Local Fish Stores

[Salt4Us]

We checked out a Fish store down in Fountain Valley yesterday called Tong's Tropical Fish, nice store, beautiful display aquariums and lots of beautiful corals. Looked like they were having some fish problems but the corals is mainly what I was interested in looking at, they had one tank that was just frags, you could get 1 frag for 5.99 or 2 for 10, they had some hammers that we would have loved to buy, they also had a deal buy 5 and get one free. The temptation was there oh boy, but we are going to wait for lighting.

Just thought I'd share, they have several places according to the phone book, I guess one of their other ones is in Brea, will have to check that one out too.

If anyone knows of other good LFS around the Orange County or Los Angeles county (bit of a drive) would love to hear it. Thanks!

 

[Salt4Us]

Ok, I thought I'd bump this and hoping anyone else would share their Local Fish stores in their area and the experiences they may have had.

The LFS' we have visited and/or purchase stuff from are the following:

Petown located in El Toro in Orange County : their fish always healthy, never seen one dead in the tank EVER, different varieties of Corals, they also have a huge selection of Freshwater fish and plants, their dry goods are a bit on the high side but prices on fish are about average.

Fish 2000 located in Tustin in Orange County on Newport Ave. Reasonable prices on dry goods, the owner will usually try and give you a good deal, although if you try calling he doesn't answer the phone too often. His fish, well he has a combination of fresh and salt, problem is they are in very small aquariums and most the time they look sick. Their corals I have bought quite a few and have only had 2 that didn't survive.

Coral Island located in Orange/Anaheim in Orange County, bought some lighting from them very reasonable, fish didn't look too healthy :?

Strictly fish located in Garden Grove in Orange County, has a nice selection of both fish and corals, have bought both fresh and saltwater fish from them before.

Tong's in Fountain Valley we plan on going back to and buying some frags, although his saltwater fish loooked like they had some problems his freshwater looked very healthy and quite a selection.

Below is a link to show some LFS' in the So California area and No. California:


So. Cal http://fins.actwin.com/dir/stores.php?c=1&r=65

No. Cal http://fins.actwin.com/dir/stores.php?c=1&r=66

Also located at the bottom lists clubs you can join, I know there is a So Cal Marine Aquarium Society that if you join you can get a discount from certain LFS' and also Hello Lights, at least that's what their webpage says, we have not joined them but do plan on it.

 

[pufferman]

Well Amazon pets in San Jose has some good prices. They have yellow tangs for only 15 bucks but they dont have that much of a variety. I think that the store with the best fish and variety is probably Brians Fish world because they like have a large variety of lions puffers angels clowns and tangs they also have a lot of triggers. They are especially good for supplies too.

 

[Calvin]

San Jose has a couple really good shops. King aquarium is a little iffy. Thier fish look pretty bad but thier corals look solid. If your up for a little drive hit up the Aquarium Store in Concord. Pufferman, You'll love their display tank. Loins the size of basketballs and good size puffers as well. Another good shop is Aquarium Concepts in Hayward. Great selection of both fish and inverts.

 

[RodneyCK]

Hi everyone!!!

I wanted to post my two cents on theLFS in the area, San Francisco, for other bay area readers. There are four or five stores in the city proper and I have so far visited two of them, Nippon and Sixth Avenue Aquarium.

I have visited Nippon several times in the past and their service is horrible. You would be lucky to get a hello out of any of the employees. The FO tanks are not very clean. I have witnessed on several visits fish displaying problems, disease, probably ich, even a few dead ones floating in the tanks. This shop is touted as being on of the oldest and most reliable shops in the area, pffft.

The Sixth Avenue Aquarium has some amazing varieties of reef specimens; highly recommend it for this purpose. The FO tanks were another story. They must have a fast turnover because they had tons of fish in homemade (very large) aquariums. When I was there they had bags of puffers and other varieties floating in the aquarium waiting for release.

They did have a few signs of ich and fish with film-covered eyes, not many, but a few of the clown fish. I did see one dead, tiny puffer floating around one of the compartments.

So far I am not impressed by the standards of the LFS in my area. I came from Chicago which had a variety of LFS owned and operated by people with a hobbyist attitude, not to mention very beautiful tanks/specimens. Here, it seems like it’s a fast buck business. Hopefully the other three places which I will visit soon will not be as bad. I will do a follow up, LOL.

Best,
RodneyCK

 

[got bait?]

On the same note. In Anaheim (Orange County) there is a place in State College and LaPalma called Reef Tropical Fish that has some nice Zoanthids and polyps.
One other place is aquaria designz in Irvine http://www.aquadesignz.com/ they have an excellent zoanthid and polyp selection. Mail order and WILL CALLS for us locals.

 

[Aztlan]

In Burbank I purchase a few hard goods from Scales 'n' Tails on Verdugo Ave. There display tanks and fish look very healthy and clean. I will probably buy my livestock from them. Looks like a family run business. Also in Glendale, Tropical Fish Imports on Colorado has cheap prices. Got my tank there.

 

[got bait?]

thanks Aztlan. Always nice to have multiple sources.

 

[24 hours? NE!]

This looks like an old post, but I'll add a couple of stores in OC.

Seaside Tropical in Huntington Beach- Beach Blvd almost to PCH on east side next to Big Lots. They've got a good variety and their prices are pretty good. They're willing to sell you about anything, though. They have a couple of interesting display tanks.

Strictly Fish in Garden Grove is gone.

Pacific Reef in Fountain Valley- NE corner of Brookhurst and Garfield. Nice store. Large selection of LR- 4 or 5 different kinds. Good selection of fresh, salt fish and lots of salt inverts. Pretty knowledgeable staff that are easy to communicate with.

405 Tropical Fish in Westminster- on Goldenwest south of Bolsa. Decent selection of dry goods. Cramped saltwater selection, though and the prices aren't that good, but have fish that others are sometimes out of (probably for that reason). I only use this store for food or other supplies when I'm in the area (close to the Best Buy next to the mall) and don't want to go a long ways.

I agree with the posts on Tong's in Fountain Valley. They are doing a major expansion that should double the size of their store. Hopefully some of the fish will be less cramped that way.

Hopefully those give you some ideas. I'm very grateful for the advice I've received already.

 

[got bait?]

There's also " Reef Tropical Fish" on State College and LaPalma. Have a nice Polyp and shroom selection. they also have some zoanthids, when you can get there shortly after a delivery. The usual $20-$25 per rock. All purchases from there still going strong.

 

[QuietDusk]

I haven't seen anything in San Bernardino county listed, so I'll post one. I've been going to Aquatic Creations (http://www.aquatic-creations-online.com) in Rancho Cucamonga. They "specialize in exotic and hard-to-find stony corals," but Andrew, the owner, is very knowledgable in all areas of the hobby. All I have are freshwater tanks and he's been a great teacher for me.
The customer service is wonderful. He's very accomodating and doesn't try to swindle anyone. Besides selling livestock, he also build custom tanks and accessories. The web page isn't really kept up, but there are some pictures of his work on there.
Whatever he doesn't have on hand, he can usually get within a week or so.

 

[FawnN]

I just have to put my 2 cents in regarding 2 fish stores I frequently visit here.

First, Tong's in Fountain Valley has great tanks, stands, and other supplies, but their fish are not all that great.

I would say that I go there in hopes of things improving, but have yet to buy any fish. They have a lot of dead fish and a lot of sick fish. My last visit about 1 1/2 weeks ago was very upsetting. A lot of their FW tanks had Ich or some sort of fungal infection going on. I've noticed that they are decreasing there FW section and adding lots more SW fish.

I also visited Petown in Lake Forest and I must say, I was truly impressed. They had a large variety of fish that I have had a hard time locating. Their tanks and store was very clean. They had lots of friendly staff to help you. The 25 minute drive was very well worth it.

 

[wright4lfe]

i'm going to have to politely disagree with fawnN about tongs. i've been going there for years and i've never had a problem with any of their fw fish, (i own a 180gl, a 46gl bowfront, a 40gl planted and a 20gl), and i've bought probably 40-50 fish from them. in the rare instance were a fsih died after being purchased, the fish was replaced no questions asked.

as far as dead fish in the tank, you have to understand they receive 2-4 deliveries of fish a week. it is almost impossible for them to keep up with the amount of fish that dies when ordering by the 100's and sometimes 1000's. i was just there yesterday and saw maybe 5-7 dead fish in probably 40 tanks. they recently expanded and now have twice as much space as they had before, so being a regular customer (i'm there 2-4 times a week), i see how much work it is for them to maintain as well as they do.

they did eliminate 1 row of fw tanks, holding mainly larger FW fish, but replaced it with corals and other sw stuff that i know jack about. they also have a pretty large selection of fw plants to choose from as well as multiple planted tanks in the store to check out different setups. did i mention the 2 180gl reef setups or the seahorse tank?

i guess i defend them so much because i've been to the majority of the lfs' in OC/lower LA county and they really seem to be the best. petown is ok, but i find the smug attitude of the workers there a real turn off, as well as the fact that they seem to behave as if they have something better to do than be working at a pet store, which kinda bothers me. there selection is ok, but nowhere near as diverse as tongs. plus, at tongs they will special order just about any fish you can think of, something most store don't do, or haven't when i've asked.

and no, i don't work for tongs, although my fiance wish's i did so that i would get paid for the amount of time i spend there...lol

 

[deeni0z]

I don't know what the fish store is called, but it's on Chatsworth near the Chatsworth and Encino intersection in Granada Hills. ...That place is all right if all you buy is anacharis. Some tanks were being medicated because the fish were sick but that didn't hinder the manager from putting up a sign over it saying they weren't selling them.

The staff doesn't know what kind of plants they sell.

I only buy anacharis and java ferns from there because I know 100% what those plants look like. The staff is helpful although they aren't knowledgeable.

On the other hand, Aquarium City on Sherman Way is AWESOME. They have so many healthy looking tanks. Their plants are LABELED and arranged very,very neatly. However, their dry goods are EXPENSIVE!

 

[runway1]

Hey wright4lfe, I live in HB too and frequent Tongs as well. I think many have had issues with Tongs fish survivability. I found that, their turnover is so high, that (my assessment, anyhow) the fish are often too stressed to make the transition to your home tank.

I found that if you ask how long the fish have been in the tank and only buy fish that have been in there for 5-7 days and feed voraciously, that you're much more likely to have success.

Regarding their corals, most are wild caught and don't do very well. If you want corals, go to Pacific Reef near GW College. Best coral store I've ever seen.

 

[wright4lfe]

"If you want corals, go to Pacific Reef near GW College. "

i agree, i'm not a sw guy, but i've heard nothing but good things about them.