Minnow

Encinitas Tropical Fish
378 N. El Camino Real
Encinitas, CA 92024
760-634-2427
http://www.encinitastropicalfish.com/home.nxg

I live in San Diego, so this was a bit of a drive for me. I saw the sign as I was driving back from the doctor's office, but I didn't have the time to stop by at the time. Today, I had an orthodontist appointment in the same area, so I asked my mom to take me to check it out. As you can see, the cons greatly outweigh the pros.

On the plus side: The store was clean, and had a huge selection. They have plants, driftwood, live rock, corals, an extensive saltwater section, and a small but unusual freshwater section. They also had a bunch of equipment and food and such, a much larger selection than the PetCo I usually go to. The saltwater section was very well-cared-for, I saw no illness or dead fish in the saltwater tanks.

On the con side: One of the first things my mom noticed was one of the tanks of cichlids. She turned to me and said, "Look at those colorful fish!" I took one look and gasped. They were painted fish, with flowers and red lipstick. I explained the process to Mom, and she was equally horrified. As I was looking through the other freshwater fish, I also noticed the "color tetras"- white skirt tetras with ugly orange dots. Poor things!

Also, when I went to look at their tropical fish, I immediately noticed a fish with a severe case of ICH. I saw at least three other fish with severe ich in the other tanks.

I counted 6 dead fish, and I didn't even look closely. I'm sure I missed a few.

Although they had a wide selection, they were often missing just the thing I'm looking for, and have everything else. They had just about every heater but the Visi-therm Stealth, a bunch of worthless cycling products but no SafeStart, a big food section but no bloodworms.


Overall, it was a negative experience. If you're close by and looking for a good LFS, pass this one by. The marine section was good, and seemed to be the focus of the store, but the freshwater section was sadly neglected. I will be emailing them about the painted fish, hopefully I can get them to stop selling them.

JESS01

Just one question:Was it better or worse than Petco?

Minnow

Hmm, I'd have to say worse. My PetCo doesn't have sick fish, and there are fewer dead ones. Unless there was something you really needed that wasn't at the Petco, I would stay away. It's not that they don't sell good equipment and supplies, it's that their fish aren't well cared for, and I object to any store that carries painted fish.