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

[Tamberav]

Not dissappointed because I don't expect a LFS to be like Amazon. They don't always have what I want but prices are good and sometimes they apply sale prices on things not on sale.

 

[meloles]

I have a beautiful LFS near my house. They have amazing selection of fish and great corals. People from all over go to this fish store. They are just so expensive! Only one around too, but at least they always have healthy animals.

 

[BaysEndReef]

I live in Southeast Georgia. Sometimes I get tired of looking at the stuff I sell from my frag tanks. Most of the stuff I have in my home displays come from other LFS. We have one other in our town, but they are not a dedicated reef store. Their selection is slim and their knowledge is lacking. This all gets me to the part where I praise my favorite LFS, who does an amazing job all around. BioReef, LLC. in Jacksonville, FL is one of the best. I do have to drive two hours to get there, but it is 100% worth it. They have always had what I was looking for and what I didnt know I needed. If you have never heard of them, please check them out. Happy Reefing!
-Anthony

 

[xxkenny90xx]

My lfs has higher prices for coral than others in my area so that is always disappointing. Fortunately our old porcupine puffer Gilbert lives in their big display tank so after visiting with him we never leave disappointed!

 

[JaimeAdams]

Other - I chose other because it depends on what LFS I would happen to walk into. The dedicated saltwater store is always good for coral selection sometimes low on fish depending on there shipments. The one usually has a decent selection of fish but virtually no coral. Another has decent fish and some overpriced frags. Finally the chain store are the chain stores.

I wish Kevin would let me order more fish, but now with the higher wholesale prices or higher tranship fright charges we simply aren't doing enough volume in fish sales to justify it.

I live in the Pittsburgh, PA area and other than ONE LFS " Reef Gallery" all of the others are complete garbage. Yeah they have fish and some corals, but most of their corals look so crappy that I wouldn't take the risk of buying anything. The Reef Gallery has amazing corals, but they are not really into stocking many fish though. It's a pretty far distance away as well, but always worth the trip out. I won't spend money in any other store around here, to bad someone doesn't open up another quality place South of the city.

Thank you for the endorsement. As I said I wish that we stocked more fish, but the prices that we have to charge in current times turns off a lot of people. Believe me, I wish that we were south of the city or even in the city. It's a 36 mile one way drive for me.

I’ll have to check it out

I look forward to meeting you.

 

[JaimeAdams]

As aguy who runs a LFS I always pay attention to threads like these. Even though most are not local it is a good window into the mindset of LFS customers mind set.

 

[sergifed91]

I feel that since march the lfs here in des Moines has been disappointing. No real shipments of fish or corals. And the local fish groups have been stagnant. Hopefully it will change soon when this whole Corona thing is stopped and controlled.

 

[dohc97]

I was spoiled when I lived in chicago, I had all kinds of good stores pretty close. I moved to DFW and I happen to live in an area that doesn't have much of what I like. I have 2 close by stores that I buy basic stuff from but 1 never has anything but the most common of fish and the other always has sick looking fish. I have to drive 20 miles for equipment and about 45 for fish, coral I just don't, no one has a wow selection of sps.

 

[cancun]

I have 3 LFS in the St. Louis area that I frequent. Over the last 10 years I have built up a close relationship with the owners and employees of all three stores. That makes a huge difference! They will always special order me fish, and they all have a great selection of corals. Plus one which is my favorite of the three will acclimate the fish I want to his display tank, because he runs low salinity and copper in his FO systems. They are all 45 min away, but I like to stop in every few weeks. I never buy online, in my case I like to support local!

 

[Mr Mumblez]

Living in New Hampshire there’s nothing I have to drive a minimum of one hour each way to get RODI water and decent but pricey corals/frags. Sucks. I have ordered online and had great luck and quality but hate to pay $40-$50 for shipping.

Dude buy an RO BUDDY. Like $70 Mabye. Takes everything but some chorlamines out and you can add a chloramine removal stage easily enough for not much more. I still add prime with water changes as redundancy but sounds like it will save you some money in long run

 

[Maritimer]

My most-local shop is often a disappointment - but it's a Petco, so par for the course.

If I go a little further out, say ... 45 minutes each way ... there are a trio of stores that I've been frequenting lately, and they rarely, if ever, disappoint:
Greenwich Aquaria - decent prices, decent selection of fish, corals and dry goods, world-class staff. Seriously, these guys are awesome. Their 500+ gallon display system is currently being rebuilt / renovated, but it's normally worth the trip just on its own - like a peek into a Public Aquarium. They also carry freshwater fish and plants, just to up the temptation factor a tad. Oh - and they've got the widest variety of frozen foods of any of the three, including LRS.
Salgado Aquatics - terrific selection and prices on fish, decent selection and prices on coral; sells both in-store and online, and, as a matter of course, feeds any fish you're interested in before even picking up a net. Also maintain their fish in therapeutic chelated copper, and feeds with medicated foods. They're not finishing QT before sales, but pretty safe to consider the QT process begun at the time of purchase.
The Reef Shoppe in the Bronx, NYC (There's another shop by the same name in ... Rochester, I think?) - Excellent selection of both fish and coral, good to great prices.

Each shop has something cool to see, every single time I visit - I've dropped a couple hundred bucks at each this month, and wish two things: A - That my system and bank account would allow me to support LFS at a higher level, and B - That my system was so full of life already that I didn't have to.

~B.

 

[Xyloxo]

No sir, live in Virginia and it’s pretty much over priced and the fish are either sick or almost gone.​

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Coral, more over priced then you could imagine. You could pay $100 for a common zoa.....​

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There's quite a few within about a two hour drive North and East of ya if you're willing to make that trip once in a while...

 

[Xyloxo]

I'm lucky to live close to Northern Virginia where there are a few great stores within a short drives time of me. My go to is of course Blue Ribbon Koi & Marine!

 

[BrandonS]

Well I had an amazing LFS and got spoiled. Friendly owner that new his stuff. Great selection for being a smaller shop. The owner was always there and engaging. Was always doing or cleaning something. Pre quarantined everything. Great guy reasonable prices and was transparent about his stuff. Then he closed.

Now my LFS is an hour away and the guy is a larger store who has been there for years. Owner is never there and is more interested in pushing his items with the highest mark up than talking to find out what you need. They won't order special things for you and only take trade in from customers at 25% store credit only. They don't pre quarantine. Everything comes in and goes out. Ok selection of coral but it's either way over priced because it's his grow out and he doesn't actually want to sell it. Or it's tiny. Only thing I can figure is he is in a major metro area and relies on the turnover of hobbiests. Also won't say no to money. Watched him and his guys bag up 50 pieces of coral and 10 fish for a guy who didn't seem like he new his stuff. They at the end asked the standard how big his tank was and he says 40 gallons and 2 weeks old. The employees looked at each other then continued to bag up. Never once said anything to the guy. I tried very nicely but he just shrugged me off. Have also heard he prevents other stores from buying stuff by giving the wholesale ultimatums. He buys enough regularly they give in.

 

[kdx7214]

There is only one LFS here and their limited saltwater selection is, to be blunt, worse than any I've seen. About the only thing they could do is actually get better.

 

[Rp8]

There are 5 within 10 miles of my home. They are all not very personable or helpful. It's gotten to the point where I just get all my info here, from all u guys. You guys are way nicer and more helpful. Then I just go in and buy what I need, with no hassles

 

[lefkonj]

In NJ we do have some good LFS places to hit up. Having said that I leave disappointed mostly because they don't have what I want, or what I am willing to spend. Sure a $400 LPS is amazing but I don't spend that on a single piece.

I would say my biggest disappointment is looking at the stores website, seeing a dozen things I like showing up an hour later and not a single thing online is in the store.... That sucks. I know it takes time to update but if I went in to buy XX but not only don't you have XX but you don't have AA-JJ either.

 

[hikermike]

When I first got started in the 70's I lived in Wash. DC., then LA, then Seattle area. At that time all of those areas had multiple good stores with very good selections and the chain stores carried none. Out of the hobby for 40 years and now back in and find that both the Seattle areas and LA (when I visit my daughter) have only small stores with poor expensive selections of fish no better than Petco, (which in LA has more. As for corals, a few stores in Seattle have a large selection of tiny overpriced frags. ($100-200 for 2 heads of zoa) Thinking about online except the $45 for shipping is hard to get past the wife for a $6 crab plus having to be at home waiting for UPS. Everything has tanked secondary to the quarantine! (Pardon the pun!)

 

[Steph72]

I’m in Houston so we have a lot of stores to choose from. Honestly I can say I’m appalled at how poorly livestock is treated in many of these places.

There are exceptions though... I absolutely love a couple of places around here.

 

[Timfish]

They have more aquariums than I do.