There USED to be an AMAZING on in Peekskill called Beach Aquarium but they closed last year. That information does you no good though.
The only one I know of that's just OK - is Choice Pets in Ossining. I really haven't looked into pet stores locally though in years, as I have switched 99 percent of my buying to online stores that I think have FAR better prices and are very reliable. But for feeder fish it makes no real difference that I can tell - Petsmart or Choice Pets - it's just whichever one I happen to be near or feel like going to. The guy at choice pets 'seems' very willing to get you whatever you want because he's 'new management' and a new owner - so he appears to try - but his prices because he's a tiny retail store paying Westchester rent are not even worth considering for anything costing above $10. Plus, he knows next to nothing about turtles for sure - like most of these stores, they are more into fish, dogs, cats, and small reptiles, frogs, snakes, etc. They definitely don't specialize esp. when they are new owners who don't know much anyway. We lost a GREAT store in Beach Aquarium - but that's neither here nor there. And they were - as it turns out - charging me a FORTUNE to change my filter media for me when I bothered to get around to it - It was ABSURD how much they charged me and changed unnecessary things and their prices were multiples of what you pay online. I've now learned from VeipaCray and Steve - but mainly VeipaCray for his expertise in filtration - that all I need to change monthly is CARBON and the rest is cleaning the Purigen and that's about it - aside from regular water testing of Nitrates (and Nitrite and Ammonia are good to test). Why was I paying Beach Aquarium over $75 then? Because they took advantage of my complete and total ignorance of what needed to be done. I now use bulk carbon from bulkreefsupply.com and put it in my own media bags - either cheap disposables or re-usables - whatever. It did cost a bit to catch up to the experts - like VeipaCray - and do what he said to do - but then again that's because I had to do it in two tanks that were both not set up right - one an old Fluval 405/75 gallon tank and the other a new, 55 gallon Rena XP3 set-up. But I had to catch up in EVERYTHING. Every single light aside from the hoods I had needed purchasing - 2 UVBs, 2 basking lights, proper domes, proper basking platforms (I got two very different ones from Reptology), the Rena XP3 new, two Hydor Koralia circulation fans to push water and debris along the tank bottoms towards the filter inlets, an API Freshwater Master Test Kit, filter media bags, Purigen, bulk carbon, and today a large container of biological media to make up for the fact that my Fluval 405 had had way too much carbon sitting in it for way too long and not nearly enough biological media and no purigen. Oh, and I have to find a used 55 gallon tank and stand. So it's been quite a ride and it isn't even over since I don't have the Fluval media set up correctly yet. But all along I've used almost exlusively items from Pet Mountain and Fosters and Smith. Probably because they have very good prices and ship quickly (not the cheapest) but they also take PayPal, which is essential given our household's cash flow and my need to get all of this junk
So - at some point maybe I'll look into local pet stores - but in this economy it's mainly a losing battle for small retail compared to places like Petsmart - which is just pure mediocrity. I can say that I've lived in Croton on Hudson for 10 years and in Westchester for almost all of my life (with some major exceptions) and I know Westchester somewhat well -- and I don't recall ANY pet stores that come to mind. There may be some in some of the richer towns - or in hub towns like Mt Kisco, or even the bigger towns like White Plains - but even the ones in the mall (Jefferson Valley) died years and years ago.
It's not like the city with the population desnsity that makes paying rent OK and you can make a profit - alllegedly - because here in Westchester most stores and aren't food (and even those) can't afford the ridiculous rents that absentee landlords charge and still make anything but a tiny profit (if that). I know, because I owned the highest end gourmet cheese shop in all of Westchester -and probably all of the region until you got to Artisinal in NYC. But the rent/sq ft in Larchmont was absurd.
Anwyway, maybe I can see your set-up sometime since we only live minutes apart. It would be nice to actually meet another human who has turtles! I'm home a LOT because I've been unemployed for over 3 years - after I gave up that gourmet cheese shop business (it ended badly in a partnership that wasn't meant to be). Let me know if you're interested. Or you can drop by my house in Croton if you want. My email address is
matthew.peretz@gmail.com
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 1:00 am Re: Cuttle Bone: How on earth do I portion it out???????