3am Pod Patrol...Can you have too many?
- Thread starter coloagro
- Start date
Couldn't disagree more. I've seen aiptasia run rampant in pretty much EVERY LFS in the metro area at some point. It goes in cycles everywhere. They have hair algae, so have pretty much all of us. They will tell you straight up, they don't care and don't mind the algae. They are "old school" and don't use skimmers and so forth. I go to LK all the time; never seen "decomposing" animals, rarely observed a cloudy tank, and have NEVER seen them sell pests like they're a good thing?!?
I have bought healthy fish from LK and have had great success. The owner knows what he's talking about and gives great advice. As a new customer they won't sell you a fish without testing a sample of your water. Very responsible and caring of both the customer and livestock in that manner. Great customer service.
It's not the cleanest and/or newest LFS. I don't go there nearly as much as Elite or other places, but I'm also not going to steer anyone away from there. Just my .02
I have bought healthy fish from LK and have had great success. The owner knows what he's talking about and gives great advice. As a new customer they won't sell you a fish without testing a sample of your water. Very responsible and caring of both the customer and livestock in that manner. Great customer service.
It's not the cleanest and/or newest LFS. I don't go there nearly as much as Elite or other places, but I'm also not going to steer anyone away from there. Just my .02
This is a BIG "in my humble opinion",I have had poor experiences with just about every LFS listed in this thread, from extremely poor customer service to unhealthy stock and not one of those times was in Liquid Kingdom. I don't judge them on their algae growth or aptasia. Several stores mentioned here do seem to have sparkling clean display tanks, but for myself, the customer service is key. There, I walk in, I am greeted first thing and asked if I need any assistance. A couple times if I am wandering too long, I am reminded they can answer questions. If I do ask a question, I get really good info, not "let me ask so-and-so" or "I'll look it up". I will admit their store had a long downturn years back where I wouldn't even walk in there, because they seemed snooty and the aquariums were filthy. It's not perfect now, but a lot better. I've not taken home a sick animal yet. Elite is awesome in their selection - if you're looking for corals that are actually affordable at an LFS, those are your guys. Lots to choose from. When I'm looking for a fish, I usually go to LK or Exotic - or I did before their stock disappeared last week (went in and almost all the tanks were void of life and filled with copper, not sure if the copper part has always been that way but the guy said all their saltwater tanks with fish were copper-dosed). In the last few months, I have seen dead animals in every single LFS I have been to - many of which are listed in this thread - I'm sort of not surprised. I guess I sort of expect it with the turnover of fish and the stress on them after shipment.
There are some who are so turned off by a past occurrence at LK, that they won't return. And that's OK. It's probably rightly so with the shape it was in before, but I think those that haven't been in years who visited it now would agree it has improved alot. I'm not getting kickbacks for sticking up for them or anything. I just feel like some of the harsher comments on here currently a little undeserved. There are quite a few regular happy customers on this forum who don't like to see them trashed when they provide good service at decent prices.
There are some who are so turned off by a past occurrence at LK, that they won't return. And that's OK. It's probably rightly so with the shape it was in before, but I think those that haven't been in years who visited it now would agree it has improved alot. I'm not getting kickbacks for sticking up for them or anything. I just feel like some of the harsher comments on here currently a little undeserved. There are quite a few regular happy customers on this forum who don't like to see them trashed when they provide good service at decent prices.
As I said I don't like bad mouthing any LFS!
The worst "Pet" company is Petco and their lobbyists, Who have been lobbying Congress to ban all but themselves from the Salt aquarium trade, through technicalities only they would be wavered from!
To expand on the recent interest to my last post (which I'm sorry is turning into a stolen thread in protest of said post). I have not been into Liquid kingdom in about a year. There is a check cashing place I go to every so often just down the way from LK. IF I happen to go there to load money on my card, I'll stop into LK.
The last time I went into the store the large display tank up front looked better then I'd ever seen it. The rest of the store was cloudy. Although I saw no dead fish that day, every single tank had aptasia! The girl working there had no clue what was going on, telling me to talk to the other guy. The "other guy" was with other customers. I wandered around looking at the back tanks (the butterfly tank had no aptasia). Most of the reef fish were sickly looking (as though starved).
Once the "other guy" was free. I asked him if he had, or could order Lysmata wurdemanni peppermint shrimp from Florida to help me with aptasia. He essentially told me he ONLY buys California peppermints. Because California has no aptasia!!
(it was SO obviously working!) He then was very rude about how NO peppermints eat aptasia, trying to get me to buy some Chem cure instead.
I have NOT returned because I don't like aptasia, sick fish, or bad advise.
I'll stop in and check it out again. Maybe they improved?? That girl called the other guy DAD by the way.
The worst "Pet" company is Petco and their lobbyists, Who have been lobbying Congress to ban all but themselves from the Salt aquarium trade, through technicalities only they would be wavered from!
To expand on the recent interest to my last post (which I'm sorry is turning into a stolen thread in protest of said post). I have not been into Liquid kingdom in about a year. There is a check cashing place I go to every so often just down the way from LK. IF I happen to go there to load money on my card, I'll stop into LK.
The last time I went into the store the large display tank up front looked better then I'd ever seen it. The rest of the store was cloudy. Although I saw no dead fish that day, every single tank had aptasia! The girl working there had no clue what was going on, telling me to talk to the other guy. The "other guy" was with other customers. I wandered around looking at the back tanks (the butterfly tank had no aptasia). Most of the reef fish were sickly looking (as though starved).
Once the "other guy" was free. I asked him if he had, or could order Lysmata wurdemanni peppermint shrimp from Florida to help me with aptasia. He essentially told me he ONLY buys California peppermints. Because California has no aptasia!!
(it was SO obviously working!) He then was very rude about how NO peppermints eat aptasia, trying to get me to buy some Chem cure instead.I have NOT returned because I don't like aptasia, sick fish, or bad advise.
I'll stop in and check it out again. Maybe they improved?? That girl called the other guy DAD by the way.
So that I make up for helping turn this into a LK thread, lol, I will say I have been paying more attention to my pod population as I follow this thread, and my 30 gallon's fuge has the largest pods I have ever seen. I got this tank from theMooga recently, and it has pods that could wear hermit shells at this point. I wonder if I should dump in some store-bought little ones just to try to repopulate with the smaller ones or just leave it alone. Maybe the big ones make so many little ones, it balances out? Wondering when some were saying that no matter how many different species of pods you attempt to cultivate, one will sort of win out? And I like to keep them going as food for my pod eaters, but at this point they are so huge nothing can eat them, especially my mandarin and blennies.
Yes, I do think it's a family operation at Liquid Kingdom. I agree he should be keeping peppermints or some other aptasia-loving creatures in his tanks. I think he has a hard time keeping any shrimp in there with the demand, but maybe he should have some tanks where they are not for sale like the big live rock holding tanks. I bought a couple peppermints recently from him because I had purchased some coral from a guy on CL whose tank was mainly an Aptasia species tank. I removed the ones I could see and then I set the shrimp loose on it and those shrimp attacked the corals like crazy. No aptasia. I can't speak for all shrimp at his or any other store, but I got what I paid for.
Yes, I do think it's a family operation at Liquid Kingdom. I agree he should be keeping peppermints or some other aptasia-loving creatures in his tanks. I think he has a hard time keeping any shrimp in there with the demand, but maybe he should have some tanks where they are not for sale like the big live rock holding tanks. I bought a couple peppermints recently from him because I had purchased some coral from a guy on CL whose tank was mainly an Aptasia species tank. I removed the ones I could see and then I set the shrimp loose on it and those shrimp attacked the corals like crazy. No aptasia. I can't speak for all shrimp at his or any other store, but I got what I paid for.