Do You Have Confidence In Your Local Fish Store?

[Wasabiroot]

I trust my LFS to give me excellent service. When I am there I get asked no less than 3 times (typically) if I need anything. I am not mega talkative in general, and I appreciate that anyways. but they keep a nice variety of dry goods and their freshwater section is extremely fairly priced. Variety is meh and I doubt they are more or less knowledgeable about livestock than other places. As far as trust - I likely would regarding fish mixing / FOWLR / setup / plumbing but less so on coral and certainly not much at all on taxonomy.
I mean
NOBODY CAN SPELL CYNARINA

It's not that hard! Yeeeeesh!

I see cynaria, hell Carmen Sandiego before I ever see correct names on stuff lol

 

[Thunderrap]

I know of about 4 within a 45 min drive from me and I’ve shopped at all of them. One of them I’ve never gone back to because of the overall lack of care of their dry goods and their livestock. One is just inconvenient so I haven’t gone back. The two I frequent one I trust for coral advise and almost exclusively buy my coral there and the other is okay, I’ll get some fish and one or two pieces from but mostly use them for dry goods.

 

[i cant think]

If you've been in the hobby long enough, you may have found yourself in a conversation about this once or twice. Do you have confidence in your local fish store?

I'm one of the lucky ones that has great local fish stores that take care of their livestock and try to give advice to the best of their ability. Do you have confidence that your local fish store will:

Give you solid advice?
Sell you healthy, well-kept livestock?

Vote and tell us why you voted that way!

(Please refrain from naming any LFS! This isn't a thread meant to "call-out" anyone, I'm just curious to hear your experiences!)

I have a ton of confidence in my LFSs - I go to 2 main ones.
One I do work at and the other is somewhat closer to me, none of my fish go through QT with me and instead get thrown straight into my tanks.
I’ve yet to have an unhealthy fish and all have been fat unless they just come in - then they are skinnier but I will still put them into my tank and they fatten up quickly!
Here was my Doliatus almost a week ago

And then yesterday

So far not doing too badly - most the fish in my 5’ tank are new since it was set up in April and they’re already very settled plus incredibly fat!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Never been. Nemo is far enough for me and it’s a 30 minute drive when the traffic is good. And I assume you know how often the traffic is good around Atlanta?

Traffic is terrible, as always, down there, haha.

 

[mrjoe]

well here in kissimmee I live close by a couple of large LFS's... One i've never been to and the other I get my pre-mixed saltwater and rodi from... I must say that almost every time I go in the store there are new employees which to me think that they don't treat them professionally... The turn over is amazingly high and just sad... You just never get the time to create friendships and trust... That being said I look to my local fb reefing/coral pages for advice and trust them more... Made a lot of great friends in the process as I buy locally from them most of the time...

 

[KrisReef]

This question and thread could be greatly improved with the addition of the word “ANY!”

Example

Do You Have ANY Confidence In Your Local Fish Store?​

Then people can explain their own definition of “Any.”

Meaning, my local and online fish marketeers will always be happy to help me spend my money.

They may or may not know what they are selling or if I can spell Cindy Tibbs or whatever they are selling? (HS crush that failed for me.)

I spend most of my time thinking about the LFS and I try to spend time and money in these establishments with the hopes that they will succeed and thrive and be available as long as possible. I am afraid that the business economy and ecosystem will cause the end of our relationships like my own dreams of the future were crushed when things changed and the opportunities went away.

Enjoy them while you still can!

 

[EZKLR]

my LFS doesn't even know what they have, but they know it's expensive

 

[Greybeard]

Happily, I can answer yes again.

Springfield MO, closest thing that could be considered a city to where I'm at, has one LFS that's been there for many years. Place called Aquarium Shoppe. Owned by a guy named Harold. He's a good guy, knows his stuff, but he's rarely in the shop. Lets kids run the place for him. Cheap labor... and they DON'T know what they're doing. Selection isn't great, prices aren't great, tanks are full of pests... I've pretty much quit going in there.

Happily, a new shop opened, maybe a year ago? Young guy named Mike, shop is Ozark Aquarium Design. Used to work for Harold. Won't say he's the most experienced guy, but he's sharp, and won't blow hot air at you if he doesn't know something. Honest, reliable, keeps the place clean, tanks looking good. Nice to have a good local option again.

 

[plutz]

Other…simply because it pays to remember they are running a business which is to sell you something. Having said that i try to do my own research and eliminate having to take the word of the shop owners. Also, as already mentioned, most of the time it depends on who you are talking to at the shop.

 

[shakacuz]

i'm always weary of livestock(fish/corals), but drygoods i always get from them. once i have the space available to QT, i'll be QT'ing both corals and fish.

 

[MarsReefer]

My LFS is great for corals. They have healthy pieces of a large size. Their standard prices are high but they run frequent sales. I also get my frozen food there as it’s a good price and always in stock.

I don’t buy their fish though because they do no QT and I don’t want to do it myself. I buy fish and inverts exclusively pre QT from online stores and as much captive bred as I can.

As far as knowledge I’d say they all have home reef tanks that they’ve run for more than a decade and they mostly give solid advice. However again they think QT is a waste of effort which I disagree with but I know a lot of people agree.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

i'm always weary of livestock(fish/corals), but drygoods i always get from them. once i have the space available to QT, i'll be QT'ing both corals and fish.

We are the same way with wanting more space to get a QT tank!

 

[KQuillan]

I used to have one that I thought did everything right but then found out not so much.

My friend started his own shop and I love it, and him.

 

[shakacuz]

We are the same way with wanting more space to get a QT tank!

now that i'm no longer in a tiny apartment, i can start planning for a bigger tank haha

 

[Reefing102]

I trust my LFS has livestock. I have confidence that at least 1 of the 2 will be moderately priced/competitive to online pricing. I am fairly certain their general “advice” is adequate but mixed in with the sales pitch aspect. I always double research online too

 

[Uncle99]

I don’t trust the store, but I do trust some special individuals.

 

[Extremeengineer]

I have to drive an hour to get to the nearest LFS, and they have a decent selection and their knowledge so far has exceeded mine, and they have given me no information that i have found elsewhere to be incorrect. Their fish and coral prices are high, but they have healthy fish and corals, and each fish has a sheet of when it came in, what it is eating, and compatibility. They run an aquarium service, so every time I go there they have some number of fish reserved for service, so I assume their fish pricing is for the people just paying the bill without looking at the invoice. Their tank selection is decent, and the equipment selection in stock is just adequate.

There is a place about 2 hours away with a much better fish selection, and their prices are literally half or less compared to the closer LFS. They stock no tanks, but much better equipment selection. The manager is the only guy I've dealt with so far, and he is extremely knowledgeable, and helpful, and I would have confidence in anything he told me. Their coral selection is much less than the closer place, but again their pricing is incredibly lower, and I've never seen pests in their coral tanks as i have at the more local place. When it comes time to buy corals, this will be my #1 choice.

At the end of the day I am lucky that I have 2 places I like. I am not a fan of online purchasing, for livestock or drygoods, or most other things in life for that matter. When I can I will frequent local businesses, and I value the relationships that come out of that.

 

[Paul B]

I have confidence in my favorite LFS but I usually have to give advice to them.

 

[design.maddie]

Other

The nearest LFS that I know of is a bit over 3 hours away. I have never been there.

 

[EricR]

I'm kind of in "no man's land" where I'd need to drive an hour in either/opposite directions to hit real cities that have more selection. (Too long for me unless it was for a very specific reason)

15 minute drive gets me to a mid-size town/city that has 3 fairly legit saltwater fish/coral stores:
-- I always go to one specifically because prices are good, main day-to-day guy there is solid, and the livestock and tanks always seem well-maintained.
-- 2nd one I have bought from before but it's smaller and tanks had noticeable pest issues (aiptasia, turf algae on snails, etc) so I only go there if they have something I want that my normal LFS doesn't,,, and then just deal with it in QT.
-- 3rd one had enough scathing Yelp comments that I won't ever bother (but don't actually know).

...oh, the poll, I answered, "confidence about certain things" for my GOTO LFS