Heads up on local fish....

[kayaaandjaden]

I just thought I would put up a post about Pet Creations. So far we have bought 4 fish from them, they are all still alive and healthy...I have purchased 5 from Ocean Reef, they are all dead. Everyone of them had a disease, and none of them made it. They were all purchased at seperate times.
He has a few Lps, inverts, etc. Seems to have more each time I go.
Carlos is the only guy to talk to, everyone else knows nothing about the fish and they will tell you that too. So, if you need to talk to someone, I would call and makre sure he is going to be there first.
You wouldn't even know they had salt water from the look of things outside. The store is located on 17 about a mile east of Budweiser.
Honestly, at this point....(I am sure there are other stores out there, I would like to check out Danco), but right now, I wouldn't buy from anywhere other than Pet Creations or Bio-Reef.
Oh, and if you have kids....they have a pony in the store too
-kaya

[mecold]

That is strange about ocean reef. The first fish I bought were from oceanreef. I bought two false percs. They are still with me after almost two years. Ocean reef was the source of most of my inverts and corals before I found stores that were a little easier for me to get too considering my drive to jax. Still, I check out ocean reef to see what I can find when I come to jax. He gave me an awsome deal on a ORA frag last month. As a matter of fact, the sold me the ORA Rosco acro for about 1/3-1/2 the price I have seen it sold for online.

As for the other stores, Bioreef and Robs reef are favorites. Danco is a good store that is growing it's selection, and is about the only place who carries cerith snails (with competitive prices on drygoods).

For the fish, there are so many reasons why they can die. One of my downfalls is that I did not have a quarantine tank until two months ago. Now I put everything in that tank before adding it to the main display tank. It gives my a safe place to treat for any bacteria or parasites without worry of spreading them to the other inhabitants.

[dacro]

Ditto on Ocean Reef... Teach has purchased a few fish for her school tank, but never had any real issues.

There are a couple of young guys working in the store who are quite knowledgeable. We, too have gotten awesome deals on corals...

Give them another try!

[racerw]

Ocean reef has ALWAYS been helpful. If I am looking for something they do not have Mike will do everything to get it.
All the employees are friendly do not give up on them.

[reelfreak]

I have a 3 year old clown from ocean reef and a 5 year old damsel from them as well.......

Opinions are like....we all have them and they usually stink.

[kayaaandjaden]

Well, that's is totally what we thought at first. We were really impressed. Then when we noticed tail rot the moment we got him home, I called...the response I got was...."well, you should have know this was an expensive hobby."
It never was about the money...it was about the sick fish. She then told me I could buy my fish elsewhere and buy my corals etc from her...I said nothing, but thank you and then told my husband we wouldn't go back.
I hope you all continue to have good experiences with them. I didn't post this to make them look bad. More so to let you all know there is another fish store out there, one that I have yet to have a negative experience with. It is off the beaten path, and we really just stumbled upon it in the yellowpages, and made the trek from Fernandina. I would have never stopped just driving by.

[Bennihanna]

This post seems a little contrived, is it just me? I personally have only heard horror stories about PC. I mean the second I saw the pony caged up in a store, I am out of there! That is just wrong!

[kayaaandjaden]

How is the store much different from a barn? Actually, surface area wise, he has more room in there than in a barn. Plus he is getting attention. Attention, he wouldn't get locked up in a 9' x 6' cell. And he isn't in there all the time. There are times when we go in there and he is out to pasture.
But, I have no loyalties to PC here or there. I just think Carlos is pretty knowledgable. He is meticulous with his tanks, and we haven't had a problem. I wouldn't deal with a single person in there, other than him. That isn't an insult to them, like I said before, they will tell you straight up that they know nothing about the fish. When Carlos is on vacation, you are pretty much on your own.

There is nothing contrived here. I have just only had good experiences with them.
Just like a lot of you guys have never had a problem with OR.

bennihana
ps...do you ever think that about your fish, when you are looking at them in thier "cage"? Just out of curiosity, do you eat sushi?

[Bennihanna]

I do eat sushi, but not pony. I see a difference between the two. Sorry not trying to flame here, just don't think stores should generalize so much. If your going to sell feed sell feed don't sell coral too.

[kayaaandjaden]

True, but if your going to generalize, then you should hire someone whos knows what they are doing, which they have done.

[PelagicMagic]

sounds like an ad for petcreations to me. That place is overpriced too. Ocean reef is a much better store

[skillplyr55]

Well in PC defense Carlos is very helpful when it comes to SW he really helped me get started when I didnt know anything about the hobby what so ever but I believe you cant really judge a store because a fish died. It is a different story when they are rude but I havent ever had a prob at either store I have gotten some great stuff from OR I go there every time I go to JAX they are always very friendly and they have some killer deals somtimes. Either way they are both fine with me .... You cant plz everyone.............................Oh, leave the pony out of it he's cool looking and the kids like him those people take great care of all there animals

[Bennihanna]

I still don't want to eat the pony though.

[skillplyr55]

yeah Ill pass on the pony as well

[rmills]

Im sure pony burgers are fine. lol