When you are about to buy livestock for your aquarium you look for the appropriate source where quality is taken care of. Every time you may not want to depend on online ordering of corals and fishes especially need to be bought from a good retail store where hygiene is god and you are ensured that the new addition to your tank will not bring in unwanted fuss along with it. With well treated stores where every care is taken to ensure health and safety of the products they sell, you can entirely trust with every purchase you make. In case you are a beginner or new to a place where you are checking out at unknown aquarium stores we recommend you take the following points into consideration before selecting the store to be your tank’s livestock supplier:

1.Cleanliness of their tanks and health of fishes

While looking around the store, check if the tanks look clean and well maintained. In case you see dirt or hazy tank that look to have not been cleaned for a long time, you should not want to buy from that store. Unclean tank with cloudy water means either the manger of the store is careless enough to take into account the hazards related to dirty tank or the store is under-staffed. See if the fishes look healthy and swim happy. Do you see stressed fishes? Are they looking non-active? Do you notice dropped fins or wounded fishes sharing the same tank as the other healthy ones? In all the above cases you must think twice before making any purchase from that store. However, if you see one or two tanks that have unclean water or wounded fishes with a “not for sale” sign that just means the store is careful enough not to sell you damaged livestock.

2. Dead fishes

In many book by known aquarist there is a “three dead fish” rule. It means that if you notice more than three dead fishes in a store’s tank, it means they are not careful enough. It is quite normal for an aquarium store to have fishes dying but they should be careful enough to remove them at the beginning of the day. If you notice dead fish in a tank inform the staff members and they must act immediately towards removing them.

3. Smell

A store that smells good is found to have healthy fishes and corals in clean and clear tanks. An aquarium store should normally smell musty or earthy but any foul smell is a sign of uncared hygiene. An aquarium store should never smell like a fish market or a public zoo. A bad smelling store is for sure careless of its reputation. If the store keeps other pets too then it is understandable that the other section might smell bad but if the entire store smells eww it’s a bad sign.

4.  Staff member’s knowledge and attitude

The staff members need to well-informed about the species they are keeping for sale. Test their knowledge to ensure they don’t provide wrong information about the livestock just for the sake of selling them. For instance ask them if a particular fish is reef compatible or not. If you know it is not and the staff member boasts you that it is, then the staff sure needs to look for another job and you need to look for another store. Just to test their patience on knowledge base, ask them a few questions on various species. If they look ready to explain and gladly provide you the right knowledge, you have found your store. Now that does not mean that you ask them too many questions so as to irritate the hell out of any sane person!

5. The price

Do not look for stores that have low priced livestock. What you must look for is quality and if a little more expense comes with good quality fishes and corals that are healthy in a clean ambience, you must go for it. And what you get at a good store along with a little pricey products is a sound knowledge that a ready to help attitude.

Disclaimer: Reliance on any information provided in the article is solely at your own risk. Reefland is not responsible for side effects of any process or product stated.