Well I heard a rumor yesterday and just had to go find out for myself. Fishman on Concord pike in Willmington has closed their doors. Well actually they are open for short random period of the day, but their phone is off and their electric is out. No live stock is left and there is very little dry goods left. If you need filter pads for your fresh water tank or want a couple of tacky plastic plants they still have a few, but not much.
It isn’t easy as it once was to run a Local Fish Store. Hopefully the some of the stores we know and love will keep their heads above water. Stores around the country are dropping. Next time you go to buy salt or carbon from a chain store or drive an hour to support an online vendor and save yourself $20 on a tank. Consider if it is worth it to spend money locally and keep an LFS in business. I know I bought my first SW tank, and salt water fish from a local store.(come to think of it they went out of business a couple years ago to.)
I was just there a little over a month ago, and the place didn’t look like it was doing poorly. One thing I noticed was the amount of employees. There were 5 or 6 guys standing around aimlessly. The tanks were in decent condition and the store had some nice reasonably priced frags. The main display tanks had a few good chalice colonies which of course weren’t for sale. Admittedly, there are superior stores within our area; but it’s still sad to see an established store go-under.
HUD THAT TOTALLY SUCKS MY WIFE WANT TO GET ME A GIFT CERTIFICATE FROM THERE I TOLD HER NO BECAUSE WASNT SHORE IT WAS GOING TO LASDT SEEMED LIKE NEW MANAGMENT ALL THE TIME I DID LIKE THE PLACE ALOT THE PEOPLE WERE COOL BUT THERE IS FAR BETTER STORE IN DE WITH MORE OF A VARIETY AND MORE LIVE STOCK AND BETTER TANK THEN THEY DID
To be honest I am glad to see this. Last time I went in there it was a total disappointment. That place was looking like a store you would find in wilmington. I don’t know if it was because new management or what but I was not pleased in anyway at all.
there are much better stores, but this is where it all started for me. i remeber going in there as a little kid and looking at the freshwater and saltwater fish. then Premium opened and i had no reason to go up there. They just gave out so much misinformation, it might be better that there gone, still not as bad as some petplaces.
I was Up at the airport in Philly and there was sign posted on the wall where you pick up cargo that says they will not except checks from The Fishman so I guess they where bouncing checks with there supplier’s. But I new they where closing so I got there early and all the live stock was givin to the employees. I got some live rock that they said was $3.00 lb but they had no scale so they guest I got 65lb for $55 and a brand new sealife systems sea storm 250 skimmer for $10 and 30 pack of variouse frozen food for free since it started to defrost once they annouced it was free things got crazy in the freezer it was every man for them selfs luckly I was right in front of it.
While I never frequented the store, I had shopped there and it was always nice as a stopping off point when traveling the 202 corridor, I hate to ever see a business close it’s doors. It’s sad for the owners, it’s tough on the employees, and it makes it difficult on the customers.
The closest fish store to someone in North Wilmington is now Pet Kare in Governors Square in Bear. If you’re looking for something that is a little more hobby related (lights, skimmers, coral) you now have to travel to Just Fish or Premium Aquatics in Newark.
I agree with Jon - think about the effects of your internet shopping on your local stores. I know most, if given the opportunity, would come as close to matching the online price as they can. They just need to have the opportunity.
I agree. It is always sad to see a store go out of business but I think the Delaware fish stores have it all wrong. You never know what kinds of corals people are going to buy and in what quantities/frequencies so I am sure they lose money on that aspect of the industry because you can’t stock every type of coral or fish all the time. They should just stock the dry goods and buy the most popular little fish(clowns, damsels and such) and encourage trade in programs, and coral frag swap programs. They would get a lot better variety and thus a larger market.
You may not know what corals people are going to buy, but it isn’t really that difficult to keep most of them alive and doesn’t really take up that much space to do so. The Frazure Zoo has an amazing assortment of corals. Plenty of common mushrooms and leathers, and a TON of treasures for the more die hard hobbyist. Most, not all, LFS in the state aren’t run by people with their hand in the reef hobby outside of a money making venture and may have trouble keeping many types of corals alive. They bring in one wild caught Acropora it dies on them before a hobbyist buys it and they say there is no market for that sort of thing or it would have sold. If they only bring in nicer corals once a year, but are open year round hobbyist looking for that sort of thing won’t stop in once a week to see what is there.
Some of the better stores around the country have claimed they created their own market. If you set up a beautiful reef tank in your store and people are inspired to start right then and there to try it on their own the register will run a lot quick then selling someone a $500 power head in a box claiming it is what is needed and the results will be worth it. Seeing is believing and I think inspiration comes a lot easier from a display tank then a 20g tank with a sheet of white egg create on the bottom.
I agree most stores in Delaware could use improvement, but I don’t believe focusing on competing in dry good sales and only carrying the plain ordinary animals is what will keep a business from going under.
Not surprised by the title of this thread…their store in LEWES didnt last too long and one of the employees told me they were having trouble making it then…
Hey Jon, Where has all of this wisdom about owning a store come from? Just wondering … There are stores in Delaware that have acro’s and every other coral and clam available and they sell… Slowly. There really isn’t that much of a market for stuff like that, but stores still carry them.
Quite honestly your argument about the wild caught acro’s is not too great either because there are a lot of beautiful acro’s and such out there that are cultured and I for one know DPA has had great success with them staying alive, but they still take a Long time to sell.
Do you really think that these stores are making money as they go bankrupt? Think about what you are saying… if it was such a lucrative business, stores wouldn’t be tanking… Right? The online accessibility that is available today has really hurt what is the LFS now, and hopefully in the next few years we will still have more than just That pet place to go to if we want to see fish in person.
There are always lots of opinions on what can be done better in LFS, but for instance, even fish man had a nice DT and they are not going to be in business any more.
Hey Jared! How’s it going? How’s the new tank coming? Been a while since I’ve seen you at the store.
I am not sure what you mean by where all this wisdom is coming from. Perhaps you can reword that, so I can answer you.
Where did I say there was not a single store in the state that carries Acropora or clams? I am also not sure where you misunderstood I was stating anyone was making money as they go bankrupt. Where did I say owning an LFS was a lucrative business?
Perhaps adding the red text would have made this read more clearly:
[quote=“Gordonious, post:14, topic:3820”]
Most, not all, LFS in the state aren’t run by people with their hand in the reef hobby outside of a money making venture and may have trouble keeping many types of corals alive. They, being the stores not run by reef hobbyist alluded to in the previous sentence, bring in one wild caught Acropora it dies on them before a hobbyist buys it and they say there is no market for that sort of thing or it would have sold. [/quote]
Perhaps it wasn’t clear that I wasn’t saying all LFS in the store do this. There are some stores who employ reef hobbyist. You are pretty familiar with one such store. I was also stating the one of the stores ran by a non hobbyist might have tried a wild caught Acropora and “they say” there is no market for them or it would have sold before it died. I could have used Montipora capricornis as an example.
[quote=“Jcling, post:18, topic:3820”]
The online accessibility that is available today has really hurt what is the LFS now, and hopefully in the next few years we will still have more than just That pet place to go to if we want to see fish in person.[/quote]
Not sure if this was meant to argue my point or reiterate what I already said.
Hope all is going well with the new tank. Haven’t seen pictures in a while.
All I was saying is that almost all of the stores here in Delaware have hobbyist who are passionate about what they are doing running the stores. How else do you think they would stay afloat? I know my boss for instance is passionate about what he does and he is obviously a hobbyist of both fresh and salt yet… when you are taking care of a whole fish store of fresh and salt, it gets a bit hard to devote that much extra time into the tanks at home. But honestly if he didn’t have that passion or drive for this hobby, his tanks wouldn’t look so good every time you come in, he wouldn’t work with customers the way he has for so long, and he wouldn’t have the store open, because as we both agreed on above, it is really not a lucrative business.
I just wanted to clear that up because as we have seen in this state, opening a fish store is not going to make you a millionaire, but that drive and passion for the hobby is what keeps stores open and thriving, so I doubt there are Any stores that are ran by “non hobbyists”
It has been a while, how is everything going with you? Things are going well on my end, and the tank is going well It is now in its phase where I am ready and excited to see that first piece of coralline growing on something other than the seed rocks LOL. We are happy overall with the tank, we just Really need to get some par readings on those lights before we do acro’s or anything b/c they are rather specific in our other tank and I don’t want to kill any. So once that meter is free, we will be able to figure out where we are at and get the tank slowly stocked. We do have all of the fish we will probably have in there and I love the selection we decided to go with and every one is happy
I haven’t seen you in the store recently, but maybe soon, I spend most of my time whether working or not over there if I have a free minute and I’m bored or any other excuse to be over there LOL.
