you know how useful it is when people review aquarium products well I'd like to see the same
thing for recommendations on fish stores you know I'm really busy and I'm going to take the time to
drive somewhere and check out a new fish store i kind of want to know what other hobbyists think
so i decided to talk to my editor matt and set up this remote interview of his
favorite fish store aqua life aquarium so let's go on together and check it out
my name is Jason Clark I'm the store manager here at Aqua Life Aquarium in Rocklin nice to meet you
Jason thanks for having us so let's start from the beginning how did you get into fish keeping man
I've been in the hobby for well over 15 years my first fish was actually from Aqua Life at the old
location started with salt water kind of skipped over fresh started with more of an aggressive reef
tank if you will you know had bigger wrasses and more aggressive fish that was kind of what caught
my eye and then from there just you know started one tank turned into two turned into four as it
usually does that's really cool thanks for sharing uh i think the question that everybody wants to
know is how do you go from being an ordinary hobbyist to running an entire fish store i went
from being a hobbyist to a store manager here at Aqua Life due to COVID I've been a chef for the
past 20 years and I've always kind of had that pipe dream as everybody does of you know working
at or running an aquarium you know slash fish store and due to COVID and my hours just being cut
i needed to provide for my family and it was just a perfect timing they were hiring i was looking
and it's kind of a dream come true you know not everybody gets to work at a place where they
enjoy what they do and it's really really nice to go home happy and smiling you know from enjoying
what i do for a living all right interesting well give me the grand tour what all is available here
from the front of the store to the back of the store we have nano tanks pico tanks larger tanks
fresh water planted specific tanks reef ready systems you know any kind of dosing
supplement that you may need from planted to reef tanking abilities you know from filtration
lighting we have you know everything to set up a tank that you may want to set up and then we
also have all the livestock to fill any tank holy cow your fish store is huge i mean you got the
salt water fresh water plants everything i guess what would you say is one thing that is special or
really unique about aqua life aquarium um what's special about Aqua Life is we have a little bit of
everything that you could be looking for aquatic life you know if you want to branch out from fresh
water and dip into salt water we have lots of options for that if you're into salt water because
you want to try something different we have the best selection of discus in all of California and
i believe we're third or fourth in all of America and we have a really nice selection right now in
the 300 gallon right here okay well as awesome as the store is i want you to be honest with
me here what would you say is the hardest part of working at the store that's a good question
the hardest part about running the store is just maintaining a balance between in-store service
and just you know between the salt and fresh just keeping a nice balance of things in the store for
you know any customer that may walk in yeah that makes a lot of sense given how large this fish
store is so conversely what would you say is the best part of working at a fish store the
best part i would say is shipment days you know you go shopping on the weekends and shipment days
like Christmas you never know what you're gonna open up in the boxes you know ah that's so cool
like i get excited if i just get an Amazon package at the door so getting to unbox fish all the time
would be the best um if someone wants to work at a fish store and be able to do this as well
what kind of advice do you have for them don't be intimidated i mean we're all just reefers and
you know fish keepers ourselves you know that just branch out and just have enough knowledge to where
you can help people that come in the door you know just don't be intimidated by it that was really
helpful okay how about for the hobbyist who wants to take it to the next level and open up their own
fish store what words of wisdom do you have for them lots of knowledge the best advice i can give
to someone that wants to start their own store is just lots of knowledge do lots of studying it is a
lot to take on in an opening you know between the livestock dry goods and setting up tanks that are
going to be successful for keeping the fish and corals in them you know just like setting up a new
aquarium everything has to go through a cycle so it's going to be a long process of you know bumpy
roads in the beginning interesting okay now given how many people you see for your job all the time
what would you say is the biggest misconception people have about fish keeping I'd say the biggest
misconception is just knowing a proper tank size that the fish is going to grow into just because
you buy a fish that's a half inch doesn't mean it's going to stay that small some of them will
grow to be over a foot long and you have to be prepared for that fish to grow and for my final
question i wanted to know what is one thing you feel like everybody in the aquarium hobby should
know something everyone should know is just you know the addiction and the enjoyability that you
know fish keeping can bring you know there's each tank is going to be different you know my tank is
different from your tank which is different from someone else's tank you set up a system based on
what you want to enjoy so it can be enjoyable for any person thank you so much Jason for
showing us your store and sharing your knowledge i just love talking to store managers and
definitely once all this craziness in the world has died down i hope to visit in person so if you
guys live in the Sacramento area though you guys can go right now i will put down the links to the
store in the description otherwise take time to enjoy your cramps and I'll see in the next video
bleh blehbleh [laughter]