Anybody in central Illinois... Peoria or Springfield area

[daclozer]

Anybody in the central Illinois with frags or marine / coral related items to sell. I am just getting started again and looking for some frags. I know there are people in the area with them as I am seeing them for sale in the lfs (for as much as a whole piece).

[kribbz]

i'm in the central illinois area for 9 months of the year at Illinois State university. in a few months i should have a couple anthelia and zoo frags for ya. i'll trade with you once you get your tank started. kyle P.S. let me know if there are any good lfs's in peoria because i know we have one in bloomington and one in champaign

[daclozer]

Sorry to say all of the ones in this area are pathetic!!! I travel to Sailfin sometimes, but he is way high on prices.... there is one shop pin our area that could be very kick ***, but the people there just don't care to educate themselves. They have really nice acrylic /oak system, but their fish are alway sick, I tried to talk a guy out of paying $55 for a Grey Poma Angel with a huge cloudy eye. The lfs guy told him that was normal and sold him some copper... When the lfs guy walked away to get the copper, I told guy that he was nuts (in a very polite way) for paying full price for a sick fish. I also asked him if he had any inverts, he did. I think he thought that I was lying to him when I told him the copper would kill his inverts... The guys there are nice guys, they just don't know what they are doing. I have offered to help them get the saltwater systems working and set up properly, just so I could have a decent place to buy stuff. (I used to own a shop and am in the planning stages of attempting to open another one with fresh / salt /reef livestock and supplies. No stinking ,noisy birds or dogs...) They have the tank that they keep their half dead corals in connected first of all to several tanks with fish and second of all to a huge wet/dry trickle filter with no protein skimmer... I was in there the other day and they had some small frags that were near dying. I offered to buy them for $5 a piece, to try and save them and the guy thought I was nuts. He said why would he do that when he could sell them for $20 to some one else!!!! Long story short, don't come to Peoria looking for salt/reef stuff, you will be very disappointed.

[Zic]

Which store in Peoria was that?

There is a store in Creve Coeur, which is right across the river from Peoria, called World Wide Pets. They have healthy saltwater tanks. I've never seen anything that looks like it's dying there. The manager knows what she's talking about. She'll even come to your house and help you set up your saltwater tank properly.

[kribbz]

hey zic when you say right across the river you mean closer to like bloomington-normal? where is this store located cause i would like to check it out.
thanks
kyle

[Zic]

Nope, not by Bloomington/Normal. Peoria is on the west side of the Illinois river, East Peoria is on the east side and Creve Coeur is just south of there. I'll give you directions from Bloomington.

The main road between Bloomington and Peoria is Interstate 74. Take it west, towards Peoria. After you pass Morton, it's about five minutes away. You will see signs for East Peoria. Take the South Main Street exit. This will take you all the way to where you want to go.

Just drive South on Main Street. East Peoria isn't very large, so you will be out of it in about five minutes. Then you will be in Creve Coeur. Keep going South, almost all the way through the small town (even smaller than East Peoria). There will be a McDonald's on the right. World Wide Pets is just past that, also on the right. It sits back a little off the road, so you have to look for it. There is a restaurant with a big sign called Larry's Driftwood (Not an aquarium decoration store, haha) right after it.

Anyways, they have all the saltwater stuff down stairs, so you have to go around back and down the stairs.

All in all, it will take you about 45 minutes from Bloomington. Well worth the drive in my opinion. If you do go there, tell Jamie, the manager, that Isaac sent you.

[reefer_wannabe]

If you all come over to Sailfin, I'm 15 miles north of Champaign in Rantoul. I have a Capnella that keeps "spitting" babies, and some Anthellia that is going gonzo in my tank. If you get over this way, give me a holler and I'll set you up with some. I also have a bunch of 'shrooms that I could part with.

Just let me know!

w.wiedman@mchsi.com

[kribbz]

yeah i went to the store in creve coeur and i don't think i will go back. i appreciate the directions though. to be totally honest i can't even say i stepped in the store so i don't know what it looks like inside. the reason i say i won't go back is because tonight i got off of school at around 5:30 and called world wide pets to see how late they would be open. the lady told me until 7:00. so i knew it would be close but i left anyway just go check it out and see if they had any yellow watchman gobies. well i missed the exit and that set me back a little while. by the time i realized it and turned around i showed up at the storefront at 6:43 according to my cellphone and the store was closed and the doors were locked. i was not a very happy person because this meant i drove 45 minutes there and now it was going to be another 45 minutes back. i don't understand why she said they would be open until 7:00 and the door said they were open till 7:00. hmmmmmmmmmmmmm !!!!!!!

[daclozer]

You didn't miss much anyway. I hate to disagree with any of the good people in here, but the owners of this shop are spooooky!! What probably happened is they were downstairs (that is where the salt stuff is) , when they go down there they lock the doors. I have been in the hobby in this area for years and have never bought a single thing from them. Most of the really good stuff, they won't sell. THey have some nice display tanks, but for the amount of space and the equipment they have, they have very little livestock. No liverock, no SPS, no clams, just a few softies. But they have halides on almost every system. Nothing has a price on it, they just make up numbers as they go. There is no rhyme or reason to their pricing. If you aske them one day item A is $30, if you ask them another day it is a rare specimen and worth $60 bucks, if you ask them another day, item A is not for sale because they are going to breed it... Sorry for being so critical, but I am very pissed that I have spend all of my money for this hobby on the internet. What is so hard about having a decent shop????

[Zic]

Well, that sucks, man! OK, let me first say that I admit I'm a SW newbie. I have read a few books on them, but I've never had a sw tank. I only had intrest in FW fish until I went to this store. I thought that their tanks looked healthy and stocked. You have to admit, they do have more stuff than any other store in Peoria, East Peoria or Pekin.

But, yes, they do lock the front door when they're open. I mentioned that the SW stuff was around the back and down the stairs, but I failed to mentioned that when the employee is down there, she locks the front door. Anyways, I'm sorry you drove all that way and was angry when you got there. I suppose that would make my mad, too.

daclozer, it sounds like you bad experiences there too. They actually gave you different prices on the same item? That's just bad buisness.
I'm glad you chimed in with your opinion of the place. That's what this forum is here for. I'm only stating my opinion, as well. I didn't mean to make the place sound like it's the greatest place ever. But I was impressed with it. And the employee, Jamie, took some time to talk to me. Most of the other fish stores around here are hard to get service at. Plus she said she would order anything I wanted. I thought that was cool.

[RocketSeason]

anyone been to the Creve Cour fish place recently??? I went there about 2 years ago, I had no idea there was a basement full of fish!

Where is Sailfin located?

What do you guys think of Super Pets?

thanks!

-Matt

[RogerMcAllen]

Sailfin is on neil street here in Champaign.
http://www.sailfin.com/

[The Gillman]

Greetings, I live in the Peoria area and usually buy my livestock at Charlies Aquarium in Pekin.They have a very knowledgable staff with certian people in different areas(saltwater,chiclids,brackish,etc.).Although the saltwater selection is not as large as i would like.I highly recommend Charlies.Another local shop with a usually large selection of saltwater fish is Fishin' Times in North Pekin.The owner Greg gave me awesome advice when i set up my s/w tank and i get my r/o water and some livestock from him.I have been in World Wide pets a couple of times and she has some great reef tanks with a lot of corals for sale.I find her fish a little pricy and not much of a selection.Corals are general 25$ for smaller specimens and 50$ or more for larger.I stay away from the big box pet stores in Peoria,having had no luck with their livestock fresh or salt. :P