Should I get my fish from this LFS?

WrittenLyric said:
...but that tank comes with a solid wood stand. You know how difficult it is to come across a sturdy, attractive looking stand these days? It's harsh, you always wind up with those shifty looking iron stands.

Yes, it is a solid wood painted black..Very attractive..
 
Fish_0 said:
actually on CRAIGSLIST you do a pickup on your tank and you type in what state and city you live in they have all kind of stuff in craigslist
I'm wary of used tanks because you don't know what they did to them. You can bleach it to get rid of algae and parasites, but if they ever used copper meds, that stuff NEVER comes out. Copper binds to the molecules of the tank, from what I understand, and is highly toxic to everything.
 
i got my 20G AGA tank, matching AGA wood stand (painted black, pretty nice), and hood with strip light for $160. i wanted to haggle it down to $140 or something, but decided not to. if theres no other LFS nearby, i guess go for it. tanks and stands should be bought in a store IMO, but for everything else, its much cheaper online.
 
I'd probably buy the tank set up you mentioned and that's it. If they don't know what kind of fish they have it's a good bet they don't know what advice to give or how to handle problems with their stock. I'd leave the fish in the store and look on-line and in the yellow pages for other stores near you. A good LFS is worth the trek, even it means that it's not so local. I have 2 stores near me that I'd only buy supplies from because of the price (and maybe plants from one). The store I get my fish from is 30 minutes away but I make the trek simply because it's clean, almost never has dead or obviously sick fish in their tanks and has some incredibly knowledgeable fish geeks on hand to answer any questions. Depending on where you live, 30 minutes may or may not seem like a lot. For me it's a lot, especially since I have a couple of choices much closer that I could easily go to.

Good luck. And that is a good deal on a tank and solid wood stand. I almost got one of the fancy stands for my 55 for a price of 250 bucks.....and that was one of the cheaper ones.
 
Hmm, I bought my 55 gallon with stand/aquarium filter for a mere $50! It was used of course..It is still going strong..
 
watermelon said:
Go to Wal-Mart, you can buy a complete 55 gallon with stand for about $235.00..That is the price plus you get the filter, heater, lights and everything..If I remember correctly it is $158.00 for the tank with everything in it and the stand is $76.00...Having a much bigger tank is a lot better than a smaller one like a 30 gallon..

I would love a 55, but only have room for a 30 and I can't get a 30 in a kit. Also, I want a HOT magnum filter so buying the kit wouldn't exactly work for me. Down here, the 29 gallon kits are about $110 and a decent "wood" stand is about $100 so even though I won't be getting a filter and heater with my package deal, I think I'm still getting a good deal.

watermelon said:
Yes, it is a solid wood painted black..Very attractive..

LOL for a minute there I thought that you were talking about the stand that comes with my tank. I was thinking to myself, I didn't mention that it was black...how in the world? Then it clicked that you were probably talking about your stand lol :duh:

WrittenLyric said:
Hrmm, tough call. The tatt'd fish LEAVE ALONE! I think purchasing those would definitely be promoting the practice. I would try to go back at a different time and see if someone else is around that you could possibly speak to ..almost put a bug in their ear about the mislabeled tanks and see how they react...or if they even are still mislabeled. Giving the benefit of the doubt that maybe they're in the midst of moving fish around?? I don't know. It's your call, a tough one, but yours none the less. I think if I were in your shoes, I'd still purchase the fish that I was having difficulty finding at other area shops.

Yeah definitly leaving those monstrosities (sp?) alone. I noticed a woman looking at them and made a comment to my beau about "how terrible it is that they would do such a horrible thing to a fish" and made it a point to say it loud enough for her to hear. She looked at me, looked back at the fish, and then left. :o

I did notice a few other people around the store that spoke perfect english and seemed to know what they were talking about. The man that helped me wasn't completly clueless; I happened to be looking at the bettas and a customer came up to me and tried to convince me that male and female bettas can live in total harmony together. When the man that helped me heard this, he immediately whipped around and went into detail about breeding bettas and told the still unconvinced (and probably drunk) man that males will not only kill other males, but females as well....yada yada yada. So he at least has some fish knowledge. I think the incident with the yoyo/CAE may have just been a misunderstanding.

As for the mislabeled tanks, its not that they are mislabeled, they're just not exact with their labeling. For instance, instead of labeling the tank "Zebra Loaches" or "YoYo Loaches" they just label it "Loaches". I kinda have a feeling that they do this to avoid having to change the labels all the time. Some of the tanks were labeled exactly. All of the saltwater tanks had exact labels and let me just say that their selection of saltwater fish is amazing! And absolutely gorgeous!! This is really tough... :huh:
 
just a note on craigs list
you shop in your own area so no shipping ..just pick it up

I bought a 180 gallon tank for 800.00 with the following

2 canister filters
1 hob filter with heater
1 ug filter
200 lbs of crushed coral
assorted rocks for decorations
and about 400.00 worth of fish
glass cover
lighting
im sure im missing something


Ill take that deal anytime
 
She is obviously getting the tank and stand from the LFS so why does everyone keep mentioning to her craiglist. About the fish if they look healthy and the tanks look clean I would probably buy them and then quarintine them once I got home.
 
Craigs List...

Just to make you guys happy I went and checked out craigslist. I didn't find one darn thing. Actually, I already knew about most of the items on there because they had been in the classified ads in the newspaper. I appreciate you taking your time trying to help me save money, but in the long and short run, buying my tank brand new will work out much better for me. I'll feel much better knowing that all of my equipment is brand new and that the chances of it springing a leak are far less than if I had bought it used.
 
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