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I finally got to Aquarium Boutique and Mid Cities Aquarium. Was in the area of AB and got there just as it was opening, Small store, nice selection of corals a little pricey but acceptable when considering online and shopping costs. A few dozen fish tanks small fish in each. Most had dead fish in each which where being scooped out. They do condition with copper. Pricey side. Kind of depressed leaving.
Mid Cities moved down the road and has turned into a bird shop. Filthy tanks or empty tanks, large birds everywhere, large bird poop everywhere. Birds are gnawing on everything, tanks, dry goods, you name it! Had a Red Sea new tank for sale but after the damage they still want more than top dollar for it. Spent 5 minutes inside and left. DONT WASTE your time!
Also went to Corals Fish and Beyond in Keller. The only thing that amazed me was they have Radion's on every signal tank! Crazy! That was it though. Tanks where filthy! Skimmers overflowing on the floor algae so thick on most tanks you could not see inside them. When I walked in there was one guy at the register, he never looked up from his phone, said anything and the customers that where in the store with just walked in and around and walked out. Couple of coral tanks and the rest fish, high prices and not got specimens of either. They won't be around long!
Roberts still best IMO. I will keep looking though.
Mid Cities moved down the road and has turned into a bird shop. Filthy tanks or empty tanks, large birds everywhere, large bird poop everywhere. Birds are gnawing on everything, tanks, dry goods, you name it! Had a Red Sea new tank for sale but after the damage they still want more than top dollar for it. Spent 5 minutes inside and left. DONT WASTE your time!
Also went to Corals Fish and Beyond in Keller. The only thing that amazed me was they have Radion's on every signal tank! Crazy! That was it though. Tanks where filthy! Skimmers overflowing on the floor algae so thick on most tanks you could not see inside them. When I walked in there was one guy at the register, he never looked up from his phone, said anything and the customers that where in the store with just walked in and around and walked out. Couple of coral tanks and the rest fish, high prices and not got specimens of either. They won't be around long!
Roberts still best IMO. I will keep looking though.
Checked out Roberts Reef and Frank's recently. RR was pretty good. Doubt I'd buy corals since there was aptasia and valonia in the frag tanks. Other then that, it was a pretty good place, at least had some selection. Display tanks were pretty good too but valonia.
When I first walked into Frank's what immediately hit me was the cleanliness. Cleaner tanks and store, by far, then any of the others. Ok good selection...hard to tell if that was a normal day since I don't know when he receives corals and fish. Probably not worth the distance of my drive to get there unless I was going to do a tour of all the stores in FW.
What I've noticed about pretty much all of the stores is that the selection is limited, especially on fish and that every store I've been to, the tangs are under nourished...give 'em a little nori would ya.
I do appreciate your continued communication on this topic.
I went to Texas coral fest this past Saturday and it reminded me of the baseball card craze in the 90's. Stupid prices for little frags. I would have been very hesitant to buy frags from any of the vendors that weren't local or just hobbyists. There were clearly some shady characters there selling frags that probably haven't seen anything but those little show display tanks in sometime. I met a couple or more local, (garage growers), that I would have had much more confidence in and their prices were not as stupid.
When I first walked into Frank's what immediately hit me was the cleanliness. Cleaner tanks and store, by far, then any of the others. Ok good selection...hard to tell if that was a normal day since I don't know when he receives corals and fish. Probably not worth the distance of my drive to get there unless I was going to do a tour of all the stores in FW.
What I've noticed about pretty much all of the stores is that the selection is limited, especially on fish and that every store I've been to, the tangs are under nourished...give 'em a little nori would ya.
I do appreciate your continued communication on this topic.
I went to Texas coral fest this past Saturday and it reminded me of the baseball card craze in the 90's. Stupid prices for little frags. I would have been very hesitant to buy frags from any of the vendors that weren't local or just hobbyists. There were clearly some shady characters there selling frags that probably haven't seen anything but those little show display tanks in sometime. I met a couple or more local, (garage growers), that I would have had much more confidence in and their prices were not as stupid.
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Did you pick up anything from coral fest? I wanted to go but couldn't make it. I've been so fed up with the local stores lately, I recently made a purchase on aquasd.com. I'm to the point that I'll only purchase corals online of from locals on Craigslist. I'm sick of looking at expensive aiptasia in dirty tanks with underfed fish.
So I've been to literally just about every LFS in DFW. My personal favorite is Aquastudios Aquariums up in The Colony. I live near Frank's Tanks and drive an hour just to visit them when coral shopping. Decent prices and good variety and the guys there are stand up.
They are great guys, their coral selection is pretty good, agreed. Fish, not so much. I was just there two weeks ago and I have to say I wouldn't buy a fish there. Even though it is a decent store, it's sad that that's the best in a metro of 8MM people. We only had two stores in Omaha (as far from the ocean as you can get) and they were both literally 10 times better in quantity and quality.
Yeah this is unfortunately what we got. Haha
I've lived here my whole life so unfortunately it's what I've gotten used to as standard and haven't seen much else. I buy most of my corals off people on Reef2Reef nowadays though. Haven't bought a fish in awhile since I maxed out my DT.
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