You people made me a fish hippie.

[dcowling]

This past weekend I went to Augusta for a wedding. Right up the street from my hotel was a LFS, which I won't name because I have nothing good to say about them.

What I saw inside with respect to their marine stock made me sick.

This store had 2 banks of connected "tanks" that held all their marine organisms. All shared the same water and skimmer(which was not functioning and woefully underpowered for the amount of water present). The tanks were about 10 inches across the front, about 12 to 16 inches front to back, and about 12-14 inches deep. Needless to say a VERY small space for practically any fish. Most notable was a huma huma tang, that was so large he actually had problems turning around without touching the sides of the tank. There were many other very large fish so confined. I left without saying a word to any employee in the place.

I simply couldn't believe that any fish store would keep their stock in holding that was so incredibly stressful. I didn't see how those accomodations were much better than the shipping containers they arrived in. Granted, it made them easier to catch for sale to customers, but I doubt any knowledgable aquarist would purchase from them.

I went in there to look at their setup and evaluate them for potentially carrying my family's future mariculture products.

They failed miserably. There is no way I would associate with that store, or ever visit it again.

Funny thing is, a year ago I wouldn't have thought much about it. Thanks everyone.

Seriously.

[Immortalnight]

I encountered an incident similar to this also...
I was on my first ever quest for marine fish, and located a new "saltwater only" fishstore. I went in, and was a little revolted. The incredibly small display room was crammed with small, twelve inch tanks for every fish, some with way too many in one tank.
Not only did the fish not look happy, but the store wasn't exactly first class either. The store was dark, with little lighting for the fish and invertebrets, and the cement floors were dirty and soaked with salt-water. I was not happy.
However, a few months later, I received some interesting news about the place. It had apparently wisened up, and moved to a new location. Despite a little apprehension, I decided to see what was so different.
When I went, I was shoked.
The Store enteracne was on ground level, with water-proff blue carpeting and bright lighting. The first floor was a small rectangle with some nice empty aquariums and starter kits for sale. There were some stair going up about five feet to the "loft" area, where the rest of the store was. I was thrilled.
Not only was their shelving organized in a neat manner, leaving lot's of open space to browse near fishtanks, but the tanks themselves were larger, with clearwater and blue backdrops, perfect for showing off the beautiful, and vivid colors and displays of their selection of fish. They had a least six completely stocked reef tanks around the store, simply for display, and many of their corals were housed in a tide-pool like tank that was only a foot of so deep but with a fall constantly pouring water in. The tank was an excellant way to disply corals while still making them easy to get at for employees. You could see all the colors through the shallow, clear water, and they even had some starfish and inverts mixed in!
Live rock was even set up in a gorgeous manner inside a huge 100-gal tank.
The emplyees (many new) were friendly and always helpful, and my favorite part of the whole store was at the counter, where a mini 10-gal reef tank was set up. It had lots of corals, an anenome and some hair-algae. The strong pump made good water circulation and made all the algae and anemone's move about in a manner that you could easily mistake for an ocean current. There was also a beautiful, vibrant clownfish in there. The entire set-up was even on sale (300 something dollars I beleive).
I'm just glad to see the improvement of the store; I always go there for marine supplies now.