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The poor quality of LFS's

Sentral

Member
Joined
28 Jun 2011
Messages
284
Location
London
Anybody else have this problem or is it just me?

Every independent local fish shop I've visited recently has been pretty sub-standard for fish, and for the planted aquarium they are utter useless!
Pets at home seem to be the best for quality and selection, with both livestock and plants! I find this pretty shocking, I'd really like to support local businesses but find it near impossible.

Does anybody know a decent store near Bristol/South West? I don't mind travelling a bit...

How do you all fare with your LFS? I think there's a huge gap in the market for contemporary fish shops that fit into peoples modern lifestyles, and provide a decent selection and sound advice... Dragons Den anyone?? :p
 
Unfortunately I think it's a common problem. I had a similar chat with a mate the other week about a 'gap in the market'. My LFS is dire but it has no competition, I don't use it and prefer to travel to the nearest Maidenhead Aquatics. One thing I find inceasingly annoying is two local-ish garden centres which sell fish. The condition of the tanks in them are disgusting, nothing that a good clean wouldn't sort out but it makes me wonder what the water quality is etc. I've thought about reporting them but wouldn't know where to start.

I can't think of anywhere that does a decent selection of plants and some places don't even have name tags on the plants which is essential for a novice like me. I was at Wildwoods, Enfield, today and what they had in stock looked fit for the bin :?
 
My pets at home is terrible! Dead fish, algae on the rocks and a poor plant selection! really not good for the hobby :(
 
We have a good mix round here. Around 3 good LFS's within 15 miles plus Kesgrave Tropicals within the same distance that are awesome for Shrimp and unusual stuff.

1 shop stocks JBL and Fluval planted gear and nanos, plus the AquaEl shrimp kits. They're good and cheap for nice fish too.
Two specialise in Eheim, while one of them is great for nano tanks (inc Dennerle), and random little bits, filters, basic CO2 etc.

Oh, and Swallows of course, but I won't use them if at all possible.

I'm happy with the selection round here :)
 
Hi, some of my LFS seem to be going downhill lately. I went into my local Maidenhead Aquatics a few weeks ago and the plants were appalling. They were all rotten and there was blue green algae everywhere. My regular store has also lost the plot when it comes to plants too. They used to have a good selection but I think now money is all they care about.
Now if I need any plant stuff then I'll drive 20 minutes down the motorway to Aquajardin Gloucester, j12 of the m5 and you are there! This shop is amazing, I struggled to actually find anything wrong with it and the plant and fish selection is really good. It's not far from Bristol either about the same distance!
 
Hi all,
Sentral try Amazon Aquatics in Warminster, it is "the last trading post" on Ebay. Mike is a fish keeper with a shop, not a shop-keeper with fish, and he likes small interesting fish. http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=last-trading-post

I went to drop off/pick up some fish last week. I didn't look at the plants, but they had Rasbora kubotai, Celestichthys margaritatus, Boraras urophthalmoides, A dwarf Dario sp., Corydoras hastatus, C. habrosus and C. pygmaeus, Nannostomus marginatus, quite a few L numbers (Panaque maccus, L052 and L66 I remember) and some dwarf cichlids (Apistogramma cacatuoides, Nannacara anomala & Laetacara curviceps but probably a few more). They had lots of other catfish including Otocinclus, Hisonotus leucofrenatus, Corydoras panda, C. trilineatus and a Rineloricaria Whip-tail.

They are also extremely reasonably priced.

cheers Darrel
 
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