Glad to see your happy with your Clam Jackets. Pics yet?

Justin, I think your comments were right on track, it's just the "delivery" that was questionable. Carry on :razz:

I have edited my comments in the beginning of this thread as I now feel my comments were not fare and my judgment of a store, staff, or product changes with every experience.
Also my negative comments effect others so I feel I shouldn't force them on others
Jason

I still feel that the Big Al's that I have visited are the Walmart of LFS'.

teevee,

What stores have you visited? What are you basing your impression on?

The locations in Calgary and Edmonton. I've personally found that the staff were rather unhelpful (teenagers), and the place is run like a department store. It seems odd that a fish store would have employee uniforms. I also feel that their choices of what livestock to carry are based on a profit motive, rather than in the best interest of the aquarist and the livestock itself.

Having said that, I understand that we are talking about a franchise here, and other locations may be of a higher standard.

Interesting observations!

I find it strange, that you find it odd that a fish store would have staff uniforms.

Almost every Fishstore out here has a uniform of some form. Usually just a T-Shirt with the stores name on it or something similar. Just about every store here does now that I think of it...

It is heartening to hear that the stores mentioned keep to higher standards in your neck of the woods, Justin.

The one location here is not recommended; they are an example of what someone has termed an "LFK" - Local Fish Killer. It is difficult to even go there for curiousity's sake anymore - too depressing to see livestock (using the term loosely here) held in those conditions, with up to half dead or dying.

The corals (again used loosely) fare no better, and yes, they were/are usually riddled with aptasia. I understand some don't mind a whack of aptasia, but most reefers I know consider it a pest. There are other retailers in the city who've found ways to keep their systems (and the aptasia) in check.

Glad the ones near you are putting in the effort. A clam tank? Awesome.

We have a big als in coquitlam and their tanks remind me of petcetera - all the fish look pretty sad, several dead fish in the system, staff seem fairly unfriendly. Big als was the first fish store I went to when I decided to investigate setting up a marine tank back in December. The good thing I got from that store was the marine aquarist book I picked up for $90 (overpriced, but pointed me in the right direction) :)

I haven't been to the richmond store, so I cant comment on that, but if you want a general impression of Big al's.... thats my general impression.

Next time I am in the area, I will check out the richmond location simply because of this thread, but previous to reading this, I wouldn't have bothered going in simply because the coquitlam location had such poor quality marine tanks.

PS - the freshwater tanks and livestock in Big al's was great. No dead fish in the tanks, lotsa selection etc. Just their marine tanks were pretty sad....

The thing about Marine systems and marine fish shipments is they vary between one another. One shipment can be great, everything is fine and dandy. Looks great.

The next can be horrible, everything is dead or dieing, and there is nothing more pathetic then a system full of dead fish. This really does not reflect on the store as much as it does the reality of the hobby every marine keeper supports. Marine fish have an atrocious rate of harvest. That's a fact of the matter. Some shipments are better then others.

Don't like to see a tank with a couple dead fish? Imagine the suppliers. On a bad day, garbage cans full of dead fish every few hours. Heh. Most stores don't have the deaths in a year most suppliers have in a week.