There's not alot of people around period that can keep a MI alive.

Thank you. And yes, with only one store that carries saltwater in town there's not a lot of "serious" aquarists around period. In all my time on Canreef I have seen/heard less than a handful of people that have kept them past 5 years.

I knew they were difficult but I thought that had to do with feeding specifically. Either way if there's a high mortality rate then it's better to leave them in the ocean. People can go with the Heniochus butterfly fish, pretty similar in appearance and pretty easy to take care of.

The most difficult marine fish I'd consider is the Copper Band Butterfly, which I've had for a few weeks and seems to be doing pretty well. He's fattening up nicely.

The point about feeding Moorish Idols brings up another frustration with LFS. Inconsistency of frozen/live foods available. You get used to feeding one thing and then they run out for weeks at a time.

Agreed +1000. I just picked up 3 packs of Pacifica Plankton for that reason.

Running a business is not easy and I am not a business owner and have zero experience, but I do have huge respect for small business owners overall. Not easy to cater to a hobby that is filled with many different opinions on how things should be done, old school reefers, new school reefers, equipment improvement and product development. But, they should know what they have for livestock, they are the ones ordering it and should be responsible for confirming what they ordered is what they received.

What's the store in Nanaimo that carries salt water supplies?
Been here almost a year and haven't figured out where anything is.

I find getting customer service at most of these places is like pulling teeth. Maybe because you guys all know everyone its all fine. But it seems if you're not a common face at the regular stores like J&L or King ed, you're nothing to them, and chasing down an employee to get a fish caught or grab a piece of coral can take forever. Ive been purposely passed by 6 times by the employees at J&L one day so they could go chat up somebody they knew that came into the fish room. It's been better more recently... Actually getting greeted when I walk into the fish room to ask if I need anything... but I don't know if theres anything I want right away... I have to look! But after that, again I'm back to trying to hunt somebody down as they help everyone else but never come back and see if I'm ready to grab some fish. It's gotta be just me... everyone else seems to get service LOL

As someone who has to make a minimum 200km round trip to even get to an LFS, it's extremely frustrating when you rarely ever see anything different. I've been searching for a specific item for 9 months. Every time an LFS brings one in, I try to make it to the city on the first weekend available only to see it already sold. I keep getting told by various LFS's will order one in for me, but then expect me to be there the day it arrives to get it. I see there side of this issue as well, but if the item keeps selling that fast, maybe they should bring a few more in.

And the final kick to the berries is when the people in place to make changes at the shops being discussed read these posts and nothing improves.

My LFS continues to bring in run of the mill leathers, red or green brains, and brown euphyllia and wonder why it never sells.....

I hate when I ask for room for cream and the barrista gives me about 1cm of room. Seriously? Hate that!!

Or they serve coffee that's been sitting in one of those canister thingys that aren't heated and you get luke warm coffee that won't even disolve the sugar. :twised:

My pet peeve is when yhe tanks are covered in algea and bubble aglea. Like really? Does that come free with purchase? I don't need that thank you. Clean your tanks please.