Simple question.

What would it look like? What kinds of fish and corals would you like to see? Would you like to have a wide variety of dry goods to chose from? what about tanks and hardware?

The perfect store would be like ......


Only serious replies please. And don't dream for $.99 fish and corals. Be more realistic

Thanks

A dream store would have what I need when I need it!

Dream fish store would be first and foremost, quality. Too often fishnstores order, drop in tank, slap price, feed ever so often and don't give a crap.

I believe a person who can run a very nice, open floor plan can be successful. Think about it, how many times have you been in a store and you either have to weed your way through dog food or everything is right on top of one another.

Competitive in price and courteous staff. Staff that will either tell you what they know or tellmyou they don't know, not make shit up.

As far as goods, of course a nice selection of fish...fish that will turn over fast for you though for business profit. Coral of all kinds with a nice clean coral tank to choose the things from.

Dry goods, popular items, BRS, Seachem Aquavitro, reef nutrition, things that you know people use a lot of. Tanks of about every size and order only as they sell from the floor.

I could go on and on and on. It's been a dream of mine to open a store or manage one. I love the hobby that much. If I could do someting like that, I would just about leave law enforcement all together....lol

i would like a store that would be able to order fish/coral that are not instock.

Most stores will do that if you ask.

I could write pages about what most LFS don't do, but I'll keep it short-

There are a lot of things my dream store would have, but simply put, it would add value. I don't usually deal with LFS, as they as charging me an arm and a leg without adding any value. What is value? Either have knowledgeable staff that don't make up information when they don't know, or carry special products (such as macro algaes, copedpods, rotifers, aquacultured coral, your own blend of marine food, etc). Other examples include the ability to hold a fish for a few days if I ask, or have a special fish they've trained to eat pellets/flakes if they were originally picky eaters (such as anthias). These aren't exactly the ideas they need to incorporate, nor do I expect them to try even half, but are reflective of my theme. In short, I'm willing to spend more money if the store can point to a difference between a local fish store and an online vendor.

Good advice is certainly priceless!

1) Variety in fish and inverts (even freshwater).


2) A SOLID commitment to sell challenging fish only to qualified fishkeepers (ie, no pacus ever, no batfish, etc..... and no active/larger tangs or adult volitans going to folks with 55g tanks). I would drive further to go to a store that had a LEGENDARY reputation for turning people away that insist on abusing a fish by putting it in a tank half the size it needs.

3) Clean tanks that are VERY CLEARLY labeled with price tags.

Dream LFS,

I want them to care as much about their stock as we the buyer does when we get them home. I like Sea Critters livestock, love how all has been medicated and quarantined. He also has labels on each tank that talks about the fish within and its price. I like the frag setup @ Dubeys. I like the rodi & salt water setup at Majestic. I like Fish Room's livestock setup being so clean. Each of them have pretty nice employees. LOL

+ 1 with salty