Kelowna Fish stores question
 

Can anyone from that area list the all the SW fish stores in kelowna?

I know of a petland, total pet, the purple seahorse, and reefkeepers, also AJ's in vernon.
Do all of these sell saltwater? or just AJ's and reefkeepers? or just AJ's and reefkeepers?

Hey there Argan, Welcome to Canreef.

As for your question...AJ's and Complete Pet sell salt in Vernon. Complete tends to have different stuff...I guess you could say they take some risks versus AJ plays it safe.

In Kelowna, Reefkeepers and Petcity carry salt...as does Total pet the odd time (usually sickly)

How about in Kamloops?? Any Saltwater stores?

There is Rumor of a new store opening up in the near future.

Keep posted on this one!

;)

I've often thought that it would be a good venture to just open a saltwater only store. I would think that there is some demand considering how fast the stuff sells in the our local stores.

Petland in Kamloops on Notre Dame has really good stuff most of the time and knowledgeable staff. Also corals are there oftentimes.
total pet has some stuff, and petcetera has a few fish but unhealthy.

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.

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

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

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]

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:wink:

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

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.

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?

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.

Oscar,

Yes, they build a dedicated shop out back for the tanks. its quite nice, and that to me shows dedication, as they do not make much off the sales. They are in this for good and well being of the hobby. Randy is very knowledgable about the equipment and majority of the livestock. The only down side is, they may be closing the doors and going to apointment basis only, due to some Jackass, who thought it would be funny, apparently poured some perfume or other toxic chemicle into their reef tank causeing the loss of thousands of dollars in fish & Corals.

On the other hand, they are always helpful, and i find them Cheaper for many things.

Rock @ RK, is 8$ /lb AJ's is 12$/lb
chromis $2/15 AJ's is 19$ each
many more examples, but clearly if your in the kelowna area, Reefkeepers is the place to go. for now.

:)

Thanks Cav. I will be in Vernon later this week. I am hoping to visit all three to do some more window shopping.

Reef Keepers had their tanks poisioned a couple weeks back, so they don't have a very big selection right now, but are building back up. Keep that in mind when you visit. They usually have more.

AJ's is getting new stock in this Thursday, from Bali. But they are pretty tight on letting things go before Sunday. Which is kind of good, but not good for out of towners

I do not have a tank just yet so I am still in the window shopping mode. I just put in a request to the town for a print out from their recent water quality tests. Hoping I can avoid installing an RO system.

As an extra bonus Summerland is supposed to be firing up the new water treatment plant in a few weeks time.

Although every one's water supply is different here in the valley are you guys using tap water or RO system?

AJ's has actually got a little more competitive over the last while. Their rock does range from 8.99/lb to 11.99/lb depending on what kind of rock it is. If you are starting a tank and you buy 50lbs or more, they cut it down by $1. Keep in mind that the rock is fully cured versus J&L where you need to cure it. This is turnkey.
On dry-goods, if you try, they will negotiate.

As for knowledge, Andrew is pretty good and the girl that runs the tanks for him is okay too. When I've had questions, Andrew has shown up at my house to help out. They are hoping to do a reno where they would triple their fish section including salt. They have 12 Salt tanks now.

Complete pet's Manager is Sharla and she is very knowledgeable. She's an avid reefer as is her husband. The store is not great for in-stock Dry-goods but she'll order just about anything for you. They are trying to slowly expand their salt tanks but with the level of staff available out there, they've seen a few mistakes made that have cost them entire tanks of livestock.
They are worth checking out though

Where is Complete Pet's in Vernon? Thanks.

Complete pet is on 29th st....behind Canadian Tire. If you come into town from Winfield, you turn right on 43rd Ave (by Kelly O'brians) and then left at the flashing lights 1 block up. The store is on the right side one or two streets up.

Thanks.

I was buying RO water from Save On...found out they have a tds of 8 ppm, and I was having some minor algae issues, so I recently bought an RO/DI unit. Now that I have 0 tds supply water I have noticed a difference. I haven't used tap water in 6 or 8 years...causes too much trouble.

I've been buying water from a local water place...don't have the setup for an RO system yet. Plan to build a new house shortly and will have everything in that.

I work for a bottled water company so free water, until I get my fish room finished and reassemble my RO/DI. If I can remember how to hook it up. I would so to the grocery store and buy water before I would use tap water. To much invested. And the fustration that comes with algae problem.

Vernon water is not great....especially if you are in the Irrigation district. Mud on the bottom of the toilet overnight...yuck.