Kelowna Fish stores question

[Myka]

Someone just asked me the same thing in PM, here's what I replied:

The Purple Seahorse has pails of Instant Ocean salt for $50 (sometimes on sale for as low as $40), so that's a good price and where I buy my salt.

I buy my corals from either Pet City or Reef Keepers. Reef Keepers tends to have the fairest prices and best selection. Reef Keepers prices their corals individually and are generally rather quite well priced. They are the most knowledgable people to talk to. Reef Keepers is the only place you can find SPS, but they don't have SPS often. They sometimes have Turbo and Astraea snails, and the occasional anemone. Reef Keepers has odd hours, and sometimes they are closed on Saturday without warning, so I always call before I drive over there since technically I live in Westbank, and that's a long drive just to see the "Open" sign off...rrr that's annoying.

Pet City prices almost all their corals at $60, and they can't always identify them for you. I know my corals, so this doesn't bother me. So I guess you have to kind of know your corals, and what they are worth, but you can get some good deals on really nice corals. They get some nice anemones as well. I have bought the majority of my corals at Pet City. They have some clams in right now.

I don't buy anything from Total Pet or Petcetera the latter of which just quit running their salt tanks (for the better!). Total Pet always has ich...like ALWAYS. The only corals you'll find there are leathers and mushrooms usually, and they look like crap. Oh wait, I do buy snails from Total Pet as they seem to be the only ones in town that carry Nassarius and Cerith snails.

I haven't found anywhere locally to buy Hermits.

[cav~firez22]

in about a week i will have 200 hermits, and 200 snails for sale. if thats what you needs...

will also have some other stuff, will wait and see if its all in good health

[robzilla]

Originally Posted by Myka

Pet City or Reef Keepers .

.

where is pet city and reef keepers located. i come to kelowna once in awhile, and i'd like to stop in and see these shops,

thanks
rob

[bloat]

If your looking for salt stuff in the Kamloops.....the ONLY place you'll find any decent livestock/corals is Totel Pet.
Call ahead and find out when their shipments come in.
The Total Pet in Kamloops is WAY better than Vernon or Kelowna for salt stuff.

As for the Okanagan.....your right...reefkeepers.ca or A.J.'s Pets vernon.

Theirs' nothing wrong with getting J&L to throw some stuff on the bus for you too!!!!!

I'm down thier about once a month....(in Van)...so if someone in the loops is looking for something in particular let me know.

PS>it ich season so watch out!!!! Quaranteene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Matt]

Originally Posted by bloat

If your looking for salt stuff in the Kamloops.....the ONLY place you'll find any decent livestock/corals is Totel Pet.
Call ahead and find out when their shipments come in.
The Total Pet in Kamloops is WAY better than Vernon or Kelowna for salt stuff.

As for the Okanagan.....your right...reefkeepers.ca or A.J.'s Pets vernon.

Theirs' nothing wrong with getting J&L to throw some stuff on the bus for you too!!!!!

I'm down thier about once a month....(in Van)...so if someone in the loops is looking for something in particular let me know.

PS>it ich season so watch out!!!! Quaranteene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hijack]There's an ich season? Do I need a permit?[/hijack]

[bloat]

I dunno...i see that people are in a rush to fill their x-mas tanks up. As a result, LFS are mass ordering during the coldest time of year which also stress out fish too.
I just find that in January/February you will definately find ich in pet stores, and shortage of cleaner shrimp too.

Just my observation, I guess.....

Permits are $25

[cav~firez22]

Originally Posted by robzilla

where is pet city and reef keepers located. i come to kelowna once in awhile, and i'd like to stop in and see these shops,

thanks
rob

Pet City is in the Mission, in the same complex as Coopers,
Very small selection there,

Reef keepers is actually run out of a shop they built in their back yard.

check their website

www.reefkeepers.ca

[mseepman]

It sounds like some of you guys in Kelowna should make a trip up to Vernon once in a while. AJ's is still a little expensive (like Pet City, most things are $50-$60) but they carry clean-up crews galore and they are starting to get more and more corals during each shipment. Andrew the owner knows his stuff pretty well too.

The manager of Complete pet is a fairly dedicated reefer (4 or 5 decent tanks at home and working on more) and has 5 tanks of salt stuff. She's usually priced 10 -15% below AJ's and brings in some interesting stuff. She will also do some frags sometimes (rare & no SPS) but I haven't found anyone else who will do this in the Okanagan. Complete pet is on 29th St...behind Canadian Tire.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by cav~firez22

Reef keepers is actually run out of a shop they built in their back yard.

www.reefkeepers.ca

I visited them last summer when I first started reseaching reefs. They were still intheir basement at that time. So when they moved next door they built a dedicated building?

[Oscar]

So it sounds like the primary choices are reefkeepers, AJs and Complete Pet.

Anyone care to compare prices, service, knowledge among these 3? I normally value service and knowledge over price.