long island/5 boroughs ? ? ?

[jbanks]

My take on country critters is that thier prices are ABSOLUTELY rediculous! I feel really sorry for "unknowing" folks that wonder in to that place. On top of that, they have "some" workers that cn be pretty arrogant.
As for Aquarium adventures in Carle PLace, they started out pretty cool with the discount card and all but fell right off! with the exception of the new coral tank that they setup, everythnig looks like "PLEASE RESCUE US- IT BURNS US

". Then you look at the price even after your 20% club membersip is deducted and its still overpriced. These local shops just don't get it. I'd take my chances with Aqua Hut.. Dirty water but honest. Other than that, I like to take the ride over the Whitestone to either Greenwich or Stamford. There's also a shop right down the street from the meeting place of the Long Isand Reef association in Bayshore that gets some pretty decent stuff. Other than that, Pets-Warehouse.....(check their website before you go in) They will give you their mail order price on dry goods, which is way diffent than the shelf price.

 

[grandmarm]

went to agua hut. bought 2 clowns a small coral and anemone (that has moved into the rock somplace) for $70. They do have great prices.

 

[fishamajig]

I told you. but what did you think of the store. a little sketchy. you have to examine the stuff really well there before you buy it but you can get some great deals. he got lr for 5 bucks per lb. thats a good deal! well gladd you got some good prices. . . . does anyone have any lights for a 55 for sale i have flourescent but i want to keep some corals. . .etc. please let me know if you do and if you want to sell or trade

 

[grandmarm]

store was ok, nothing great to look at. Agua Hut is just tank after tank no great setups. Also Agua Hut does not seem to have the high priced end of fishes the odd ones that Country Critters have, but that is fine with us.
Thanks for telling us about this place. We want to get maybe a yellow tang did not have any -they said they were getting some in the end of week. Want to get peaceful fish had enough of that damsel.
As far as lights, we just ordered some online saved about $40 for 4 lights.

 

[fishamajig]

what did you get? did you go with a corallife setup? i am thinking of going that route just to keep the cost at a minimum plus i dont think i want to get into anything crazy anyway.

 

[grandmarm]

Just came back from Aqua Hut - will never go back there again.
The gray haired man was rude to my husband as well as myself. We bought a pufferfish from him last week after he told us that the fish was mild and did not bother anything in tank.We also bought a coral. After 24 hours of the pufferfish eating our snails, coral and bitting our fish we brought it back.
Asked the same man why he told us this fish would not bother anything and was told the pufferfish was borderline fish. They told us he would give us credit towards another fish. Went in today we were told he did not remember anything about that he was helping someone for the last hour and half (he came in the same time as we in fact he held the door for us) and was just nasty and rude.
Bottom line will have to find another LFS.

 

[fishamajig]

The guy with the grey hair is don. He is the owner. they do get very busy in there and sometimes you have to wait for a while before you can get someone to help you. I have never had a problem with don. He happens to like me but i am in there all the time. I have returned fish there and have had no problem. I think that will happen at any fish store though. You have to do your own research on fish compatability. I bought a hermit crab from there and little did i know it was going to kill 3 shrimp and 2 feather dusters. My bad for not checking if he was aggressive. You got to keep in mind that a lfs is a buisness and allot of the times they are looking to sell you something. I try to do the research first and then make an educated purchase, otherwise it just gets too expensive. ask my wife she is ready to kill me already well sorry you had a bad hut experience hope you can find refuge at one of the other local spots. better luck next time:happyfish

 

[grandmarm]

interesting that Don is the owner. My husband has been self employed for the past 40 years and the one thing you learn is how to talk to people. If either one of us talked that way to customers we would not be in business.
i realize that he was busy but to be nasty and rude - no way you don't keep your customers coming back that way.
As far as the fish goes, Don was the one who said he would give us credit towards something else. We tried to fax him a letter before returning the fish. He did not return our fax or call us.
Oh well, life goes on.

 

[fishamajig]

What are you going to do? like you said life goes on. and you will be going to another fish store now. Sorry about your bad experience. you might want to check aquarium adventure in carle place. they are having 550% off all fish and inverts till the 13th i just got 2 cleaner shrimp from there.:yes:

 

[grandmarm]

might try them thanks - the only thing is they are kind of far.
will let you know if we get there. We also need some cleaner shrimp.

 

[grandmarm]

just got back from Aquarium Adventure - what a nice place.
Bought some cleaner shrimp and some coral.
bought 2 small clams and a brain. Will have to read up about the corals.
Food was also buy one and get one so we stocked up on that also.
Thanks for letting us know about this place. It was a pleasure to go into a store where the people were nice and another plus they have a phone they answer not like Aqua Hut.
Thanks again

 

[fishamajig]

no doubt . i know they ar quite far but sometimes they are worth it, glad to see you had a good experience. good luck with the clam. any chance of some pics in the near future? would love to see your setup.

 

[grandmarm]

went to Pet Warehouse last night they are in the middle of re doing their tanks (coral) don't have much at all. They said it is going to take about a month to complete.

 

[elvictre]

This is the post I have been looking for....wow

I can't seem to find any good LFS on Long Island before this post. I am particularly interested in corals. Pet Stop in Huntington is OK but I prefer Pet Barn in Franklin Square. Being in Huntington I would rather travel east. I will give some of your places a look tomorrow.
Thanks
Vic
Also called BTJ's today and they told me that thye aren't set up for corals yet.

 

[fishamajig]

huntington. . . . i grew up near there. well if you are looking for corals in that area you might want to check selmers pet land they might be on the pricy side but i was in there a few weeks ago and they had a very nice reef tank setup. clams, zoos, riclorda, polyps. what size tank do you have. do you have any corals now?

 

[elvictre]

I have been to Selmer's, they have a nice reef tank. I think Pet Stop has more and it is only 5 minutes from them. I have a 75 oceanic with a DIY 38 sump/fuge. Current corals are Hammer, Galexea, Frogspawn, Orange Zoos, Purple Tree Leather, Pogata Cup, Red Shrooms, and Purple Shrooms. I also have small frags of Green Acro, Blasto, Star Polyps, and just added Green Ricordia. I also have a Feather Duster and a RBTA. I would love to find a Red Gono but no LFS have them and twice I purchased one online and received it DOA.
Vic

 

[jjspati]

let me know what you think of these places in comparision to your two that you go to. Id love to go check out that place in huntington and the other one if you think they are good.

 

[fishamajig]

well whose looking to sell some frags I would rather give my $$$ to a hobbiest than a lfs. But thats the only place you can go sometimes. since we have a nice long island network going on we should frag our diffrent corals and supply them to each other.

 

[jjspati]

that sounds like a cool idea fishamajig.
question. since we all share similar water quality, i was wondering what everyone uses for their tank water. i was thinking about getting an RO/DI unit. does anyone else use one?

 

[fishamajig]

I unfortunately use tap water with water conditioner. it sucks and I am looking at getting either a tap water filter or a ro/di unit myself. I have tremendous algie blooms with the tap water. i hate it! ! !