Do you leave your local fish store disappointed? Why is that?

[albano]

I think people will be very upset when there are no LFSs to visit!

 

[ReefGeezer]

I'm always disappointed. I know the business so I understand the challenges, particularly right now, but I just can't help it.

 

[Jedi1199]

My "not so" LFS which is 45 mins away, is a general pet supply store. They do have a fairly large fish room and 1 wall is dedicated to SW. I have found some beautiful fish there, but the only corals they carry is whatever is donated by hobbyists like me.

They don't usually buy large numbers of SW fish so it is very hit and miss that I will find something I like if I just drop in. They will however order anything I ask for and their prices are the best around. Those skunk cleaner shrimp you all pay $45-60 for... I get for $25. They also have the best prices on food and equipment. I recently ordered a Fluval 307 from amazon for $189, then found it in the store last week for $159. Frozen food cubes that cost $9 at petsmart, they sell for $5....

 

[davidcalgary29]

It's still a ten-hour round trip car drive for me to the closest "L"FS! I keep hearing about Edmonton's fast growth rate, but I guess I'll have to wait a few more years for it to reach me.

 

[JaimeAdams]

@jskidds2294 It sounds like you just really hate Local Fish Stores. In the same thread talking about how much better online fish sales are and that you are planning on starting your own online fish store.

You tell @vlangel that it's better for the fish that she buys to be shipped from an online store than picked up from the LFS. I ( the LFS ) is getting 2 orders of fish on Monday, 1 from Kenya, 1 from Bali. Those fish aren't coming into LA wholesalers and being exposed to pathogens and parasites from oceans all over the world while they sit for a week or two then shipped off to an online retailer. These fish are sitting in circulating ocean water being put on a plane and then into our stores tanks. That is a much shorter chain of custody than your praised online retailers. I don't need to mention the amazing care that UPS/Fedex takes care of those online fish orders either.

If there were no fish stores I would have never gone in for medication for my Beta and fell in love with a Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish and started down this long road. A picture on the internet wouldn't have done it for me.

 

[jskidds2294]

@jskidds2294 It sounds like you just really hate Local Fish Stores. In the same thread talking about how much better online fish sales are and that you are planning on starting your own online fish store.

You tell @vlangel that it's better for the fish that she buys to be shipped from an online store than picked up from the LFS. I ( the LFS ) is getting 2 orders of fish on Monday, 1 from Kenya, 1 from Bali. Those fish aren't coming into LA wholesalers and being exposed to pathogens and parasites from oceans all over the world while they sit for a week or two then shipped off to an online retailer. These fish are sitting in circulating ocean water being put on a plane and then into our stores tanks. That is a much shorter chain of custody than your praised online retailers. I don't need to mention the amazing care that UPS/Fedex takes care of those online fish orders either.

If there were no fish stores I would have never gone in for medication for my Beta and fell in love with a Fuzzy Dwarf Lionfish and started down this long road. A picture on the internet wouldn't have done it for me.

Yes I do hate most LFS’s and big box locations. And in 99% of situations fish don’t get bought strait from a fisherman facility to a lfs. It almost always includes a middleman holding facility for logistics. Yours really isn’t different either unless these are the fisherman selling to you and they had the fish in cycled sepperated tanks which after what I’ve seen of fish collector sites in South Asia and South America I doubt it’s like that. At best you just bought from a foreign wholesaler basically. This is the reason I say for people to buy from the wholesalers with online stores selling directly as it cuts a step for the fish out. I’m glad for you that you are getting healthy fish and hope you enjoy them. Good luck and I hope for the best.

 

[jskidds2294]

I think people will be very upset when there are no LFSs to visit!

Not if the LFS’s weren’t good. There will be one or two I’ll miss that I’ve seen bust most can go the way of the dinosaur, and I’m pretty sure from the poll a lot of people feel this way.

 

[vlangel]

Not to sound like we should all be endless money pits willing to take endless risks but the life of these living creatures is more important then us not wanting to take the risk on. And I can tell you that big box stores, and LFS’s buy in bulk and if they get weakened fish they don’t do everything to heal them. They try to keep them alive just long enough with a weakened amount of meds then make it your problem or in worse case wait for them to just die starving them then throw them out, some have even been caught doing this to live sick livestock.

If the fish are in transit for less time by getting shipped strait to you by the wholesale/online store then the weakened fish would be stronger still and have a higher chance of turning around for the end user with proper medication and care. And with online stores having better refund policy’s like you stated there isn’t much risk but emotional damage watching a fish possibly die. But at the end of the day it would drastically decrease the total dead or dying fish so I think the emotions of end users should be ignored for the life of the livestock.

Also if you treat every fish that comes in with a freshwater dip, a strong formalin 37% dip, a strong copper dip, and a strong methylene blue dip then keep them for two months in a tank with trace amounts of the 3 with weakly small siphoning‘s and a uv internal filter. I guarantee 95% of sick fish will turn around as long as they are able to swim and eat still.

I am truly happy for you that your experience with online vendors has been so good. I am also sorry that your experience with lfs's has not been a positive one. It sounds like our experiences have not had much in common. Like I said, I am blessed to live within reasonable driving distance of 3 reputable lfs, (all of which are mom and pop stores) and 2 of which I have known the owners and some of the employees a long time, and they are conscientious, caring folks. They definitely are not in it to make a fast dollar at the expense of the animals. Again I consider myself blessed.

PS. The one exception to buying from an online vendor for me is KP Aquatics. I have had excellent results from ordering from them and have never experienced a single loss. I would highly recommend them to anyone.

 

[a4edwin]

I have a petco 5 min away but they have the same fish all the time clowns, cardinals, and neon dottybacks. Corals are neon leathers, zoas which you don’t know what they are, hammers. Lfs is pretty good with supplies Ms corals but fish not so much. And it’s a 30 min drive but it’s mostly traffic so I don’t even want to go there.

 

[kevgib67]

I have a great lfs 20 minutes from my house Extreme Tropical Pet ( it is a saltwater and freshwater store only)They are very knowledgeable. They have talked me out of a purchase due to timing a couple of times. All of my fish are from there as are a lot of my corals. Good selection and great prices. Also I’m fortunate to live 50 minutes from Tidal Gardens, they never disappoint!

 

[rtparty]

The poll speaks for itself. Most LFS aren't good.

We used to have good stores around me but these days I don't even venture into them. Been disappointed and burned one too many times.

 

[PandorasChalk]

My LFS has been hit or miss. When I was first looking for corals they had a massive dino/cyano outbreak in their reef troughs. I held off buying from them and went through LiveAquaria (which was a bit of a mistake on it's own but that's another tale). I don't like their no refund policy that extends to equipment (basically tell you to work with manufacturer) so I avoid shopping there for non-coral/fish/FW plant things.

Once things cleaned up I started getting coral there and it's been alright for the most part. All fish I have bought from their (my two clowns) and all the CUC (some snails) are still alive and healthy compared to the few I have bought from local PetCo.

There's two other stores about 40 minutes away I want to visit at some point that are reportedly much, much better.

 

[fisherdonk]

Mine is a good store but they don't seem to care much about sustainability. They can't even tell me which coral or fish is aquacultured. Despite their website claiming otherwise.

 

[rmorris_14]

Yes because its Petco. I know some Petcos are better run than others and have a better experience. However, mine is run by a manager, who lets just say doesn't make much of an effort to dress himself before going to work, let alone outdo himself at his job. I do have privately owned one that is good but its over 40 minutes away.Having time to go there without my kids can be a bit challenging. I have taken them with me but I spent the entire time trying to remind them to keep their hands out of the tanks or the filtration below the tanks and I could barely look at anything. my tank progress is very slow because of that BUT it's probably better for my bank account .

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

I have one local store. It's a chain store, and I don't go there because their stock is unhealthy and expensive. I do have two NSLFS (not so local fish stores) about an hour away, and both of them are good. One has a wide selection of mainly captive bred fish and small frags, and the owner is really communicative and helpful. There is also a very large stock tank filled to the brim with cured rock. This is my usual store, because I can get small frags and nano fish easily there. The other one has a smaller selection of rare, good sized fish, dry rock and large cheap coral frags and colonies. Because I have a nano that can't fit big corals and fish, I don't go here often. For some bizarre reason, neither really carries snails, so I get those online. Sometimes I leave empty handed, but I never leave disappointed, per se.

 

[BradB]

If my LFS completely sucked, I'd never be disappointed as I'd never visit. Having success in the past makes taking the time to drive out and visit tempting. Then I see very few fish that could work in my tank at $40 more than online and drive home empty handed.

 

[Paul B]

I think people will be very upset when there are no LFSs to visit

I think they should make house calls. Pack all of their tanks into a tractor trailer and come to your house whenever you call.

 

[Reefing102]

I think they should make house calls. Pack all of their tanks into a tractor trailer and come to your house whenever you call.

The next great thing! Fish Truck Fridays! Come up to the truck, pick what you want and be on your way!

 

[DE FISH]

Closest store every tank has cyano,Dino,aiptasia,bubble algae ect even just the tanks with fish in sometimes I wish I could work there and strip the whole thing out and fix the issues.

 

[tharbin]

I think they should make house calls. Pack all of their tanks into a tractor trailer and come to your house whenever you call.

Just as I was reading this and thinking it was brilliant our LICT (Local Ice Cream Truck) came by and it made me ponder... What music should they be playing as they drive around the streets selling fish?