LFS in North Jersey?

mann1139

mann1139

New member
Fellow NJers -

My wife and I are buying a house in West Milford, and while I've prepared myself for moving away from my favored LFS (OG2 in North Plainfield), I wondered if there is a decent store that far north.

I'm aware of Absolutely Fish in Clifton and walked through Animal House in Kinnelon. Anything else in the Rt 23/287 corridor?
 
Not really. It amazes me that there aren't any good saltwater fish stores along the Rt. 80 corridor from Clifton to Pennsylvania. Or along 287 until you get down to the Woodbridge area.
 
It's called Aquatic Visions but the sign on the outside says Hanover Pet. It used to be a great store a long time ago when Jeff owned it but it's fallen on hard times. I've only stopped in a few times in the past couple of years.
 
pdfrogman said:
Animal house in Butler, on rt23 is OK, RJ has a decent saltwater section and he is knowledgeable
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Really? I went in and wasn't impressed. It looked like they'd gone across the street and bought their inventory from Petco.


JCURRY@WESKETCH said:
It's called Aquatic Visions but the sign on the outside says Hanover Pet. It used to be a great store a long time ago when Jeff owned it but it's fallen on hard times. I've only stopped in a few times in the past couple of years.
Click to expand...

Haven't heard of this one, thanks.


Google Maps says Fish Town USA has a store in Ramsey. Anyone aware of it?
 
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Yeah I stop in Fishtown every now and then since it's near my work. Their saltwater section isn't very large and the prices are a bit on the higher side. They have decent frags(mostly LPS/softies) sometimes so it might be worth checking out at least once. Nowhere near as good as OG2 I'm afraid.
 
JCURRY@WESKETCH said:
It's called Aquatic Visions but the sign on the outside says Hanover Pet. It used to be a great store a long time ago when Jeff owned it but it's fallen on hard times. I've only stopped in a few times in the past couple of years.
Click to expand...

I think it's more like "odd times", Jeff. There's really no shortage of $. The guys that bought it from Jeff use it like a warehouse for the maintenance side of the business (Aquatic Visions). They really have no desire to build traffic through the store, so livestock comes in there at ridiculous intervals, and it's priced worse than Absolutely Fish. They DO have livestock and quite a bit of it, but it just doesn't turn over much. A really weird business model.
 
How about just into NY on this side of the Hudson? I'm interested myself. Absolutely Fish in Clifton is about the only place I go but prices are steep. I order almost all my dry goods online and the last few frags I ordered through Live Aquaria. I don't know whats going on with Ocean Gallery the last couple times I was disgusted with the live stock conditions.
 
I know what you mean Angelo, it doesn't seem like they care about the walk in customers anymore. The last time I was in there all the livestock was in holding tanks and marked "not for sale".

I stopped in Reef Encounters in Hackensack a couple of months back for the first time. He had a nice selection of fish and a decent selection of corals.
 
I teach at West Milford High School. As everybody already mentioned, Absolutely Fish and Animal House are about it. I actually think the fish at Animal House, small as the selection is, are quite healthy. If you don't mind driving north or east a bit... a lot of people rave about Greenwich Aquaria and House of Fins which is about an hour away (from Wanaque) in Connecticut. Manhattan Aquarium in NYC gets very good reviews and they sell on online under uniquecorals.com.
 
njsurfcaster said:
I don't know whats going on with Ocean Gallery the last couple times I was disgusted with the live stock conditions.
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agree on that - they have unique stuff but like you said, diseased or dead fish being picked over by other fish ... yuck ... I can't bring myself to buy a fish there - maybe a coral - they seem to have good looking / healthy corals?
 
pktech said:
agree on that - they have unique stuff but like you said, diseased or dead fish being picked over by other fish ... yuck ... I can't bring myself to buy a fish there - maybe a coral - they seem to have good looking / healthy corals?
Click to expand...

Yeah the last 2 fish I bought there had ich. I've decided to stick with Red Sand in the future, the prices are better anyway and Feng has a great SPS frag tank.
 
feng is good, but last time I was in there he had a bunch of Moorish idols & that's basically it. His livestock looks no better than OG's, imo.

OG's got an Achilles tang that looks like it's been through a war. Such a shame - I actually feel bad for a fish! .. I do like & enjoy going to the pet shanty next to bowcraft. Charlie always has good looking healthy fish. He's got an achilles thats flawless - knowledgeable & no attitude is a plus for me :thumbsup:
 
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