POCATELLO — The Aquatic Oasis Reefing store opened its second half on Friday Nov. 18 in the Pine Ridge Mall.

The owners of the store are Ross Gregersen and Brandon Brown. Gregersen said they specialize in aquatic and marine life, especially coral.

"We grow, propagate and sell most of our coral," he said. "They would be what you would call an aquaculture coral."

Gregersen said the store also offers reptiles and all the equipment that comes with them. They are also expanding to include fresh water fish and even a few stuffed aquatic animals.

"We're building into the gift shop idea," he said. "So that people in the mall, if they don't want to take an animal home, there's something for them too."

Gregersen said he has been working with animals for seven or eight years. He has mostly sold his animals online or locally.

"Brandon is an all around business man," he said. "He owns the Brown Agency for Allstate and he started a of these businesses like Jump In and some of the others here in the mall."

Gregersen decided to open Aquatic Oasis as a way to accumulate a few of his hobbies. He has experience breeding several types of exotic animals.

"I used to breed ball pythons and poison dart frogs," he said. "Those are things that we're getting back into."

He also has a lot of experience raising coral for the last seven years. The store is a way for everything he has been involved in the come together.

"It's pretty satisfying to see other people have an interest and come in and have something local that supports their hobby," he said. "New people have never even seen it before and most people don't realize you can keep live coral and how easy it is."

Gregersen said the store has done well so far and that there has been a lot of interest in it.

"We've had more traffic than I think we even expected," he said. "Mostly because people see the bright blue lights and they want to walk through."

Gregersen said his favorite part of owning the store is working with the animals.

"I've always loved animals and I have experience with all these different kinds of animals," he said. "This was kind of me putting all those different experiences and knowledge into one location."

He also likes being a specialty pet shop because he will be better able to help his customers with the kind of animals they want.

"If you come in here and ask me about reptiles, I've got a little bit more information on how to keep your animal alive and healthy than you're going to get generically from someone else," he said.

Gregersen offers plenty of different food items for the animals. These include insects and frozen rodents that can be hard to find.

"If an animal is healthy enough to act normally, then you know you're doing a good job," he said.

More information about Aquatic Oasis can be found on Facebook at facebook.comaoreefing.