Three!!! new saltwater stores in Albuquerque

[GreenUku]

As many of you know, the only all saltwater store in town, Coral Island, was bought out a couple months ago. That has left us hobbyists in a bind, because the new owners decided to move shop, which meant they would be closed for a while.

You may have also heard that the former proprieter of Coral Island, is now opening a new store.

That left us with no stores, but two on the way.

Well now it looks like there is yet another store: Emperor's Ocean. I was up on Juan Tabo and I randomly saw this store. I briefly talked to the owner, who said he had just recently opened. They are at 2120 Juan Tabo Blvd (87112), just south of Menaul (right around the corner from Clark's). They are partially stocked so far.

This weekend I also stopped by the site of the "new" Coral Island. The new owners moved to a much larger building on Candelaria, a little east of I-25. They said that they expect to get their first shipments in 2 weeks. They also said they'll have the same phone number as the old Coral Island.

I'm sure asfullax will give an up to the minute on the other store soon.

So it looks like we'll have more gallons of saltwater in Albuquerque than ever before.

[NGuay]

Nice. Hopefully this added competition will result in clean stores, decent prices, and healthy livestock. I'd love for a place to able to shop locally.

[xchrisjb]

This is good news ...

I've missed the last couple club meetings so I'm a bit behind on the local lfs news. Can't wait to check them out ...

[asfullax]

After talking with Rob this past weekend, he did mention to me that Emperor's Ocean was open / opening up soon. I guess the owner is still working a full time job and his wife is the owner of the bird shop next door.

The owner is planning on working full time at the fish store and Rob has been supporting him and his efforts, so I think we can all be assured that the quality of the store will be wonderfull. :D

Thanks for the heads up. :)

[GreenUku]

Here's is the lastest LFS info summarized:

Southwest Reef Company (http://www.southwestreefcompany.com)

2400 Menaul NE, Albuquerque, NM 87107
505-884-0901
Open by Nov. 1
Run by Rob, formerly of Coral Island


Emperor's Ocean

2120 Juan Tabo Blvd, Albuquerque, NM 87112
505-980-5966
Partially open already


Coral Island

505-830-9188
on Candelaria east of I-25
Open by the end of Oct.
New owners and a new, larger store


This info will also be in the NMOK newsletter and on our website.

[isotope21]

I had an opportunity to visit Emperor's Ocean this morning at 10 AM. Jason, the owner, had not yet arrived so his sister, Michelle (who runs the bird shop next door) allowed me in and showed me around.

The shop is perhaps halfway finished. The South wall is a nice bank of large tanks. I guess he's got about 1000 gallons plumbed together. The inverts section, which I think will be around 250 gallons total, is still dry. I saw some PFO MH ballasts lying around so I'm expecting good things.

Much of the livestock appeared to be battling infection (lymphocystis, from what I could tell) although almost all were actively swimming and otherwise quite healthy looking. I wonder if he'll start running copper?

Remarkably, he did have cleaner wrasses (Labroides d...) in most of the tanks that were going to town on all of the other fish and even each other. Cleaner wrasses! Michelle told me they've had a lot of requests for these fishes... which is really too bad, IMO. I subscribe to the belief that these obligate cleaners should be left in the ocean. See here for more info. (http://www.wetwebmedia.com/labroide.htm) So I'm hoping he'll discontinue this practice and instead recommend all of the great cleaner shrimps easily available in the hobby once he's got the invert section up. Meanwhile, it's obvious that these wrasses are doing a nice job cleaning everything up in the store.

It's also clear that he likes to keep BIG fish at the store. Many of the specimens were nearing their maximum dimensions. And he also had some very unique critters like a tiny little boxfish, a puffer, and a few butterflies that I hadn't seen offered locally before.

Cheers,
Pete

[GreenUku]

Anyone stop by Southwest Reef Company for the opening today? (I assume that happened...)

Let us know how it went.

[asfullax]

I am heading down there in a little bit. I havent heard from Rob, but I have also been on vacation so I will post up any news tonight. :D

[NGuay]

I've had a chance to stop by the three stores now.

Emperor's ocean is the smallest of the three. It looks like its going to be pretty nice though. It's about half way done and he isn't stocking corals yet. Nice and as mentioned above, very large fish. The only downside is I have a hard time making it there when the store is actually open. The posted hours aren't really the hours so far.

I stopped by Southwest Reef company and it seems like it's going to be a nice store. Not a lot in there yet, but it's coming along. All of the tanks had water I think, but weren't all stocked yet. Not much to say, but I'm sure it's going to be nice. I look forward to seeing more in there.

Coral Island is huge and it's also a huge mess. They've got a lot of work to do. They have a ton of display tanks. They had well under half of the tanks filled and were stocking both fish and corals. It's kind of a big warehouse and I didn't feel like I should be in there yet.

All and all I'd say we should have some nice options.