Good Place To Buy Fish Near Federal Way

[SPAuthentic]

Hello Everyone,

I've decided to start a saltwater setup for the first time after doing freshwater for a couple years.

My main problem right now is finding a store with a good selection of healthy fish.

I've heard from former employees that Midway Pet store is a terrible place to buy saltwater fish or livestock... and I've been to Barrier Reef in Renton and while they had an AWESOME selection of coral... they didnt have the best selection of fish imo.

Anyone know of any good places to buy healthy fish around king county?

 

[jaygalindo]

Try the sierra's, one in renton and one in issaquah. Also A place for Pets in Burien had a nice selection of fish but not the best for coral.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

You might try Barrier Reef again - maybe you just hit them on a bad day for fish?

Agree with jaygalindo... my first fish came from A Place for Pets. Sierra's is good. I was just out to Aquarium Paradise in Lakewood (Tacoma) and their selection and quality was good - contrary to some rumblings I'd heard otherwise. I personally avoid Midway.

 

[johnpeezy]

I've heard from former employees that Midway Pet store is a terrible place to buy saltwater fish or livestock... QUOTE]

Not to be rude toward those former employees whoever they are, But I'm the one who orders saltwater livestock FOR Midway.

and I must say I have gotten some pretty nice pieces from there as have many that are on this forum. If you want me to order you something I will and I'll sell it to you prior to it even hitting the tank.

If your interested you can send me a PM, letting me know what you want and leave me phone # and we can work out something.

Keep in mind the former employee that was maintaining the saltwater for the previous two years is gone now. I have been working hard at getting that section back in order for only the past three months and in that short ammount of time that section has already greatly improved.

 

[lvsuckerfish]

john does and can order anything you want also you can pm him he will usually have a price back to you with in 24-48 hrs has for me in less then 24 hrs I was there looking for him today also . slacker took a day off of work.

barrier will order anything you want also talk to CY I always go to the top of the food chain he will let you know what he can and can't get but most all stores will special order and from my experience all stores will order what sells and most of the time have a hard to find fish in due to the lst they have to order from.

 

[johnpeezy]

I havn't been in there much, I have been actually working (what is this world coming too, I like it better when I don't have a real job and soak up all my time doing crap I should be getting paid for...go figure)

This week I'm going to have to do a monday order, for a Tuesday shipment and, BAM!! off to go and paint a house but just shoot me a PM I'll get back to you.

and about that frag Lvsuckerfish, I decided to let you get your stuff taken care of before I bothered you about it. but any evening works for me.

 

[Red C Aquarium]

He works at midway for free!! What a guy! I wish you lived down the street from me

 

[SPAuthentic]

Thanks for all the great recomendations everyone!

Looks like I'll have a great list of places to go to on my upcoming days off.

And to John, I've actully heard great things about you personally.... very knowledgable and a great person. He also said the other employees there were cool too. He just mentioned that they did not want to invest into a better filtration system therefore buying livestock from there was risky.

I was affraid to buy my liverock there because I heard that it currently has aiptasia.

 

[Freya]

Thanks for all the great recomendations everyone!

I was affraid to buy my liverock there because I heard that it currently has aiptasia.

Yep there are quite a few nice juicy ones... the good news is that they are big enough to see so that they can be nuked quite easily... Good luck keeping it out of your stuff, it is an extreamly hard thing to do no matter where you get your stuff from.

I can't say that I have gotten many saltwater fish from very many different places, John just orders what we want and we take it home in the shippers bag and acclimate it straight to our tank. That and we have almost always had a lionfish in our tank. I like that becasue then the fish goes through one less acclimation and is potentially less exposed to disease. On the other hand we have lost fish because they weren't eating. We also picked up two male pipefish this way, if they had been in a store tank we would have figured out they did NOT get along before they came home with us and almost killed one another. Red firefish will not live for me... Anyway rambling...

There is also a fish store in Sumner that I haven't been to in a while that sometimes has very cool things. Love Burien and the people there (mostly for freshwater stuff though), Sierra can be good, got a nice purple with green trim mushroom there that was browned out for $10. And of course there is the salt water God that is Barrier Reef. If you are down for a little bit of a drive A Red Sea Aquarium is great with great looking fish, it really isn't as far as it seems so long as you don't have to fight traffic.

 

[Freya]

Forgot to say welcome to the forum!! Hope you enjoy your stay and get to know everyone! Hope that you can join us for the PSAS meeting in Sep.

 

[johnpeezy]

Okay first off I'm not being modest when I am saying this so please don't think that i am.

I have been keeping and maintaing a 20 gallon reef tank for almost two years now. A fleck of the iceberg compared to many that frequent this forum. These are the people I ask for help when I run into problems, even then i try to use multiple sources then make my best judgment as the correct course of action to take.

I don't know everything, I feel I don't know alot about saltwater so for someone to call me knowledegable in terms of saltwater conveys to me how little they know. I WILL tell if I don't know something and I will try and help anyone to the best of my abilities.

now, based on my own experience if your buying corals your buying aptasia. I have gotten aptasia from Midway tropical fish and pet, blue sierra, barrier reef and even one from the all mighty Todd of cherry corals(my presonal favroite coral dude) it is up to you as the hobbyist to keep those in nasty critters at bay.

mytemouse here on reefrontiers is someone that I would refer to as an aptaisa nazi, as he eradicates them with extreme prejudice. I would ask him for tips and pointers in that process. In terms of avoiding aptasia on livestock by avoiding stores.....well that eliminates all of them, all of the time.

Your best bet, regardless of where you buy them, is to inspect the coral the best you can previous to purchase and before it moved (those little buggers close up to literally nothing...its rather amazing really)

There has been talk (alot of talk, just talk, I wish it were more then just talk) about a newer updated saltwater section in the works at Midway, until I see that sucker materializing into reality I will continue to diligently spitshine the turd that I have (or until I start classes again and he has to replace me with a full time emplyee). When/if a new system does get installed there you better blieve me when I say I will fight tooth and nail to get it setup right.

"spend the money up front so you don't lose it in the long run"
-just made that up but I bet you somebody else said it before me-

sorry about the rant, but I havn't slept yet bare with me...

rant over, commence fishing
(btw the puyallup river is REALLY cold when you don't have waders and you go fishing at 5 AM wish me luck)