Just Fish looking good

well, LFS pricing is a lot like auto makers pricing. They have a whole lot bigger profit markup on SUV's and luxury cars than plainer smaller economical cars. but people still rush out to buy the big, high maintenance expensive trucks and cars. because they like the way they look and will pay anything to get it. same with fish. Some fish are harder to collect and transport and thus expensive, some are easy to breed in captivity and are cheap. personally, i like the smaller, less expensive community type reef fish for my tank. I can keep more and wider variety of them in any given tank.
 
but the thing with car dealers is that you will find the cars are priced the same where ever you get it from(new cars obviously), at least there all high priced and not just one dealer
 
Not too sure about that. just try and get the same car, same price from different dealers. besides, all live fish are used cars. already been bought and sold a couple times by the time you buy it from the LFS. from the diver, to the exporter, to the wholesaler, to the retailer to the buyer. that's a lot of holding tanks its been through and plane trips.

Hmmmm? would a fish that lives at 100 feet depth of salt water get the bends in an airplane at 30,000 feet?
 
call any dealership and ask how much a new solstice, sky, c6 vette, mustang or whatever you want and they will all be the same within a couple thousand depending on insentives. the fact is that just fish is ridiculous with there pricing. i agree, fish do go through hell before they hit our tanks but thats no reason for one store to charge that much
 
Well just to continue the "Devil's Advocate" thread here:

How many times have you gone in and asked a question - not neccesarily recently - but when you were first starting out?

Were you ever charged for the answer?

You can not put a price tag on knowledge - well UD thinks 4 years worth is about $24K but that is for another thread :D - These are the people we turned to to test our water for the first time - to tell us when we screwed something up and how to fix it. To continuously answer the most mundane questions because we forgot what they said before we got home. Never once have I been asked to pay for asking them a question (or 10 for that matter).

Now, does that mean that it's free? Of course not - let's say they tack a couple bucks on to each fish to off-set the time they have to spend answering quesitons, usually for people that leave without buying anything, or pick up a $2 goldfish after asking 45 minutes worth of questions regarding the benefits of DT's over Kent phyto.

This is the time when they coud be cleaning the tanks, medicating the fish, or building a QT room.

The LFS has been an invaluable resource to all of us, and still are. Where else are you going to be abel to pick up salt water when a disaster strikes and you don't have any ro/di made up?

Am I willing to pay a few more dollars for stuff knowing that I can save two hours worth of reading by asking them the question and being comfortable I got the right answer? Yup. I look at it this way - my time is worth about $24 an hour - If I can pick up a nice looking fish or coral for $10 over fair market value - and get my quesitons answered correctly while I'm at it - I will walk away feeling like I got a good deal.

I ask anyone that would publicly flame a LFS over pricing - What is your favorite fish in your tank? How much did you buy it for? What would you be willing to sell it for? Keep in mind the time and money you spent acclimating, treating, feeding etc.
 
Wow! a couple thousand difference in new car prices IS a big deal. but i haven't bought a New car in at least 25 years, in fact i've driven the same old used truck for the last 20 years now. New cars are a waste of money.

But this is America and we are all free to shop, or not shop when ever and where ever we please. Why torture yourself with stores you clearly don't like. just drive 50-100 miles and shop somewhere else to save a couple bucks. or just over-night fed-ex your internet purchases.

personally, i still like having local stores to cruise through, browse and talk to owners and customers. I don't need much these days. so I'm more of a browser than buyer. I have noticed that many of the forum flamers usually are not members of the club. which explains why most of the local LFS balk at offering the club discounts or specials. store owners read these and feel resentful to all.

A better solution would be to join the club and contribute to the discussions and trading we often do at the monthly meetings. We are always looking for bright new members.
 
I do not see the people who run Just Fish as evil people who do not care about the animals and are just after my money. There is one employee they used to have that I did not like too much, but I don’t see that person around any more. In the past they answered a lot of questions for me and pointed me to reefcentral, fishbase, and wetwebmedia, which I already knew, but what better advice can you give? Now I appreciate when I go in and ask questions and they admit they do not know instead of lying to me.

The acrylic system obviously cost a bit of money, but they have a lot more animals in the store now they did and they are connected in large systems which seem to be easy to maintain, why was this a major design flaw?
 
Name a local place that won't? Greenbanks prices are rather high too, several saltwater fish and a lot of the coral are high priced. And if you figure in the gas money [ for me anyway ] to get to ECA, DR. Macs and TFP/TPP, what it doesn't cost in goods it costs in gas. Its a double-edged sword from my standpoint. Where it doesn't go, it goes someplace else.
 
well,....

after reading all the guff here, i dropped by the store this weekend , since i was shopping near by anyhoo. I don't know, what's the problem, Every thing looked pretty good. Clean tanks, A wide variety of strange and interesting live stock in the saltwater section. and to tell the truth, not one single dead fish floatin anywhere.

Everybody was nice, I wished gramps a happy Fathers Day, and had fun talking to a newbie couple getting excited about setting up their first reef tank for themselves and the kids. Prospective new club members?

What could be better?
 
where is just fish ??? new to delaware...fish bowl really blows...i'm used to the high end, have anything stores in ny nj and ct...new to delaware and have found anything close here...
 
Just Fish is in Fox Run shopping center in Bear (rt 72 & 40)- to the right of Acme and just next door to Hallmark.
 
Given the current economy I think it speaks volumes for anyone brave enough to run a small business these days.

I won't add my .02 since I've already spoke about this many times offering my opinion (FWIW).

One thing to keep in mind however is how many NEW aquarists (locally) do you think will enter the hobby if they have to drive 25-50-75 miles to buy supplies, buy fish, etc?

Chow
 
hottuna-- sadly you wont find anything close to high end in Delaware. There is a few mom and pop type stores in the area--opinions vary as you can see from this thread. as WDS mentioned, your best bet is to head to some of the big stores and stock up. That pet place in Lancaster is always a the best for dry goods--I usually head up every few months and buy stock up as much as I can. watch out for their livestock though, many members of this forum have lost livestock from them from ick and whatnot. exotic aquatics near Baltimore is a good option as well.
 
for a heads on That Fish Place as long as the fish doesnt say (not garunteed) then it is... We were there a couple weeks back and bought a second bangai and the guy was like do you know about our 5 day live garuntee? I said no i didn.. but i live 2 hours away and wouldnt drive back up there to replace a 30.00 fish... he said well if it dies call and tell them and because i live far away they would extend it to 30 days... which is PRETTY DAMN GOOD... fish is still alive by the way lol
 
yea, TFP is good about their guarantee. when my clowns croaked I emailed customer service and they got back to me that day, saying to freeze the fish and bring it in with my receipt and their email. I went back up about a month later and exchanged it for another clown that lasted about 22hrs...
I was pretty happy with the service, but as you mentioned I dont really want to have to be driving 2hrs back and forth to get a $15-30 fish to last more than 2days....
When I get my 55 set up Ill probably try them again for some of my livestock, but I plan on getting much of it from dr fosters online or trying exotic aquatics...

Cheers
Eric
 
i used to go to absolutely fish in clifton nj and a place called underwater world in roselle park nj..both excellent with great selection and healthy stuff....but they are about 3 hrs north of here....i am in milford...and it is a desert down here...used to be a place in lewes-fishman...but its gone....i am really looking for anemones and they are hard to find period...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10183986#post10183986 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hottuna
i used to go to absolutely fish in clifton nj and a place called underwater world in roselle park nj..both excellent with great selection and healthy stuff....but they are about 3 hrs north of here....i am in milford...and it is a desert down here...used to be a place in lewes-fishman...but its gone....i am really looking for anemones and they are hard to find period...
Click to expand...

if your in Milford then Dr Macs is only 30 or 40 min. away.

http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/
 
Dr macs is definitely worth checking out! he often has clown/anemone specials and im sure you can get a anemone. If your in milford, TFP is probably a bit too far for it to be worth it, but they have GBTAs every time im there...
 
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