LFS Becoming More Unreliable?

[BigCitySmallReef]

I can count on 2 hands and three feet the times my only 2 LFSs have sold me things I shouldn't have in my tank. Is online the only way to go these days? I feel like brick and mortar fish stores are in a cash grab. Maybe it's just my location... I know research is very important in this hobby, but if I go to my LFS and see something amazing, I have some sort of expectation that they will steer me in the right direction. Especially when I go in explaining exactly what I have set up. Lately, it seems to be teenagers and part-timers pretending that they run the store. And my "old reliable" LFS seems to be more interested in the maintenance aspect of the business, with at least 1 dead fish floating in a third of the tanks. I recently had a bad experience with whelks from one LFS (which they totally denied), and I've been sold flame scallops (decimated my nano tank) from the other. At this point, I feel like I should just do thesis style research on everything and forget visiting my LFS. I hate it, because I'm all about buying small and locally.

 

[Erica-Renee]

Well we have the same here in some of them. They do want you to spend money there,, They do have to complete in a wold where there is NO Real way for them to do so in there mind. I agree they should be knowledgeable but the World of a Marine tank , Environment has no one size fits all answer .

My thinking is Take there advice the same as you would someone from on here.. (oops even me) Use it as a tool to make the right decision for you. To me going to LFS For livestock is like going to grocery store hungry.. You will spend more money then you like and Buy things you Regret..

Its our Responsibility to know what is best for our Environment . When i go into the LFS They leave us alone.. WE Look thru all there tanks. Look at the Arrival date. IF ITS NOT 3 WEEKS old i WILL PASS . if i see something that catches my eyes. I will look around the store.. go back and look at it again . a few times.. I then ask them to feed the fish.. IF it eats i will walk around again.. then go back and see how it acts after it eats... Fish of course.. I look at the fish in tanks on connected system..

Yes i am picky.. But i have a GOOD Success rate with fish .... WE ONLY Have 9 12 fish in our 240 gallon tank.. oldest one we have had longer then tank...

SO Yea its your tank.. Take advice as a OPINION ... And get more then one..

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

Well we have the same here in some of them. They do want you to spend money there,, They do have to complete in a wold where there is NO Real way for them to do so in there mind. I agree they should be knowledgeable but the World of a Marine tank , Environment has no one size fits all answer .

My thinking is Take there advice the same as you would someone from on here.. (oops even me) Use it as a tool to make the right decision for you. To me going to LFS For livestock is like going to grocery store hungry.. You will spend more money then you like and Buy things you Regret..

Its our Responsibility to know what is best for our Environment . When i go into the LFS They leave us alone.. WE Look thru all there tanks. Look at the Arrival date. IF ITS NOT 3 WEEKS old i WILL PASS . if i see something that catches my eyes. I will look around the store.. go back and look at it again . a few times.. I then ask them to feed the fish.. IF it eats i will walk around again.. then go back and see how it acts after it eats... Fish of course.. I look at the fish in tanks on connected system..

Yes i am picky.. But i have a GOOD Success rate with fish .... WE ONLY Have 9 12 fish in our 240 gallon tank.. oldest one we have had longer then tank...

SO Yea its your tank.. Take advice as a OPINION ... And get more then one..

Yeah, I get it. You have to be responsible for your own purchase. Maybe I should just start my own store in the basement and not have to worry about employees and overhead and rent, and such. It seems to be taking over the market for LFS instead of providing quality goods.

 

[BigCitySmallReef]

Well we have the same here in some of them. They do want you to spend money there,, They do have to complete in a wold where there is NO Real way for them to do so in there mind. I agree they should be knowledgeable but the World of a Marine tank , Environment has no one size fits all answer .

My thinking is Take there advice the same as you would someone from on here.. (oops even me) Use it as a tool to make the right decision for you. To me going to LFS For livestock is like going to grocery store hungry.. You will spend more money then you like and Buy things you Regret..

Its our Responsibility to know what is best for our Environment . When i go into the LFS They leave us alone.. WE Look thru all there tanks. Look at the Arrival date. IF ITS NOT 3 WEEKS old i WILL PASS . if i see something that catches my eyes. I will look around the store.. go back and look at it again . a few times.. I then ask them to feed the fish.. IF it eats i will walk around again.. then go back and see how it acts after it eats... Fish of course.. I look at the fish in tanks on connected system..

Yes i am picky.. But i have a GOOD Success rate with fish .... WE ONLY Have 9 12 fish in our 240 gallon tank.. oldest one we have had longer then tank...

SO Yea its your tank.. Take advice as a OPINION ... And get more then one..

Yeah, I get it. You have to be responsible for your own purchase. Maybe I should just start my own store in the basement and not have to worry about employees and overhead and rent, and such. It seems to be taking over the market for LFS instead of providing quality goods.

 

[Dennis McGrath]

I have 2 LFS's in my area, both have good customer service (1 is better than the other, but it's 20 miles away, as compared to 5 miles for the other) . They have knowledgeable people there and make good helpful suggestions. I would much rather spend my money at a LFS if possible than online.

 

[fish farmer]

One of my LFS which was the only game in town for a while, went through a change of hands so all the old employees who were good are gone. I rarely see stuff there I actually want to buy. The last time I was in there they actually had some things I would purchase, good prices, healthy frags, but not really what I want right now. The newer LFS which is 1.5 hours away has awesome corals(WWC) as well as fraggable stuff in his own tanks. All the old reefers shop there. There is stuff to buy there, too much stuff, which is a good thing. I did buy some things when I first went there this year.

I actually have a great online store two states away from me, Cultivated Reef. I have an order coming this week, granted I don't get to see the exact piece, but I was looking for certain corals for my system right now and his prices are reduced. I have a connection with the owner a bit as well as he is a former Vermonter and I know some of his extended family.

There is also a local Petco....they have a pale looking hammer which has been 15% off for a month or more. Last time it was looking a little recessed. I want another hammer, but not that one.

 

[Opus]

One of my LFS which was the only game in town for a while, went through a change of hands so all the old employees who were good are gone. I rarely see stuff there I actually want to buy. The last time I was in there they actually had some things I would purchase, good prices, healthy frags, but not really what I want right now. The newer LFS which is 1.5 hours away has awesome corals(WWC) as well as fraggable stuff in his own tanks. All the old reefers shop there. There is stuff to buy there, too much stuff, which is a good thing. I did buy some things when I first went there this year.

I actually have a great online store two states away from me, Cultivated Reef. I have an order coming this week, granted I don't get to see the exact piece, but I was looking for certain corals for my system right now and his prices are reduced. I have a connection with the owner a bit as well as he is a former Vermonter and I know some of his extended family.

There is also a local Petco....they have a pale looking hammer which has been 15% off for a month or more. Last time it was looking a little recessed. I want another hammer, but not that one.

I have a lot of "local" shops if you include the entire Dallas/Ft Worth area. We did have one store that was the go to place for SPS. They had all the named stuff plus a lot of great un-named sps plus just a lot of cool corals. The place was apparently a partnership and the owners got into a legal battle and the "silent" partner won and took over. It went from one of the premier stores in the area to one of the worst. I went in there a few weeks ago and there was hardly any sps. The big display tanks that used to be awesome were bare. That same day I went to another store that has been around for 20+ years. I was trying to talk the kid into letting me have a frag of a nice finger leather they had in their display tank. There was a piece that had fallen off and was under a ledge getting no light. I told him I would be willing to take that piece since it was going to die since it wasn't getting any light. I couldn't believe when he told me leather corals are not photosynthetic so it would do fine there. I do give this store slack since they have 6 or 7 people working there at any one time so it is probably hard to find people knowledgeable in both freshwater and saltwater.

 

[fish farmer]

I will even add that when I started reefing in 2000, there were two good stores where I am, the one that changed hands and a similar one that just did aquariums. The first one also does lizards and bunnies and such. The pet store did have cheaper product over the aquarium store. The aquarium owner did have more experience with fish and corals, but at the time he was set in how he did stuff...we argued about the current trends at the time. I was online at the time and absorbing everything reef. He was still reefing the way he read about in the 90's..not that there is anything wrong with his methods, but I was trying different things. We had a good relationship and I think he realized I knew what I was doing. I brought in xenia many times for credit. He gave me a porites frag I spied in his rock tank. When I think about it now, I probably only bought a few supplies there and livestock and did get a tank from him. Fast forward to now I probably do the same type of shopping, but more livestock online(CUC and frags). I'll buy a tube of aquastik, aptasia X, an emergency pump and a bag of salt locally, but tests kits and the specialized equipment I'm getting online.

 

[Dennis McGrath]

I have a lot of "local" shops if you include the entire Dallas/Ft Worth area. We did have one store that was the go to place for SPS. They had all the named stuff plus a lot of great un-named sps plus just a lot of cool corals. The place was apparently a partnership and the owners got into a legal battle and the "silent" partner won and took over. It went from one of the premier stores in the area to one of the worst. I went in there a few weeks ago and there was hardly any sps. The big display tanks that used to be awesome were bare. That same day I went to another store that has been around for 20+ years. I was trying to talk the kid into letting me have a frag of a nice finger leather they had in their display tank. There was a piece that had fallen off and was under a ledge getting no light. I told him I would be willing to take that piece since it was going to die since it wasn't getting any light. I couldn't believe when he told me leather corals are not photosynthetic so it would do fine there. I do give this store slack since they have 6 or 7 people working there at any one time so it is probably hard to find people knowledgeable in both freshwater and saltwater.

I'm also in the DFW area. There's 2 that are my go-to shops, but my favorite is Glass Aquatics in Hurst.

 

[Opus]

I'm also in the DFW area. There's 2 that are my go-to shops, but my favorite is Glass Aquatics in Hurst.

I wasn't that impressed with Glass Aquatics the couple of times I've gone. Really small and not much coral. I'm up near Denton so it is hike for me to go to any of the really good stores. Wife was out of town with the kids a couple of weeks ago so I headed down to Alverado to check out Smayda's. Nice but they didn't have a ton in stock. Did find the file fish I had been looking for. I ended up going to around 7 stores in the Ft Worth/Arlington area. It was my first time to Ocean Avenue since they moved. Nice store with a ton of frags. I could have spent my years reef allowance that afternoon.

I've honestly gotten to where I just shop at the frag swaps. I save up and find most of what I want there, except for fish of course.