Never know what you'll find on Craigslist!

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#1
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#1
I was browsing CL last night as I do every so often for tanks and whatnot. You never know when a FishDad 55gal deal will crop-up. *SUPERSMIL

What did I find instead? and I'm totally dumbfounded that I haven't happened upon it yet, given it's where we're constantly running around...

A LFS, about 5 miles from my house! It looks like they just opened in Nov 2012. Funny, because in January when I got back in to aquaria, I searched high and low for LFS and never found this one. Not online, not in the phone book(s). It's JUST on the outskirts of our little town, so I've not seen the place. The power of Craigslist.

I can't wait to check the place out. Bad thing is my tanks are basically fully stocked :( Aquarium Store in East Aurora

Joel
 

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FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#6
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#6
Oh man was that dangerous to stop in this place today.. Had it not been with 3 kids in tow (two little boys scattering like roaches), I could have spent hours in there.

Absolutely overwhelming selection. Most of which I've never seen or only seen online. Lots of cool inverts, HUGE unusual snails, tons of plants. Had a few unusual tank sizes in stock too, like 15gal talls. Real high prices for hardware as you'd expect I guess. Fish weren't cheap either. For example, they wanted $6 for a Pearl Gourami, where they are half that at the other LFS I shop at. IICR, electric blue rams were $19. Discus (lots of them) were ~$48.

I picked up ~10 ghost shrimp for my 10gal. I would have rather gotten some of the tiny red shrimp that were in another tank, but they were very small and super active swimmers. I was afraid they'd be lunch to the betta and zebras. They'd SURELY be lunch to the gourami and blood-fins in the upstairs tank..

Anyway.. I hope the place can make it in today's market. IMO, they might have too much on hand to support themselves. I told the owner I'll have no choice but to setup another tank. He cracked up and said "sounds good to ME!". www.facebook.com/42aquatics
 

T

Thyra

Superstar Fish
#8
Jun 2, 2010
1,891
0
0
Yelm, WA
#8
I loved the structure on that center stand on their websites. I have done quite a bit of building things with wood. But, oh boy! You'd almost have to put that one on a cement slab! You're right Freshy about the market and the overhead on a place like that. First the cost of the equipment and then the upkeep and salaries. I have always said, the big box stores don't make money on the fish, but on the equipment and the dog and cat supplies. Owners are suckers for cutesie cat and dog stuff!
 

FreshyFresh

FreshyFresh

Superstar Fish
#9
Jan 11, 2013
1,337
23
38
East Aurora, NY
#9
Yeah, it was definitely custom made tank racks. I don't recall what this building was before, but it looks to have been maybe a machine shop. It's a high ceiling, single-story cement block structure with what must have been concrete slab floors, topped with wood laminate.

Some of the window-facing tanks had some algae growth. Each sale tank had it's own sponge or floss/rings bubbler filter. Funny thing is, I didn't notice heaters in the small sale tanks, nor any type of plumbed (commercial canister type?) filtration.

There was a large walled-off section in the center of the store with what looked to be fry tanks, more plants, maybe sump tanks?. They did have one HUGE marine tank on the dry goods and hardware section of the store.

A young guy owns and staffs it. I hope it works out for him!
 

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