@mcarroll there are several but all are 1 to 1.5 hours north, south and west of me. The trouble is, none of them offer any kind of guarantee. The place I used to buy most of my fish from is where I got the velvet that wiped out 9 out of 13 fish. The sand sifter goby & 2 chromis survived from that store. That was it. It didn't help that in those early days I added too many at one time, and didn't QT. I did get my 2 darwin clowns, mandarin, bangaii, and barber shop goby from another source but lost 2 bangaii's, 1 mandarin, and a firefish from that store. That's 5 out of 9, and not all the same trip. Another store, 2 purple queens, 2 dispar anthias. Have the dispars only now. Another store, 2 mandarins, lost 2 mandarins. Out of all the local bought fish over the last year plus, I have 11 fish in 2 displays. Running close to 50 % loss or more if you count the velvet outbreak, and money lost. Can't tell you how many I had purchased. I could go add them up as I keep good records...
It's very frustrating, especially losing a fish one day after receiving it and knowing that another might not make it. I can just tell it's not right. But at least since ordering online, I've not lost any money as all fish have died within the warranty time. I wish there was a good local store that had healthy fish. Now that I'm doing qt, may try that one store again. The owner might work with me as I told him why I no longer buy fish. but when I think of the fish that have died from LA and the ease and no questions, no pictures needed customer service, its hard to risk money locally.
