Why should you support your local fish store???

Well said!

 

We love you Craig! And the advice that comes along is why we always try to buy with you vs online. The service goes miles! You guys run a great operation

 

I love the local stores!!! I can see in person what I'm getting. I hate paying shipping so I feel better on that end. And last but not least I've never got advice from internet stores. LFS rule!!

 

Wish you were in DSM. I support the LFS down here as much as possible but none of them have the expertise with the equipment you have or (as far as I can tell) the dedication to proper quarantine procedures. The stuff I bought from you at FF is doing great. I meant to get some of the berghia nudibranchs but spaced it off - oh well the aptasia are probably happier that way. LOL I still need to make it up to see your place and maybe drop a few dollars.

 

Thanks for your dedication Craig. Your store is always a pleasure to visit...and a pleasure to buy from.

 

It is a shame that a lot of other stores don't take pride in the hobby any longer. So many have just slid into the "make a buck, make a buck, make a buck" mode. I am sure that it is in part because of the national stores like PetCo and PetSmart that they have to compete with, but the day of most good shops is gone.

Keep up the positive service Craig.

 

Here here!


I spend a lot of time in our LFS here in CV, and more often than not I can already tell what the phone call is by the owners tone.

"No... No... Nope... No we dont match prices... Well.. When they have 35 years of experience to help them along then we will match their prices." And he is always right. We have a couple dogs and buy our food at the local 'petngo' store I often walk through the fish section and wonder how many of the fish or inverts even make it... let alone the melting corals...


I've wathced him send people right out the door, I have watched him refuse a sale, I have wathced him shoot down a terrible idea for 5 gallon salt tank for a nemo fish to some one with no experience.


To help keep costs down I often donate Corals that I would otherwise have to extinguish and he sells them at a great price for people getting started. And he has always been there when I needed something in a seriuous pinch. When I needed to borrow a large tank to hold LR and fish during an emergency split and reseal, I was able to walk in, and walk out with a used tank. No cost to me. He even helped load it. And I am often used as a test bed for new products at no charge. It's a mutual relationship that has evolved over time, And it is more than worth the cost out of pocket! Besides, if I don't know it, he does. Which is AWESOME.


HERE'S TO THE LFSGUYS!

 

I am in the process of over hauling my 135 gallon display and I've been bugging other members that have been in the hobby longer for LFS to hit. I've been researching different fish and coral online. I've chatted with a couple online stores and none of them an compare to the advice and just general interperson care some of our LFS have. I've been to AC&C, Coralville, Bay, Sea of Marvels, Coral Heaven, and soon to add Iowa Pet Foods to my list of shops I've at least visited. I've purchased mangroves and a star fish from AC&C. Working on getting a Hepa Tang from Coral Heaven (dang flat tire). Normally get my snails from Sea of Marvels. All of my corals have came from other club members whom have gotten them previously from other member or LFS. As I dive further into my research and over haul of my tank I am glad for the assistance of club members whether or not that member is part of a LFS or not. This club is the only reason I'm still moving forward with my tank. Support the LFS people. They are part of the glue that holds the hobby and parts of this club together.

 

GIRS needs a LIKE button!

 

I totally agree, if, and this is a BIG if, they conduct business like you do. I hear on the larger forums about people developing great relationships with their LFS trading coral frags, chaeto, and other macro algae for credit or animals. Or about them taking back and refunding for aggressive fish or providing at least some sort of after purchase support.

Well not in Des Moines!

I try to support the LFS here, I really do. I buy some dry goods there and have bought livestock from time to time but they really make it hard. Neither Adam's or Seascapes offer even 24hr live guarantee on coral or fish. Alright, I can live with that. They don't take coral frags or anything like that for trade. Ok, I guess that helps places like the reef club have more frags to give away. They often don't have a good selection of corals (Adam's especially) and many of the fish really look in bad shape. I know this varies from time to time, and it's not easy to have large systems. Neither place really carries much dedicated to current reefers - you do at ACC, I have been in your shop, but many times I hit the local stores before going online for dry goods, but they often don't have what I am looking for. And finally neither place is very accommodating about helping you out. I have bought fish from both places that were too aggressive. Ok, my brother bought freshwater fish from Adam, but same story. Neither place no matter the time period, 12hr, 24hr would take the fish back for even partial credit. At seascapes they made a HUGE fuss and made me feel like a jerk and they were doing me a favor for taking back a $180 eel that they could resell despite the fact I really gave them $360.

I see "support your LFS" threads from time to time and they generally bash online buying, but they really have to support us too. I can get general liveaquaria fish cheaper than local, if you get a couple of fish even with shipping they generally are cheaper. Heck even divers den animals that have been in holding for a while and eating are in many cases cheaper than local DM prices. They have a no hassle 14 day guarantee for a full money back refund, not credit. They will even refund the money if the coral doesn't look like the photo! Their raised coral has 30 day guarantee.

I do like to support local, but at what point does it make me a sucker to keep buying local DM when the above is true? I have not been out recently, but for the past few months the best saltwater LFS has been petco. No joke.

 

My expectation of the LFS is to provide displays of healthy livestock and to provide the equipment to raise the livestock. A huge bonus if they sell used. I also expect them to have a common knowledge or typical species mentality. However, in know way would I hold a consumer harmless for not researching their purchase. I have bought a few things from (store) that didn't make 24 hours. I would never ask for a refund because I am 100% confident it was consumer error. I only mention (store) as ref because I am also 100% confident that if those fish were in his tank they'd still be alive. In a refrase. It is ultimately the consumer's responsibility to understand theproduct and should not be the retailers responsibility to cover lost funds on the consumer's ignorance regardless of the retailer's ignorance. For instance a sales person at coralville bay offered me a mandarin goby stating their care is easy and no problem in a new tank. I read otherwise and made my decision that this store was not of interest to me. I will not buy from an online retailer because I love the ability to go and shop for my product and build relationships with others ( in this case others within the hobby.

 

If you're not able to do the research to determine whether not a fish might be too aggressive for your own tank then you cannot expect nor rely on somebody that doesn't have a clue what is in your system to be responsible for giving you a refund.. Do the research ..90% of all the corals that are in my tanks came from either Adam's or seascapes and my tanks are awesome. Big-box stores deal in large volume therefore they can offer significantly cheaper prices than a local fish store can. Unfortunately you cannot walk into a big box store and get the kind of services you will receive at either seascapes or Adam's. Do you really think that by bashing in a public forum on local fish stores in Des Moines that that's going to make them any more eager to help you?? I would not be the reef keeper that I am today if it was not for Adam's and seascapes to assist with questions and gain some of their knowledge.
Sorry to hijack your thread Craig I can't agree with you more on most of your points.

 

Wow, how condescending, well said! If you must know I had a bristletooth tang and he started picking on clam’s mantle. I, of course, did my research and 99% of bristletooth compatibility posts say there are fine with clams. Look it up yourself. Your assumption that I don’t do research is more ignorant than any fish purchase I have ever made. Good for you that the livestock you bought are doing well, I am happy to hear that. I have never lost a single saltwater fish from petco, all 4 are doing well so right there is 100%, aren’t we awesome.


You will see in my post that it is just not the lack of guarantee that I have a problem with here; there are multiple issues at each store. It is a personal choice and I was sharing my reasoning, if they want to compete for my money they need to improve. I do buy from them with some items, as I said, but I work hard for my money and there are some things I won’t accept. I was not trying to bash them; it is an honest account of my experiences there. And yes, I have had the same level of service at petco. Every single person working the saltwater I have talked to at Petco has their own saltwater system. I will say I like Tim at seascapes, he knows his stuff and is helpful, but he isn’t always there. I like to visit the LFS every week or every other week just to browse. Sometimes Seascapes looks great. We all don’t have positive experiences, are we not allowed to share those?


Back to the guarantee, someone, of course, pays for that. It is from either higher livestock cost or less store profits. The only reason a consumer should accept reduced services is price. The logic that no guarantee is good because it forces us to do research is the same as the store should sell sick fish to test our quarantine systems and make us better at treating sick fish. How about a fish store that flat out lies about care required so we have to do research? How would you like if your doctor operated like that? “Well the Dr said my tumor is malignant, but he does that sometimes to check to see if I am doing my tumor research.” Now if no guarantee means a lower price than that is alright, it is up to the consumer to place a value on the guarantee and decide where we wish to put our money but don’t justify a lack of support as being good in any other way.






EDIT: In a previous post I said an eel was aggressive, I apologize, that was from my friends system, although it still happened. My issue was as stated above with the tang.