CatFish Charlies Update

[Dbarnes]

Soooo... i was driving by today and i decided to stop by and take a look after my last exprience was a severe dissapointment heres what i took away.

1. Stock was much healthier looking then previously, no vissable ich that i could tell.

2. Frag stock was VERY weak, however appon questioning Ron the owner he explained that the working realtionship between him and Elite Reef (about 10min away) allowed him to send customers to Elite if they were looking for corals (Elite has a decent supply on a continous bases) and vice versa they were sending customer looking for fish in his direction if they had something that was not in stock at Elite. Overall on the coral i feel they could and intend to carry a larger supply and are slowly increasing thier merchandise. The few coras they had instock were in good condition.

3. Freshwater, as always was in abondance and all looked healthy.

4. Prices, the livestock prices for the most part were decent, some seemed like a very good buy and others seemed to be overpriced. The good buys in my opinion out wheighed the over priced. The dry good seemed to be comprable to any other fish store however has some stuff that seems cheaper than average.

5. overall health, my biggest and i mean BIGGEST pet peave is fish store with dead fish in the tanks. If you cant keep fish alive why the hell do you have fish store!!! its a waste of the enviroment, mother natures creations, and my time to walk into a fish store and see dead fish!!! with this being said Cat Fish Charlies had NONE, better yet after talking to the owner who seemed very honset explained that through the last two months of carrying saltwater fish he has only lost two! that seems like a reasponsible hobbiest that is taking the business in a popsitive direction. Very opisite of D&G in foco.

6. Customer service was great and seemed to be very knowlagable when it comes to fish but pretty unexprienced when it comes to corals.

Overall my experience was 8(out of 10) the main thing i felt it was lacking was little cleanliness and some more corals, i would say what it had in abondace was friendly service and good honest prices.

Thanks for reading and again this is a personal opinion!!!
Derek

 

[ShelbyJK500]

I happen to like Ron and his shop. Ron has been in the business FOREVER! Used to have the largest "shop" in Colorado at one point and did wholesale. Small world, I have a buddy at work who I found out worked for Ron like 18 years ago! Anyhow, Ron's prices on fish when they come in are great. He definitely knows what he's doing. He had a large tang that he got in last week. Saw it the first day he got his shipment in. The fish looked dead, laying at the bottom of the tank. Ron went on to tell me that large fish many times come in stressed out and will look dead but be perfect the next day. I was VERY skeptical of that kind of talk. Went back two days later, that same fish was doing great. Shouldn't second guess a guy who's been in the business almost as long as I've been alive I suppose.

Anyhow, small shop but I consider it VERY clean compared to many I frequent. Very knowledgeable and friendly. Ron will definitely talk your ear off. For someone who has been in the business this long, he still takes time to answer questions I'm sure he's answered hundreds of times. He has mentioned expanding the rear of his business to expand the saltwater section of the store. We'll see if he follows through with that.

 

[kmcmurtry]

I was in there last night and would agree with you on the cleanliness and friendliness. I was there yesterday - waited patiently while he talked to the only other customer in the store for so long that I eventually gave up, bought the dry goods I had come for and left. I love Ron and his shop, but holy cow, he can talk. And it wasn't his fault - I should have stepped in. I was interested in some fish and inverts, but he was involved with this very talky person for 10-15 minutes or so, so I decided I would come back another day. I'm not a pushy enough person or I would have butted in, but just as there would be a pause, the customer would suggest another tank to talk about. Not mad at Ron, but were it me as that customer, I might have suggested he help others while I perused the tanks and thought up more stuff to ask.

He is very honest about which fish are reef safe and which are not - you don't get that sometimes. I was half tempted to buy a seahorse but I know I don't have the right set-up for it. Also, he is starting to get more interesting coral in. I guess he has a cheat sheet up front with pics that help identify his frags, but without having that handy when he was talking to the other guy, and being a noob, I didn't know what I was looking at. I might suggest hanging that on or near the tank like liquid kingdom does with their price sheets. He's steadily working on his coral stock. I heard him say he's going to be getting a lot more in soon. And his livestock overall looks great - good interesting stuff that I don't see alot in other stores (likely because they are so popular it's all gone or on hold by the time I get there, lol). Worth the drive.

 

[Dbarnes]

Lol what time were u there??? Cuzz..... that talkative customer might have been me haha. Yea ron is great with fish and openly learning about more corals. He said he had recently added a partner of such that was working on getting more corals and was currently testing water and changing lights. And yes your right, VERY honest guy, won't sell u something just to make a buck!

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[kmcmurtry]

Yesterday afternoon. I forgot I wanted to ask him if he takes corals/fish for store credit

 

[Dbarnes]

Did u have your son with u, or a young guy and a gal? I never asked him that.

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[kmcmurtry]

I have 3, a herd of monsters who both love and hate fish stores. We went after school which is never a good time to visit as kids are tired and grumpy and just want to get home to play the PS3 and talk on the phone.