Good LFS in area

[Melbourne]

Hi,

Does anyone have any recommendations for LFS that keep good SW livestock and is pleasant to deal with? I'm located in Northern Westchester, so I'm willing to travel up to 45 min or so.

Thanks,
-Mike

My TBS package should be here tomorrow :)

[joetbs]

Mike, check out these stores(they're all within 10-15 minutes of each other)

NY Aquaria - Mamaroneck, NY - good for frags/corals
House of Fins - Greenwich, CT - good for corals/fish/rare stuff
Reef and Fin - Stamford, CT - good for corals

hth
joe

[masterswimmer]

Animart in West Haverstraw (Rockland County) is nice. Three great show tanks with the corals all for sale in them. Ok for fish and inverts too.

Tropical World in Balmville (5 minutes north of the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge) has nice frags/coral and fish.

Beitels in Pearl River (Rockland County) has a very nice selection of corals/frags/tridacnids/fish. Owner is not the best personality on the planet.

Let us know how you made out,
Russ

[joetbs]

Be careful in animart, they don't acclimate the livestock. I live 5 minutes away, and every fish(close to a dozen) i've ever bought from there died.

Beital's, well, is not the best either. Deals can be had if you can tolerate being sized up when you go in there. Alot of corals are usually piled upon one another. Some of the prices are outrageous...$60 for a clarki clown, $100 for a spiny oyster, etc.

joe

[Melbourne]

Thanks for the info everyone.

Quick update on my TBS packages.
My TBS packages arrived today. Picked them up at LGA this morning. 5 boxes in total, ordered two "packages", one for myself / one for a friend / and 10 lbs of TBS base rock and 10 lbs of LR for my mantis tank / fuge. Weight was around 170 lbs, shipping came out to $76.00

Everything was well packed, triple bagged or double bagged, filled with water. Slight leak from two of the boxes but nothing major. Had time to get everything into my two tanks, sand storm has cleared up nicely on my main tank. Rock looks nice, not as porous as Fiji but still very nice, lots of coralline, sponges, a few feather dusters, lots of barnacles, clams, and lots of other things which are yet to be identified. I haven't had time to look for all the hitchers, but in putting in the LS / LR, I found 2 starfish, 1 large astrea snail, 1 barnacle encrusted crab (not sure of the type, doesn't look like a gorilla, about the size of a quarter).

-Mike

I found the TBS base rock to be very nice as well, not alot of sponges but plenty of coralline growth, barnacles, etc.

[seaham358]

sounds like you made out well with the order... any pics

[Melbourne]

Link to tank pics

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=369793

[Tomzpc]

Mike,

There is also a decent marine LFS in Bedford. I can't think of the name right now but I used to pop in there on my way home every so often when I worked in White Plains. It's a small store in a small strip mall. If you check the yellow pages I'm sure you'll see it. Again, not a great store mostly due to its size, but they did have very healthy livestock.

[dynamixone]

PETCO in yonkers and Nanuet have a basic selection and appear real cheap. I am unsure of there livestock quality and care though

[joetbs]

There's a petsmart in nanuet, not petco. Only fw fish.

joe

[dynamixone]

petco went in just behind the nanuet diner where oddjob used to be and they have SW fish there.

[joetbs]

Hmm, didn't notice it. I was at tower there last weekend too. Thanks for the heads up.

joe

[dynamixone]

No problem! each tank had at least 1 dead fish in it in the SW section, but people were buying like crazy. the prices were real cheap and 10% on top of that

[Tomzpc]

Reef Splendor has started a wholesale club for hobbiests. Read about it here (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=391664) .

[dfgrgwy]

DONT BUY FROM BIETALS!!!:eek1: :eek2: : :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

Craig (owner) is a shiester... hardly ever there and will not stand by on his word. They will intentionally try and sell you anything despite the description of your tank. They sold me a leopard blenny that ate my acros and will not offer even store credit on anything let alone a refund... Not only that but the same day at the same time I purchased an acro colony from them too. If you look at this link it will tell you that that is all the it eats... BEWARE... and yes they do pile corals on top of one another and the corals always look bad. also what no one is aware of is that they get fish shipments continuousely direct from the divers so they get them dirt cheap and thier death count on fish will make anyone sick to their stomack.

If you want to go to a great store go to New York Aquaria in Mamaroneck... Sal is a real great guy. Prices are OK sometimes there is a good deal here and there but you have to look hard. and they do take care of their tanks real nice...

Just thought that you all might want to know