608 Alert

[Weasel1960]

#608Reefers Good news ... Live Art Aquarium on Odana Rd is opening their doors finally. The bad news is they are going out of business. Last day is June 20th. Hours Thursday’s-Sundays noon to 5pm. Face masks required, max of 8 in the store at a time.

 

[littlebeard]

Where am I going to get my fish? And don't say petworld or animart .... they make petco look good.

 

[Weasel1960]

Where am I going to get my fish? And don't say petworld or animart .... they make petco look good.

LOL. I was at pet world in March and their tanks were actually clean and looked good, had just gotten on some new fish and frags. I keep checking them out while planning my build. actually Looked better than animart on east side

 

[Bcheek]

Yea this is really sad news, maybe big kahuna will open to the public again

 

[Bcheek]

LOL. I was at pet world in March and their tanks were actually clean and looked good, had just gotten on some new fish and frags. I keep checking them out while planning my build. actually Looked better than animart on east side

I was at petworld in February I think? And they had multiple dead fish in their saltwater tanks :/

 

[Viperdragon]

Ya I saw this I'm still looking at different places to get fish locally. I got my clown fish from badgerland Saltwater in Janesville he is a very helpful and gave me some good advice. What are some good stores to check out.

 

[cwerner]

Animart in Beaver Dam just reworked their saltwater fish stuff and it looks a lot better. I don't know if it'll stay that way, but it looks clean for now. They don't really have anything for frags though, just fish.

EDIT: Best Fish in Milwaukee is still probably the best store I've seen locally.

 

[adittam]

I went in to Living Art on Thursday and they were BUSY. Lots of people excited to be back in there in person, and lots of people expressing their sadness that it was closing. I picked up a bicolor blenny and a devils hand leather that looks awesome.

To answer the questions about other LFS options, I've had pretty good luck at Badgerland Saltwater in Janesville, Big Kahuna is open by appointment if you give them a call.

 

[dmy535]

Sad.. but I bet I could tell you why they are closing..... smh

 

[Weasel1960]

I just went there as well having never been there before. I was mainly going looking for equipment for my upcoming build. I was surprised they were mostly a livestock retailer. If anyone is looking for QT or small tanks they are already consolidating and selling off tanks. all Kinds of frags some scoly, are zoanthids really that small? New to all this but about 10 polyps but each no bigger than a pencil eraser.

 

[Midrats]

I've known Paul for twenty years. With all the "be backs" coming in to figure out what they need and then buying it all from BRS, I'm surprised he stuck it out this long to be honest.

 

[littlebeard]

I was at pet world in March and their tanks were actually clean and looked good, had just gotten on some new fish and frags. I keep checking them out while planning my build. actually Looked better than animart on east side

I was at petworld about 2 weeks ago. 90% of the fish were aquacultured clownfish, which isn't horrible, but after you have a pair of clowns.... that means 90% of what they have is of no relevance to me. I also noted they had a few chromis's with Uronema. Still, when I am in a bind they do have saltwater equipment/food and also tanks. (can't beat the prices on their 10 Gallon tanks)

I've known Paul for twenty years. With all the "be backs" coming in to figure out what they need and then buying it all from BRS, I'm surprised he stuck it out this long to be honest.

The LFS is a challenging business for sure, but BRS has been around since 07, marine depot and amazon since the 90's. I can't imagine holding on for 20+ years if he didn't have at least some success. I feel like this was personal or covid related possibly both. I've seen quite a few mom and pop places(non LFS) call it quits since covid started and now that we've basically retrained our entire population to shop online due to covid, even if these stores re-open it's only an uphill battle.

Best Fish in Milwaukee is still probably the best store I've seen locally.

90 minute drive for me Not sure I would consider that local. Still considering my alternatives might be worth the drive. (google pictures looked promising!)

Ya I saw this I'm still looking at different places to get fish locally. I got my clown fish from badgerland Saltwater in Janesville he is a very helpful and gave me some good advice. What are some good stores to check out.

This is probably the closest place to me that I have found that I'd actually consider buying fish at. I got a tang there more than a month ago and he is doing well. He also sells corals that look half way decent unlike whatever those things are that petworld/animart sell. Small store, I hope he can keep it running!

Yea this is really sad news, maybe big kahuna will open to the public again

When I spoke to one of the owners about 7-8 months ago when I went in to get a fish, what I understood from his conversation is that he wasn't interested in fully re-opening as he was primarily focused on servicing salt water tanks. I think they were were going to also focus online as well. Again that was my understanding and things may have changed. Those guys obviously know what they're doing, best sps I've seen around (beautiful giant mother colonies)... quite phenomenal.


I really think if we want more decent LFS in the 608 area code we're going to need to draw more people in the area into the hobby.

 

[Toddah]

One of the difficult things about having a local business be successful (or even survive) is we as the supporting community MUST be willing to fork over a premium in price to keep that store financially viable. We cannot expect a local store owner to buy stock, pay the interest on the money they have tied up in stock and sell things at a discount price. They have lights, heat, electricity, employees, die off and such as well as hoping the owner can eak out a living and pay his bills at home.
Think of how often you have used the LFS as a showroom to view, learn, discuss keeping a certain coral or fish or sand or rock spending an hour of the employees time then went home and bought it from Marine Depot or other online vendor.
You must support your LFS by spending your hard earned money at their store and yes paying 10, 15 or 20% more on something so this guy can stay in business and you have a LFS to go to.
And are there stores out there gouging for some items absolutely! but that's not just a LFS problem, go online and price check bags of reef sand and look at the disparity in pricing the exact same name brands of sand.
I have a guy in my local area just starting up and I have gone out of my way to buy his stuff jus tot help him get established. He is a great guy and has tons of experience in salt so he is a great asset to our local community.
Just like local restaurants (not chains) or grocery stores or auto repair shops you need to look at the service you get from a storeowner compared to the 17 year old kid making minimum wage working for a chain store. Don't shop by price alone also consider your money being spent locally will rebound throughout the community as employees and owners spend their paychecks. Your not just supporting the store but your entire community instead of the stock prices of the megabox retailers.

 

[Midrats]

@littlebeard I think it was more like 17 years, 20 years ago he worked at Aquatic Specialties in Shorewood. I know he's had success and I also know everyone buying everything online has been a problem since day one. It was a problem for me in the 90's when I was in the business, except it was mail order from the back of FAMA and other magazines. Most of the distributors that used to sell wholesale only will sell to anyone these days.

 

[Salsa30]

This is too bad to hear. I was looking forward to checking it out after just getting back into the hobby.

When I spoke to one of the owners about 7-8 months ago when I went in to get a fish, what I understood from his conversation is that he wasn't interested in fully re-opening as he was primarily focused on servicing salt water tanks. I think they were were going to also focus online as well. Again that was my understanding and things may have changed.

I bought my dry rock from Big Kahuna, and this is the impression I got as well. I asked a couple months back what kind of plans they had to open back up without an appointment and he explained they were focusing more on service maybe setting up systems for larger clients? But that I could put in special orders.

To answer the questions about other LFS options, I've had pretty good luck at Badgerland Saltwater in Janesville,

Thanks for the lead, I'll be sure to check them out sometime.

 

[Weasel1960]

That’s weird about Big-K. I was in there last September shortly after they got their new space and they were remodeling a fairly large area for retail. They showed my their coral tanks and were starting to set up several rows of display tanks. That’s disappointing as most of the shops in Madison are closed.

 

[JayRozzer]

I get all my food etc. from Big Kahuna. I’m not sure why everyone thinks they’re closed to the public? They have all sorts of stuff for sale. Fish, coral, food, you name it.

 

[Midrats]

I get all my food etc. from Big Kahuna. I’m not sure why everyone thinks they’re closed to the public? They have all sorts of stuff for sale. Fish, coral, food, you name it.

I went by yesterday to have a look, still no walk-ins allowed. Do they sell LRS foods?

 

[Weasel1960]

Check their web site or Facebook I seem to recall somewhere only open Thursday thru sundays noon to 5

 

[Karen00]

One of the difficult things about having a local business be successful (or even survive) is we as the supporting community MUST be willing to fork over a premium in price to keep that store financially viable. We cannot expect a local store owner to buy stock, pay the interest on the money they have tied up in stock and sell things at a discount price. They have lights, heat, electricity, employees, die off and such as well as hoping the owner can eak out a living and pay his bills at home.
Think of how often you have used the LFS as a showroom to view, learn, discuss keeping a certain coral or fish or sand or rock spending an hour of the employees time then went home and bought it from Marine Depot or other online vendor.
You must support your LFS by spending your hard earned money at their store and yes paying 10, 15 or 20% more on something so this guy can stay in business and you have a LFS to go to.
And are there stores out there gouging for some items absolutely! but that's not just a LFS problem, go online and price check bags of reef sand and look at the disparity in pricing the exact same name brands of sand.
I have a guy in my local area just starting up and I have gone out of my way to buy his stuff jus tot help him get established. He is a great guy and has tons of experience in salt so he is a great asset to our local community.
Just like local restaurants (not chains) or grocery stores or auto repair shops you need to look at the service you get from a storeowner compared to the 17 year old kid making minimum wage working for a chain store. Don't shop by price alone also consider your money being spent locally will rebound throughout the community as employees and owners spend their paychecks. Your not just supporting the store but your entire community instead of the stock prices of the megabox retailers.

Well said!!