The LFS here....

[Lonewolfblue]

Well, for the fish dept. at the local pet store a couple blocks away from me, they are going down the tubes, lol. The gals that really knew the fish, and took really good care of the tanks have left, and now the tanks are starting to look horrid. I went in today, and 3 sets of the tanks were very cloudy, and they were doing nothing about it. There were also several dead fish in the tanks as well. This used to be the absolute best place to get fish in our area, and now it's terrible.

After my visit there, I then went to Petco, across the river from where I live. The tanks all looked awsome. They also have 3 new guys working in the fish department, and the tanks are nicely stocked, and very clean. And their SW tanks have never looked better, and they now sell Live Rock as well. And in the FW dept, they have a tank loaded with Malaysian Driftwood and Dwarf Fire Red Gouramis. The driftwood is kind of spendy at 9.99 each, but they have a bunch, and a good selection of them, and they are all in the tank, soaked and ready to go. This is where I had got all my Tiger Barbs, and they just got a new shipment of about 50 more in. Tempted to get more, but I think I have enough, 32 babies and 7 adults. I think I'm shopping at Petco here from now on.

[LandGhoti]

That's a bummer about the LFS. It's always a shame when something like that happens. My LFS has changed hands a couple of times, and I'm thankful that the new guys who own it only hire people who know their stuff.

Good news about Petco, though. I don't have one near me, so can't speak to their tank setups, but I know from this forum that a lot of people don't like it. Sounds like yours is a good one (or improving?). I'm thankful that the Petsmart near me has fish people that know what they're doing and always ask questions (although they still let people buy goldfish/bettas and bowls on the same day ().