What's missing in your LFS?

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92Miata said:
Like half the fish in this place have notes on the tank that they're not for sale - and a lot of corals. From what Ive heard they have a a couple of the owners friends who pick through everything when it comes in, and get it for almost nothing, and everyone else pays higher prices for whats left.
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Lame. If they can make that business model work, god bless, but I don't see how. It doesn't help that there are so few stores (around me, at least).
 
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Meatball_reef said:
Lame. If they can make that business model work, god bless, but I don't see how. It doesn't help that there are so few stores (around me, at least).
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What's crazy is there's a store about 20 minutes further that is great - mostly fish on the smaller side - lots of captive bred - nothing that gets huge - you have to order if you want a unicorn Tang or something - no newbie accidentally walks out with one.

And everything is clearly marked with prices and dates.
 
Good stuff above. I'll pile on..

+1 on pricing on tank (please no flea market), pest/nuisance management. no dead fish. c'mon...

What's missing? I'll add in
  • Consistency in posting stock lists (particularly non-coral) on their social/online presence. I get it things sell out and it can require discipline to maintain. And most importantly you want me in the store to impulse-buy that frag I don't have room for. But I'll come in the store anyway. And if you have the livestock I'm looking for, I'll buy it and that frag.
  • The question "Tell me about your setup". Admittedly I'm still learning/new on the coral game - and buying something that ultimately I'll struggle with is a good way for me to seek out another LFS to trust.
I do appreciate that LFS's are getting squeezed hard. I try to support as many as I can first. I'll pay a premium for knowledge and cleanliness.
 
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ExpensiveSushi said:
Good stuff above. I'll pile on..

+1 on pricing on tank (please no flea market), pest/nuisance management. no dead fish. c'mon...

What's missing? I'll add in
  • Consistency in posting stock lists (particularly non-coral) on their social/online presence. I get it things sell out and it can require discipline to maintain. And most importantly you want me in the store to impulse-buy that frag I don't have room for. But I'll come in the store anyway. And if you have the livestock I'm looking for, I'll buy it and that frag.
  • The question "Tell me about your setup". Admittedly I'm still learning/new on the coral game - and buying something that ultimately I'll struggle with is a good way for me to seek out another LFS to trust.
I do appreciate that LFS's are getting squeezed hard. I try to support as many as I can first. I'll pay a premium for knowledge and cleanliness.
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i totally get the stocklist thing! it would have saved me so much time in the past having a general knowledge of what they have in stock at the time, especially when i was looking for something specific and just hoping they would have it
 
Does anyone else feel like some fish stores just have too much in the ways of products. I feel like if they had less products and didn't just carry every brand it would make things easier and i would be more likely to buy what i need
 
I guess I’m pretty lucky that I live in Orlando. All the LFS here are great! :) I guess one thing I would like to see (I’m not sure if it’s even reasonable though) would be some kind of classes? Maybe a class on fragging corals, a class on general aquarium maintenance for newbies like me, a class on aquascaping Etc. I’m one of those learn by doing/seeing Kind of people so there is only so much I can learn from reading and watching YouTube. Lol
 
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Cooper32803 said:
I guess I’m pretty lucky that I live in Orlando. All the LFS here are great! :) I guess one thing I would like to see (I’m not sure if it’s even reasonable though) would be some kind of classes? Maybe a class on fragging corals, a class on general aquarium maintenance for newbies like me, a class on aquascaping Etc. I’m one of those learn by doing/seeing Kind of people so there is only so much I can learn from reading and watching YouTube. Lol
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that would be really cool to be able to have a store hold events like that
 
Honestly? My LFS is pretty small. But they have a pretty decent selection of coral, and many more tanks than you’d expect. I have not seen aptaisia or even nuisance algae. Do they have a fish die every now and again? Yeah. But they run qt before even putting fish out on display. And they have they’re own coral farm. Their gear selection isn’t huge but they don’t try and sell you on something just because they carry it. My “I wish” isn’t even something necessary. Just would be nice. I wish they had an area to mess around with ‘scaping like the newer WWC store supposedly has. But honestly? My LFS is pretty good. Shout out to the Reef Indy!
 
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I have one Petco and another LFS within an hour of me, the others are at least 2hrs or more, and I have no clue what they look like or carry. The best one I have heard of is 3 hrs south of me.

So just better stores closer to my area would be great.
 
I have one Petco and another LFS within an hour of me, the others are at least 2hrs or more, and I have no clue what they look like or carry. The best one I have heard of is 3 hrs south of me.

So just better stores closer to my area would be great.
 
Color, if we didn't have internet access I would swear all corals are brown or green. I have yet to see a colorful zoa, "for that reason I'm out". Sharktank humor.
The local fish shops need to carry something colorful, I spend about 90% of my money online. I have 6 stores all within a 45 minute drive. Change of the times I guess
 
jeffrey750750 said:
Color, if we didn't have internet access I would swear all corals are brown or green. I have yet to see a colorful zoa, "for that reason I'm out". Sharktank humor.
The local fish shops need to carry something colorful, I spend about 90% of my money online. I have 6 stores all within a 45 minute drive. Change of the times I guess
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i totally get this!!! one of the stores by me either doesn't light their tanks well enough or they just don't carry anything with good color. literally every zoa they sell is brown
 
Wish the store weren't snarky with their "17 years of knowledge" or the other store where they seem the best LFS in the area, but all the fish we get from them die. Florida suppose to be the mecca for all this stuff but i'm honestly disappointed in my area, so much more freshwater, which is lame both FW and that we don't have more SW.
 
jeffrey750750 said:
Color, if we didn't have internet access I would swear all corals are brown or green. I have yet to see a colorful zoa, "for that reason I'm out". Sharktank humor.
The local fish shops need to carry something colorful, I spend about 90% of my money online. I have 6 stores all within a 45 minute drive. Change of the times I guess
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You are not kidding, the state approved coral lab like 2 miles from me exclusively grows brown and beige corals.. like who is going to buy that lol
 
burgundy said:
Wish the store weren't snarky with their "17 years of knowledge" or the other store where they seem the best LFS in the area, but all the fish we get from them die. Florida suppose to be the mecca for all this stuff but i'm honestly disappointed in my area, so much more freshwater, which is lame both FW and that we don't have more SW.
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a lot of stores like to boast their years of experience and then their stores look bad, the water is green, they have no selection and dead fish in every tank. seen my fair share of those
 
ReefBot Lab, Automated Water Tester
The only store near me closed before I got into saltwater... I have to travel 90 minutes in any direction to get to saltwater stuff. And the ones at that distance are riddled with pests... I learned to love coral RX really quickly
 
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IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
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