www.reeftopia.com has some good deals as well.

Best thing to do is get a group order together to save on or get free
shipping.



wrote in message
...
"Susan" wrote:
That's sad the some fish are caught with cyanide I don't know how
many
times I've been in a local fish store and I've heard someone tell an
employee I just set up a fish tank and I want one of those pointing to a
mandarin. It just makes me sad that people don't educate themselves on
any
livestock before purchasing. It makes me real sad whenever I loose any
kind
of livestock myself as I try to provide the best environment. Sounds
like
you have a nice fish store Wayne Wish I lived closer and I'd support
you


Susan




Unfortunately not all stores are honest or more frequently they have
employees who don't know anything about what they are selling. Kind of
like
Radio Shack where you have one tech whiz in the store and two or three
others
who usually say "huh?" when you ask a question. Usually my experience is
there
will be a couple of experts who know marine life inside and out and then a
few
other employees who tell you alot of gobbily-gook, probably not to cheat
anyone
but because they don't know any better. I have a store I support locally
(Tails
and Scales, Chesapeake VA) but I know which salespeople to talk to there.
I'm
rather ashamed to admit that I didn't do nearly enough independent
research
when I started salt water. I relied on the store's personel for advice
(not
Tails and Scales). With my first tank they were right on in telling me
how to
cycle a tank and did free water perameter checks..BUT....they also told me
a
yellow tang was very comptatible in a community tank (so I bought it
FIRST...ouch!!) and that a madarin dragonet ate brine shrimp. So I
learned the
hard way (and expensive) about mixing the right type of fish. It takes
time
and research and you pretty much have to do it on your own. Even so
everytime I
get cocky enough to think I understand how to run an ecosystem
occassionally I
get bitten. Most of my fish live for years but I just lost a tomini tang
(beautifull fish which I've only seen once in a pet store) that came down
with
some sort of bacteria infection that I just couldn't eradicate no matter
what I
tried. I've been brooding about that all week.

Bob