Do You Have Confidence In Your Local Fish Store?

[AlyciaMarie Verified Admin]

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!)

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yes, but only to an extent. We have two fish stores in our area, and I prefer one over the other due to their pricing and stock. However, I'm not 100% sold on some of the advice they have given in the past

 

[Nano_Man]

Yes I have confidence telling them there prices are too high
With fish and corals

 

[Budman93]

Will never doxx the places but one near me has a beautiful coral selection but it is egregiously overpriced. Shop is very professional but I can probably get better prices online. I also feel like every time I walk in they try and upsell me something. (They also sell raffle tickets to sell high priced pieces of coral which I'm pretty sure is illegal but i digress).

The other one near me is much smaller but has a better livestock selection just worse coral selection. Prices much better though. It's not as professional but the guys there are genuinely nice and good to talk to which I appreciate. When I need something I try and go there first.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Yes, I trust them that they will sell me healthy livestock (that is extremely overpriced), but I don't trust the information they give me.

 

[Miami Reef]

I don’t generally ask my LFS for advice. I have confidence that my LFS will take care of me as a customer. I am very loyal to them because they have a good selection and try their best at keeping them cared for.

 

[fish farmer]

FWIW I rarely ask advice from my LFS, maybe when I first started out and it was usually regarding specific things like equipment or test kits. Which at the time I could also glean from publications/reef forums.

I go into stores looking for specific things regarding fish/coral....if they don't have what I want I shop somewhere else. If they have product on the shelf I generally use I may grab something. My shops are small enough that they don't have product A and B for comparison type questions so I can't ask which test kit or pump is better.

 

[SpyC]

My LFS is Dr Mac (PEA), so yes. Full confidence

 

[GARRIGA]

Several shops within 20 miles of me. Closest price gauges and yet seeks cheapest prices. Seen them go through several employees. Buy dry goods there only if unavailable elsewhere.

Those farther away much better for live stock yet know of several under new management I’d no longer buy life from.

Pays to scope your shop out before just grabbing more than wanted.

Although plan on pillaging my local waters. Those I trust more.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Yes, I trust them that they will sell me healthy livestock (that is extremely overpriced), but I don't trust the information they give me.

Ours are priced high as well.

 

[Reefer Matt]

I don’t have an lfs in my county, but I do have one a half hour away. I don’t really look to them for advice, as I’ve learned that many shop owners are set in their ways, right or wrong. I just filter out the noise and get what I came there for. But I do like the atmosphere, as I live in a reefing “black hole” with hardly any Reefers.

 

[rtparty]

Not in the least

 

[Naekuh]

No, but i love hearing the workers try to make sense only for you to laugh as they are just digging a deeper grave for them to lay inside.

 

[JayM]

I voted "Other" because I have several LFS in my area and I have full confidence with 2, mostly confident with 1, and no confidence with the others.

 

[corosato]

I trust our only purely saltwater focused LFS for information and they have good prices on coral, I just only buy direct from breeders or pre quarantined for fish at this point because I have messed up quarantine in the past.....

 

[TX_REEF]

For the LFS I frequent, I have strong confidence in their livestock, BUT for advice, it's strongly dependent on which individual staff member I'm talking to... not everyone knows what they're talking about, and just like on this forum, everyone has a different approach to certain issues.

 

[kenchilada]

Nope I would be a fool to trust any of them.

 

[Dburr1014]

I have one lfs that I go to for fish, very knowledgeable and good prices. I have another lfs that's good for Coral, and another one that quarantines is fish before they go on display for sale.

I think I'm pretty lucky here in Connecticut, most of them are 45 minutes to an hour away from my house but they're all pretty good about certain things.

 

[LPS Bum]

I trust my LFS implicitly. They're honest and knowledgable. Good people just trying to make a living.

But they don't QT their fish and their stock is limited, so I mostly buy frozen food from them (and a Gen 2 Reefer 625 Deluxe).

 

[jabberwock]

I have 5 within 1 hour of me. I have full confidence it what I would consider my LFS because I have a relationship (as a consumer) with the owner and the staff. I look out for them, and they look out for me.