Do You Have Confidence In Your Local Fish Store?

[NavyDiver73]

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 made the mistake of starting my first take with a larger pet store. They had no problem selling me everything I asked about. Soon all my fish started dying. I jumped on the web and found my new store that deals only with fish. All the staff is highly knowledgeable and has specialists in fresh, saltwater, plants, and corals. The owner helped put me on track and now have 3 amazing and healthy tanks. A good store with a knowledgeable staff is a necessity when starting this hobby.

 

[dank.reefer]

I had to pick other.

I have so many LFS close to my home but 3 in particular stand out. All have similar prices. One store has a fantastic selection of corals but their tanks have some pests like baseball sized aiptaisia(how long do you have to ignore them) and various nuisance algae. I have picked up some pretty nice pieces there but I have to QT and clean everything I get from them. I have also seen fish with velvet and ich in their tanks as well so.....

Another shop keeps odd hours and has a smaller selection of livestock but what they have is very healthy. The staff there is very knowledgable and you can tell that they are excited to do what they do and happy to help out were they can. A good positive and freindly attitude goes a long way. They also do tank setup/moving and maintenance. They can baby sit your tank for you while you travel as well.

There is another store that is focused on freshwater and has a few very overpriced corals and a couple of fish. Their staff is super into freshwater Discus(can be more challenging than reefing) and if thats your thing then they got you. They are not all that knowledgeable on the saltwater side of the game though.

I have had a bad experience in buying un-healty fish in the past so now I buy my fish from a fellow reefer who does QT as a side hustle. I tell him what I want, he goes to the wholesaler picks the healthiest specimen he can find and runs a full medicated QT followed by a 30 day observation. If the fish doesn't make it he gets me another and absorbs the cost. It is a little more expensive to buy fish this way but it is well worth the extra money to keep the rest of my fish safe and healthy.

 

[JohnCol]

I don't have a lfs in my town. But the closest one is about 30 mins away. And no. I know they sell quality animals but lies and mis information flow out of there mouth.

For saltwater stuff I have to go even further away. To be honestly most of my stuff is bought online for this reason.

 

[Formulator]

I’m fortunate to have an excellent LFS and trust them and their livestock to the point I have abandoned all quarantine. Never had a sick fish in 9 years. Corals are beautiful and well cared for. They also do amazing builds.

That said, it amazes me when I go into another LFS and it seems like the last thing the owner read about reef keeping came out of 1975. Just the other day when I had to go to an alternate LFS for berghia, I met the owner and mentioned that I don’t really do water changes and I dose all my trace elements. She literally looked at me like my head had just burst into flames. Could not comprehend it. Then she told me aiptasia x (kalk paste) would ruin my tank and I should do large water changes after use…. Right….

 

[Wild1]

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!)

There are 4 stores in the area, none of them close, 3 are a 30 mile round trip, and the other is a 60 mile round trip. I prefer the farthest one, and have been doing business with them for years. Its well stocked, and has fair pricing, and will try to order whatever you ask for.

 

[Chikpeas]

I see a lot of neutral-positive responses here- and I’m sorry for the down bringing… I think if I stepped foot in the closest lfs containing saltwater; they’d kick me out.

I left them a nasty review and had animal control officers go check on some of the other animals they had.

All their fish looked miserable, the live rocks covered in parasite and Every horrible thing ever, tanks are dirty and tiny- over crowded, LOTS of dead fish.

They had 6 fluffed up, Ill budgies with squinting eyes covered in poop. They had a tree frog on WOOD SHAVINGS what the heck, their lizards had improper lighting….. I hate the man. The animal control officers made him redo the entire 60 gallon tree frog tank and told him he needed proper humidity, made him remove all dead fish, and told him to get a larger cage for the budgies. It just needs to be closed already.

I thought they were such a great place when I was more Naive. Now that I know… I wish I didn’t.

So now…. I have to drive 3 hours to get anything decent. I wish that man wasn’t in business with animals anymore.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

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

Far less people can even pronounce Cynarina . There are no soft C's in Latin, so it is pronounced Kin-uh-ree-nuh. I have made people mad by saying it this way lol

 

[NC122606]

Me who works at a LFS checking the website to see if there's any hate on my name

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I answered only about certain things, but I should explain.
I live in GA like a few other folks in the thread, so I have had similar experiences. About an hour from me is the LFS with (generally) the lowest fish prices, but they tend to get in a lot of 'expert only' inverts like stars and Magnificas that just wither away every time... I believe the owners have family in the Indo fish biz, which is how they get such low prices and weird things. I like going to this store just to see what oddball stuff they've gotten in.
My main LFS is about 20 minutes from me. It is by far the most expensive that I have been to, but they have kept the same employees for the decade+ that I've gone there and I have certainly developed a good relationship with them. Would I trust them 100%? probably not, but then again most people don't 'reef my way'. To be entirely honest though, I do most of my coral purchasing over the local club & at shows. I rarely buy fish anymore, but when I do, I'll often buy them online and QT at home. Unfortunately, the age of the LFS is coming to a close; I don't think it will be a long close, but it will be a stale time where only the most violently successful salemen will survive.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

My favorite LFS is very welcoming and helpful. Sometimes their selection is limited because they're small, but I buy stuff from them whenever I can.
Their real source of income is from tank maintenance which limits the fish store, but it also means they don't pressure you to buy anything. And they are absolutely fantastic with my kids.

 

[VintageReefer]

This is what I have to deal with at the LFS and why I don’t buy coral there

 

[dank.reefer]

This is what I have to deal with at the LFS and why I don’t buy coral there

Holy crap Acan(micromussa) are $65 a piece and 2 for $100 at my LFS. Hellfire torches are $80 a head. I got a 2 head peach frogspawn for free when I bought a 3 head hologram hammer for $175. I guess my LFS ain't so bad after all.

 

[VintageReefer]

Holy crap Acan(micromussa) are $65 a piece and 2 for $100 at my LFS. Hellfire torches are $80 a head. I got a 2 head peach frogspawn for free when I bought a 3 head hologram hammer for $175. I guess my LFS ain't so bad after all.

My prices are terrible.

That 175 dragon soul was tiny as heck

The “hellfire” looked like a regular Indo gold to me and has flesh band receding and skeleton exposed. They want 250? I can get them all day long for 150 and actually healthy

The $650 meat coral - this looked very healthy and is a good 8” wide. But it’s..boring and plain. And drastically overpriced for what it is.

Frogspawn for 200? No thanks

Acans drastically overpriced.

The mellow yellow was healthy and looked nice. It’s the only thing that really jumped out to me. Until I saw they wanted 200 for it.

All pics were taken with my orange lens. This was accurate to in person viewing colors. Nothing really had any bright fluorescence or pop


I only go there to sell my overstock. They give me 75% of what they would sell the coral for that I trade. Brought them a 3-4” rock overgrown in gsp that was about to start spreading on other rocks. Basically brought them a problem of mine. They gave me 75$ in credit for it. Bought some frozen food with the credit and kept 50$ for next time I need more food

I showed the guy a pic of my tank (he wanted to see a pic of the gsp open before trading for credit, he literally said out loud “hell f***n yea bro! That’s what I’m talking about!”

Yeaaaa…I don’t need to be buying any coral today bro. Just the food

 

[dank.reefer]

My prices are terrible.

That 175 dragon soul was tiny as heck

The “hellfire” looked like a regular Indo gold to me and has flesh band receding and skeleton exposed. They want 250? I can get them all day long for 150 and actually healthy

The $650 meat coral - this looked very healthy and is a good 8” wide. But it’s..boring and plain. And drastically overpriced for what it is.

Frogspawn for 200? No thanks

Acans drastically overpriced.

The mellow yellow was healthy and looked nice. It’s the only thing that really jumped out to me. Until I saw they wanted 200 for it.

All pics were taken with my orange lens. This was accurate to in person viewing colors. Nothing really had any bright fluorescence or pop


I only go there to sell my overstock. They give me 75% of what they would sell the coral for that I trade. Brought them a 3-4” rock overgrown in gsp that was about to start spreading on other rocks. Basically brought them a problem of mine. They gave me 75$ in credit for it. Bought some frozen food with the credit and kept 50$ for next time I need more food

I showed the guy a pic of my tank (he wanted to see a pic of the gsp open before trading for credit, he literally said out loud “hell f***n yea bro! That’s what I’m talking about!”

Yeaaaa…I don’t need to be buying any coral today bro. Just the food

Picked up these 3 for $250 small one is ping pong ball sized

 

[VintageReefer]

It makes me want to take one of my mid grade items to them just to get a ton of credit and get free stuff for a year lol

They mark up everything so much I can probably bring this and say

“Blue tip Banana torch…500$ credit” and then they will sell it for 600

It’s definitly more than twice as nice as their small and plain and dying torches lol

 

[RSNJReef]

For myself, after years of working with some of the local LFS, I have full confidence in them, but I know what to expect from each.

The unfortunate truth that people don’t realize is that a fish store owner needs to choose to either be the nice guy that walks everyone through every step, and will turn an unrealistic or unprepared customer that doesn’t want to listen away (resulting in making just enough to make a happy but humble life), or choose to hustle and prey a little on the mistakes of the newbies to make the extra buck as they come back in to replace the stuff they killed.

It doesn’t make them a bad giuy (though there are some real snakes out there), and I can’t fault them for doing this, it’s a business after all, but, after years of working with several different stores, I know the stores that will sell me high quality stuff with a bit of hustling along the way, and the guys I would turn all of my corals and fish in to to hold for me during a power outage. Takes time and unfortunately a few mistakes to get there, but eventually most of us do.

 

[dank.reefer]

$80 a head

 

[dank.reefer]

Got this one while it was splitting and since the split wasn't complete(3 way split) he still sold it as a single.

 

[VintageReefer]

Got this one while it was splitting and since the split wasn't complete(3 way split) he still sold it as a single.

Lucky!

 

[dank.reefer]

Free Because I bought