coralville store names? worth the trip?

[acrouse]

Im thinking about going to coralville and wanted to know the names of the fish stores there. I thought I had read in an older thread that one of the stores were moving soon. And if anybody has been there recently and thinks its worth the drive or not please let me know!

Any information would be appreciated!
thanks jolene

 

[glaspie69]

I would definetly suggest hitting petland I'm sure on the address but we were down there a few weekends ago and it was a very good experience

 

[acrouse]

thanks glaspie

 

[leeweber85]

Coralville Bay
302 2nd St
Coralville, 52241


PetLand
1851 Lower Muscatine Rd
Iowa City, 52240
(319) 351-9451

Sea of Marvels
2419 2nd St
Coralville, 52241
(319) 351-3969

 

[jwess]

Never been to Petland but Sea of Marvels and Coralville Bay are nice. Plan for an afternoon trip. Last time a group of us went we got down there from Wtlo and Hung opened up his shop 2hrs late. We just hung out at the Bay forever until someone go a hold of him. I believe it was worth it though. Just another note about Sea of Marvels. He is opening up his new shop soon so Im not sure how much stock he will have.
Josh

 

[Bbentler]

Sea of Marvels has the best fish in the area. I live right down the street and he has perfect fish. He takes really amazing care of them and if you buy a lot from him he will give you a good "deal." Petland has some great large fish in the front tank. Make sure you go in and talk to Andy. He is amazing! He really does know his stuff will most likely will be doing saltwater aquarium care and information professionally within the next few years. Also if you need something special ordered in, Andy usually does a great job getting it. If you wanna see my new setup while your in town, give me a hollar. I just setup a 280 fish only and will be adding some schools by the end of this week.

 

[acrouse]

Thanks everyone for the information very helpful-we got home late last night but the drive was well worth the trip! I was impressed with all 3 places.

Petland had the most for corals and Andy was very, very helpful! What an impressive selection and excellent help!

Coralville Bay had a nice selection of fish and corals. He actually had all the crabs and snails that we just ordered offline (could have saved on shipping!) Now I know.

Sea of Marvels definitely had an awesome fish selection and many mushrooms! Hung was not there when we were there, but the daughter said we could get a better price if he was there. (Never did get to see him, maybe next time). She even said she tends to overprice things (not good for business).

Bbentler-thank you for the offer to see your 280-maybe next time we get over that way and are not as pressed for time. It was a spur of the momment trip. Your very lucky to have such good selection right "next door". Des Moines does not have the selection compared to Coralville/Ia. City area.

Thanks again for all the information-the road trip would not have been a success without the help! Greatly appreciated!

jolene

 

[leeweber85]

Sea of Marvels has the healthest fish you will probably find at a LFS. Did you check out the back room?

 

[Bbentler]

Sea of Marvels is always always always the place to get fish. He is a voodoo doctor when it comes to fish.

 

[jbrunken]

For the record, I did get some Green Chromis from SoM that had some sort of parasite (Bloodworms I think) and most of them died within a couple weeks, so even SoM isn't always perfect.

-JB

 

[acrouse]

No we did not check out the back room-did not know there was one-maybe next road trip. Is it just fish in the back room or more coral selection? The sign in front said there may be limited supplies due to a move. I had never seen such large beautiful angel fish in a fish store before we went to Sea of Marvels.

jolene

 

[glaspie69]

Sea of Marvels has good fish and corals, my wallet just can't compete with some of his pricing on his corals.

 

[acrouse]

We had found some blue stripped mushrooms at Coralville Bay that I would like to have purchased, but they were not for sale.
The store owner said he was going to start fragging them and then he would sell them. I asked if he could take my e-mail and let me know when he had them for sale since I lived a couple hours away.
He said he would not do that since he had so many requests there was no way to e-mail all interested parties. (I was glad he was honest) however I don't think driving 4 hours just to see if he has any for sale that day would be very cost effective!

jolene