Why Do You Love Your Lfs?

Now, we've all got an LFS (or LPS), but what makes yours special or different?
For mine, it's the absolute variety and care they give to their animals. QT before being put out for sale, never a dead fish (well, except the time that the power went out), a tank that's, geez idk how big, but 10'×5-6'×10ish'. It's got at least two urchins well over a foot in diameter and some awesome big dudes.
And while they've got plants in essentially every tank, they have one massive, awesome tank with a huge variety!
Here's some pics of some special guys, some of the designer clowns (had tons of varieties across 8 tanks), some lil dudes I don't know what they even are, blue bolt and fishbone pintos that they bred, and baby axolotls! And the inside of the bathroom has a Caridina poster, lol. And the tiniest badis ever!!
Most important thing below

 

Here's the impressive thing:
Hard to see, but over 50 dwarf seahorses, most of which are tiny babies! And they were selling a bunch of pregnant males too!! All those little floating things? BBS for the itty bitties!

 

Check Youtube for seahorses giving birth if you want to see something out of this world. I don't have a LFS close to me unfortunately but I have been lucky for the most part with petco and petsmart being nearby!

 

One of my lfs actually puts the prices on the tank so I don’t have to ask for every single thing

 

I'm down to a petco.

 

Check Youtube for seahorses giving birth if you want to see something out of this world. I don't have a LFS close to me unfortunately but I have been lucky for the most part with petco and petsmart being nearby!

I'm down to a petco.

Oof, yeah, that's how I am most of the time, my LFS is pretty far, 2 hour round trip.
Totally worth the trip though!

 

I don't do saltwater tanks, but my lfs has a whole load of marine fish, corals and live rock. it's super cool to go there and look at all the fish I don't know the names of.. haha
they even have a lionfish! I always make sure to go over there and look at it when I come.

 

Because its my only local fish store...

 

One of my lfs actually puts the prices on the tank so I don’t have to ask for every single thing

Seriously why doesn’t every store put the prices of the fish on the tank?

 

Seriously why doesn’t every store put the prices of the fish on the tank?

It's the petco near me that doesn't label their prices, now that's pretty odd for a chain store. I've been to one saltwater only that didn't label anything, probably because the prices were through the roof!!
My LFS does, even if it is a tad overpriced (eg, $28.99 for a fishbone pinto), but they've got such good stock that I'm ok paying a bit more. Plus, a berried shrimp doesn't cost more than a non-berried one .
Gotten 30 for the price of one twice for the blue dreams ($8)

 

my lfs labels prices, but geez, it's 7 dollars per neo(caridina). so I order them online instead.
otherwise their prices are okay, I guess.. not the best unless you wait for discounts

 

We only have pet stores in my town, no stores that only do fish. The one I go to take orders if you want something they don't have. And I've seen only healthy fish in their aquariums. They have a one week warranty, so if a fish dies you can go back and get a new one (or store credit) if you bring the fish, and a bag of water for them to test. I've done it twice. Once with a harleqin rasbora I think was injured when it was caught with the net (so it couldn't swim properly, and couldn't eat), and the other one was a betta. They seem to care about what they are doing. The two other shops I've been to in my town had dead fish in some tanks. I commented to an employee once that there were some dead guppys struck to the filter, and she just said they'd handle it after closing and walked away. There are tons of kids coming in there looking at the nice fishies, and they have dead ones in there I've bought a school of tetras there once and had all of them die on me.

 

We only have pet stores in my town, no stores that only do fish. The one I go to take orders if you want something they don't have. And I've seen only healthy fish in their aquariums. They have a one week warranty, so if a fish dies you can go back and get a new one (or store credit) if you bring the fish, and a bag of water for them to test. I've done it twice. Once with a harleqin rasbora I think was injured when it was caught with the net (so it couldn't swim properly, and couldn't eat), and the other one was a betta. They seem to care about what they are doing. The two other shops I've been to in my town had dead fish in some tanks. I commented to an employee once that there were some dead guppys struck to the filter, and she just said they'd handle it after closing and walked away. There are tons of kids coming in there looking at the nice fishies, and they have dead ones in there I've bought a school of tetras there once and had all of them die on me.

Aw man, that's rough. Yeah, most of the time I'm stuck with Petco/PetSmart, but last time I bought fish from Petco, it was 11 Platies with columnaris, anchor worms, and suspected TB (spines started bending and some got lesions, though lesions could have been from the anchor worms). I've gotten two goldfish from PetSmart, one was free because she was in such terrible condition, got someone to show pictures of her to a vet and everyone said she was a goner, but she's shaping up to be almost show quality! Got another one, and so far, so good, no issues over 2 months.
My LFS is a 2 hour round trip, so even though they've got everything awesome under the sun, I can't go too often.
They did offer me a job though during the summer, once they set up their reptile room, but it's just too much of a drive, rip

 

Rtessy I’m officially jealous of your LFS!

 

Rtessy I’m officially jealous of your LFS!

Haha, I know, right?! It wasn't this good a year ago, they've really stepped it up a notch! And they had to rewire everything cuz someone built the wiring wrong and all the power went out (crashed every saltwater tank ) so they took the opportunity to redo the wiring so they can expand, can't wait to see what it'll look like then! I already go there instead of the aquarium, lol. And I didn't even show their frag tank, is basically like their giant plant one, about 8'x8'x1'

 

Awesome! Can’t wait to see more pics!

 

my LFS can be hit or miss. I have a few others that are further away that I could go to but haven't yet so I guess it is the convenience for it being only 10 min from my house that I love. They have plenty of knowledge and are locally owned but I definitely see my fair share of dead fish on occasion. I think they might rush through things. I wish they quarantined before selling but now that I know they don't I just make sure that I do at home. They refund if something you buy dies within the week. They also are quick to answer questions which is nice and are always having events / training for fish and pond care. I would say the good outweighs the bad with them.

 

my LFS can be hit or miss. I have a few others that are further away that I could go to but haven't yet so I guess it is the convenience for it being only 10 min from my house that I love. They have plenty of knowledge and are locally owned but I definitely see my fair share of dead fish on occasion. I think they might rush through things. I wish they quarantined before selling but now that I know they don't I just make sure that I do at home. They refund if something you buy dies within the week. They also are quick to answer questions which is nice and are always having events / training for fish and pond care. I would say the good outweighs the bad with them.

Aw man, I wish I had one ten minutes away, lol. Even the PetSmart/Petco are 15/20 (respectively). The one thing that does get them some bad reviews is that they never offer refunds for animals that die, even an hour or two later, because they do extensively quarantine.

 

One cool thing about our LFS is the fact they have these guys!

 

One cool thing about our LFS is the fact they have these guys!

Oh neat! Stingrays?? Freshwater or saltwater? Mine had 3 saltwater ones a long while back, but unfortunately the freshwater ones are illegal in my state, so I've never seen any irl

 

Oh neat! Stingrays?? Freshwater or saltwater? Mine had 3 saltwater ones a long while back, but unfortunately the freshwater ones are illegal in my state, so I've never seen any irl

Saltwater rays! They have only had those two for a while I guess because nobody knows how to care for them so sadly they will probably be there a while longer until I hit the lottery and go buy them myself LOL! (I wish) but I’ve always wanted a saltwater tank so maybe one day I’ll be able to go rescue these guys and have the coolest tank in my area. But until then I will just keep wishing they were mine.

 

mine are full of great fish and people they also have good prices on fish and other things

 

My favorite of the three near me has a huge tank with their available plants and some of their permanent residents. They've got 5 or 6 discus and a huge angel that have all been there since I started going (about a year ago). They won't sell you the plants if they're unhealthy or melting, and there's no pest snails on them either. It's the only LFS near me that stocks plants, so I get very excited about them

 

My favorite of the three near me has a huge tank with their available plants and some of their permanent residents. They've got 5 or 6 discus and a huge angel that have all been there since I started going (about a year ago). They won't sell you the plants if they're unhealthy or melting, and there's no pest snails on them either. It's the only LFS near me that stocks plants, so I get very excited about them

Oh nice! Plant quality is a good way to judge overall quality!!