Poll: Distance to Your Favorite LFS?

Tuffyyyyy · Nov 3, 2017

I feel like this question is skewed. Favorite LFS are when I'm in Tampa for the holidays and can go to one of the 500 (But special shout out to Coral Corral and Creative Aquariums) they have within an hour of my family. I have 3 in town but none of them are that convenient to me and only one of them will I purchase fish from. I've also been driving to Montgomery (1.5hrs) for work lately and they have a great store, so I've been hitting that up a good bit.

Reefrookie220 · Nov 3, 2017

I shopped at my favorite for 5 years or so, then got a job there!

Brew12 · Nov 3, 2017

I consider myself lucky that the best LFS in my area (imo) is also the closest to me. It is still around 25 miles away.

Rakie · Nov 3, 2017

I must drive past like 10 shops to get to the only two I'll visit.

Again, I feel I must say note my location -- I live in the land of LFS'. There's are at least 3-4 within 5 miles of my house. Unfortunately, not one of them is halfway decent.

XNavyDiver · Nov 3, 2017

There are only 4 that I know of in the town NW of me, about a 1.5 hour drive from our house. 1 of them is more of a pet store than a saltwater specialty store, and their tanks made me shudder the one time we poked our heads in. More of a fish concentration camp really. The other 3 are all really small places, two of which I would consider "nice". Of those 2, I like one the best because the manager is such a great and friendly guy and a real straight shooter. So that's where I go when I can. The other one that's nice, but it's too "boutiquey" for my taste. Tiny, ultra high end prices, absentee ownership/management, and one person staff lacking in any real reefing knowledge.

J Rog · Nov 3, 2017

I have 3 that I mainly go to (World wide corals, Top Shelf Aquatics, and Living Reef). They are all with in 20- 30 mins drive time. I only have one buddy that is into the hobby (both of us left for a little over a year but are now back). So what we use to do is what we called the weekend tour. We hit up all the stores in an afternoon.. Last weekend was our first “weekend tour” back after the day break. Definitely going to do our weekend tour this Sunday! [emoji12]

PiscesPower · Nov 3, 2017

I'm thankful that Barrier Reef Aquariums is only 7 miles away. There are a few others not too far north. We are pretty lucky here that there is a better selection that in a lot of areas.

ccbobafett · Nov 3, 2017

I have 3 stores within 5 minutes of me but I prefer to go to exotic fish and corals which is about 30 minutes away. Great prices and healthy fish and a large selection of fish and corals. And always getting new exotic fish every couple weeks.

saltyhog · Nov 3, 2017

I have a pretty good store (especially for fish and inverts) 19 miles from my house, but there is an awesome coral store about 75 miles. Unfortunately most of those 75 miles are winding two lane roads making it take almost 2 hours to get there.

Maritimer · Nov 3, 2017

My fave LFS is a dozen miles to the East ... and about two miles from the next one over, which can make for a pleasant combo-trip. Was just there this evening, in fact ... scored some frozen snacks for the fishies, and a few frags from the $15 tray. ("frags" - which included golf-ball-plus sized acro colonies ... and an acro crab!)

~Bruce

Zack K · Nov 3, 2017

crabs_mcjones said:
My favorite one closes to me is about 68 miles away. I have to go from Fond du Lac, down to Milwaukee

Aquatics Unlimited?

Crabs McJones · Nov 3, 2017

Zack Klabunde said:
Aquatics Unlimited?

Best Fish

wgowen13 · Nov 3, 2017

There are many in the Metro-Detroit area. A favorite is PetConnection. It’s about 20 minutes away. My other favorite stores are in Cleveland, OH which is about 2.5-3 hrs or in Chicago, IL which is about a 3.5 hr drive. Never disappointed. Worth the distance.

rockhead51 · Nov 4, 2017

Favorite is 3.5 miles away. About 80% of my purchases there. 15% online. 2 other LFSs within 45 min: one I go to whenever I am in that area, one I don't really go to unless there is a specific reason.

Labridaedicted · Nov 4, 2017

Maritimer said:
My fave LFS is a dozen miles to the East ... and about two miles from the next one over, which can make for a pleasant combo-trip. Was just there this evening, in fact ... scored some frozen snacks for the fishies, and a few frags from the $15 tray. ("frags" - which included golf-ball-plus sized acro colonies ... and an acro crab!)

~Bruce

I need to drive to your store for those acros!

Zack K · Nov 4, 2017

crabs_mcjones said:
Best Fish

Yea. For sure. They are my closest LFS and I’m down in LG so either Milwaukee or Chicago. I’m lucky to have Adam from Battlecorals within walking distance, along with another big local aquaculture. So coral is covered[emoji23]

TonapahNorth · Nov 4, 2017

Brew12 said:
I consider myself lucky that the best LFS in my area (imo) is also the closest to me. It is still around 25 miles away.

I’ll be in your neck of the woods later this month. What’s the name of this place?

P.S. I think all of you that live near the big names are lucky ducks. And everyone else should be dropping names so we know.

Brew12 · Nov 4, 2017

TonapahNorth said:
I’ll be in your neck of the woods later this month. What’s the name of this place?

P.S. I think all of you that live near the big names are lucky ducks. And everyone else should be dropping names so we know.

Aquatic Cove

Crabs McJones · Nov 4, 2017

Zack Klabunde said:
Yea. For sure. They are my closest LFS and I’m down in LG so either Milwaukee or Chicago. I’m lucky to have Adam from Battlecorals within walking distance, along with another big local aquaculture. So coral is covered[emoji23]

You should check out boom corals, hes not far from us either, he's in Colgate. @BoomCorals