PlanetCatfish.com

As per request, I am posting this in the speak easy area to get feedback:


I would imagine that all of us here really enjoy going to LFS for catfish, but if you are like me, the local selection is very poor (for the exotic stuff). How about making a list based on geography about which LFS have really great selections of fish and are worth going to if you are in the area. Personally, I have gone to 2 stores in other cities that I would list and I think others probably have really good stores in there areas. Is there any possibility of something like that?

In the U.K. check out the list of the Top Forty in Practical Fishkeeping, as voted for by readers. They're shown on a map. The two I know well are Shirley Aquatics in Solihull (near Birmingham) and Creamston Aquatics, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

in the minnesota twin cities area...two are noteworthy...Terre Quatics in Osseo...and the Forrest Lake Pets store...i know of many more good shops in the area including some breeders of different fish...pm me for more info, but for cats the two mentioned are the best IMO

ben

Chrysichthys wrote:In the U.K. check out the list of the Top Forty in Practical Fishkeeping, as voted for by readers. They're shown on a map. The two I know well are Shirley Aquatics in Solihull (near Birmingham) and Creamston Aquatics, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

I think you might find the list to be a bit bias, there are certain stores I would not even go into on the list, let alone buy anything.

i think it'd be a great idea to have some place to put this information, but i don't think the forums are the best places for this. maybe this should be posted in the suggestions forum?

i'm thinking it'd be best if we could submit descriptions and contact info for a store (phone number and address would have to be required). i'd love to know if i were traveling somewhere and would be near a catfish-oriented fish store! then i could come prepared with temporary tanks and a battery-powered air pump... well, you get the idea. it could be broken up by country, and then by region (sort of like an outline). that way, if i went to california on business, i'd know right where to go for the fish!

-Liz

i agree...im willing to make a list of the shops in the twin cities area...i know most of the places well and some of the owners and their specialties...i can start a list if we could make this a part of the site...i think it would be a great addition to the site esp for people sighning up and looking for cats

ben

I know the list idea is on the list of things to address.
Keep the ideas coming until Jools makes a decision.

i think the entries would have to be read to make sure they contained positive information. i know you can get in trouble for having negative commentary about products. the same is probably true for fish stores.

there would also need to be some way of providing feedback and adjusting the comments on the store to reflect that feedback. (ie suzy thinks Tetra World is the greatest fish store ever, with a huge variety of catfish, and janey thinks the fish look horrible and there isn't much selection at all) (or maybe even sammy owns a fish store so he puts it on here to make it look good, but tommy actually goes there and the place is a dump) some stores may even have to be removed from the list (especially if the management changes) i still think it would be a great resource though. we just have to figure out how to properly manage it. a "last updated" field would be good too, so we'd know how recent the info was. if i were looking at info that was 5 years old i'd probably call the store, but if the info were only 5 weeks old i'd probably just stop by. we'd also have to stress that it's the catfish selection and quality of the store, not just the quality of the store and general fish selection that are important. if i'm looking for some nice catfish, i don't want to go to a store with primarily tetras... perhaps suggesting that the types of catfish prevalent in the store (like plecos or cories) be included with the description would render this even more useful. if you're looking for rare plecs you probably don't want to go to a store specializing in cories...

i've got some ideas for deciding what comments should be included and when to take a store off the list, but i'm not very confidant that they're fully developed yet, so i'll probably post them later

-Liz and her $2.00

just an idea as to how we could lay it out;

fish quality (rating scale 1-10, poor to excellent????, with numbers we couldput 7-10, etc)
what fish
availability
prices
help expertise
non catfish livestock, areas of expertise or bargains
location
hours
phone number

i also think that we could include breeders of various fish in the area...of course i think it would be wise to have anyone interested in their fry to pm those that know them first so their phones arent lit up

ben

Heck, I'm glad with ANY shop mentioned here; there's a fairly big chance me being in the UK in the last week of April and I'd love to visit any LFS (must be near, or better IN London area, because I'll arrive by plane, hence can't drive there by car....)

SG_Eurystomus wrote:Heck, I'm glad with ANY shop mentioned here; there's a fairly big chance me being in the UK in the last week of April and I'd love to visit any LFS (must be near, or better IN London area, because I'll arrive by plane, hence can't drive there by car....)

Depends on which airport you fly in to.

London sansted or something.

i'm not too keen on the rating idea. first off, people's opinions of what constitutes a good fish shop will differ. second, putting in 1-5 suggests that people could put up negative comments which we could get in trouble for. if we have a rating system of 5-10, with specific criteria that have to be met for each "level", that might work pretty well though. that way it'd also be a bit more objective.

i like the idea of putting breeders from the area on there too, with their permission, of course. i would put that in a separate section though, as those people should probably be contacted ahead of time to see when they're available and what they have, while the LFS doesn't really need to be contacted at all. a good LFS will have a decent catfish selection at all times.

putting fish they specialize in is a good idea. prices wouldn't be so great, as they're subject to change. location and phone number would have to be required, but the specific fish offered are likely to change, so that's probably not a good idea to put either. if they have lots of plecs, something like "wide variety of plecos" would cover us, in case they stopped carying certain plecs. help is deffinately a good thing to put in there, and anyone posting a store should certianly know how the help is there. hours would be a bonus. they can change over time, but they tend to stay pretty much the same. what did you mean by availability?

-Liz

by availability i meant "good selection of plecs at all times"...occasional rare/fancy plecs, etc...i meant to show the availability of certain types of catfishes and also ability to make special orders if requested...price i think is imperative as in the twin cities you can pay anywhere from 30-80 dollars for a Panaque nigrolineatus...thus if there are shops for example World of Fish...or "World of Flush" as i like to call it, that are consistently overpriced that should be noted...perhaps a price/quality ratio scale could be determined...i mean sometimes i do pay a little more for a better fish, however some lfs are simply outrageous when it comes to cats and for some everything... what im saying is if we dont rate a store on affordability than someone may go to a store and buy a fish for way too much only to look in the same system and find they could have bought the same fish down the street for a lot less...besides we can rate stores i would think since we dont have them as sponsors etc...there are simply some lfs that are not good...it wouldnt help anyone if we directed our members there...anyway i would never put in specific fish...but i know a place that consistently has a good assortment and quality tetras for bottom dollar in my area so i think that would begood to include...also some lfs owners are great sources of knowledge for certain fish...i think it would be great to have that notated so if you raised discus and wanted the best advice around you could talk to someone locally who has bred them etc...anyway i like your ideas bathos...keep em coming

ben

I think this is getting more complicated then I envisioned. I only have 2 stores that I would list of the many that I have been to. One of the stores is extremely large and is the main wholesaler in the Buffalo/Toronto area. The other is a very large store in Houston and is also a direct importer from South America. Both of these stores were referred to me by other people on other forums. In New Orleans, for example, we have about 10 - 15 LFS, and I would not list any of them. The best one is about 30 min out of town, has a pretty good selection, but is no where close to the other two. My idea is that if you happen to be in the city and have a car, it is worth it for you to check out the store.

In addition, I think that we should only stick with catfish for the list (at least in the beginning), otherwise the list may get too complicated.

i think it is importnt that we list all the lfs in the area...that way if someone is in the area they know they can check out a shop...it does me no service if im in chicago and the nearest store we list is montreal because he is a wholesaler...certainly wholesalers should be listed...under there3 own heading in my opinion,...wholesalers can not be listed with lfs simply because the lfs wold have no way of competing...also i think that everyone here keeps other fish as well as catfish...so if someone is looking for discus and we have no advice as t where to go and they call a lfs and ask do yu have good quality discus...the answer will always be "Of course, best in town..."

anyway i think you all get where im coming from

ben

i think over here in the US if you say bad things about a company that might cause them to loose sales, you can get sued. companies won't bother going to individuals because they generally don't influence enough people to impact their sales, but places that offer information to a larger audience, like Planet Catfish, are a prime target for such lawsuits. i would not want Planet Catfish to get sued just for providing a convenience to its users. it's not that i don't want to know what stores to avoid, it's that i don't want this site to suffer.

i understand where your comming from with listing other great fish stores, and if this were Planet Tetra or Planet Discus or Planet Tropical Fish, i'd totally agree. the fact is, it's Planet Catfish, which focuses on Catfish and people come here looking for Catfish. i don't give a hoot for tetras. i don't care about Discus. i really like Bettas, but i wouldn't expect to see them on Planet Catfish any more than i'd expect to see puppies on Planet Catfish. the one thing that unites us here is a love of Catfish, and for that reason i think we should stick to listing fish stores with great Catfish selections and not get in to local stores with a great selection of other fish/animals.

perhaps a scale of how expensive (for the area) a particular store is would be more helpful. this is less likely to change, and more reasonable than posting (and trying to upkeep) the prices for the fish offered.

going back to ways of preventing inappropriate store advertisement (like mary jane saying her own store has a great selection of catfish) and bannishment of those stores who have gone downhill...
let's have only PlanetCatfish members be allowed to post first of all (this can be as easy as asking for your username). that way every newbie who thinks their LFS (that sold them a common plec for a 10gal and has only a few other run-of-the-mill selections) is great doesn't fill up the space with mediocre stores.
let's have 3 fields on the submission form besides phone number, store name, and address. those 3 fields would be store owner, store manager, and the name (first and last) of the person submitting the recommendation. we could then compare the name of the person with the names of the owner and manager. if they were the same in either case, the submission would not be approved, to prevent the inappropriate store advertisement. (example: moe has an OK fish store with some commonly found catfish. he submits his store to the list saying that he has a great catfish selection, either because moe is inexperienced and thinks he actually does have a great selection, or because he wants to drum up some extra business)
asking for the names of the owner and manager also helps ensure that the owner/manager knows that they're on the planet catfish site and may increase usage (and funding) of Planet Catfish either through manager/owner use of the site, or by passing the site on to customers as a reference.
removing a store is a more difficult problem. we could have someone call the store for every complaint, but this doesn't seem practical. we could remove a store after 2 major complaints by different users and bann that store (by refusing all submitals with the same name and address) for a period of time, like 3-6 months, or we could PM the person who recommended the store and ask them about it. after complaints from 3 different people we'd probably have to remove the store for a time anyway though, even if the original recommender still said it was a good store.

naturally, everything i've posted so far is just a bunch of ideas and the admins can do whatever they want about them. at least i think we've all given them some related issues to think about (which i'm sure they really needed ) and hopefully some solutions that might work.

-Liz

clothahump wrote:I think you might find the list to be a bit bias, there are certain stores I would not even go into on the list, let alone buy anything.

Which ones in particular, and why?

This is the problem with lists, if I tell you I would be leaving myself open to prosecution by the stores.

but i don't think you can get in trouble for listing positive things. i really like the idea of listing good stores in a particular area. it's taking them off the list when they get criticized that poses the biggest problem (as far as i can see).
-Liz

After much thinking, talking through technicalities and generally getting worried about the whole resourcing and legal implications I've decided this plan is not a good one and is not where I want to take Planet.

I was ultimately swayed by this ...

http://www.aquatics-review.com/rrce/res ... ameset.php

Read the reviews for Pier Aquatics (after the one I wrote) - this is precisely what I don't want to have to deal with. If I didn't know Pier however, how would I know it wasn't true?

Off topic, but I would urge any of you who have shopped at Pier to add a fair review yourself.

Anyway - LFS list? Topic closed.

Jools