School of Fish LFS in S DFW - Hidden Gem Recommendation - DeSoto North Texas

[Fish Think Pink]

WOW - 'School of Fish' LFS in DeSoto (North Texas, DFW metroplex more south/central/Dallas side) did not make it easy to visit.

• Google gave their address and hours
• Over past year+ only answered phone maybe 1-2x
• No lit street sign so made U-turn as passed shopping center where located....
  • time change so dark early these days

BUT their name kept coming up when talking with experienced people whose opinions (and tanks) I value, so... WOW - GLAD I FINALLY WENT. Feel like I found secret club fish store... fish I've NEVER HEARD ABOUT much less seen - were there!... FOWLR systems have so many more options since no corals in tank to eat, so here I could see in person many of those more rare butterflies and MORE - things very rare as no one else carries except online because so many of us are coral Reef Heads (I represent that (giggle)).

Building facility is old, so when I first walked into store, the old ceiling, old floor were all sort of shocking... but frilly or trendy appearance isn't their nitch. They are focused on livestock. It is clean. Learned phone system is old TCP/IP based (remember those?! so they actually want people to leave voice messages (I never ever did...)), but staff is beyond friendly and beyond knowledgeable. Tanks are basic but AMAZING and clean. Store apologized for low stock so I've got to go back and see what 'stocked' looks like (tanks were stocked to me!) LOL. Store does REAL QT procedures - purposeful medications before sale. Learned rare for fish to leave earlier than 14 days after receipt from wholesaler, and often longer. Seriously focus on live foods for feeding saltwater fish, including multiple types of live pods(!), live black worms, great frozen selection of foods.

Learned leopard wrasse I've been considering really needs to stay OFF thawed foods as 'School of Fish' LFS working theory is thawed foods are why leopard wrasses have bad 'sudden death' reputation. Instead, runt leopard wrasse is doing better on live foods than every other wrasse that has come in - recommend feed live black worms and live pods - both right up my ally and both I culture. If people (and someday me) can spend that much $$$ for cutie leopard wrasse, spend a few dollars more for tiny 2.5 gallon tank and follow 'Lazy Banana Leaf' (peel) pod culture method (google it, or R2R search it or DFWMAS.org search it or check out my build threads (R2R or dfwmas.org) as I'm following that guy from Wales advice, tailored to indoors in tiny tank withdrawing daily about bottle of pods equivalent, once pods have been eating bits of spirulina for about 3 weeks)

Turns out all it takes to find 'School of Fish' is a little bit of faith in google and google maps. No secret handshake, but it does feel like I found the hidden speakeasy of local fish stores (giggle)

Glad I made the trip - ONLY REGRET - wish I had gone sooner...

 

[afrokobe]

My anecdote, I got velvet from school of fish. I only had captive bred mandarins and clowns, so unless the captive bred system had velvet, I definitely got it from them. The flame angel I got from them, developed velvet almost immediately and spread it to the rest of my tank. I always hear great things about them locally and willing to give them another try. Just really hard after losing my entire tank. I probably will go with Dr. Reef or TSM in the future...

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Sorry for your losses. Yes, I've used TSM out of New Jersey - good people, little quirky

I have just a little 5G PetSmart combo tank setup that mostly lives in storage beside or under my desk, but its handy for QT purposes and necessity given how wide a salinity variance DFW metroplex stores have.

Your post is a good reminder that using my own little quarantine tank for at least observation is a must.