Why I don't frequent local (or chain) fish stores

[doomiedee]

I only buy dry good on line, rarely live fish. Adding the shipping cost, buying on line is more expensive than buying from LFSs. People bring in over grown fish to LFSs all the time, and buying big fish from LFSs is often a bargain. Another advantage of buying locally is that the water chemistry is likely the same as yours, and with a short trip to your home, the survival rate of the newly acquired fish from LFSs is much higher. So instead of picking fish from the pics, you can pick and choose individual fish from the LFSs. When my LFS brings in new stock, I usually wait for few days or weeks to observe the well being of the fish before buying.

This is true. Look at my wolf fish. A while back I saw the same kind of wolf on aquabid just smaller got for around $70+$45 for express shipping. Waited a few months and got my wolf for $30 and it's bigger then the aquabid one.


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[BuffaloPolypteridae]

Eh. You also have to take into consideration that a lot of people who are rich own huge tanks, and dont really get into it. Like go online and join a forum to talk about it. Im sure the # of people w/ huge tanks in your area vs the # of people w/ huge tanks who are interested enough to be on a site like this is a pretty big difference. Plus its kansas, wouldnt RTC do well in a pond year round?

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[Wrightt3]

I'd like to disagree on this...though I agree about the fish part... but for people.. I would love to see us go back to nature. I hate the direction we are going... we're in dire need of a zombie apocalypse!

Meh, call me crazy but I prefer modern civilisation to spearing deer to death and sleeping in a cave lol. Thank you for partially agreeing with me though.

 

[Wrightt3]

Eh. You also have to take into consideration that a lot of people who are rich own huge tanks, and dont really get into it. Like go online and join a forum to talk about it. Im sure the # of people w/ huge tanks in your area vs the # of people w/ huge tanks who are interested enough to be on a site like this is a pretty big difference. Plus its kansas, wouldnt RTC do well in a pond year round?

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Surely you would have to be interested in the hobby to be willing to spend a small fortune on one of these tanks?

 

[BuffaloPolypteridae]

Surely you would have to be interested in the hobby to be willing to spend a small fortune on one of these tanks?

To some people dropping 5k-10k on a glorious fish tank isnt much of a thing. Ive been to a couple buffalo bills players houses for parties, where they had fish tanks anyone on here would envy, yet couldn't name most of their stock let alone where they came from etc.

While compared to myself, I love the hobby for the sake of the fish, rich people usually get giant tanks as status symbols more then anything. Don't get me wrong, I bet a lot of them are interested but just not into it enough to say join a forum and talk about fish.

In fact, most of the really nice neighborhoods in my area have giant tanks in them houses that the owners never take, and are sold as part of the house. This has happened to a few friends of mines parents, and they would say "oh why not?" And drop a ton of money on it, then just show their friends and after that they lose interest. Still keep it around for the serentiy and nature but they just aren't into it like we here on MFK are

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[SharptoothBass]

OP i think you are wrong calling the person at the store a liar because u dont know that for sure, there are lots of people who have large tanks and could care less about this site or others. Most of the people i know with fish dont use these kind of sites. . Look at ATM from tanks and fish tank kings they do alot of biz aside from the tanks on the show yet how many people here have tanks from them. People get on this board and start to think everyone who has fish is on this site. I know people (like my uncle) who have had fish since before i was born and never used a site like this. My LFSs do a lot of biz every week and i watch people buy huge tanks and order tanks all the time. I used to sell a lot of fish and very very few of the people who bought them are on here. U have no idea the setups some folks have in their house. Everytime ive picked up a tank from glass cages the parking lot is full of people buying big tanks.

 

[rodger]

OP i think you are wrong calling the person at the store a liar because u dont know that for sure, there are lots of people who have large tanks and could care less about this site or others. Most of the people i know with fish dont use these kind of sites. . Look at ATM from tanks and fish tank kings they do alot of biz aside from the tanks on the show yet how many people here have tanks from them. People get on this board and start to think everyone who has fish is on this site. I know people (like my uncle) who have had fish since before i was born and never used a site like this. My LFSs do a lot of biz every week and i watch people buy huge tanks and order tanks all the time. I used to sell a lot of fish and very very few of the people who bought them are on here. U have no idea the setups some folks have in their house. Everytime ive picked up a tank from glass cages the parking lot is full of people buying big tanks.

Whoa! Get your panties out of a wad. I didn't say anyone lied. I most certainly feel there was a MAJOR exaggeration made. Kansas City has about 1/4 of the population of where you live. The amount of rich people in metro DC is staggering so what you say might be true. Remember, she told me MANY people had tanks OVER 2500 gallons in this small market. I really doubt there are MANY tanks over 2500 gallons where you live either. I don't think you have a good comprehension just how big of an aquarium or pool that is. I have the largest tank of anyone I know, (700 gallons) but that don't mean squat. I don't know any rich people. Just curious, how many 2500 gallon tanks does your store sell a year? FYI: a 18X4X4 ft aquarium holds 2100 gallons. Seen one lately?

 

[Ash]

I don't know your area so I cant speak

I do however know and have seen many houses down here (a lot in the middle of nowheresville) that have 1,000+ gallon tanks. I thought it was crazy. I did not realize how many people actually have the money and house space for one of these tanks. It's not something you think about, esp. because they are such huge tanks - but apparently its more common then one might think. I also have seen quite a few 1-2+k tank built into the walls of peoples houses - its crazy! I only discovered this when I started meeting new people in the hobby from the lfs I used to go to (all gone - except for one - now). Then I started buying fish from CL ad's and traveling around and saw some of these set ups when buying fish off them.

In general I do wish LFS employees were more educated ( I have met quite a few that are), but you can't expect much given the low pay they get. I also buy mostly online - but it is nice to have an LFS that does carry oddball stuff and a larger variety of supplies. It is a supply and demand thing. If it sells, they will carry it. Those who sell online are no different. I have been to a few importation facilities as well as wholesale facilities and farms that sell onilne. Many of them are like a warehouse size of a LFS, some have large tanks but many don't and I doubt they care to house any of those fish for life. Most are kept in the same small cubes you see at the LFS.

I rarely buy from the lfs though unless they can compete with online prices. What I pay + shipping for supplies is still cheaper - usually. I am 50/50 on the fish. Where I buy depends on pricing, in store sales/clearance and availability.

 

[Rafini]

I don't think there are any sites that deliver to Canada...
which is annoying cause there are so many online american sites for reptiles and fish etc and none of them deliver to canada (I know the import license is really expensive) but it just sucks that we can't get live animals as easily.

But we do have a government

 

[jdhuegel1]

I absolutely HATE it when people make this argument. It is great that fish tanks are un natural! you know why? because nature is cruel! Fish tanks provide a safe environment with a constant supply of food. In the wild, thousands upon thousands of fish die due to either starvation or predation. Humans live in houses, is that natural? NO but its a whole lot better than living our 'natural' habitat.

Constant supply of food? They eat it because they're HUNGRY. People "pellet train" fish that in nature would never get near the crap. I've been in situations where for months on end I had only MRE's to eat. If it wasn't for the starving factor, I wouldn't have eaten them. Humans live in houses because we CHOOSE to. Fish don't CHOOSE to live in glass houses. I'm not really sure where you're even going with your argument... but anyway. I'm not even going to get into the people that catch fish on a hook and thrown them in a tank.

FYI I wasn't 'making an argument' - I was putting the discussion in perspective. How could I make an argument against something I do (fishkeeping)? That's silly.