Really limited when it comes to Pet shops in Worcester, Mostly Chain stores and one half decent one in Auburn but theyre usually too expensive and dont have Seiryu anyway.

Anyone in Worcester have extra for sale? Only looking for about 5-6lbs
Also looking for fluval stratum or the asain equivalent substrate

Seiryu Stone has been illegal to export from Japan since 2008. I don't know how much of the real stuff is truly out there still for purchase, but be careful what people sell as Seiryu Stone. Just a friendly heads up.

Very interesting. Must be some counterfeit stuff out there then.

They do say Seiryu Style stones in at least one place. Seiryu stones aquascaping rock

so.. the NA distributor for ADA stuff is selling fake seiryu or illegally importing stuff?

Seiryu Stone (10 lbs per order) [106-812] - $39.90 : Aqua Forest Aquarium, ADA USA, Aqua Design Amano

What's your source on it being illegal to export from Japan since 2008?

what is mrbluepanda in these forums selling then? O.O is the stuff counterfeit?

most seiryu are misidentified as ryuoh rock and sold as seiryu. They look like seiryu, but are gray as seiryu are more blue.

even if a stone has stopped being exported, it does not change anything about it being recycled around or if someone has bought a whole stock load of them prior to the ban of exports. So it's definitely possible real seiryu is being sold around.

Ryu stone is sold at a LFS by me for $3 a lb. It looks very similar to Seiryu as Ebi noted..

yep, they're all so similar, same with ying-shi rocks, supposedly the same as rock as seiryu except from China.


generally, they're pretty much all alike, except seiryu being actually from "Japan" and being used by guys like amano in their scapes, which makes their value to be higher to people. In the end.. they're all nice looking rocks with similar features except seiryu being more on the blue hue with some calcite inclusions/jagged/sharpness.. but I suppose some feel they need what they think is "authentic" stones.

Seiryū stone was name inspired by azure dragon. It has a blue tint to it, and came from outside of kyoto. The area of harvest is now a park, therefore harvest, and export are illegal. Most of what you see now under the label of Seiryū is not blue tinted, and imported from china to japan, then exported out. How much blue tinted stone do you see out there? Not much from what i see.

By doing so it is legal to label it as Seiryū stone. Like olive oil imported from italy (as an example), it's actually from greece, but packaged, and labeled in italy which allows it to say from italy.

Seiryū stone is now loosely used terminology for similar characteristic rock which allows sellers to keep the price high, and maintain it's mystique.
That's my issue with the labeling of rock.

If you go to japan, and go to a store, and buy rock, it's illegal to bring it back with you. It's considered "organics" , and falls under customs laws of japan.