Ray Tripp

Ray Tripp has been keeping fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibians since the 1970s and has pioneered the keeping and breeding of many species. In 1990, Ray decided to make the leap from hobbyist to importer and exporter. Supplying pet stores, zoos, and serious hobbyists, he traveled to several countries and attended academic symposiums and trade shows. In 1993, Ray started pioneering naturalistic vivariums to create an ecosystem that led to greater breeding success with less maintenance. In 1996, he decided to make the leap into commercial breeding of insects, which supplied pet stores, zoos, and hobbyists and doubled sales. In 2001, Ray decided to expand his knowledge and worked as a Specialty Manager at PetsMart, raising the specialty department’s profitability from a paltry 13% to greater than corporate goals, achieving a whopping 21% in under 90 days for the first time in the location’s 10 years of operation. There was a remarkable jump in sales when naturalistic enclosures were displayed. In 2004, Ray’s business was shut down to concentrate on raising a family. Ray was a stockbroker while attending LDS Business College AA (2010) and Weber State University for his BA in Geographical Information Sciences (GIS) with an Environmental Emphasis (2013). Now that they are divorced and the kids are grown, economic recovery and technological advances make this a prime time to bring prior experience to the modern age of keeping and breeding these fantastic animals once more.