Hey Loren. I live in Chico. You must live in Redding? Yeah, you're screwed if you live in Redding and are into reef tanks...
The owner of the LFS in Redding had a shop down here in Chico, too. It was the worst store in town, unless you were looking to buy a stand, which he made, and made cheaply. The Chico shop went under in November, too.
Chico has two other stores that carry reef animals.
Pets Etc. is a multi-purpose locally owned pet store. They have a strong selection of large predatory saltwater fish. They have one of those multi-compartment acrylic invertebrate tanks for corals, snails anemones and such. Their prices are kinda high, especially on dry goods and tanks. They are located near Wal-Mart.
Reef Connection is a much smaller, but better, store if you are looking for reef animals. Reef Connection is in the Albertson's shopping center at the intersection of East Ave. and The Esplanade.
Reef Connection doesn't have a huge stock on hand at any given time, but there is a lot of turnover of livestock. I go in once a week on Thursdays or Fridays to check out Wednesday's shipment. I've seen stuff in there I've never seen anywhere else (chambered nautilus, blue ring octopus, etc.)The owner, Jody, is a young guy who doesn't mind talking shop and will buy frags if he can sell them. (that's a lot more praise than I can give to some places).
I was in Exotic Aquarium in May. I haven't ever tried to talk to the staff, since they are always so busy. They have the best selection of animals anywhere I've been to. They also have the cheapest dry good prices, especially on tanks (well, they do sell Island Aquarium brand...) I dunno...look at my location description under my name and you'll see there just aren't that many reefers around here.
e-mail me if you want more directions/info for stores
Do you have any frags you would like to trade?