Your top 5 LFS in SoCal

[WayneL333]

The westside kind of has slim pickings as far reef stores, but I like the Aquarium in Culver City. Not too much on the high end side, but the people there are very friendly and a great service company.

Medusa in West LA has nice LPS's

Tongs in FV has a great selection of fish. I've heard their rep on their quality, but I've always had good luck on all the fish I've bought there. I think the key is SLOWWWWW acclimation regardless of where you buy your fish and coral.

Age of Aquarium in Signal Hill was a great find for me. I like how they carry a lot of the ORA clowns and customer service is terrific.

Ali at Amazing Aquarium and Reefs is a cool guy. I like the fact he likes to talk shop and he carries higher end corals.


Oh yeah...I gotta give a shout out to Total Fish and Pets in Alhambra too just for the fact that they are the ONLY reef store near my office. It has a nice little sps/lps tank that they actually SELL out of!!!

 

[teriyakithunder]

The westside kind of has slim pickings as far reef stores, but I like the Aquarium in Culver City. Not too much on the high end side, but the people there are very friendly and a great service company.

Medusa in West LA has nice LPS's

Tongs in FV has a great selection of fish. I've heard their rep on their quality, but I've always had good luck on all the fish I've bought there. I think the key is SLOWWWWW acclimation regardless of where you buy your fish and coral.

Age of Aquarium in Signal Hill was a great find for me. I like how they carry a lot of the ORA clowns and customer service is terrific.

Ali at Amazing Aquarium and Reefs is a cool guy. I like the fact he likes to talk shop and he carries higher end corals.


Oh yeah...I gotta give a shout out to Total Fish and Pets in Alhambra too just for the fact that they are the ONLY reef store near my office. It has a nice little sps/lps tank that they actually SELL out of!!!

Total Fish and Pets on Garvey closed down a while ago. Or did they move locations?

My favorite LFS is Tropical Fish on Montebello Blvd and Beverly Blvd next to the El Pollo Loco in Montebello. Always have healthy fish and cheaper than most of the other LFS I go to. Doesn't have the variety of corals and fish like Age of Aquariums has but does have pretty good sized sps frags for affordable prices. He also has soft corals. The store is starting to have more variety of corals now.

 

[gumbii]

Total Fish and Pets on Garvey closed down a while ago. Or did they move locations?

My favorite LFS is Tropical Fish on Montebello Blvd and Beverly Blvd next to the El Pollo Loco in Montebello. Always have healthy fish and cheaper than most of the other LFS I go to. Doesn't have the variety of corals and fish like Age of Aquariums has but does have pretty good sized sps frags for affordable prices. He also has soft corals. The store is starting to have more variety of corals now.

NOB!!!...


i miss that store... i used to go in there all of the time when i worked in whittier... nob is a great guy... knows a lot of stuff... he's the one that showed me how to use kalkwasser when other LFS people only sold the stuff but don't know how to use it at all...

great guy... worth checking out...

 

[wickedfish]

1) AOA for fish selection and other stuff.

2) socal tropical Tom almost wants to hook it up. "Jk Tom, me love you long time!"

3) Vivid I guess, but they are a bit pricey, and way too far from my zip code.

4) Pacific Reef in Torrance for some reason they had some sweet fish that were clean and so I swooped up 3 and they are alive and no ich.

5) don't have a 5th most lfs that I have frequented in my early reefing days are swiney! yes very swiney!

Rather not say... Only cause the economy is crappy or else I would post the scary pointing monkey @ their shop.:violin:

 

[WayneL333]

I don't know if its the same one, but there one on Valley and Monterey.

Total Fish and Pets on Garvey closed down a while ago. Or did they move locations?

My favorite LFS is Tropical Fish on Montebello Blvd and Beverly Blvd next to the El Pollo Loco in Montebello. Always have healthy fish and cheaper than most of the other LFS I go to. Doesn't have the variety of corals and fish like Age of Aquariums has but does have pretty good sized sps frags for affordable prices. He also has soft corals. The store is starting to have more variety of corals now.

 

[luvinmyacans]

I can't see how anyone is giving Amazing Aquariums and Reefs any props. Yeah, Ali has some nice corals in there but does he ever even sell any of his high end stuff? Seems like someone needed somewhere to set up their displays and have people come in to talk about them...

 

[teriyakithunder]

I don't know if its the same one, but there one on Valley and Monterey.

I've never been there before. The Total fish and pets I knew was on Garvey across from St. Stephens school.

 

[CJBROWN]

My Three Favorites

I can't see how anyone is giving Amazing Aquariums and Reefs any props. Yeah, Ali has some nice corals in there but does he ever even sell any of his high end stuff? Seems like someone needed somewhere to set up their displays and have people come in to talk about them...

Ouch. Must be a personal vendetta thing. Insulting what I think is one of the nicest stores in all of so-Cal out of the dozen or so I have visited in the last couple of months. Ali is a good aquarium guy. Figured out my water problem for LPS', and sold me a Melanurus Wrasse for a really good price that is fantastic. Will be picking up some of those high-end corals soon. There is no junk there. Not a huge selection but what he has is really nice. Knows his customers by name and remembers their setups. Hard to find personal service like he offers these days.

Chad at Coral Gazers is also extremely helpful, has a huge selection, lots of resources for getting started. Would like to see his store get sorted and become one of the premier outlets in the southland. Super nice guy.

Third is SoCal Tropical even though Tom is never there. They have lots of corals and some really nice fish. Got a mated pair of true clowns and a large yellow tang, both are gorgeous. Bought quite a bit of hardware there, good selection, close to home.

Wish them all great success!

 

[luvinmyacans]

Ouch. Must be a personal vendetta thing. Insulting what I think is one of the nicest stores in all of so-Cal out of the dozen or so I have visited in the last couple of months. Ali is a good aquarium guy. Figured out my water problem for LPS', and sold me a Melanurus Wrasse for a really good price that is fantastic. Will be picking up some of those high-end corals soon. There is no junk there. Not a huge selection but what he has is really nice. Knows his customers by name and remembers their setups. Hard to find personal service like he offers these days.

Ah nothing personal. He just wouldn't sell anything worth buying after I spent an hour + to get down there and that was the impression that I got.

 

[dorkymk3]

Carson Tropical Fish-Hawaiin Gardens. Tom is the guy to go to. very down to earth. Goes out of his way to help his customers, especially me.

Age of Aquariums-Signal Hill, great customer service but never have the funds to buy anything there.

Tong's Tropical Fish-Fountain Valley, huge selection of sps, lps, and equipment

Coral Island-Orange, they carry great deals on sps frags and deals on cleaning crews

Strictly Fish- Lakewood, local and they close late 9pm and they have good holiday specials.

 

[standaman4]

This is in no particular order.

Age of Aquariums - Don't really have to explain why based off everyone elses experience here.

Carson Tropical Fish - Toms really nice and they have really good frags.

Seaside Tropical Fish - Just found this place and they are really nice.

Pacific Reef fountain Valley - Brians really cool and informative.

Coral Oasis - Their frags range from $5 on up and every now and then there are some pretty great finds in the 5, 10, and 15 dollar bins.

Amazing aquariums is cool just don't get down that way too often.
Vivid aquariums is nice too but also far for me.

:8fish:

 

[wickedfish]

I would add Socal Tropical cause he has pumps and skimmers for cheap as funk!

 

[toromp]

OC: (not in order)

Coral island (very helpful and good started frags!)
Tongs in brea (regular customer, so I get hooked up)
Coral gazers (good for a lot of things)
Ocean blue(good for info and bulbs)

SD:

Aqua SD

..went to Aqua SD today and their staff is informative, great coral selection and good prices @! 100% recommend!!

 

[gumbii]

there's a tongs in brea...? i only thought that there was three... LA, whittier and fountain valley...

 

[toromp]

there's a tongs in brea...? i only thought that there was three... LA, whittier and fountain valley...

Yup tongs tropical fish

 

[Skidazl]

there's a tongs in brea...? i only thought that there was three... LA, whittier and fountain valley...

It was Tong's years ago, then changed owners and was Imperial Fish, then recently was bought back by Tong's...

I live 2 minutes from there and have yet to go back in since the change because Imperial was so bad. Hopefully they have different employees now as the previous ones were the A-typical "LFS employee"...

 

[toromp]

It was Tong's years ago, then changed owners and was Imperial Fish, then recently was bought back by Tong's...

I live 2 minutes from there and have yet to go back in since the change because Imperial was so bad. Hopefully they have different employees now as the previous ones were the A-typical "LFS employee"...

You should go check it out bro, not a whole lot of corals, good price on rock and equipment.. the guys there are cool ..only one guy is uhh.. weird lol

 

[Skidazl]

Maybe...

that weird guy is probably the same as was there before... hahaha

 

[Skidazl]

How is their fish selection? Still mostly freshwater? I don't buy corals from LFS so minimal coral selection is not an issue for me.

 

[toromp]

How is their fish selection? Still mostly freshwater? I don't buy corals from LFS so minimal coral selection is not an issue for me.

It's half and half .. good stuff bro

Get there :car: