Fish You Wish Your Lfs Had

[mikev]

I had a chat with a lfs owner, who asked for suggestions for what he should order next for the store. His basic idea was to offer the kind of fish that would be interesting to most people, but are not the most common species which can be found in chain stores around, so no Zebra Danios, Clown Loaches, Tiger/Rosy/Cherry Barbs,... I think exclude anything that growth beyond 6in and costs most than $15 per fish.

My list of recommendations was:

1. Zebra Loaches (this is something I myself want)
2. BN's (surprisingly, hard to find around here, but all lfs' have a plenty of commons).
3. Bengal Danios
4. Checkered Barbs (In retrospect, probably a bad suggestion, I kind of like them).

Anyone here would like to give some good ideas?

(Disclosure: my personal interest is to help this store to succeed, since this is where I get healthy fish for myself and I really had it with the chain stores...)

 

[Phillip.M]

I wish my LFS restocks angels and neons more.. they run out every few days.. And throw some cories at it too.

 

[SirMinion]

There's plenty of fish that I wish LFSs didn't stock such as Redtail cats, giant gouramis Mbu & Fahaka Puffers and dyed jellybean parrots.

As for fish I wish they had, there's not much I'd like to see except maybe Desert Gobies, Longfin Ancitrus and L46 Plecs (captive bred at a sensible price)

 

[Fella]

There's plenty of fish that I wish LFSs didn't stock such as Redtail cats, giant gouramis Mbu & Fahaka Puffers and dyed jellybean parrots.

Likewise! add to that list clarias batrachus, anything that belongs in brackish water, arowana, oscars and common plecs!

I'd love to see freshwater flatfish in my lfs (true freshwater), as well as the rare rays with the tiny disc size. I could also really go for reasonably priced synodontis multipunctatus, tetraodon pustulatus and channa gachua.

 

[mikev]

Thanks a lot for the ideas!

On neons: let me clarify the issue: a small store cannot compete against a chain on common items, a chain will always offer them much cheaper than a small store can get them. So I was suggesting that he should concentrate on attractive but less common fishes. A common neon would not do, but if there is a non-standard variation of them (I don't know if one exists), it would be great.

I told him about common plecs a few times already, I don't think he'll order any more. This world has way too many of them returned to the stores already (as well as large oscars). And he is staying away from most other tankbusters, like sharks.

Mooore please.

 

[jmann]

More of a variety of plecos such as a bristle nose which they never have or any other type of pleco other than normals. Also more variety of cory cats other than albino or bronze and some syno cats.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I wish my lfs stocked more smaller and often more unsual peaceful species species of fish- currently i wish it stocked;
Para plecs (L075)
Bristlenose plecs
Candy striped plecs
Clown plecs
Standard striped khuli loaches
Cardinal tetras
Panda corys


Fish that i wish my lfs stocked less of, especially given the fact it doesn't sell tanks above 40gals, are;
Oscars
Angels
Common/sailfin plecs
Irredescent sharks
Chinese algae eaters
Bala sharks
Silver dollars
Red tail black sharks
Many of the common agressive cichlids out there...

 

[rixy]

i wished my lfs kept more malawi's.they are a stunning fish and i think more people would keep them if you could ever find them.all my local fish shops dont have much of a malawi section.

 

[Vicky99]

I actually struggle to find a good shop to start with. Had a bad experience with an aquatics section at my local garden centre - no-one seemed to know what they were on about and a lot of the fish I bought from them died - they did have Bristle Nosed Plecos though and I've had mine about 6 months now and his bristle are growing well and he's beautiful (no signs of death!!).

Does anyone know Bristol? Any recommendations for a good place to get tropical freshwater fish?

Vicky

 

[bogwood]

I've been looking for Emperor Tetra for a while... can't find 'em anywhere locally...

 

[catxx]

unusual tetras
any cory that isn't a bronze/albino!

i went to an LFS in gloucestershire where my mum lives, so many different types of corys! my eyes were out on stalks, gawking i was. very jealous. all my LFS gets is one or two bronze/albino ones. lots of unusual cats i don't usually see in london too, whiptail, clown, <3 if only i had the tank space!

vicky, if you fancy a trip, it's not TOO far from bristol i guess, if you have a car anyway. http/www.aquajardin.co.uk/
Blooms Garden Centre
Bath Road
Haresfield
Gloucester
GL10 3DP

 

[karlp]

There is a similar shop that does something like this in a garden centre at Twycross zoo that I used to go to when I lived in the area. They only had a few tanks, but there was almost always something interesting and unusual in them. However they did still stock some common fish too.

My thought on this is that the shop should still stock some common fish for beginners and with a difficulty rating against each tank (my LFS does this). It would be a terrible shame if rare and unusual fish were being sold to people who were just starting out and going through the killing all their first batch of fish stage which so many seem to do unfortunately.

Anyway, off the soap box and answer the question...

Some of my favourite unusual fish are:

Black Winged Hatchets (smaller and darker variety of the marble hatchet)
Synodontis Petricola (dwarf spotted catfish. Very cute)
Various Killifish (suitable as a pair in a small tank, but not for the community)
Pretty much any of the unusual L numbered plecos. Green Gem Cheatostoma comes to mind.
Red claw crabs
Various Shrimp
Endlers (wild form of guppy)

Also what about Buck Toothed Tetra ? Varacious like Piranha but more active and easier to keep a shoal of in a smaller tank.

 

[Vicky99]

Thanks Catxx - I'll give that one a go - just had a look at their site and it's about 40 mins up the M5 for me (not at rush hour obviously!!).

 

[chrismr]

Seriously, I don't wish my LFS has any of the fish I want because I got no more space, and it kills me when I see something I want that I can not have...

Those Synodontis Petricola look lovely though! Maybe I should get theother half to order some for the LFS he works at!

 

[dwarfgourami]

Fish that i wish my lfs stocked less of, especially given the fact it doesn't sell tanks above 40gals, are;
Oscars
Angels
Common/sailfin plecs
Irredescent sharks
Chinese algae eaters
Bala sharks
Silver dollars
Red tail black sharks
Many of the common agressive cichlids out there...

That would my non-list too! And maybe I would add elephantnoses- I think they are a fish that are often sold as cool to people who can't really keep them.

As for what I wish they would stock, bristlenoses, peacock gobies, one or two of the less common livebearers, some danios other than zebra and pearls. Otos seem scarce round my way. More khuulies.

And the small rasboras: I only ever see harlequins round my way.

Also pygmy cories, nobody ever has them. And more shrimps.

All in all, I would like to see more fish that are in proportion to the tanks sold by the shops in question, i.e. if they sell lots of 8 gallon tanks but no 70 gals, they should stock more tiny fish and fewer tankbusters. People who can afford to buy big tanks can probably afford to get a courier to bring them the fish as well. I suspect none of the bala sharks sold at Pets@home end up in a tank even remotely suitable- the people who buy them probably don't even know that you can get big tanks.