Mandarin333
July 1st 04, 06:52 AM
In this wasteland for reefkeepers that is my little corner of the world, I have
the misfortune of having only two ****ty shops that sell sal****er. By
sal****er I mean strictly fish and the odd anemone or unfortunate shrimp not
coral. One is a chain which shall remain nameless and ever clueless. They
keep their water quality pretty good but selection typically rots. The
privately owned shop runs a multitank central system death trap with loads of
sludge --yes, sludge on the bottom of their tanks. These people are good with
FW but so totally f'n clueless about salt. Yesterday I got to see a seven inch
hippo for sale for $30! No, that isn't their regular prices. Must've been
from someone tearing down a tank or else it had someone's initials carved on
the side I couldn't see. My heart dropped for this fish and it would've come
home with me if I had room. The finer points I love about this place are:
1. The live rock tank which is totally unlit and pretty much <dead rock> except
for the bacteria.
2. The slowly starving anemone population sitting under a single NO flourescent
tube.
3. The complete absence of some lettuce or other greens for any tang
unfortunate enough to be trapped there.
4. 20 gal. tanks with 20 fish in them when there are like ten other empty f'n
tanks open.
5. They bought mandarins! What kind of idiocy was that? Sheer idiocy. One
is dead so take heart as its suffering has ended. The other poor thing was
still active but oozing slime. They've likely no idea how to feed it.
6. Did I mention the sludge?
It's like you want to say something...actually you want to scream it but you
know they aren't likely to care enough to do anything about it because
sal****er is pesky and takes some knowledge and that bitch of all bitches
-WORK.
The best thing is...you might expect this kind of thing from a little LFS but
I've seen just as good from one of the big boys. I was in their mammoth fish
room replete with technology and skimmers the size of ancient Egyptian
obelisks. I watched as a bull mandarin ripped the pectoral fins off of another
because they were too dumb to keep them seperate (even the teenyboppers that
run the LFS knew better). I witnessed the bloodsport of a small tank stocked
with nine royal gramas. There were at least two other examples as equally
idiotic from that trip which I thankfully can't recall since they just **** me
off. Maybe the "experts" they claim to have on staff oughtta visit the
fishroom once in a blue moon reef light's life.
-M333
the misfortune of having only two ****ty shops that sell sal****er. By
sal****er I mean strictly fish and the odd anemone or unfortunate shrimp not
coral. One is a chain which shall remain nameless and ever clueless. They
keep their water quality pretty good but selection typically rots. The
privately owned shop runs a multitank central system death trap with loads of
sludge --yes, sludge on the bottom of their tanks. These people are good with
FW but so totally f'n clueless about salt. Yesterday I got to see a seven inch
hippo for sale for $30! No, that isn't their regular prices. Must've been
from someone tearing down a tank or else it had someone's initials carved on
the side I couldn't see. My heart dropped for this fish and it would've come
home with me if I had room. The finer points I love about this place are:
1. The live rock tank which is totally unlit and pretty much <dead rock> except
for the bacteria.
2. The slowly starving anemone population sitting under a single NO flourescent
tube.
3. The complete absence of some lettuce or other greens for any tang
unfortunate enough to be trapped there.
4. 20 gal. tanks with 20 fish in them when there are like ten other empty f'n
tanks open.
5. They bought mandarins! What kind of idiocy was that? Sheer idiocy. One
is dead so take heart as its suffering has ended. The other poor thing was
still active but oozing slime. They've likely no idea how to feed it.
6. Did I mention the sludge?
It's like you want to say something...actually you want to scream it but you
know they aren't likely to care enough to do anything about it because
sal****er is pesky and takes some knowledge and that bitch of all bitches
-WORK.
The best thing is...you might expect this kind of thing from a little LFS but
I've seen just as good from one of the big boys. I was in their mammoth fish
room replete with technology and skimmers the size of ancient Egyptian
obelisks. I watched as a bull mandarin ripped the pectoral fins off of another
because they were too dumb to keep them seperate (even the teenyboppers that
run the LFS knew better). I witnessed the bloodsport of a small tank stocked
with nine royal gramas. There were at least two other examples as equally
idiotic from that trip which I thankfully can't recall since they just **** me
off. Maybe the "experts" they claim to have on staff oughtta visit the
fishroom once in a blue moon reef light's life.
-M333