me seven fishes for RM400, two of which were RTCs valued by an LFS at RM150 however the two RTCs have unfortunately perished leaving you with 5 fishes. I'd rather not take the toman bunga so that leaves us with two Gator Gars just over 1.5ft each and two Spotted Gars the size of which is?

I don't want to low ball you or anything but four Gars brings me to a total of eight gars and one lonely Arapaima and that amounts to a hefty food bill. I'm all for monster fishes but really I'm going to spend the next decade or two perhaps feeding these ever growing monsters. Also, to be honest the Spotted Gars will realistically stay that size while the rest will easily go past the 5 foot mark and I don't know how that will turn out for the two Spotted Gars.

I can offer to house your two Alligator Gars for life but that's about all I can do for you - I intend to add more Arapaima, perhaps another two so that will give me six Gars and three Arapaima or to round it up make that four Arapaima. All in all, I'd be spending tens of thousands for a considerable length of time. So I will offer to rescue the two Alligator Gars and house them in an area fit for their considerable size and provide them with the best food, awesome water quality and excellent care by my workers for the rest of their natural life. That really is the best I can offer you.

Wonder if there are any Arapaimas still available despite the fact they're not allowed.

Hmm..

Err don't fancy driving an hour just to buy a fish :S