ATTN:: suport your local fish store!!!

Aug 9, 1992. Was the begining for me. I have had an aquarium ever since that day. Back then, we dident have large chain petshops, we dident have a shipping option from whole sellers. We had "mom and pop" shops. We needed them, ther was no other option. Now here we are 20 years later, shipping meathods are a million times better, large shops are able to sell fish at a much lower price. These guys are great, for a few things, but something hasent changed in over 20 years. The shops are better, this isent an opinion it is fact with proof to back it up. If you are on this forum and you are reading this then you are not. The "typical" fish keeper. And it is you, that spends the most time scouting out the best deals on the internet, for dry goods, filters, heaters and even fish.

Let me tell you a little story, about 2 years ago I had major desaster hit one of my aquariums. I needed meds, and now.but there was an issue, it was 9:30pm. Most shops are closed at this time, or would be closed before I would have been able tomake it there. What did I do? I called one of the smaller shops , I explained my sittuation and asked what I could do to get through the night until the next mourning when the shops were back open. I was told "don't wait, come now, I will stay here until you get here". I challenge anyone to call call petsmart/co, conkle, rapps, dave (daves rare fish), or any of the whole seelers and see if they would wait over an hour at there location for you to come and pick something up. The fact is they wouldent and for the whole sellers, they couldent get you the meds in time.

Now Anthony, why are you telling us this? Well simple, I was visiting a very good friend of mine on Sunday and spent about 3 hours just hanging out with him at his work office. This friend happens to own a pet store. While chatting about family and friends and working out and the weather and all the things friends chat about I asked so, how's buisness. The response I got was not expected. It seems that with the economy the way it is and with the internet the way it is. Our pet stores are going through some pretty tough times. And although there are several people who don't own there own buisness and are now unemployed etc. I feel it is important to shop at our local shops. Anyone ever heard of indoor reef? A saltwater only shop in tacoma. Well its gone now. And we will start to see even the best shops dropping like flys unless we as the fish keeping community do something about it. I can't stress enough the importance of supporting the "good" shops.

Let's talk a little about what makes a shop good. First of all a good shop won't seell you smething without first knowing everything you need to know about your purchase. Secondly a good shop has great customer service. Thirdly a good shop will answer all of your questions to the best of there knowladge and tell you if they don't know something. Forth a good shop will try to get anything you want in for you to keep you coming back. Fith a good shop has a true passion for the animals they sell, and keep at home. Sixth a good shop will treat you with respect and not like your dumb because you don't know something. And then seven a good shop will try to as reasonably priced with there goods as posible. The order of these thing are in a correct order to me in what I want to see out of a shop. With price being last on my list because I don't mind paying a little more for the knowladge and the time took to keep these animals healthy before I got them.

Bottom line is let's all do our part to keep the "good" shops in buisness so we can continue to have them for years to come. Sorry if this seems like a rant, but its really from my heart that I am bringing this up. Thanks for your time and for reading this

Anthony

My fishkeeping started in the late 80's and there were a ton of awesome shops around back then. In fact one of the best was in Tacoma on 48th and Pacific called Tropical Fish Imports. The sign still exists on the building even though it remained empty now for over 20 years. I remember the sad day when that store closed down.

I do agree we need to support the local guys but if you are like me you only have so much money and you need to make it stretch. In fact I have not had a raise at work for 5 years now due to economic conditions. So I buy a lot of things on-line because my dollar goes so much further. Even when I do have to buy something 'right now', I still end up buying at a big box store like Walmart, Petsmart or Petco because they are cheaper than the mom and pop fish stores. So the sad reality is I have been one who has contributed to the demise of the LFS. How about you?

Oh yeah, I have. But I was awakend this weekend. I am def guilty, I bought a 800$ filter from foster and smith. I have bought food and fish in group buys and on my own. I just now see how this could adventually affect the hobby. And for those hobbbiests that took it to the next lvl and opend a shop, its not good news for them. Kinda suck, because it is cheaper to go through the internet for some things, but at the same time I really support people going as far as they can in the hobby. And realisticly, owning a pet store would be a dream come true for me.

Well said. I'll always support local fish stores.

So when madness opens his fish store, we will need to support him!

DMD123 wrote:So when madness opens his fish store, we will need to support him!

I bet he wont stock oscars though.

This is so true, but not just about pet supplies either. It takes so much to have a successful small business. I try to support them whenever I can while trying to stay within my own household budget. And it can be tough, and sometimes it really makes you prioritize.

Thanks for the reminder Anthony

madness will 'sell out' and carry what the people want. Nothing but Oscars!

Hah, i can see it now, Madness the Oscar dealer.

More on topic, I do try to make it out to APFP at least once/month, sometimes more. I like it there!

APFP is one of my favorites also. I really only buy fish from them so I need to step it up to support them better.

I was in there a few days ago and i saw a red hook!

DMD123 wrote:So when madness opens his fish store, we will need to support him!

You better. If this were to ever happen, it wouldnt be until we get these worthless greedy corrupt politicians out of office and get this Great Country back to where it belongs. On top and thriving. Everyday I read something different that shows that the Government is going to start doing that will go directly against our Constitution and the 10 commandments.

Just a side note, be prepared to be audited. Received an email from a respected publisher that I have known for years. Here is a quick hit of hit, the actual email was 4 pages long. lol


Dear Shawn:
Only an ostrich with its head in the sand could miss the obvious fact that the U.S. government's finances are crashing.
As seen in a video clip that's drawing attention on YouTube, Mr. Obama conceded, "we are out of money now."
But one point the talkative Mr. Obama is not so eager to discuss openly is exactly how he plans to refill the depleted Treasury to pay for his bailouts, Obamacare, and the federal government's out-of-control entitlements.
As I'll reveal here in detail, Obama has gift-wrapped and handed to the IRS its most deeply-coveted prize – a green light to go after U.S. taxpayers tooth and nail.
Obama's funding emergency is so severe, the White House has quietly authorized the IRS to suck up every greenback that isn't nailed down, no matter what.
Obama's admission of the patently obvious – that the till is empty – came just as he unveiled his latest budget, which even his pals at The New York Times sheepishly admit doubles the number of IRS enforcement auditors – and that's just for starters.
Oh yes, the need to collect more tax money is yet another "emergency" (and thus an opportunity) for this White House.
But the shocking circumstances of the federal government's deep debt – in addition to its scary cash-flow problems – are far greater than the White House, Congress, or their media lapdogs will ever fess up to.
Government Revenue-
Collectors Are Dangerously Desperate
The stage is set and the die is cast: U.S. taxpayers (you and I) are about to endure a withering reign of cash-and-asset-grabbing by a financially desperate, totally bankrupt (financially and morally) federal establishment.
There is absolutely no precedent in 230 years of U.S. history to match the government's current cash crisis. (Not an exaggeration, as I explain shortly.)
From a solvency point of view, the federal government is a hungry, cornered, potentially rabid animal. Even the family dog will turn around and bite you if he is hurt or threatened.

Sorry I got side tracked there.

To to answer your question/statement, if I were to ever open my own shop, things would need to change.

Zerc wrote:

DMD123 wrote:So when madness opens his fish store, we will need to support him!

I bet he wont stock oscars though.

Oh yes I would. LOL It would be full of the fish that I would not or do not keep. Main reason is that those are what people want. The average Joe grew up on these fish and they sell like mad. I would in fact try to show them something different.

But my ideal store would be one that I carry most of the parents in (Cichlids that is) and have an area strictly dedicated to the parents of almost everything I sell. So people can see what certain tanks could look like. These would be for viewing only, and customers could see these fish in action at an adult size.

Believe me, I have thought about it.

They have a couple different ones. I have been thinking of adding 3 of the Dusty Red Hooks. But $20 a pop adds up...

They also have a tiger red hook but it has more yellow to the hook and does not 'pop' as much as the red.

Yep madness when it comes to an actual shop, I know you would also carry the bread and butter stuff.

It funny about the Oscar thing because I was shopping stores for a while to find mine. Petsmart seems to get in at least a dozen weekly in the $12 price range and they seem to sell out with no problem. But when they get 10"+ you cant even give them away.

I wouldn't be able to have a fish hobby if I was mainly buying from mom and pop shops. The only time I'd usually go in is when I can't the item or fish anywhere else. I guess I'm the bad guy but I just can't bring myself to pay $5 for a swordtail or $4 for a guppy. There's on pet store I purchase dog food from but that's only because after every 12 $60 bags of food I buy I get one $60 bag free. So I'm getting some return/reward that makes it worth going to puyallup for(The store is dog daze btw) but beside dog food and treats I won't purchase anything else from there. Same deal as with fish shops, I refuse to pay $3 for a cat toy. I feel bad that things are the way they are and I understand everyone's viewpoints on this situation but when it comes to the nitty gritty if I can find my high quality products and not pay 2 or 3x the mark up price then that's where I'm gonna go. If it were a matter of paying just a little bit more for things at a mom and pop shop then yes I would solely by from there but that's just not the case. Mark ups are just way to high for me. I applaud everyone that does support them though.

My favorite shop is apfp.. and I have made the trip from tacoma to burien on hundreds of occasions to support the shop. In my humble opinion the best shop in washington.

Oh and btw, madness would have evry kind of geophagus to, he secretly loves geos more then all other fish.

So we have all confessed our sins... we buy from the internet.

Another aspect that has changed the hobby has also been craigslist, for good and bad. This has made fish tanks more readily available at a reasonable cost but it has made it so that many stores can not even sell tanks due to elevated prices. going back to my late 80's time frame of fishkeeping, you pretty much looked in the classifieds or garage sales for a used tank and they were expensive and hard to come by. Now with internet and craigslist almost anybody can own at least a 55g for a reasonable price.

Ratlova30 wrote:I wouldn't be able to have a fish hobby if I was mainly buying from mom and pop shops. The only time I'd usually go in is when I can't the item or fish anywhere else. I guess I'm the bad guy but I just can't bring myself to pay $5 for a swordtail or $4 for a guppy. There's on pet store I purchase dog food from but that's only because after every 12 $60 bags of food I buy I get one $60 bag free. So I'm getting some return/reward that makes it worth going to puyallup for(The store is dog daze btw) but beside dog food and treats I won't purchase anything else from there. Same deal as with fish shops, I refuse to pay $3 for a cat toy. I feel bad that things are the way they are and I understand everyone's viewpoints on this situation but when it comes to the nitty gritty if I can find my high quality products and not pay 2 or 3x the mark up price then that's where I'm gonna go. If it were a matter of paying just a little bit more for things at a mom and pop shop then yes I would solely by from there but that's just not the case. Mark ups are just way to high for me. I applaud everyone that does support them though.

I get what your saying. And it does make sence. But without mom and pop shops we wouldent have a hobby today. Because years ago, before chains and the internet. It was them who made the hobby possible. Of course when times are tough it makes sence to shop for the best deal, but when things are good, it is important to give back to those who have made fishkeeping possible. Markups do suck, but the online prices are also marked up from the manufacturers price. But they have a larger customer base. I just try to support local buiness, just as a practice. From the beer I drink, to the food I feed my children. I haven't bought fruits or veggies from a grocery store in years, or fast food. We all know the saying difrent strokes....... but I'm just trying to bring the awareness up. Paul (former owner of indoor reef) has been keeping fish for longer then most of us have been alive. Lonzo (owner of aquarium paradise) has had his shop open for almost 20 years. Kevin (owner of apfp) has gone to malawi so collect and observe his favorite fish in there native habitat. These are all people who have dedicated there lives to this "glass box" hobby. They are you and me and madness, and dmd and everyone on this forum. Just at the next lvl. It would suck to see a fellow hobbiest, fail at what so many of us have dreamed of doing. All of them maintane aquaria at home, and still have a strong passion for the hobby. I have seen all three of there "home" tanks. And these guys love what they do. I have developed good relationships with them and I talk with them on a regular basis. It upsets me to knowthat we as hobbiest have turned away from them for so many things when they have dedicated them selves to, this thing we all share in common. Some of us it brings peace, some it brings joy, and some it brings challenges. And all of these things are great for us as people. They are all positive. I'm ranting, sorry.


Oh and ratlova, I am not targeting you. The first few lines were ment for you and then my fingers begin to vomit emotion. So please do not take this personally.

Thanks for making some good conversation everyone.

I try to support the local shops as much as possible, but there are so few of them near me.

I go to Aquarium Paradise, but they don't carry the brands I use. I still have managed to spend a good deal of money there though! The guys there have always been nice, but the quality and variety of the African cichlids they carry is not too good. I even tried to give them (for free) about 50 of my leleupi when I was overrun with them and they didn't want them. They were very healthy and large enough to sell for a good price. I figured that was a good way to support them without actually buying something.

I like A Place for Pets, but it's over 100 miles round trip for me. I still try to get out there as often as I can. I even drive to Portland to go to the fish stores occasionally. I prefer to buy fish from a store or somewhere that I can see the actual fish that I'm getting. It's just more convenient for me and I'm able to find the brands of everything else that I want by shopping online.

DMD has it really been over 20 years that Tropical Fish Imports has been closed? I remember going to that store a few times and I haven't been living here that long. Is it that big place that was on a corner? It was big, dark and really humid inside?

i go to kevin if im looking for fish. as for everything else 20$ in gas plus time and then mark up i just cant do for most food and such. still love the store and its the only place i go for stock

Betty, that shop on pacific right? I went there when I was a sophmore in high school. That was 12 years ago. So it can't have been closed for 20 years. Hey, did anyone ever go to snubbers, in downtown tacoma? Tiny little shop, it was kinda call before you go so that he would be there, like by appointment only. He bred discus and angels.

Fish n vw, yes it was on Pacific. I didn't think it had been 20 years. It's too bad it's gone. It was kind of scary, but I liked going in to look around.

Betty wrote:DMD has it really been over 20 years that Tropical Fish Imports has been closed? I remember going to that store a few times and I haven't been living here that long. Is it that big place that was on a corner? It was big, dark and really humid inside?

Yep thats the one on the corner. It had to have closed in the early 90's. I remember buying my last tank from them (38g) shortly before my 20+ year absence from the hobby. Nothing has been in the building since. It was humid in there, they also had a roof leak that let a lot of water into the building at times.

Yeah, and ther aro was the biggest I have ever seen.

Thinking about it, the Tropical Fish Imports could have closed later in the 90's than what I remember but it has been over 12yrs for sure VW.

The huge piranha tank in the front was also pretty cool!

Strange... we most be talking about diffrent places. The one on pacific and that when you walked through the door if you walked to the left, they had that room with all of the used tanks for sale, and it had that big 300 with the biggest aro ever? I could have sworn I went there when I was a sophmore. Guess it might have been middle school. I don't know.

The TFI store had the register facing the front doors as you walked in and the had two large show tanks to the left of the desk. One had RBP and the other an Aro. The tanks were they kept fish for sale were in the back right hand corner of the store. The layout was very similar to Aquarium Paradise.

Oh, I'm getting old. I can't remember the layout, but I do remember the big display tanks (sort of) . This is the place I remember....[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]... cool looking photo.

Yeah that place betty. I have been in there a few times and I dident move to tacoma untill I was 14. So It was ope within the last 15 years.

K, made some calls. Tropical fish imports was ran by a guy named aaron, a close friend of mine, josh, helped to close the shop down when it closed about 7 years ago. He's not sure exactly but said it was about the same time his oldest son was born who is now 7. D, your losin it bro.

fish_n_vw wrote:


Oh and ratlova, I am not targeting you. The first few lines were ment for you and then my fingers begin to vomit emotion. So please do not take this personally.

Thanks for making some good conversation everyone.

No offense taken, I figured what I wrote would stir up some emotion. Personally between you and me... I have never seen a finger vomit emotion before Maybe you should have that looked at...

Certainly my financial situation isn't the same as the next person and I'm all in for supporting LFS if you've got the money to do it and it doesn't hinder on other responsibilities. For instance, when I'm shopping for needed fishy supplies, if I can save save $10-15 at a box store that I couldn't otherwise have saved at an LFS then that means that $10 can go towards feeding my sponsor family or to buy a bag of cat food for the hoard of feral cats that call my front yard home. If there was an LFS near me that sold healthy fish I probably would spend a little more for fish only but with everything non breathing, just can't afford it.

fish_n_vw wrote:K, made some calls. Tropical fish imports was ran by a guy named aaron, a close friend of mine, josh, helped to close the shop down when it closed about 7 years ago. He's not sure exactly but said it was about the same time his oldest son was born who is now 7. D, your losin it bro.

Wow. Good work! I thought I had been in there since I moved here about 10 years ago. But could have been mixing it up with when I lived in Montana and visited my parents here.

Ratlova I just looked at where you live, and you are right, there's not any good shops around that area. Maybe inext time you have a few bucks and have an ich for some new fish, you can tag along up to apfp with me. It wouldent bother me and I go up there about 2 times a month.

Betty, thanks, it just took a few calls, but I was sure I had been there with my brother inlaw, and I have only been married 10 years. So it was just a matter of rembering the guys name that used to work there, then jumping on face book, finding a mutual friend that I had the phone number of and getting his number from him... hope that made sence... oh btw facebook is the devil.

fish_n_vw wrote:K, made some calls. Tropical fish imports was ran by a guy named aaron, a close friend of mine, josh, helped to close the shop down when it closed about 7 years ago. He's not sure exactly but said it was about the same time his oldest son was born who is now 7. D, your losin it bro.

Sure seems longer than 7 years ago. I have been working at my current job now for 11 years and I thought it was closed before I started here.... But us old people forget easily. What were we talking about?

Is it possible that it closed for a while and reopened under a new owner? We could all be remembering correctly then.

I'd love to vote with my wallet and support the mom 'n pop stores, but the ones within easy driving distance just don't carry what I'm interested in buying. Aquarium Paradise is closest to me, and while I trade some of my extra live stock to them from time to time, it's tough to come up with something to buy there.

I've never been to APFP; I've been meaning to go, but that's a pretty decent time and gas commitment from Olympia.

I really don't like shopping at Petstupid or Petslow - they rarely have what I want either (tanks themselves are the exception). And if they do have it, it's grossly over-priced. And the live stock? 9 of 11 Zebra danios from Petstupid were dead inside a week and my tanks weren't at fault. The 2 survivors went on to breed dozens of babies for me in that tank. How do you stress a zebra danio to death???

I liked Wild World in Oly and went there fairly regularly - I got my panda corys and longfin zebras there and they were (and still are) healthy and happy. I also got a fantastic species of plant there that I keep in all my tanks now. I tried to get them to order some Pygmy Corys for me a while back, but they never did and didn't call me or anything when the frozen food I had them buy for me came in. I didn't go as much after that... and now they're gone

So I end up buying online from Wet Spot in Portland, hobbyists on Aquabid, Ken's fish, Foster and Smith, etc.

It's a catch-22 really, and it's a sad state of affairs. I need to make a bigger effort to buy local, for sure. It would be nice if it were easy

Yeah, that's really understandable. But dude, go to apfp, it worth the drive. If you don't want to go one your own, I go up every couple weeks and can let you know when I next plan on heading up, then you only have to drive to tacoma. And I don't mind having a tag along. As long as you don't mind hangin there for a few hours. I always have to hang with my buddy kevin for a bit.

Oh and looking at your tanks in you sig you would really like apfp, they have loads of shrimps, plants and small tank fish. You can let me know throuugh pm if its something your intrested in. And send you phone number so I can give you a day or two heads up before I go.

So we need do a "group drive" up to APFP. Where do we post that? Under 'group buys'?

Hehe, I think my wife would throw daggers with her eyes if I gave up that much of my weekend just to go to a fish store Thanks for the offer though; I appreciate it. I'll drag the family up there sometime in the near future. For real We have family up that way anyways; we just haven't been really motivated to go much of anywhere due to sleep deprivation since our son was born nearly 2 years ago now.

pbmax wrote:Hehe, I think my wife would throw daggers with her eyes if I gave up that much of my weekend just to go to a fish store

Only one real way to find out....

pbmax wrote:we just haven't been really motivated to go much of anywhere due to sleep deprivation since our son was born nearly 2 years ago now.

Perfect excuse, sleep deprivation makes people do strange things like bringing home large fish tanks and more fish.

Well, I'm not going to leave the place empty handed... not after going that far out of my way

DMD123 wrote:

pbmax wrote:Hehe, I think my wife would throw daggers with her eyes if I gave up that much of my weekend just to go to a fish store

Only one real way to find out....

pbmax wrote:we just haven't been really motivated to go much of anywhere due to sleep deprivation since our son was born nearly 2 years ago now.

Perfect excuse, sleep deprivation makes people do strange things like bringing home large fish tanks and more fish.

LMAO!!! D your killin me!

Back in the day there used to be some other stores that I cant remember the names of that were pretty cool.

One was in Federal Way called something like 'Pet Jungle' across from the mall at Sea Tac.

There was another in Edgewood.

A very nice one across the bridge in Gig Harbor.

And yet another that was on the North End of Tacoma (off Pearl? or Jackson?)

Any one been around this area long enough to remember any of those shops?

I thought i saw a clay tablet with some of those names on it the other day...

Zerc wrote:I thought i saw a clay tablet with some of those names on it the other day...

Come on clay tablets, thats before my time. Maybe scrolls...

DMD123 wrote:

Zerc wrote:I thought i saw a clay tablet with some of those names on it the other day...

Come on clay tablets, thats before my time. Maybe scrolls...