I found an LFS here that actually sells salt water fish and equipment. I drove by it the other day while looking for a different place so I had to drop in for a visit. It was rather interesting and informative.
First,
yellow tangs sell at $12.99 and
purple firefish were $30.49. All the other fish that they had were quite decently priced, too, but I don't remember specifics. They had many eels and a few of the more common fish including chevron tangs, a couple of dwarf angels, puffers, many different damsels (some of which I'd never seen before) and others that I can't remember right now.
Inverts were almost nonexistant except some zooanthids and orange sponges. This is a result of strict regulation. It is illegal to import anything other than fish from approved importers under license. Absolutely no corals or other inverts are allowed. It's also illegal to sell live rock and collection is strictly regulated: you can collect 1 gallon bucket per person of rock from the beach-absolutely nothing from the sea!
Actually, I understand all the regulation. They want to keep Hawai'i Hawai'ian. There are many species of fish and other inverts here that exist nowhere else in the world. Introduction of exotics would most certainly destroy some, if not all, of them.
I actually had to force myself to leave. The bug was biting me again and I don't have a nook or cranny here to even fit a 5 gallon tank! So all my "reefing" will be via God and His reef.
I didn't ask any suggestions but I did discuss filtration a bit with the gal that was working there. She knew about deep sand beds and live rock (that's where I learned about the collection regulation) and knew the theories behind them. I guess I'd recommend it as a place to shop if one lived here from the short time I was there.
