Brad Miller
Valuable Member
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2018
- Messages
- 1,511
- Reaction score
- 4,823
- Location
- Dover, Pennsylvania
- What state or country do you live in
- Pennsylvania
Located on Centerville Road in Lancaster PA. (I live about 25 miles away from there)
This was a family owned business since 1973 and in 2015 was sold to long-time employees Rick and Chrisi Amour.
I’ve been going here for many years now, and in the last couple of years I’ve seen in a steady decline in the quality of care taken with their fish and coral selections offered. (the company still does a very good job with dry goods, pet food and everything else they do, while staying very active in the community)
My visit there today was most likely my last.
I called this morning to check stock on a Tomini Tang, that I saw they had on their internet site.
I asked a few questions about the Tang and the young gentleman later agreed to place one of them on hold for me to stop and look at after work.
They had 2 juveniles that came in about 4 days ago and were in separate tanks (all tanks are on one saltwater loop)
I asked what they’ve been feeding them and was told that they feed all their fish the same frozen mysis shrimp. (no algae or nori for the tangs)
The one would spit out the mysis while the other seemed to eat it, I thought...that’s ok, normal for that.
After looking closely, the one that spit the mysis out had a white spot between his eyes and up a bit.
The other had some white dots on his back side.
We scooped up the first one and put him under an led light to reveal his sides and face mostly covered in ick.
We did the same with the second one and he was worse.
(Obviously no quarantine procedure for new arrivals is in place)
I then asked if they could quarantine one to treat and to call me when he is clean.
The other young gentleman in charge said he didn’t know if he could hold them that long, to which I asked....why not?
His answer floored me....he said that the fish would definitely sell over the weekend as it is and he knew the manager would not do what I had asked.
Wow...ok....what do I say to that....let me tell you what I said...
I said...”you would put this fish back in the tank with ick and sell it to someone as it is ?
You don’t know how sick this fish really could be and you would do that ?”......his answer was ....yup, you guessed it...”yeah, it will sell, someone might buy him and treat him themself too.”
This was the last straw for me in this place when it comes to any fish and livestock here.
Thought I would share this with the R2R community in case someone wanted to know how a local guy has seen the decline in care of their livestock.
Coral frags are neglected every time I’m in there too, I stopped in a couple weeks ago and noticed most are freshly glued and tank is very dirty. I asked the lady about the condition of the tank and she said...”yeah were really running behind on that”
Reminds me of what we call a “chop shop,” although they order in everything and don’t cut their own frags.
Sad, to see this happen to my only LFS worth anything anymore, to decline to this substandard mentality.
This was a family owned business since 1973 and in 2015 was sold to long-time employees Rick and Chrisi Amour.
I’ve been going here for many years now, and in the last couple of years I’ve seen in a steady decline in the quality of care taken with their fish and coral selections offered. (the company still does a very good job with dry goods, pet food and everything else they do, while staying very active in the community)
My visit there today was most likely my last.
I called this morning to check stock on a Tomini Tang, that I saw they had on their internet site.
I asked a few questions about the Tang and the young gentleman later agreed to place one of them on hold for me to stop and look at after work.
They had 2 juveniles that came in about 4 days ago and were in separate tanks (all tanks are on one saltwater loop)
I asked what they’ve been feeding them and was told that they feed all their fish the same frozen mysis shrimp. (no algae or nori for the tangs)
The one would spit out the mysis while the other seemed to eat it, I thought...that’s ok, normal for that.
After looking closely, the one that spit the mysis out had a white spot between his eyes and up a bit.
The other had some white dots on his back side.
We scooped up the first one and put him under an led light to reveal his sides and face mostly covered in ick.
We did the same with the second one and he was worse.
(Obviously no quarantine procedure for new arrivals is in place)
I then asked if they could quarantine one to treat and to call me when he is clean.
The other young gentleman in charge said he didn’t know if he could hold them that long, to which I asked....why not?
His answer floored me....he said that the fish would definitely sell over the weekend as it is and he knew the manager would not do what I had asked.
Wow...ok....what do I say to that....let me tell you what I said...
I said...”you would put this fish back in the tank with ick and sell it to someone as it is ?
You don’t know how sick this fish really could be and you would do that ?”......his answer was ....yup, you guessed it...”yeah, it will sell, someone might buy him and treat him themself too.”
This was the last straw for me in this place when it comes to any fish and livestock here.
Thought I would share this with the R2R community in case someone wanted to know how a local guy has seen the decline in care of their livestock.
Coral frags are neglected every time I’m in there too, I stopped in a couple weeks ago and noticed most are freshly glued and tank is very dirty. I asked the lady about the condition of the tank and she said...”yeah were really running behind on that”
Reminds me of what we call a “chop shop,” although they order in everything and don’t cut their own frags.
Sad, to see this happen to my only LFS worth anything anymore, to decline to this substandard mentality.
