Southern California LFS???

[orionsmamma]

Hi all!

I know a few of you are from Cali, and am wondering if anybody can reccomend LFS that I sould visit. I am going from Vegas to Orange county, and would prefer not to stray too far off the beaten path. I will be in the Costa Mesa/Newport area, and also the Laguna Beach/Mission Viejo/Lake Forest areas. I would be interested in anything from here to there.

TIA!!!

Donna

[LVfishguy]

There are a bunch of forums for the SoCal area you might want to drop them a line.

[orionsmamma]

I actually did post in the socal forum, but I thought a few people here were from cali origanally. It's worth a try anyhow!

[Abominable Reefer]

If you're coming in on the 5 you probably won't pass close enough to me to make it worth the trip. Tat Tropical Illusion in Ventura and TO is pretty decent. If you are coming in on the 101 for whatever reason you can hit both on your way to LA.

[LVfishguy]

look here (http://www.nova.edu/~giro/lfs.html)

Found this too. Don't know how much help it's gonna be but it's a start.

[opihi]

Donna, are you looking for fish or corals? I've gone on a couple SoCal LFS runs and have seen some decent places.

i think there's a place called All About Fish in Orange County that had a lot of nice fish. a little expensive, but not out of line compared to here.

LA residents have recommended a place called Tong's in Fountain Valley, which is also in Orange County. they had a lot of stuff, but the store gave me a weird feeling. it reminded me of 6th avenue in SF if anyone knows what that place is like (bad conditions). they also recommended Reef Collection in Huntington Beach, but i was quite disappointed when i went. apparently i caught them between shipments when they had very little livestock.

there's also Jeff's Exotic Fish in Gardena which has good prices and pretty good selection of livestock if you're lucky enough to get there just after a shipment. they normally have a large selection of softies, LPS, LR and reef critters on any given day.

i've been to a handful of other stores, but those are the ones that were the largest and most memorable. i haven't been, but i want to check out that shop east of LA that Matt was talking about. i think it was AWExotics?

anyway, if you're going on the weekend, here's a fair warning: a lot of the LFS seem to have been plundered by the weekend, so don't be disappointed.

OT (off topic), are you taking orion to the "happiest place on earth" or something?

[orionsmamma]

Thanks opihi!
Actually, We used to live over there, and are going to visit with the kids we used to care for (I ran a daycare, in the process of getting licenced again). I cant stand Disney Land! Way to many people, I get irritated trying to dodge the crowd lol.

I just wanted to check out a few places, maybe pick up a few more pounds of live rock. I thought the stores might be better there, we dont have much to choose from here. I might pick up a pair of royal grammas, but that might be another thread. I dont want to overstock, and I will have my LM blenny and two clowns already. I'm not even sure that they will get along...more reaserch!

[opihi]

yeah, i'm not a big fan of disneyland either. same reasons.

if you're going to get LR, i highly recommend jeff's. he's got several bins full of pacific LR. pretty good prices too.

LR page (http://www.exoticfish.com/liverock.html)
exoticfish.com (http://www.exoticfish.com/)

[Shak]

AWExotics (Aquarium World Exotics, Apple Valley, CA) store is only about 5 miles off the I-15 in Apple Valley, worth the visit as he has a ton of frags and an awesome 150+ SPS display that blew me away.
He is located at:

Aquarium World
18838 Highway 18, Suite 8
Apple Valley, CA 92307
Phone: (760) 946-3474

The store I've been telling everyone about that I made a road trip down and purchased my tank from is Total Tropical Fish, located at:

1043 W FOOTHILL BLVD
UPLAND, CA 91786
(909) 982-2214

They are an authorized Ehiem dealer (very rare) and are a fairly new store, he has 3 huge vats with corals and clams that are very very nice and his prices are unreal. I bought my 2" purple tang from him because I couldnt resist, for 49.99. Most of his clams were in the $50 range and he had a huge assortment of LPS and SPS.

It is not far off the beaten path, look it up in mapquest and you'll see. Hope that helps.

[orionsmamma]

Thanks Shak! I'm going to check out Total Tropical Fish on my way home.

[opihi]

Hey Donna,
did you go to SC already? just wondering what you bought :)

[Shak]

yeah, what did you see? what did you buy?

[mcsock]

If you are looking for a place with hit and miss selection (gets a lot in, but sells/ships out a lot), but near wholesale prices, Jeff's is a must.
If you want a better than average selection at 3x times the price, Tongs is the place.
On your drive it Aquarium World in Apple Valley might be ok. I have never been to his shop, but Todd the owner is attends most of our local frag swaps and is a nice guy. He supports the swaps and the locals.

[orionsmamma]

I was only able to stop by one place, and that was Petown in Lake Forest. The selection was not bad, although I was not looking for corals. I picked up a couple lbs of Fiji live rock, a cleaner shrimp, some nassarus snails and a green emerald crab. The rock has a colony of zoas on it, and a small colony of star polyops, along with tons of feather dusters and a gosh darned apatsia. Needless to say, as soon as I saw that thing I pulled the rock out and squirted the little bast*rd with boiling water. Havent seen it since. I have had no die off on the rock, and am very pleased with it. The rock is covered in maroon and pinkish purple coraline. Everything survived the trip, with the exeption of a few snails(and I'm not sure they were alive when placed in the bag). Overall I only spent $50, the prices were way better that what you see around here. Although, I had to buy better lighting for the zoas and stars, so maybe it cost me a bit more :)

[TippyToeX]

Pictures, pictures, pictures!! Oh, pretty please. :D

Man, I need to get some nice Fiji rock soon.

[orionsmamma]

I only got 2 1/2 lbs, so the 2 rocks are small. Heres a few pics, I'll get you more soon.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=395136

[TippyToeX]

Thanks for the link. Looks like good coralline. I like the zoanthids too of course. Great hitchhiker. :)

Glad you killed the aiptasia. Nasty things.

[orionsmamma]

Heres some more...can anyone identify the red micro algae stuff??

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010305.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010307.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010303.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010308.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010304.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010302.jpg

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v284/orionsmamma/P1010309.jpg

[TippyToeX]

Could be Gelidium sp, aka red hair algae. Is it brittle to the touch. If so it might be something different. Could be Gelidiopsis if so.

Any chance of a close up and a texture description? Also, can you pull it out with ease?

[orionsmamma]

Its nothing like green hair algae, if the red version is the same. Its kind of brittle/stiff. There is also a small patch that is green, and one that is white/tan. I have not tried to pull it out yet, I was not sure if it was good/bad. It stands up the same way when it is out of the water, I touched it before I put the rocks in the water, and it did push down, but it sprung right up. I hope this makes sense, my batteries are dead in the camera.

[TippyToeX]

It does make sense. I would not worry for now. :)

Do get another picture of it when/if you can. No rush.

[the Undone guy]

im driving to Anaheim saturday, i want to visit ONE LFS on my way out there, which one would you guys reccomend?

[opihi]

just one, huh? every store that i went to in LA seemed significantly different from the next. what are you hoping to find? corals? fish? a LFS that you've never seen before?

[the Undone guy]

yea just something interesting to look at, im poor right now and my tank isnt finished cycling so there wont be much for me to buy.

[orionsmamma]

The one I went to had some pretty good prices compared to the stores here. Its right off of the El Toro exit off of the I-5 freeway. I didn't go to any other stores, so I cant speak for them. HTH

Donna

[opihi]

i always recommend jeff's exotic fish, but that's a bit father north from anaheim. you might want to try out "All About Fish". they had a big store that was well stocked. it's only about 5 or 10 minutes from disneyland.

[the Undone guy]

I honestly am going to be lost, i'm heading out there to see a band play, so i'm pretty much heading for the beach, then to the venue, then home. I was hoping to grab a look @ a LFS on the way there by just jumping off the highway. I'll surely get lost roaming in anaheim=/

[opihi]

hehe. well, then maybe you'd be better off jumping off the 15 to stop off at one of the LFS's east of LA.

[the Undone guy]

that sounds like what i want to do....now im lost on which ones are right off the i15 !

[opihi]

this is matt's post from page 1:

Originally posted by Shak
AWExotics (Aquarium World Exotics, Apple Valley, CA) store is only about 5 miles off the I-15 in Apple Valley, worth the visit as he has a ton of frags and an awesome 150+ SPS display that blew me away.
He is located at:

Aquarium World
18838 Highway 18, Suite 8
Apple Valley, CA 92307
Phone: (760) 946-3474

The store I've been telling everyone about that I made a road trip down and purchased my tank from is Total Tropical Fish, located at:

1043 W FOOTHILL BLVD
UPLAND, CA 91786
(909) 982-2214

They are an authorized Ehiem dealer (very rare) and are a fairly new store, he has 3 huge vats with corals and clams that are very very nice and his prices are unreal. I bought my 2" purple tang from him because I couldnt resist, for 49.99. Most of his clams were in the $50 range and he had a huge assortment of LPS and SPS.

It is not far off the beaten path, look it up in mapquest and you'll see. Hope that helps.