Coral in Pittsburgh?
- Thread starter miggs76
- Start date
exotic aquatics in baltimore area is a good one too.
Nice to be informative..
Yinzer have you ever been to mr coral's store?
The stores you can look are depending on when you are around. There is no solid coral store, but then again there doesnt seem to be a market when its brought in.
You can find the store list on our pmasi site of the sponsor section
http://www.pmasi.org/frm/forumdisplay.php?10-PMAS-Supporters
That will give you an idea. If you provide more of maybe what type of coral you are looking for it will help
Yinzer have you ever been to mr coral's store?
The stores you can look are depending on when you are around. There is no solid coral store, but then again there doesnt seem to be a market when its brought in.
You can find the store list on our pmasi site of the sponsor section
http://www.pmasi.org/frm/forumdisplay.php?10-PMAS-Supporters
That will give you an idea. If you provide more of maybe what type of coral you are looking for it will help
Raceimage
Premium Member
What type of corals are you looking for? Wet Pets, Dave's Aquastock, Seahorse, Aqua World, and Elmers all have corals. There are several club members that sell frags also. You can search Craigslist for coral to get contact info for them.
I went to Mr Coral a week or so ago - SUCKED!!! Smallest fraglets (my new term) I have ever seen and not much selection. Fraglet - A piece of coral smaller than your pinky fingernail.
I went to Mr Coral a week or so ago - SUCKED!!! Smallest fraglets (my new term) I have ever seen and not much selection. Fraglet - A piece of coral smaller than your pinky fingernail.
If informative is what you want, then OK.
A friend of mine went to the actual Mr Coral store and brought me home what I asked for over a year ago. All frags colonies now. I have also utilized them online many times As far as "smallest fraglets" that's not any different of how i would describe our local stores "sell as frags".
Or my new personal Favorite
"me: yeah i see you have copperbands but he really looks sick and so does that one, do u have any that don't have disease?". Employee: "oh yeah that just showed up on them yesterday and it doesn't look like ich"... Wow. 2 half dead copperbands covered in white, rotten fins, puffy lips and blind" ...it must have happened overnight.
I was making a suggestion to a person who lived in the area of the store that I mentioned. I certainly would not drive more than 30 minutes to buy anything from our local stores at this point. And that is My opinion and I am entitled to it. If you want him to waste his precious free time while in the area to be disappointed then by all means delete my post and take away free speech. If the places in the local area where offering such great corals at reasonable prices then they would also have customers across the country as well. And I wouldn't have tO walk out each store empty handed and laughing at myself for "giving them one more shot".
Soon, a local store will come around with respect for their animals, the local market, customers and the correct use of
business ethics and we will all be happy. Until then, I will go to frag swaps, and try vendors from across the us.
My post was a suggestion to check out somewhere close to his location. That's all
A friend of mine went to the actual Mr Coral store and brought me home what I asked for over a year ago. All frags colonies now. I have also utilized them online many times As far as "smallest fraglets" that's not any different of how i would describe our local stores "sell as frags".
Or my new personal Favorite
"me: yeah i see you have copperbands but he really looks sick and so does that one, do u have any that don't have disease?". Employee: "oh yeah that just showed up on them yesterday and it doesn't look like ich"... Wow. 2 half dead copperbands covered in white, rotten fins, puffy lips and blind" ...it must have happened overnight.
I was making a suggestion to a person who lived in the area of the store that I mentioned. I certainly would not drive more than 30 minutes to buy anything from our local stores at this point. And that is My opinion and I am entitled to it. If you want him to waste his precious free time while in the area to be disappointed then by all means delete my post and take away free speech. If the places in the local area where offering such great corals at reasonable prices then they would also have customers across the country as well. And I wouldn't have tO walk out each store empty handed and laughing at myself for "giving them one more shot".
Soon, a local store will come around with respect for their animals, the local market, customers and the correct use of
business ethics and we will all be happy. Until then, I will go to frag swaps, and try vendors from across the us.
My post was a suggestion to check out somewhere close to his location. That's all
bmiller1234
Member
I don't think it is fair to lump all local stores into a sick fish complaint and saying that they all disrespect animals and practice poor business ethics etc. without specifically posting where. That's like saying you found a rotten apple in the produce section so every grocery store in area has poor quality and high prices.
As far as the mr coral I don't have experience but that was a year ago for your friend gettig you frags and as we know with some local stores they can turn on a dime from a go to place to a smelly cramped store with a algae covered tanks and no stock. I am not saying this happened to mr coral simply saying that stability of any store is not guaranteed.
And back to the original posters question he asked for "good places" to go in area. Not bad places to stay away from...
I would recommend a stop at davesaquastock. Great smaller local store that has a passion for the hobby not for the profit. Definitely cleanest tanks in area with healthy stock and prices comparable or better than online. He is saltwater only which is a plus cause nothing worse than waiting for the guppy guy to finish so you can buy some coral haha.
As far as the mr coral I don't have experience but that was a year ago for your friend gettig you frags and as we know with some local stores they can turn on a dime from a go to place to a smelly cramped store with a algae covered tanks and no stock. I am not saying this happened to mr coral simply saying that stability of any store is not guaranteed.
And back to the original posters question he asked for "good places" to go in area. Not bad places to stay away from...
I would recommend a stop at davesaquastock. Great smaller local store that has a passion for the hobby not for the profit. Definitely cleanest tanks in area with healthy stock and prices comparable or better than online. He is saltwater only which is a plus cause nothing worse than waiting for the guppy guy to finish so you can buy some coral haha.
I didn't name anywhere to stay away from. He asked about coral. In my opinion, there is nowhere around here that I would classify as a good "coral store". I hear nothing but wonderful things about Dave's which is nice. And I will not name places my name, if you are in the hobby locally then you would know which stores are guilty of which practices. I've been to specialty coral places across the US and I am sorry but not high caliber here ...AT THIS POINT. Once again, CORAL was what he was asking about.
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
To be fair to the local stores: If there were a market for a "coral store" here, then there would be a "coral store" here. The reality is that there is no demand for a high end "coral store" here. Several stores have tried to stock higher end corals, but they just don't sell, or they get beat up for their pricing. The prices are high and the selection weak due to lack of demand, not the quality of the stores. The stores are interested in profit and product turnover, not catering to a small niche group of folks who rarely come in and spend money. For the most part, we as advanced reef keepers, are not what keeps these stores alive. I am not defending any store, but rather pointing out the simple reality if retail business.
Food for thought: Higher end corals regularly get posted here on the RC club forum and often go unsold even at prices that are a fraction of retail. Numerous club members who have sold out, have had trouble getting rid of high end equipment, lovestock and coral at fire sale prices.
Fact: Over the years we have had several stores attempt to cater to the higher end market. They have either gone under comletely or had to adjust their inventory to cater to the lower end customer.
That said, several stores in the area do attempt to stock better corals and/or would be more than happy to order higher end coral upon request. Most would also be more than happy to negotiate a reasonable price for such an order. Waking into an LFS and grumbing about the prices, or beating the LFS up here in public is not going to drive any kind of deal or reasonable change.
Also consider: Markets similar to (and in many cases smaller than) Pittsburgh have club with hundreds of members and/or multiple large clubs and only a small selection of stores. Our club has been here for almost 2 decades. In that time, the board and membership have been populated with entirely new faces, ideas and agendas, yet the average membership has remained steady and somewhat small. There are in fact several stores spread out over our area and many more that have come and gone. That is, the "higher end" customers are spread over a fairly large area and not concentrated enough to support a single "high end" store and not large enough in numbers to support spread out "high end" stores.
The reality: Our club offers a far better calander of speakers and events than most of the other clubs (nationwide) do, regardless of their size or market. However, it is no surprise that an area that barely supports a "reef club" can barely support "reef stores". While we are a populated area, Pittsburgher's don't like to travel very far (due to traffic, tunnels, etc). Our membership and store selection (and location) reflect that simple reality.
Food for thought: Higher end corals regularly get posted here on the RC club forum and often go unsold even at prices that are a fraction of retail. Numerous club members who have sold out, have had trouble getting rid of high end equipment, lovestock and coral at fire sale prices.
Fact: Over the years we have had several stores attempt to cater to the higher end market. They have either gone under comletely or had to adjust their inventory to cater to the lower end customer.
That said, several stores in the area do attempt to stock better corals and/or would be more than happy to order higher end coral upon request. Most would also be more than happy to negotiate a reasonable price for such an order. Waking into an LFS and grumbing about the prices, or beating the LFS up here in public is not going to drive any kind of deal or reasonable change.
Also consider: Markets similar to (and in many cases smaller than) Pittsburgh have club with hundreds of members and/or multiple large clubs and only a small selection of stores. Our club has been here for almost 2 decades. In that time, the board and membership have been populated with entirely new faces, ideas and agendas, yet the average membership has remained steady and somewhat small. There are in fact several stores spread out over our area and many more that have come and gone. That is, the "higher end" customers are spread over a fairly large area and not concentrated enough to support a single "high end" store and not large enough in numbers to support spread out "high end" stores.
The reality: Our club offers a far better calander of speakers and events than most of the other clubs (nationwide) do, regardless of their size or market. However, it is no surprise that an area that barely supports a "reef club" can barely support "reef stores". While we are a populated area, Pittsburgher's don't like to travel very far (due to traffic, tunnels, etc). Our membership and store selection (and location) reflect that simple reality.
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ironwill723
Well-known member
Hey Bill can you pm me your email? I had a quick question for you. Thanks Craig
BeanAnimal
Premium Member
my username @gmail.com
