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

How far away from a saltwater fish store do you live?

  • 0 - 5 miles

    Votes: 197 30.3%
  • 6 - 25 miles

    Votes: 237 36.5%
  • 26 - 50 miles

    Votes: 98 15.1%
  • 51 - 100 miles

    Votes: 61 9.4%
  • 101 - 150 miles

    Votes: 21 3.2%
  • 151 - 250 miles

    Votes: 14 2.2%
  • 250 miles+

    Votes: 14 2.2%
  • 500 miles+

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • 1000 miles+ (you better post in the thread)

    Votes: 2 0.3%
  • 2500+ miles (where the heck are you)

    Votes: 5 0.8%

  • Total voters
    650

Gtinnel

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If we don't count petco I'm about 160 miles away from anything I would describe as a saltwater shop. There is one small place that occasionally has saltwater fish. They are priced well when they have them though.

I'm about 250 miles away from my favorite reef shop.
 

sweat90lx

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There is one about 10 miles from me but I won't do business with them.
I'll drive 90 miles or order online.
 

sweat90lx

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There is one about 10 miles from me but I won't do business with them.
I'll drive 90 miles or order online.
 

RyanTN

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Used to have a couple local placed for saltwater, but neither carried coral. Both are out, or almost out, of saltwater completely. Started driving 1 1/2 to 2 hours away to look at and purchase limited fish and coral. Most the time it was hit or miss if anyone had anything. Turned to online and have had huge success. I know am addicted (wife's diagnosis) to online saltwater purchasing. In fact waiting for a shipment to show up today.
 

Reef craze

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I put 250 miles but honestly we don’t have a good store anywhere near me. I’d have to drive to whole other state. I live in wv and we have nothing. I can’t think of a good store in even the surrounding states.
 

s_spowart

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I can walk to my closest salt water fish shop in about 3 minutes, its only about 3 doors down from my corner shop and they are quite good as well.
 

imgoingrogue1

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I'm 2.4 miles from my lfs. Fortunately it's a good place has been in business for a couple of decades so I'm lucky. Equipment I still buy online but fish, corals, and foods I'll go there.
 

Jackcarp

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There is a small saltwater fish store 90 miles from me, however they are only open on sundays and have a very limited selection and I never travel there on sundays. I usually wait until I make a trip to SLC (8 hours each way) to hand pick anything. Otherwise I usually just purchase things online.
 

flashsmith

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I have a few around me. Funny thing for me is the wholesaler is close by as well. They all get fish from there and they all have almost identical stock every week.. Some of the fish are pretty emaciated as well. There's one store in particular that just won't buy if he sees something off in the tanks. That's who I buy from.Others will buy whatever they have that week no matter what it looks like. So finding a reputable owner is key to success in my opinion. I haven't seen anthias in nearly a year locally and now every shop within 50 miles has loads of them ..
 

elcapitan1993

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I live 6 hours away from the nearest saltwater store, I have to save up and plan a road trip when I want to go to to the store to buy corals or fish, I wish I could go whenever I wanted and buy a cheap frag all the time or just go and look and see what they have, but unfortunately if I’m driving 6 hours I want to buy at least a few hundred dollars worth of stuff to make the trip worth it, for all you people that live right next to one you really don’t know how lucky you are to have access like that!!!
 

Hooknit

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I have a LFS with in spitting distance. The only issues is they do not stock but can order anything. I have been in there several times and seen people wanting what they had in tanks oh that's another customers it's on hold. They do have a few things though.
 

jtone_philthy_aquatics

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my answer is 250+ unfortunately. I grew up in philly pa and I had a lot of reef shops near me when I was living there and I recently moved from Southern California ( laguna hills / laguna beach area ) which if anyone lives in SoCal then you know their are PLENTY OF OPTIONS when it comes to buying corals or fish. I moved to Missouri to help my mom take care of my gram and now I have to do all of my reef shopping online. I never did it this way until I moved here and I've been in this hobby for around 14 years now. I was super bummed for a while but online coral shopping is actually great! if you order enough for the free shipping you can really land some awesome deals on coral. I use ( reef tide / top shelf / corals.com / reef sanctuary / Jason Fox signature corals ) I love it I haven't had any bad pests the corals always come looking amazing the colors are always so vibrant with these vendors! plus getting a box in the mail full of coals makes me feel like a little kid on Christmas morning lol its always exciting waking up and waiting for the fed ex truck to pull up. I have been going to the seasonal frag swaps that Bahama lama is involved with is St. Louis mo. I've hit 1 of those so far and im going again on November 13th so im really pumped for that to happen! the gingerbread kids will be there this time and I've heard great things about them so I can't wait to check out their booth!
 

OrchidMiss

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