How to choose a good fish shop?

[Lauren B.]

I was wondering what is acceptable when you're looking for a good aquarium store to purchase your fish and supplies at. I know the obvious to avoid...dead fish that havent' been removed, obvious signs of illness in the fish, cleanliness of the tanks and store, informed staff, etc.

I know there's always a certain degree of ill fish, and how do I know what amount is acceptable? I would never go to Walmart to purchase fish. I would avoid Petsmart and Petco as well. There's 2 rather shabby aquarium shops here, both of which sell small animals. The shabbiness of the shops alone would keep me from patronizing them, but the fact that they sell small animals is the main reason I wouldn't go there (small animals in fish shops are usually poorly maintained and live in squalid conditions).

The one store that I went to a few times these past few weeks was my pick. When my tank is ready, this is where I planned on purchasing my little tetras. The store is clean and employees knowlegeable, sell fish and fish supplies only, never have I seen one dead fish, they separate the live breeders by sex, put the baby fish in a separate tank, and their tanks and fish look very maintained. However, when I studied the fish closely, I did see some signs of what my amateur eye thought of as disease. One fish (I don't remember the breed) was doing this little spastic dance, but staying in one place. It looked like it was having a little fish seizure. Another tank had a goldfish that seemed to be kind of stagnant as well, kinda just lazily treading lob-sidedly, while the other fish were swimming happily. Another tank full of some breed of long-finned fish, had what looked like tiny fuzzy white spots, which I guessed was ich or fungus. I'd say about 1/4 of the fish in that tank looked like that. All the rest of their fish appeared in great shape.

This shop to me seemed like the best store in the area. Was I looking to closely at the fish....was I looking for something wrong that didn't really exist? They have a huge selection of fish...more tanks than I venture to guess....so are these few negative fish instances acceptable in such a large store where I've never seen anything else look bad?

[cocoa_pleco]

i guess just clean tanks, knowlegable staff, and good products at cheap prices

[Severus]

And obviously healthy looking fish, no dead ones! lol

[Nautilus29]

If you saw a tank with ICk and it was unmarked maybe you should suggest the employees that they should put a not for sale sign on the tank that way people dont buy diseased fish. If all of there other tanks are good with no dead fish it should be a good store. You cant expect a store to have every tank perfect since the bring in new fish all the time. All it takes is one diseased fish in a new batch and It can affect the whole tank.

[kimmers318]

Don't totally discount the store because of a few things that may not be perfect. And don't discount chain stores either if they have what you might be looking for and noone else does. Walmart.....nope, wouldn't buy from them, although hubby bought his oscars there. It helps to know their supplier. Our local petsuppliesplus and petco both use Segrest as their supplier.....and although I wouldn't say most of their employees are knowledgeable, and I have seen disease and dead fish, the fish that I have bought other than clown loaches when the tanks were looking safe have all been okay. Use your best judgement.....when a tankful came in with ick, I stayed away for a couple of weeks. Segrest in my opinion is a fairly good supplier, and when you have hundreds of fish come thru your store every week you are bound to have some that aren't healthy, but healthy tanks, pristine water can help the healthy fish stay healthy and not succumb to disease. You will probably always find something about a store you don't like, but use your best judgement. Clown loaches have been something I haven't ever been able to keep alive.....until now. We have bought them from PSP, Petco, and a private store......1 of the 3 from the private store has made it 4 months now, and the 3 from Petsmart are still thriving. The biggest problem with clown loaches is they are imported and are also prone to internal parasites. I do not know who Petsmart's supplier is, but almost all of my fish have survived from there.

[f1oored]

For food, filters, and supplies, I go where I get the best price. And that is usually Petsmart (with the online deals). For fish, I usually shop around and find what appears to be the healthiest. Don't judge one chain store by the rest either. I went to a Jack's close to my house and the tanks were a mess. The same store in a different location had beautiful tanks (with a great variety of salt water species too). I've even been to a walmart that had decent looking tanks and healthy looking fish. Your best bet is to shop around for everything. I don't think anyone here goes to just one store.

[Drumachine09]

I went to everysingle fish store, pet store, landscaping company, and rock company yesterday to find slate. I finally found some at the last store in a 50 mile radius of my home. talk about giving me the run around huh!

[cocoa_pleco]

one of my lfs's has a HUGE rock section and they have tons of slate

[muffin]

I have, as of so far, bought all of my fish from Petland. During the month of January the had Platies, mollies, tetra's, barbs, white clouds and a few others for 88 cents or less... and danios for 18 cents... The had a really good deal and all of the ppl in the aquarium department all seem to be very well informed about fish and what types of water they like and what suitable tank mates would be. The only problem is that I had to go back a few times to buy something due to them overstocking the tanks for this sale and I will not buy from a tank with dead guys floating or sitting at the bottom. The also have a random selection of saltwater fish.

I haven't gotten to check out the local petco bacause when we went they were in the process of upgrading their entire tank system and therefore had no fish at that time.
The thing I liked about the local Petsmart is that they had little tid-bits of information of each fish on the sticker. As in what they eat, suitable tank mates, and how many you should keep n a tank at a time. But when we started asking questions, the guy had no idea what he was talking about..
So yeah, basically, when buying fish, don't do it on a whim. It may take a few trips to the store to ensure that you get the healthy and active fish that you desire...