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Fintastic


treesprite

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Big variety of fish, and they looked great. The tanks were clean and there were no dead fish.

I was planning to actually go to Tropical Lagoon, since it is the closest shop to me, but couldn't get there before closing. So imagine how happy I was to see Cathy at Fintastic! Cathy is the daughter of the man who owned the LFS that used to be in Wheaton Triangle, and worked with Steve at Tropical Lagoon after her dad's shop closed. Cathy is very knowledgeable and has a lifetime of experience, so her presence is a huge plus for Fintastic!

Not a lot of shops will contact competitors to help customers get merchandise. But that is what Cathy did. She knows Steve, so she was able to get him even though his place was closed. So now I know there are sea hares at Tropical Lagoon and will go there tomorrow.

It was a very pleasant visit, so I didn't feel at all bad about the long drive, even though I couldn't get the sea hare. Both Cathy and Paul spent a lot of time helping and chatting with me about different things (hobby and not), so I was in the shop for a while.

I left with blue leg hermits and a cherub angel. The fish will be in quarantine, with some pieces of my algae rock.

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I’ve been there and the prices are great for cleanup crews and the selection of fish is decent, but QUARANTINE IS A MUST. Their vendor is notorious for fish carrying all kinds of internal and external parasites and many fish show signs of issues. That being said, the fish I have gotten from there were an excellent price and handled QT very well and are doing great

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TYG,

 

I'm glad you're having a good experience with the fish you got from Fintastic.  I've known the various iterations of his shop from Aquarium One in Rockville to King of Corals in Frederick and now Fintastic in Frederick.  I think the latest iteration is pretty interesting because he's chosen to go heavy into making his livestock inexpensive and less into dry goods which are pretty much impossible for a LFS to compete against online stores with ('cause of rent, labor, utilities, etc).  

 

From what I've heard he gets fish from a variety of suppliers, so I don't understand how you'd know that his are notorious for any kind of parasites.  He's been around long enough to know how to fully QT a fish for you if that was his business model, but not enough people are looking for $50 chromis to keep a store open as much as I think that would be a great service. 8)  We all tend to be in the business of taking risks when we put fish into any of our systems and the question is how much of a risk are you willing to bear.

 

After experiences I had when I first got in to the hobby I'd put a fish into QT even if it had been hand raised by Julian Sprung or Bob Fenner.  I can count on one hand the number of people I'd trust to give me a fish healthy enough to put right into my tank and even then I'd probably put it into a QT to make sure it was eating well before taking the risk of needing to fish it out later if it started going south.

 

Anyway, my point is I'd like to gently ask you to please be careful to not speculate or relay hearsay in public when talking about someone's business.  You can have your opinions, but what you post here gets read by a lot of people.  I'd bring it up with Paul first to give him a chance to give you all the info instead of airing it in a discussion here.  I've talked to him before, and he likes talking fish.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The fish I got there, has been in QT for 3 weeks and still looks great. I'm going to give it a 4th week before putting it in the display.

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Yesterday it was fine, after 3 weeks in QT. Just now I found it dead under a rock. It had no sign of illness that I could see, was swimming around, eating. The death has nothing at all to do with the store, and is a big mystery. Either it was something internal I'll never know about, or something happened here that I'm not aware of. At least I know that whatever killed it is/was isolated to a QT tank, not in my DT waiting to kill more fish. I guess I will completely dump the QT water and start it over.

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make sure to clean all associated equipment and qt tank with a bleach solution or similar then rinse with dechlorinator and air dry for a day in the sun if possible 

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Turns out there was a heater issue, and the water was really cold.

 

Aside from not wanting the long drive, I have no reservations about getting another one of these fish from Fintastic. I do wish the shop would sell the other fish I want, but I have never seen it on their stock list.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Factual or biased due to a potential conflct of interest, a vendor-weighing-in-on-a-vendor (or, more specifically, an employee of a tank maintenance company posting against another tank maintenance company) post was hidden from view as a violation of our Vendor Terms of Service. 

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