Expo in August.

i will definitely be at this one

So, I took the 250km drive to the expo today, met up with Ross and got my H.gigas 8-9 cm and a nice 4 cm chaco from him at very fair price. If it wasn't for the T's I got from Ross, my trip would have been a total loss. Very disappointing display of far too few exhibitors. Some were nicely set up, but very unorganized - having no list of what was available and some names written illegibly on unidentifiable containers.

One exhibit - Tarantulas 4 you - was well set up, with sales list and size and price description. Good range of paraphernalia and interesting hobby accessory's. Feeder insects consisted of crickets and meal worms. Would have been nice to have more variety. Sadly a R40 entrance fee is really not worth the effort to see little more than any good pet-shop has on free exhibit.

I will definitely not go to the September expo, where exhibitors are limited to 2 per type. :blush:

Deon wrote: So, I took the 250km drive to the expo today, met up with Ross and got my H.gigas 8-9 cm and a nice 4 cm chaco from him at very fair price. If it wasn't for the T's I got from Ross, my trip would have been a total loss. Very disappointing display of far too few exhibitors. Some were nicely set up, but very unorganized - having no list of what was available and some names written illegibly on unidentifiable containers.

One exhibit - Tarantulas 4 you - was well set up, with sales list and size and price description. Good range of paraphernalia and interesting hobby accessory's. Feeder insects consisted of crickets and meal worms. Would have been nice to have more variety. Sadly a R40 entrance fee is really not worth the effort to see little more than any good pet-shop has on free exhibit.

I will definitely not go to the September expo, where exhibitors are limited to 2 per type. :blush:

Location location location, first time, not doing enough leg work, and started off with negative comments and thoughts from the start, like the comments about the vet check, losing of the tags so on and so forth.


I kind of feel sorry for The Royal Pretoria Reptile Expo, it takes time, effort and money to arrange such events.
The organiser will have to think long and hard if he wants to so again, with plenty changes this time.
Maybe to ask the public what they thought and what he can do better.


September expo
Then, you can't lump Expo's in the same category, every Expo has and is run differently and success is of a different nature.

The Expo in September is organized by Arno Naude & Hiedi, So far They run SOS and the Expo in Durban with great success. Yes they say they are limiting 2 to 3 stands per discipline.

That does not mean it is going to be crap, it just means you will have almost the same amount of Tarantula shops, snakes shops pet shops so on and so forth shops, but with the added difference of fish.
Not every man is interested in spiders and this will be the first of it's kind to have fish part of the Expo.

It is at Walter Sisulu hall, good location off the main road and the people know where it is as the Exotic reptile expo is held there in March.

But I do understand, driving 100ds of kilometers to be disappointed will leave a sour taste in your mouth..

I think the point of limiting it to 2 per discipline is to make it more controlled and organized and to stop every Tom, Dick and Harry selling tarantulas. I would definetly go to the September one given the chance

In my mind limiting it to 2 per discipline will have 2 exhibitors selling the same stuff. There was probably 500 L.klugi's for sale and very limited variety otherwise. Now I know some T's breed easier, but it's not about keeping every Tom, Dick and Harry out, it's about having quality exhibitors that have a few rarer T's available. There was one P.muticus on this expo, 1,5 cm selling for R1000 ! Needless to say it wasn't sold yet.

If however the Sept expo has limited their exhibits to top quality hobbyists, who will display and offer for sale a good variety, that is another story. I have no interest in the gecko and snake fraternity, or the fish for that matter, but I too had a look at all of them and was fascinated and intrigued by the colors etc. That was until I heard the exhibitor explain to a patron how he bred a certain hybrid gecko and proceeded to show him the awesome red eyes of this specimen ! If the tiny little bearded dragons or were they koggelmannertjies, weren't so expensive, I might have bought some as feeders. :evil:

If there was a chance I would find T's on my wishlist, or that I could book future slings from a reputable "breeder" I would do the miles again, no problem.