Fishmans Aquarium store

1SickReefer

1SickReefer

New member
I have been working N of Philly in Fort Washington for the past week. I also will be up that way all next week.

I stopped in Fishman's on rt 202 in DE on my way home. I think I would have rather siphoned the gas I used out of my truck to get there and dump it on the side of the road or drink it.

That place is a serious dump. terrible selection, there must have been 2million Aptasia in every tank. Dead fish, sick fish, outrageous prices.... one label said "soft Coral 99.00"

Does DE actually have a LFS that is actually worth going to? because Just Fish in Bear DE sucks as well.

How about Philly? anything good there.

Sorry to rant, but that place sucked big one's. I will never step foot in that place again. They should just give up on Saltwater and stick to neon tetra's
 
Yeah it isn't one of the better LFS around here. East Coast Aquatics has a decent selection of corals and That Fish Place is up in lancaster about an hour away from Newark De. I won't list the places in MD since you probably already know about them.
Chris
 
There is a Fishman Aquarium in Lewes De that is just as bad. They have decent prices on some powerheads etc, but I would not even buy a snail there as far as live stock goes. Thats where I bought my tank and stand etc (before I knew better) and they gave me lots of bad advice before I found several online discussion boards that set me straight. Not a good place, especially for a newby like me.
 
Yeah it was pretty pathetic, I told the guy working there after he ask if I need any help, that I would never buy a single thing from here, he asked why, I said, have you not seen the millions of pest anemone's that riddle these tanks? and your dead fish in that one over there, and that fish there that is covered in ick.....let alone the outrageous prices.. the conv. pretty much ended with that and he walked off to help another unsuspecting customer.

So East Coast Aquatics huh, I will check them out next week for sure... thanks Cmondo.

Yeah I have the MD places down pat for sure :) my fav of courrse is Dr Mac... next is Exotic Aquatics

Thanks for sharing your thought,
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7970270#post7970270 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dynagirl
There is a Fishman Aquarium in Lewes De that is just as bad. They have decent prices on some powerheads etc, but I would not even buy a snail there as far as live stock goes. Thats where I bought my tank and stand etc (before I knew better) and they gave me lots of bad advice before I found several online discussion boards that set me straight. Not a good place, especially for a newby like me.
Click to expand...

I'm glad you found us dynagirl :D, It's AMAZING what a LFS employee will say to you to sell you something.

Makes me sick
 
Just to warn you 1SickReefer, if you thought that was bad NEVER step into Newark Tropicals. I would go as far as to say they are worse. The only positive thing coming out of there was I got to see my first flat worm in person that wasn't in a photo,lol. Aptasia everywhere 1-2 dead fish dried up between each tank. 50% of the fish were sick and probably couldn't be saved if they actually tried. They also had corals in tanks that did not even have lights on them... Yeah it's that bad. The store might be useful as well if you were thinking about starting your own LFS and wanted to see where you wanted to avoid getting to in your future.
 
Most flat worms are harmless and benificial. I try to keep some of mine going. Just some of the varieties of life in a reef. there are some that are clear to slightly white, and some that look like a little brown speckled flounder. these are benign. some of Ron Shimick's favorite creatures.

there are only a few types of flatworms i know of that are bad in a reef. the only one i have seen and experienced is the dreaded photosynthetic red planaria. They can multiply like a carpet and cover everything. At the time the only cure was maybe some fish like six line wrasse and a few others, and a hard to find sea slug that eats nothing but them. The Chelidonura Varians, sometimes called a Blue Doris.

this particular red flatworm tastes real bad and is toxic when you kill them.

http://www.seaslugforum.net/display.cfm?id=16517

A fresh water dip of everything in the tank and the rock and sand for about 30 seconds kills them. but now there is a medication to rid them.

happy sand beds and live rock will be full of strange little critters. I kinda get a kick out of checking out all the misc. life forms in newark tropicals tanks. bugs, worms, mini stars, snails, Macro algea. yup and aptasia. LFS tanks collect all sorts of critters after a while from all the corals and rock passing through.

the last couple months ive found a couple dried up fish on my carpet behind my tank too. seems one perc and my blue madarin jumped out. I bet the big yellow tang chased or spooked them while swimming near a rock at the top.

actually, i've had good luck with fish from newark tropicals, tank looks aside. including my 1 inch long blue tang i bought this spring. doing just fine. getting big.

Have you ever seen little clear things that look and swim like jelly fish? not more than 1/8 inch long. they pulse to swim around. sometimes i see bunches of them in my tank. I think they are a larval stage of some sand bed worms or something.
 
"this particular red flatworm tastes real bad"
I'm ashamed of myself, I only got as far as tasting my Nori. :D
 
OK, you bagged me!. my ingrish sometimes gets away from me. I meant to say they taste bad to most fish. and actually if you kill a bunch in the tank it stains the water reddish brown and smells strong of iodine. if you kill enough of them in the tank, the toxin will kill corals. these are not the dreaded tiny red worms that eat acro's though. that is something different.
 
IMO The Frazer Zoo in Frazer, PA is worth the trip. Mike who runs the fish room is an awesome guy who will go out of his way for anyone. 610-644-4492
 
Keep an eye out for the re-opening of Hidden Reef in Philly. I'm not sure when Ziggy will reopen nor did I ever go to his old store. But that store had a very good reputation. So keep an eye out. If you were looking for stores in MD I would be able to help-but you are from MD so yeah. Although I must blurt out Aquarium Center west of Baltimore :D
 
How many posts a week do you think there are of people looking for good LFSs? Someone should start a site to rate LFSs. I think Reef central is just to scared to start fights and drama and crap.
 
It really is a big deal. Some shops do read these forums and they take it personally. But some shops may use ur info to improve as well. I will gladly pass on suggestions for good stores in the MD,VA,NC area if anyone needs them.
 
It would be nice if we had an area to post local stores and photos as well as info. Something you could use without having to resort to a search engine for each individual place. Info such as phone, times, address etc too.
 
Can you get in legal trouble though for posting photos? Talking about the stores should be fine though with some of the stores with copywrited names could they come after you just for using their name? I have webspace and can through together a good website in second, just not sure about the legal stuff. (Only reason my site isn't up is because I try to make it perfect so it never gets done)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7979222#post7979222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wds21921
It would be nice if we had an area to post local stores and photos as well as info. Something you could use without having to resort to a search engine for each individual place. Info such as phone, times, address etc too.
Click to expand...

This doesn't provide any type of review, and is not complete, but I have found this to be fairly useful.

- ted
 
I wasn't thinking of adding a review since that would be an opinon rather than fact.
Just factual info only is what I was thinking of.
 
i think fishmans is awesome compared to petkare by the bear library:( . i was in there yesterday to pick up a 20L for a friend and i just had to look at the tanks. in one tank that can not be more than 40gallons there was an 18" shark, a grouper, a 6" porcupine puffer, and what i swear was a tarpon of all fish. the shark did not move an inch the entire time i was there. in another tank the was a 5-6" undulate trigger with a grouper and large bluethroat trigger. i dont know if anyone knows the deal with undy triggers but the are quite possible one of the most aggressive fish you can keep in an aquarium. i dont know how large the bluethroat was because the poor thing wouldnt come out of the rock it was wedged in because of the undy. then you had a nice assortment of dead fish/corals floating around in just about every tank.

i really dont know why i do this to myself. ive been pretty good about staying out of most LFS. i wish these stores would follow petsmarts example and just not carry SW fish.

shawn:bum:
 
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