Who lives the closest & farthest from a saltwater fish store? What do you do if you live FAR away?

[OrchidMiss]

Nope. Hidden Reef. It’s not that close, but worth the drive. I think the last time I bought the big Red Sea blue bucket there it was under $50. BRS sells it for $80.

oh, ok. Never been there, but it's right over the Bristol Bridge! I will have to check it out.

 

[G Santana]

I have a fish store within 5 miles... well at least they have a sign that says they are lol

 

[WheatToast]

1. How close to a saltwater fish store do you live? Tell us about it!
I live about 12.5 miles away from Diablo Corals (Concord, California), but I have never visited or purchased from them… yet.

 

[Mechanic907]

living in alaska we have few LFS that support salt water, the closest is 52 mile away from my home, but it is worth the drive the staff is always helpful and they usually have a relay good selection of stuff.

 

[pjb9166]

I have two competent LFS 0-5 miles from my home. There are 9 shops 6-25 miles from my home. Problem is they pretty much carry all the same stuff. I’m all about supporting the LFS small business. But for a more serious reefer. Unfortunately online seems to where it’s at.

 

[AustinBabler]

I live in northern illinois about 40 minutes west of Rockford. So it’s a 40 minute ride to petco. There’s one other shop I go to called Wayne’s Feeds. But saltwater stuff pretty limited there too. I do most of my shopping online. BRS, WWC, and Liveaquaria are my favorites.

 

[MT. Reefer]

We have a Petco and an aquarium shop in town, 18 miles (half hour). Neither, in my opinion, can qualify to be called a saltwater fish store, just because they have a few saltwater fish. The nearest quality store is in Missoula, 130 miles if I want some good Saltwater advice and equipment, or Spokane, Wa, 250 miles, has a few good stores.

 

[haitian_reefer]

Does BRS count? I live in the same city

 

[MillennialReefer]

The closest one to me is a Petco. (Its a good one, the person in charge of the fish is also a hobbyist) But there are better ones in my radius, but I'm just too lazy to go lol.

 

[Fazzimus]

I live 800 metres from my local Reef store. They're a great bunch of people and the store keeps getting better over time.

I hope they continue to be awesome!

 

[muzikalmatt]

I have one LFS that's 7 miles away and another that's just under 20 miles away. There's also a larger one that's about an hour away (~50 miles) which I've been meaning to visit.

 

[SHINYSuccubus]

rI have a ten-hour round trip drive to Edmonton for the closest LFS -- about 1000km of driving for mysis and the like. The only way to do this is to make a day of it, but I still end up driving in the dark on airbanks, AKtwo lane highways with logging trucks and moose, which is certainly not ideal, and especially in wintry weather. In addition to Human Emergency Equipment, I always travel with Fish Emergency Equipment, including styrofoam coolers, heat packs, extra bags, and I even have a small pump with a USB port.

i’m impressed by your courage! my brother was in fairbanks, AK for years, and just riding down those dark winter roads is terrifying - and. that’s w my fishies safe in TN!!

 

[davidcalgary29]

i’m impressed by your courage! my brother was in fairbanks, AK for years, and just riding down those dark winter roads is terrifying - and. that’s w my fishies safe in TN!!

It's fine if I can do it in a day. I made another lightning trip yesterday, spent 10 minutes at the LFS to get salt, food, an essential item that I thought was impossible to find in Canada, and phyto. I'm not going to attempt it again until the end of February when the days get longer.

Grande Prairie is only a four-hour round trip for me, and the Petsmart there sometimes has basic frozen food. I'll probably try to organize some type of order with them if I can't make my own food from the frozen food aisle at the supermarket.

 

[saltydog81]

The closest LFS for me is 60 miles which is roughly an hour drive. So I usually have a list of the things that I need and then when comes to livestock, I usually keep a Styrofoam container in the car, because we usually have other stops to make before heading back home.

 

[BarrieNoob]

If I want to have affordable options that are more likely to be healthy, I have to drive an hour south to Toronto and then decide if I want to go to FragBox, CandyCoral, Aquarium Depot, GTAReef, I'm sure there are more but the planning of a journey like that by car or TTC would be insane not even including having heavy, bulky, fragile purchases to ferry. Parking at Yorkdale and taking the TTC to Glencarin is very doable. Then I'd have to go back making the minimum round trip 3 hours without any layovers.