Marine Warehouse

I went by Marine Warehouse this afternoon. It's a bit of drive, but definitely worth it. I love the store because it has both freshwater and saltwater livestock and supplies which is nice. Today I picked up a couple of piece of LR to finish off my 47 gallon aquarium's rock wall, and I bought a small frag of green bubble coral as well! I've been wanting bubble coral since before I had even gotten into the saltwater hobby two years ago, so finding a frag of it for a good price kinda made my day! Anyway, if you haven't been to MW, you should check it out. They've got some pretty good prices overall, and they have a nice variety. They even sell all kinds of aquariums in the store which is pretty cool. I bought my 47 gallon at MW over a month ago and have been very pleased with it. Not to mention that Coral Corral and Fish and Other Ichthy Stuff (FAOIS) are only a little bit further down the road from MW, so you can hit up three great LFS in one drive!

I also went to Marine Warehouse on Sunday the 12th. I bought a mexican turbo snail, a small piece of live rock and a frag with some green zoas. The Zoanthids were priced well as my frag was only 5 dollars. Luckily I had Samantha with me who found a fireworm in my rock and and quite a bit of bubble algae. This taught me a good lesson, study the frag entirely, not just the coral. After a bit of scrubbing, scraping, tweezing (trying to grab the worm), and chipping half of the base off, a freshwater dip, and an iodine soak it was ready to go. The zoas look great though in the tank, and everything turned out well. MW will take your fish the majority of the time and give you a fair trade in value for credit towards other fish so my purchase ended up being free since I traded in a couple of saltwater fish who had outgrown my new aquarium! Overall it is a very good store with reasonable prices and a great stock.

Marine Warhouse is by far one of the best places in tampa. The staff for the most part is extremely knowledgable (Steve the "Old Guy"). They are a bit pricey, but there stock is unbeatable. If you go for stock items there will be better deals at other places, but fish and plants, and corals (sorry not a salt guy yet) its the place to go to.

I can't say Im a huge fan of them. Sure, they have an alright variety of fish and a pretty good selection of corals. 4/5 of their corals are huge and because of that they are pricey and (at least for me) unattainable. But the 1/5 that are small (and therfore affordable) range from "Um, you want that much for 2 polyps? That's dumb" to "Oh hey, that's a nice frag for $5!" It's one of those stores that you stop by and look around just in case.

They have a nice variety of foods, chemicals and decorations. From what it seems they would be THE place to go if you wanted anything freshwater.

But then there's the staff They're not the greatest with customer service, by far.

The Old Guy is nice, but today I got stuck with the other older guy I informed him I had a list of questions and we began. He answered the phone 3 times while I was trying to ask him things (even though there were 4 other people working the store) and one time he asked another nearby customer if he was finding everything alright. Uh, HELLO! I WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE WITH YOU! I asked him to look at a UV sterilizer my friend wants to give me for cheap. He looked it over (while ringing up some oher customer, giving neither of us the attention we deserve) and spoke to me condescendingly when I was asking questions about the sterilizer and what I needed to do to get it up and running. It seemed like he was getting frustated with me by the end of the conversation. Then he asked a nearby lady if she was looking for something. She said she needed her water tested and the guy aggrivatedly stated "Well there's five of us in there so one of us will help you when we can"
I dont know if that was to tell me that there are other customers and I was taking up too much of his time or if he really just wanted to treat her like that, but it was uncalled for either way. I then asked him to test my water and he said my Alkalinity was nice and high but my Calcium was way too high. We had spoken previously that I had gotten new chemicals and I was looking for some tests before I started using them so I dont overdose. He told me to stop adding calcium and I told him I havent been, as I was waiting for a test kit. He then argued with me over whether or not I've been adding chemicals because "calcium doesnt magically appear" The whole thing was really frustrating.


They seem fairly knowledgable about what they do know, but there's been a few times when I ask them about something they only have a standard/questionable answer to, if an answer at all. They don't always push you to buy anything, though often times I've entered knowing what I needed and left having purchased extra things. Also, that guy is kind of a jerk.

I stopped in there twice today, looked at the coral and left with none (the good looking ones were 40 dollars+). I was looking to buy a clean up crew, but their astreas were 2 dollars each and turbos were 4. I will hold off and go to corals and fins where the astreas are .50 cents and turbos are 1.50...

The staff didn't look at me once while I was in there, and I ended up stopping back in to buy some algae... still not even a head nod. Meanwhile Coral Corrals staff were very friendly. I ended up buying a 10 dollar mushroom that was blue with white stripes and had neon blue dots. Can't beat that!

Its a good store to look at, but not buy often IMO. Plus *cough cough* they don't sponsor us *cough cough* (please refer to list of club sponsors)

Wow. Sorry that you two had such a bad experience with MW. I'll admit that I haven't been around in awhile (this semester has been kind of crazy and prevented my LFS runs), but the last time I was at MW, my experience was a good one.

There's no excuse for how that guy treated you, Ashley. They should have helped you out, and been polite. That's ridiculous.

And, yes, Nicholas, *cough cough* they don't sponsor us *cough cough*, but none of the Oldsmar stores do...

Went by MW the other day. I was impressed that they had some of the gobies in stock that I had been looking for for quite awhile. Bought an adorable yellow clown goby and green clown goby. Paid a little more than I would have liked, but it was worth it. Pics coming soon in my 47 Gallon Showcase Thread.

So a long time ago I purchased my pair of maroon clowns here. Both were very happy and healthy, as both survived my nitrate swing in my tank.

One of my favorite things about this store is their kindness on credit. When my female attacked and nearly killed my male I knew what to do. I netted her and brought her to marine warehouse who kindly gave me credit for her.

No complaints at all, and their display tank looked amazing!!!

Yeah, they're really good about trading in fish. When my old royal gramma went beserk, they took it back and gave me credit.

Agreed. I once took my coral banded shrimp in, which I didnt even buy from them, and they gave me store credit. They seem to be making improvements to their store. And as Nick mentioned, their new display tank is pretty cool!

Im not going to lie, but they have gone down very far in my book now =[ I brought in one of my EBJDs to see if they would sell him for me and he died there.....they didn't even tell me he died.....That was a $60 fish...........And my friend ordered a hood a month ago, it came in broken......3times they said they were going to order a new one and never did.....my friend went back and told them its either get the hood, or give the money back or product equivalent to the damaged merchandise. Some of them have changed a lot since I started going there. And the only reason why I think I still get good service is because Im knowledgable about plants and the owner is the only one there that can "help" you with plants. I have a new store I go to, but you guys wont like it that much (A true fish store and the guy treats you as if he has known you forever, he knows your tanks and he knows you =D) because he has a very VERY SMALL selection of salt water items. I will most likely post about it after I finish with my store credit there(he took two of my jacks) and then I can finish with my opening determination if you would =D

I've had my share of hits and misses with MW as well, but overall I've had good experiences. I am curious about this new LFS, though! You've got to give us the scoop

West Side Pets, south dale mabry just past bay to bay traveling south. the owners name is Paul. He stocks mainly freshwater fish and plants, and as a little section for salt water. He knows who you are(obviously after talking to you) dosent get cocky about his knowledge, and Wants to help you. He is someone who has a real passion for fish and there care. Total thumbs up from me for now =D just need to see if he follows through with a female jack dempsey for me, and my trio of apistos.

Very cool! I'll have to check the place out!

Okay, btw, if theres something you want there (salt wise) ask him about it. He can get in a lot of really cool things that not a lot of people will bring in and not for a horrible price, you just have to ask.

Stopped into MW yesterday. Customer service was good, and they had a nice selection of fish. I sometimes feel like MW is hit or miss, but yesterday was a good visit.

I ended up buying some mexican turbo snails while there. Unfortunately, I misread their sign and thought the snails were $1.49. Turns out they were $3.99. Ouch! Noticed that after I paid, which sucked. Not their fault, though.

Woah. that's crazy expensive
glad they service was good though

Yeah, I got gipped. It was my mistake though...

They've been pretty good to me here, I mentioned that I drove all the way in from Port Richey and he gave me a break on my vals and stuff when I bought them a few months back

listen every time i get in there i always buy something but the last 4 or 5 times ive gone ive gotten fish and they died the next morning and everything was perfect in my tank so in my opinion they have lost some respect from me

Oh wow, see I've never really bought some livestock from there (since I'm on to freshwater shrimp) I have bought plants there and have had pretty good luck with them. My Jungle Vals, Dwarf Sag and some stems have come from there and they've done well

All of my fish in my big tank have come from Bob's Feathered Friends in Port Richey or from friends online. So I can't really speak to the quality of fish from here...but your experience will def be kept in mind for the future

yeah the fish there look good but end up dying

I wonder if it's because they have so many in those small tanks all on the same filtration sump. Maybe there's something going around all the tanks ?

its gotta be or the were poisoned or something cause they always die and sometime the fish are eating the dead fish in that tank

Have you checked the water in the bag with a test kit? Maybe the parameters from them to you are off, big quick changes like that can make fish not so happy too.

The only time I don't check that is when I'm throwing ghost shrimp into my big tank, the yoyos are eating them so I really don't feel so bad if they aren't happy since most are lunch within 2-3 days