Heading to Birmingham

Not much to choose from in bham aquarium designs and aquarium imports. Imports has mostly fish, designs I havnt been there in a few weeks quit going waste of time. Montgomery is better dont know where your coming from, Jason and tammy have a good selection if you make it to cullman
 
Don't forget that A. Designs is only open on weekends.

kennedy450r didn't mention Tropical Pet Cove in Alabaster http://tropicalpetcove.com/

I don't see the Mont. store (I have not been to the other two) as being any better than the B'ham lfs. Yes, it is a nice open layout but the personality is worse - there has always been some controversy going on with the owner every time I have been down there (over several years). I don't need to put up with that kind of bull**** where I am spending my money.

If I'm going to drive 90 miles, I go to Coral Reef in Athens, they have a better selection and the best out-the-door bulk salt prices for pick-up. Being open on Sunday when my store is closed is a plus too.
 
I have been to A. Imports many times(lots of trips to Childrens Hospital over the past 6 years for cancer treatment for my daughter)to find nothing. The lfs store in Montgomery(A. Fantasies) always has something new and a very friendly and knowledgeable staff. I consider them to have the best selection of live stock in Alabama.:wavehand:
 
Not sure how anyone could say that Aquarium Imports is the same as Aquarium Fantasies. I don't find anything comparable at all. Stock, selection and staff are all orders of magnitude better at Aquarium Fantasies. For starters, I don't recall ever seeing any SPS at Aquarium Imports when I've stopped in.
To each his own, though.
 
kennedy450r said:
Not much to choose from in bham aquarium designs and aquarium imports. Imports has mostly fish, designs I havnt been there in a few weeks quit going waste of time. Montgomery is better dont know where your coming from, Jason and tammy have a good selection if you make it to cullman
Click to expand...

Who is Jason and Tammy and where are they located. I might be interested in some things they got. I seen a picture of them on a web site, but dont know anything about them.

Looks like I may try and go by Aquarium Fantasies on Sunday when I head back home to Mobile.
 
Unfortunately, Aquarium Fantasies isn't normally open on Sundays. They do open by appointment, though. If you contact them and talk to the owner, he can likely arrange something.
 
wpecoul said:
Not sure how anyone could say that Aquarium Imports is the same as Aquarium Fantasies. I don't find anything comparable at all. Stock, selection and staff are all orders of magnitude better at Aquarium Fantasies. For starters, I don't recall ever seeing any SPS at Aquarium Imports when I've stopped in.
To each his own, though.
Click to expand...



I would have to disagree with the above comments about aquarium imports. I've never been to Aquarium Fantasies and have heard it's great- but I've been going to AI for about 4 years now - for a long time you were right - they basically had nothing - few lps, some softies, few zoas - but I've seen a pretty vast improvement in proly the last 3-4 months. They've since made their one small "wall" of coral all coral tanks now - upgraded lighting and have all those tanks up and running - and they're pretty jam packed. I'm sure it doesn't rival AF, but I would say that their quantity and selection at AI's has drastically increased in recent memory. If folks think otherwise, they probably aren't coming in shortly after they receive their shipments - they do tend to sell out pretty quickly each week from what I've seen....

Just my 2 cents though. I'm sure it's no rival to AF from the descriptions I've heard but I'd say if you're in the area its definetly worth stopping by in it's current state...
 
I'm glad to hear that Aquarium Imports has improved/expanded on the coral selection. You folks in Birmingham need a store that has stability and will be able to take care of your needs, rather than having to rely on Tien's latest foolishness.
Do they have a regular shipment day? I will stop in anyway next time I'm up there, but it'd be nice to have an idea if there will be more or less to see.
Thanks!
 
wpecoul said:
I'm glad to hear that Aquarium Imports has improved/expanded on the coral selection. You folks in Birmingham need a store that has stability and will be able to take care of your needs, rather than having to rely on Tien's latest foolishness.
Do they have a regular shipment day? I will stop in anyway next time I'm up there, but it'd be nice to have an idea if there will be more or less to see.
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Like I said before, I'm sure it's nothing compaired to aquarium fantasies. But it's definetly improved in my opinion. Being in grad school I have very little funds to be giving to the hobby atm, but I can say that for the first few years I'd stop in there for fish, food, and water and never really saw anything worthwhile coral wise before. Lately I've seen multiple things that I wouldn't mind having when I have a few extra $....

As far as the "regular schedule" goes - they do have one I believe but I'm unsure of the day. I wanna say they're usually unloading their shipment around 4-5 when I go in there either Wednesday or Thursday but I'm not sure which one. I do of course think they still move a lot more fish and inverts than coral but I dunno... I'd just call...
 
Well I went by Aquarium Fantasies yesterday on the way up and they did have the biggest selection of corals and the most tanks setup for corals then any other shop that I have ever seen. The only problem I ran into was everything thing that I was interested in, the guy eather did not know what the price was for it or the price was way over priced. I thought Mobile’s B&B pet stop had some over priced live stock, but they take the cake. An example of one item was an ORA organ tort ¾” frag they were selling for $95, B&B had them for $70 and shops in Pensacola Fl can get them for under $50. The cheapest frag they had was like $25 for some run of the mill items or things I already have a ton of. So IMO of them are a great place to window shop, but most things I can get other places for a lot cheaper prices.
 
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