19/05/2026
Some great points made by our friend Paul at AAC
🐠 Please Share This Post & Support Your Local Fish Store 🐠
This isn’t normally something I would post, but the reality is that independent aquatic stores including us, across the UK, are under more pressure than ever before, and many are loosing skilled staff and or quietly disappearing. Running a specialist marine store today is incredibly challenging and it hasn’t stopped being a challenge since Covid/Brexit/fuel bills and more since 2019. 7 dam years, and most of that was down to governments not taking control.
Rising costs across livestock, imports, electricity, staffing, shipping, rent, business rate cuts and huge wholesale supplier increases are making it harder and harder for small family run businesses in general to survive, or have the will to keep trying to survive for little reward.
AAC, isn’t “just a shop” to us… it’s our life.
I, along with many of the team, have spent decades building not just a business, but a genuine community of reefkeepers, hobbyists, families, and friends. We’re incredibly proud of the fully trained team around us and the environment we’ve worked hard to create — somewhere people can come for honest advice, inspiration, conversation, and support within the hobby. Alongside reefing events, often at no profit, or even at a loss, to keep you all excited, like Coral Freaks, AAC birthdays or contributing to the idea of Love2Reef for example, yes it was us, AAC that listened to you first as hobbyist’s- to bring you these nice things you wanted at a huge cost/gamble!
A good fish store is far more than tanks of fish and coral frags.
Remember when your looking at pricing for example in your LFS, 20% of a coral /frag / fish pricing, will go to the VAT man for starters, a % goes to staffing, a % goes to rent, rates and fuel bills and then there’s the source material too! There’s not much left I can assure you !
Something to think about maybe for those of you that simply ‘frag for fame’ unknowingly devaluing corals or worse deliberately trying to undercut their LFS whilst moaning about their pricing. And of course we also have to be legally licensed and have public liability ( for your safety) -nothing that a spare frag tank has to think about.
Maybe offer your frags to your LFS if you only want ‘cheap’ for them or exchange for the goods you need.
An LFS is where people first likely discover the hobby. Without LFS there would be no hobby or very little left of it.
It’s where problems get solved.
It’s where experience gets shared.
It’s where friendships are formed.
And for many people, it’s genuinely a place of escape, peace, and mental wellbeing.
We truly love being part of your reefing journey — whether you’ve visited for your very first clownfish, a dream coral colony, advice during a difficult time in the hobby, or simply a chat about fishkeeping 😊( or jaffa cakes 🤣).
But the truth is, behind the scenes, the costs involved in keeping a high-quality marine store running properly at the standards you expect are enormous. After livestock maintenance , heating systems, coral systems, staffing, import charges, and all the other day-to-day expenses are covered, there is often very little left. Massive turnover is only vanity. Profits are sanity.
If you value having a proper local aquatic store with real experience, healthy livestock, and passionate people behind it, please continue to support local where you can. Even if you only need a bag of carbon or some fish food- give your local store the support rather than Amazon or whoever. Pop in and see us.
Share our posts.
Recommend us to friends.
Buy local when possible.
Every bit of support genuinely matters more than people realise no matter how small.
We don’t want more specialist aquarium fish stores to become another disappearing part of the high street 🥺
Thank you, sincerely, for all the support over the years and for continuing to be part of the AAC journey 🤍
🐠 Paul, Angela & the AAC Team 🐠
