Lets talk about your LFS

[jkcoral]

I've come to the conclusion that all of the shops around me are ordering livestock from wholesalers on the west coast. So I don't have a problem buying fish online as that's what every shop does anyway. There are some and we know who they are I avoid 100%. Overall compared to buying local I feel I've been more successful with direct ordered fish.

You’re right, most livestock come from pretty much a handful of places. For example, my local stores (TSA and WWC) both get a lot of fish from Quality Marine. And interestingly, so does Petco haha.

I knew a manager at a somewhat local Petco, and every once in a while I’d be able to show up and take home a fish that was still in the bag from quality marine (without ever touching their system, the only way I’d buy from them).

I’ve never bought fish online, but have been tempted. Which online vendors have you had success with or would you recommend?

 

[Nemo&Friends]

I have several LFS within 45mn of my home, but I patron only 2 of them as I was not impressed by the others. One has a good supplies of dry goods and had some macro algae, which I bought. They have both fresh and salt fish and corals and it is clean.
But I buy almost all of my fish and inverts in the other one.
Their display tanks are beautiful, it is very clean and you want to buy almost everything that you see
It opens daily from 11am to 7 pm. It used to be a marine only LFS but is has added fresh water around 2 years ago. That shop has moved twice, (unfortunately further and further from my home), but always to a larger place and has added more choices. Prices are displayed on screen above tanks and are not outrageous.
Corals are in their own tanks on one side, marine fish in the front, in the middle are inverts, never mixed with fish, back are fresh water. They have plenty of corals, but no macro unfortunately and I wish they did. I tend to see always the same staff. The owner is not always there, but is very knowledgeable.
I do not quarantine and so far have not bought any diseased fish from them. If more shops were like them, I do not think that people would buy online so much. In fact I avoid going there on weekend as it is always very crowded.
Even in the middle of the weekday, there are customers. I am never alone in that shop. They obviously are doing something right.

 

[RZGreef]

If I could change one thing about my lfs, River City Aquatics in Austin TX, it would be the simple request that their premium premade salt mix is the same salinity each batch. Some batches when I take it home I have to add 2 cups per five gallons of my Kent salt to bring it to .025

some months it's .025 out of the tap at their store, inconsistency is for the cheap mixed water: premium should equal premium effort at the mixing station. = annoying.

imagine how simple it would be for 1 tech there to calculate the known volume of their holding vat, and add a pre measured amount of Red Sea salt to simply arrive at .025 vs guessing/winging it on alternating months the last year straight. the wide variance in salinity means they're simply guesstimating each round.

Amen to that! Wish my LFS was consistent with salinity too. I gave up buying premixed (which I was happy to do since I only have a nano), and just get RO from them now and mix my own.

 

[Sdot]

That looks expensive heh

Its actually more than reasonable.

 

[Cell]

2 SW LFS's. The closest to me QT's fish, but the store is a pretty cramped and the CS can be a bit spotty. The LFS further from me has a nice big show floor and more responsive CS, but does not QT fish.

 

[Spare time]

Cleanliness and quality corals.

The owner has the building for at least 60 years and full of mold. You can smell it walking in.
Fish shows signs of ick.
Corals are imported with majority looking like they are on the way out.

Prices are high because of the cost of upkeep and high mortality (lack of care).
Stores generally mark-up prices around 2x the cost buying but this one normal is 3x but they also kill half of them before it sells. (GSP $30)

I think in general, the owners are older and they aren't as motivated anymore. Maybe new blood might make a difference.

I agree. Old pet shop owners seem to lose their strive.

 

[doubleshot00]

Wish mine offered truly quarantined fish or at least offered QT service and kept (at least some) inverts in fishless systems.

Other than that, no huge complaints here...

This is probably my biggest complaint, but I think local fish stores don’t QT on purpose. I think they count on people’s fish dying so you can keep coming back and buying more. This is my opinion though.

I have two decent stores around me. They both have very good selections, but one is substantially more expensive than the other and I’m sure that accounts for their rent being much higher.

 

[kevgib67]

I have a great lfs, Extreme Tropical Pet, about 20 minutes from me. The owners have been in business for over three decades. Tanks are algae and aptasia free and look pristine. All names and prices are listed. There are three sections, fish, coral and inverts as well as dry goods and frozen, refrigerated and dried food. Anything they don’t have the will order. They often throw something small such as a snail or crab for free and are very generous with store credit when Im clearing real estate and bring in frags.

 

[Spare time]

This is probably my biggest complaint, but I think local fish stores don’t QT on purpose. I think they count on people’s fish dying so you can keep coming back and buying more. This is my opinion though.

I have two decent stores around me. They both have very good selections, but one is substantially more expensive than the other and I’m sure that accounts for their rent being much higher.

Its just impossible to QT at an LFS as the vast majority of customers won't wait 30-45 days for their fish and the owners would need to hold several orders all at once without being able to make any profit on them for 45+ days.

 

[Spare time]

I wish more would try to learn rather than act like they know everything. I also wish they would be much more proactive on pests. I can't tell you how many lfs stores i have ben to with clearly visible aiptasia, bubble algae, bryopsis, etc. sitting all around their frags. It drives me crazy how they can let an obvious aiptasia sit there in the coral tank and do nothing about it

 

[aminals]

My gripe with my LFS probably has others liking them. They seem very upfront with what you don't need, don't push accessories, try to keep it simple.

Buying first tank - I really wish they touched on sump setups instead of showing me the "easy" aio tanks. Atleast mention the space for accessories is limited by aio. Maybe mention the stocking limitations of a 3ft tank vs a 4ft tank when im comparing the 50g waterbox and 65g waterbox. Didn't mention I needed a heater(duh... but why would I need to think of it, that could have been store profit but petco got it). They have protein skimmers but they never told me about them. Bought my first coral, why not suggest a coral dip?

I love them. I'll stop by and just chat, they order and save stuff for me. Theyre hobbyists not salemen. Just wish they'd sell me stuff before I read about it and go asking.

 

[zoomonster]

Well in a word prices. The only place that was really close shutdown and all the Orlando places are 45-60 minutes away. I won't mention any names but those at RAP got a chance to visit them. Pretty much anything they have, that I want, I can get elsewhere for a fraction of the cost with as good or better quality. Needless to say, I got nothing from them at RAP and really didn't even bother looking. At least a couple of them have gotten a little too full of themselves with astronomical prices for microscopic (often fresh cut) frags. Just too many better options online even with shipping. Fish used to always come from the closed local shop or LA but so done with them. Lately I bought a few fish from reefs4less dropped shipped, from CA, with exceptional quality. No starved, not eating, diseased and dying fish like I have gotten from LA in recent years.

 

[happyhourhero]

We have some good ones that are 20-50 miles away. The 4 in town are:
Petco - awful, would never buy fish
Petland- awful, fish disease rampant, sometimes has rare inverts tho
Reefscapes - has decent fish but rarely avail to buy, awful corals, not much else
Underwater World- not a great location, wouldn’t buy fish from their tanks, corals look ok but not corals I am into and often covered in dinos or cyano.

 

[Aluco]

Its just impossible to QT at an LFS as the vast majority of customers won't wait 30-45 days for their fish and the owners would need to hold several orders all at once without being able to make any profit on them for 45+ days.

There's a store doing a good job of it now I think it's in the east bay in Oakland, CA. High tide aquatics

 

[doubleshot00]

Its just impossible to QT at an LFS as the vast majority of customers won't wait 30-45 days for their fish and the owners would need to hold several orders all at once without being able to make any profit on them for 45+ days.

Other companies do it just fine.

I think they should at least offer it as an option. Like fish is $50 or QT is $125

 

[doubleshot00]

Well in a word prices. The only place that was really close shutdown and all the Orlando places are 45-60 minutes away. I won't mention any names but those at RAP got a chance to visit them. Pretty much anything they have, that I want, I can get elsewhere for a fraction of the cost with as good or better quality. Needless to say, I got nothing from them at RAP and really didn't even bother looking. At least a couple of them have gotten a little too full of themselves with astronomical prices for microscopic (often fresh cut) frags. Just too many better options online even with shipping. Fish used to always come from the closed local shop or LA but so done with them. Lately I bought a few fish from reefs4less dropped shipped, from CA, with exceptional quality. No starved, not eating, diseased and dying fish like I have gotten from LA in recent years.

Man those LFS in S. FL are crazy high in prices. Glad they are getting it but don’t expect me to pay it. Im not there clientele.

 

[Spare time]

Other companies do it just fine.

I think they should at least offer it as an option. Like fish is $50 or QT is $125

Who are the "other companies" that you talk about? Online stores are not the same thing where people pay way before hand. I'd bet that over 99% of people with salt water fish tanks don't QT. Most people will not walk into an LFS and say hey let me wait 45 days to buy that fish. People are often impulsive, uneducated or misinformed about disease, and often don't care that much about the fish's wellbeing over their impatience and spare time. As someone who had worked at an lfs for multiple years, it is VERY difficult to convince people to QT from my experience. And, if you keep pushing it and telling them the risk, they will simply go to another store that tells them what they want to hear. You have to remember that the reef2reef crowd is not representative of the vast majority of fish and coral keepers.

An lfs is a small business that often have slim profit margins if they want to be competitive. On dry goods, you can expect only a 10-15% markup. And the amount of fish that die + food + salt + dosing items + medicines + rent + having a store front + electricity + water + employees and more all drain from the business.


I do like the idea of having the option, but every time someone requests it, the tank the fish goes in has to restart its QT clock. So they would need massive amounts of tanks for it to be feasable.

 

[doubleshot00]

Who are the "other companies" that you talk about? Online stores are not the same thing where people pay way before hand. I'd bet that over 99% of people with salt water fish tanks don't QT. Most people will not walk into an LFS and say hey let me wait 45 days to buy that fish. People are often impulsive, uneducated or misinformed about disease, and often don't care that much about the fish's wellbeing over their impatience and spare time. As someone who had worked at an lfs for multiple years, it is VERY difficult to convince people to QT from my experience. And, if you keep pushing it and telling them the risk, they will simply go to another store that tells them what they want to hear. You have to remember that the reef2reef crowd is not representative of the vast majority of fish and coral keepers.

An lfs is a small business that often have slim profit margins if they want to be competitive. On dry goods, you can expect only a 10-15% markup. And the amount of fish that die + food + salt + dosing items + medicines + rent + having a store front + electricity + water + employees and more all drain from the business.


I do like the idea of having the option, but every time someone requests it, the tank the fish goes in has to restart its QT clock. So they would need massive amounts of tanks for it to be feasible.

Why not just have them already to go QTed? Like all fish for sale are already QTed and ready to go home now. But like i said they don’t do it because they want you to come back.

 

[jimk60]

Its actually more than reasonable.

Is this in Houston? Can you tell me the name of the store. I'll be in Houston in a few weeks and would love to check it out.

 

[Sdot]

Is this in Houston? Can you tell me the name of the store. I'll be in Houston in a few weeks and would love to check it out.

Yes... its called ADG or Aquarium Design Group