# The New Store



## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

Well here is a sneak peak at what we have coming along! Its not too exciting but this was from a week ago, two more days of putting stuff together and we open, whether we are ready or not, we'll see!









Where the ponds are going








Front








My hand crafted refugium for the display tank, trying out the coralife super skimmer 








The 210 display tank starting to get filled








The bird room








Shelving








My department being setup








Some freshwater tanks up and running








Some freshwater tanks needing a little work








The reptile room


----------



## rallyguy44 (Feb 11, 2006)

nice deal you got there, I think it'd be pretty fun to work at a petstore...hope everything goes smoothly with the opening.


----------



## Georgia Peach (Sep 23, 2005)

looking great!


----------



## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

How do you cycle tanks in a new pet store?


----------



## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

It's a royal pain.
I think you guys are nuts for trying to open the place without having everything up & running for a month beforehand, but I guess if you use BioSpira you might get away with it.
I KNOW you must have discussed that with your new boss, right?
They didn't have BioSpira back when I opened my shop, and even though I had things running for three months before opening, I still had problems.


----------



## ALFA WOLF (May 24, 2005)

Wish i worked thier


----------



## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

Sweet FF it's definetaly coming along nicely! Can't wait to see it in two weeks! I can bring cam for upclose fish pics


----------



## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

actually we cycled with fish... I know I know... a royal pain, but my boss is set in his ways... I at least kept all the filter pads wet and gravel moist on most of the tanks we moved in (all the saltwater tanks) the second batch of tanks we brought in. So the basic biological filtration is there. The good news is, you'll soon see me under a new sign in name!
We are going to have a computer setup for the store, and fishforums.com is going to be the place to get caresheets from and hard puzzleing questions asked that customers don't know!


----------



## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

were is the store at and when is the opening? Maybe all us in the area can stop in and give you all a grand opening.


----------



## CollegeReefer (Sep 1, 2006)

Already went out of business....lol Tim had that one coming.


----------



## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Dude it's not really funny to see someone's hard work go down the drain.


----------



## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

What happened?


----------



## Ricker (Nov 23, 2007)

My guess is they didn't sell good because people go to like petsmarts and stuff cause of cheaper prices and they can get any fish they want with out some one telling them no


----------



## pokefan (Feb 26, 2008)

This sucks if it is true. Less than a year open and already gone under!

I wouldn't care one bit about prices if we had a local fish shop here. We had one when we moved in to town but they shut down soon after.


----------



## Good Wolf (Mar 5, 2008)

Ricker said:


> My guess is they didn't sell good because people go to like petsmarts and stuff cause of cheaper prices and they can get any fish they want with out some one telling them no


'

Yep, and I'm going to have to refer to the two week return policy as well. That is a main reason I buy from Pet Smart. All you do is bring in your receipt and a water sample and you can get a new fish. 

The small stores only have a two day return policy and that just isn't long enough to ensure the fish didn't have something wrong with it before your brought it home.

If there was a local store that had good stock, good prices, and at least a one week return policy I would go there. 

The Mrs. keeps joking around about getting our own store going. It is a very scary venture and I salute anyone who risks everything and not only does it, but does it the right way.


----------



## Ricker (Nov 23, 2007)

YA I have about 5 around me I think family owned. They all have there pros and cons. My fav one though i get points for shopping there so big plus there. Once I get so many points I get a free biocube I hope. Like a $50 item gets you 5 points etc.... But ya I hope it isn't true It looked cool. I have a dream of opening mine one day


----------



## Ricker (Nov 23, 2007)

My LFS has a 2 month return policy I never go there though because I hate it. But the one I go to all them time is very good. At my petsmart I buy stuff some fish not for my 55 though unless we are talking about shrimp then yes lol. But at petsmart here all you do is bring in died fish and prove of purchase bam new fish.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

> bam new fish.


 they sell you a diseased fish, it croaks, then you trade it for new fish without dealing with the disease. Disease kills new fish. They should give you credit you can use a month later after you've licked the disease they gave you.


----------



## trashion (Aug 24, 2007)

Haha, I'm guilty of patronizing PetsMart for shrimp. For god's sake, I found amanos there and they sold me them as ghost shrimp! I saved at least ten dollars!


----------



## Ricker (Nov 23, 2007)

same they cant even catch them at all so you ask for 5 you get like 15 lol cause I always get some old women that cant see them. I wasnt sayign do that I was just giving example what mine does.


----------



## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

trashion said:


> Haha, I'm guilty of patronizing PetsMart for shrimp. For god's sake, I found amanos there and they sold me them as ghost shrimp! I saved at least ten dollars!


When I have the knowledge to pull something like this off I will stop calling myself new  Although I guess I can do that with some fish, just not very many.


----------



## Guest (Apr 11, 2008)

If I remember correctly, Paul (Fishfirst) had some serious problems with the owner of this store while he worked there. I believe the guy was a real jerk, so you shouldn't assume until you know the story. 

I could be wrong, though, but this is how I remember it. I'm sure Paul will fill us in if he finds this thread...


----------



## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

Everyone is a jerk at some point, so I guess that means that everyone deserves to fail. I know there are times I am a jerk. I just don't think that means that people deserve to fail and loose things they work for. I know if I work for someone who is a jerk I make the choice to stop working for them, and that pretty much solves that problem.


----------



## Guest (Apr 11, 2008)

And he did, as I recall. All I'm saying is, you shouldn't make assumptions about things until you know the whole story. If I worked for someone who was a jerk all the time, not only to the employees but the customers as well, I wouldn't lose sleep over them losing their business. If they don't want to put the effort in the run it right, then they don't deserve to be in business.


----------



## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

It's about time they finally closed the place up xD
I didn't think they'd last this long. I'd go on about the employees and the owner, but i'll leave that for paul 

Sad though, since we have little to nothing for LFS's in this area.


----------



## CollegeReefer (Sep 1, 2006)

This wasn't a store that went out of business because of the superstores. Scales and Tails had many issues and as pointed out fishfirst left the store because of it. Tim did not know how to run a business and he didn't want to. It normally saddens me when a lfs goes out of business if it was a good store, but this store was far from it. fishfirst has spent the last year at petco and now is moving on to liveaquaria coral agriculture facility.


----------



## Ricker (Nov 23, 2007)

Hey we had a store here called scales and tails. They went down the drain a month ago


----------



## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

lol from central wisconsin Ricker?

I left that place because of a number of reasons
1. The owner had a drinking problem that found itself at work 
2. The owner had a bad temper, which was amplified by his drinking (threw tanks at employees, yelling at employees in front of customers, cussing, ect)
3. I wasn't getting paid very well
4. Petco was opening a store near by that I could work at for $4 more an hour.

Oh and I am very excited to be a member of liveaquaria.com Probably the most professional place I've worked at so far.


----------



## Ricker (Nov 23, 2007)

> lol from central wisconsin Ricker?


Nope down here in Knoxville TN.


----------

