Visible Pests at LFS

[Instigate]

Does your LFS have visible pests when you go in? When I go to my LFS that focuses on coral, almost every time I end up spotting some aptasia and/or bubble algae. Last time I went in I saw the largest aptasia I have ever seen. Didn't know they got that big. Some frags I've gotten there have come in with bubble algae and another one came in with flatworms. Not huge deals I think, I dip and QT all my frags to look out for such things. But I've only been to a handful of stores and wondering what's the norm? Should I be looking for another source? Or is this just kind of par for the course?

And while on the subject I also have a more standard LFS that has a good selection of fish. Sometimes when I go in the place is looking pretty good, clean, healthy fish, no dead or sick fish. But other times it's pretty rough. Obviously sick or dead fish in several tanks. I've also had some poor advice from the workers. I only have these two places close by. I recently found a place that seems pretty good but it's like 30 min away and much, much smaller. The other two places are more like 15 min away. Been thinking lately it might be worth it to just make the drive up to LA...

 

[Crabs McJones]

Does your LFS have visible pests when you go in? When I go to my LFS that focuses on coral, almost every time I end up spotting some aptasia and/or bubble algae. Last time I went in I saw the largest aptasia I have ever seen. Didn't know they got that big. Some frags I've gotten there have come in with bubble algae and another one came in with flatworms. Not huge deals I think, I dip and QT all my frags to look out for such things. But I've only been to a handful of stores and wondering what's the norm? Should I be looking for another source? Or is this just kind of par for the course?

And while on the subject I also have a more standard LFS that has a good selection of fish. Sometimes when I go in the place is looking pretty good, clean, healthy fish, no dead or sick fish. But other times it's pretty rough. Obviously sick or dead fish in several tanks. I've also had some poor advice from the workers. I only have these two places close by. I recently found a place that seems pretty good but it's like 30 min away and much, much smaller. The other two places are more like 15 min away. Been thinking lately it might be worth it to just make the drive up to LA...

The lfs by me has aptasia like crazy, to the point where they can no longer put coral frags in the tank because they die from getting stung. But refuse to do anything about it. I don't buy coral from them. Just any dry goods i can't get from bulk reef supply

 

[jasonrusso]

I bought a piece of man made branch rock from my LFS. It was in the live rock bin (I know most LFS have those) so I didn't think anything of it. After about 3 weeks I saw a couple tiny aiptasia. I zapped them with Aiptasia x. I have since zapped 3 more tiny ones. I know how this goes because I battled aiptasia in my fowler.

I hope I can eradicate this with aiptasia x. I know it's from the LFS because I only see it on the branch I bought there.

 

[jasonrusso]

I started this thread a couple months ago after my favorite LFS closed.

https://www.reef2reef.com/index.php?threads/311632/

Are LFS stores going down in quality?

 

[NanoCrazed]

One of my LFS that just closed due to retirement has pest anemones everywhere...so frags and LR come with bonus prizes... however, many are just really cool and unique.

A fun side project to consider is to create a pico or nano pest tank. I just set up mine in a 5G Marineland Portrait and love it.

Check out my post on this if you're curious...

 

[UserID]

I went into a store like that earlier this year, there's no way I'd buy coral from them. Another one I go to for fish only frequently has some visible pests too but not as bad. I still don't buy coral there since their selection is just ok and overpriced.

I'm lucky enough that Pacific East Aquaculture is my actual local FS and I've never gotten a pest from their frags or seen any in their systems. I've bought all my coral for my two current tanks from them and no nems or other nasty stuff. I did have some bryopsis issues this year but I don't know who it was from and that's a bit different than getting aipstasia or something.

 

[Instigate]

Sound more like I should be considering driving up to some of the stores in LA.

 

[PatW]

Any fish store can and will get sick fish and have some that die. They get fish from whole salers. The economics of the hobby pretty much make it too expensive to quarantine fish. They could, but I doubt that customers would pay them enough to make it economically viable.

A good store will be pretty vigilant about pests. I am lucky, there are four stores within driving range that grow corals. You cannot grow corals and be sloppy about pests.

I have found that it makes sense to buy fish from the store that has the healthiest stock. The smallest store I go to has the best fish. If I want something special, they will order it for me.

 

[ETBReefer05]

I find pests like Ich, Marine Velvet, and Green Hair Algae to be almost unavoidable due to the nature of wild caught specimens that have been taken directly from the ocean to LFS in a span of days or weeks. I would never purchase a frag or colony that is absolutely drowning in GHA, but a few hairs on a frag plug will soon die off in proper water parameters. In my current game plan for my tank build, I will be instituting the 45 or 72 day rule for all inverts and corals and 30-42 days for Fish. I definitely gauge an LFS by two things:1) Willingness to share or agree with methodology and opinions/anecdotes that mean you may buy less from them on your current trip, but make you a more successful aquarist. (Successful aquarist=longer term customer and more purchases). Example: "You can just cycle your tank with a damsel." Adding an aggressive fish first will affect every fish to come after and you will literally have to strip the tank down to the sand to catch it with a net (and maybe a damsel wasn't even on your fish list!) Not to mention, Ammonia is toxic, the cycle has a sharp spike of ammonia, its a little cruel. 2) Degree of effort put into maintaining displays and equipment used in the store. If I walk into a store and see your skimmer cups about to overflow, your display glass covered in Algae, or my second or third visit in a month with the same T5 bulb burned out, even if you're a wonderful hobbyist and have a 12 year old reef in your store that looks amazing, the fish you bring in the store are being kept at a disservice to the customers who may want to purchase them. If the basics aren't being maintained in your stock tanks, I assume the upper level tasks aren't even thought of and I can expect Aiptasia, Majanos, Bubble Algae, etc from any coral and rock I purchase. This is very hard to write, because the LFS in my area are struggling, but, I cannot knowingly introduce these pests into my aquarium ecosystem by purchasing from you.

 

[Kyl]

Any store knowingly peddling frags with flatworms should never be visited again. Other things like nuisance algae, it happens, but knowingly selling something like AEFW or monti nudibranchs to a hobbyist that may not know better is greasy as heck.

 

[ETBReefer05]

Any store knowingly peddling frags with flatworms should never be visited again. Other things like nuisance algae, it happens, but knowingly selling something like AEFW or monti nudibranchs to a hobbyist that may not know better is greasy as heck.

 

[lou dog420]

My LFS gave me the gift that keeps on giving, aptasia! Bubble algae too.

 

[Kyl]

Randy wearing a shirt levels of greasy.

 

[Instigate]

Any store knowingly peddling frags with flatworms should never be visited again. Other things like nuisance algae, it happens, but knowingly selling something like AEFW or monti nudibranchs to a hobbyist that may not know better is greasy as heck.

I told them that there was flatworms on the torch I got and the guy said "oh yeah, sorry about that. It happens sometimes when they come in from Australia."

But on the other hand, for all I know they dip the incoming corals and it's just inevitable for something to get buy sometimes. I guess I feel like I just don't have enough experience to know what's the norm.

One of my LFS that just closed due to retirement has pest anemones everywhere...so frags and LR come with bonus prizes... however, many are just really cool and unique.

A fun side project to consider is to create a pico or nano pest tank. I just set up mine in a 5G Marineland Portrait and love it.

Check out my post on this if you're curious...

I've been scheming on an aggressive fowlr tank and try to find some attractive majanos for it.

Any fish store can and will get sick fish and have some that die. They get fish from whole salers. The economics of the hobby pretty much make it too expensive to quarantine fish. They could, but I doubt that customers would pay them enough to make it economically viable.

A good store will be pretty vigilant about pests. I am lucky, there are four stores within driving range that grow corals. You cannot grow corals and be sloppy about pests.

I have found that it makes sense to buy fish from the store that has the healthiest stock. The smallest store I go to has the best fish. If I want something special, they will order it for me.

Yeah I don't hold it against them if there are one or two sick or dead fish. Sometimes when I go in it's minimal. But other times it's it bit much. When a fish is tore up they leave them in the displays for sale. I stopped buying livestock there and only buy foodand dry goods.

I guess I've seem some videos of some really impressively clean stores and have heard people mention the quality livestock available at their LFS and I'm just not seeing that kind of thing here locally.

 

[revhtree]

Hate to see it but have seen it often in many places!

 

[Fr0stguard]

My local lfs mainly has aptasia but little ones that they can't seem to get rid of. I've been in the store when they were using aptaisa x on all the ones they could find but they keep popping up it seems. So they have a separate tank for drags that are clean now.

 

[lou dog420]

I can see where it would be hard to keep it out of your system if you owned a LFS. But then again i guess that's what separates the ok fish store from the " wow" kinda fish store. Boils down to taking pride in your work.

 

[Jeepguy242]

i owned a gun shop for 5 years, shut it down and moved online only due to customers.... so i am pretty sympathetic to store owners....



unfortunately i only have 1 store in my area... fortunately they are pretty good... but the last 3 times i went in they didn't have what i wanted and i had to go online to get it...

 

[Kyl]

I separate coral sales from fish, two entirely different problems. Fish I treat every vendor as potentially diseased, so from one store to the next aside from husbandry there isn't much separation. It's not financially feasible to fully QT fish, nor would I trust a store to given how easy it can be to cross contaminate a tank. Corals though, the distinction I draw is there are two levels of coral hitch-hiking; nuisances and tank breakers. Algae is understandable and for the most part treatable, but some pests simply aren't acceptable and can destroy thousands in coral as well as being realistically un-able to be cleansed once established.

That's why a harsh stance is my initial reaction. There was a guy locally, knowingly spreading around both AEFW and monti eating nudibranchs from frags. So much so that the largest LFS in the area got hit with his hitch-hikers and were forced to separate and QT their acros and montis for months until the problem was eradicated. I bet they loved the opportunity and actual costs incurred to do the right thing and not continue spreading this to other hobbyists.

Stuff like that is a large part of why I set up a dedicated coral QT. I've had the nudi's already, and don't want to get it again.

 

[KMench]

Living near philly there are a few stores that are on top of this. TSM in NJ is awesome and runs a facility that looks immaculate. Then there's That Pet Place and a few others in the area that are nice too. I try to avoid the stores where I spot major problems even if it means a further drive.