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Focus on...The Fish House

Tropical Marine Centre is the UK's only specialist importer and wholesaler of marine fish and invertebrates and has supplied the UK and European aquatic industry for the last 27 years. The fish house is very much the "heart" of the Company, and has been purpose built, using our knowledge and expertise, to meet the most stringent standards of hygiene and welfare.

The Facility

The fish house has two state of the art recirculation systems, holding approximately 150,000 litres of Tropic Marin synthetic seawater and incorporating 3 very large scale protein skimmers, a commercial size UV system, and a high quality mechanical and biological filtration system.

The Philosophy

During our 27 years of operation, our marine experts have travelled the World to source the best quality livestock available, doing everything possible to ensure that we are only supplied with hand caught fish (and not those which are collected with the use of chemicals). We have 33 selected suppliers around the World, all of whom comply with our rigorous welfare and environmental standards, and we have even supplied many of these with quality holding systems to condition the fish before they are shipped to us.

"Highest standards of care ensure fish leave our facility in peak condition"

By combining hi-tech equipment and stringent work disciplines we ensure our livestock is kept in peak condition before being supplied to our customers. Although we typically have between 15 and 20 shipments coming into our facility each week, all livestock is carefully acclimatised in a special unpacking area and then transferred into individual holding aquariums.

Another very important part of our acclimatisation process is to introduce our fish to Gamma Frozen Foods from the moment that they arrive so they are able to recognise this type of food by the time they reach the shop floor.

A Dedicated Team

We have a hardworking and dedicated team of 15 full and part time staff working in the fish house, including Stewart Elsam who overseas the whole operation from staffing to logistics, Kishor Patel who is in charge of quality control and the overall welfare of the livestock, and Neil Thompson who is very much in a "hands on" role, meeting and advising customers, and inspecting and packing fish ready for shipment. Derek Thomson heads up our livestock procurement operation and works closely with our overseas suppliers to ensure the very highest standards are met.