Pets At Home

[Harlequins]

I won't buy from them,only because my local one is useless and have too many dead fish for my liking,

But obviously,every store is different,if you like the look of yours and the fish seem happy and healthy then go for it..

 

[indigoj]

The ones nearest to me are very good, although one doesn't have the variety it had last year as the fish section manager has changed. The fish generally are healthy and reasonable value.

It is very unfair to say 'all the fish are diseased or died' there can be many reasons fish succumb to illness and even die - the stress of moving for example. Also (and I include myself here) how many of us when new to fish keeping bought fish that got sick and died and we later realise it is because we ended up doing an unintentional fish-in cycle or keeping an overstocked tank with unsuitable inhabitants?

 

[fett999]

My local one is really good. I've had a few fish from them and not had a problem.
Of course I do think that there general knowledge and fish care is about to improve greatly as I got offered the post of assistant manager there today.

 

[craigieboy01]

Hi, I was in my local P@H in glasgow and was quite impressed with the selection and how clean their tanks were, didnt look as if they had any disease probs, a lot of bright and attractive species, couldnt buy any fish tho as doing a fishless cycle at the moment [boring boring] lol Craig

 

[lexluth0r]

I went do the Southend Branch of Pets at Home and bought a Flying Fox today but I also bought some Gouramis there a few weeks ago which are healthy, out of the two Swallows (a big fish store in Rayleigh) or Pets at Home, Swallows wins hands down but Pets at Home is handy as its just round the corner and the staff are great in the fact they know there stuff and better still all the fish look healthy with clean tanks. This store certainly gets 5*

 

[Assaye]

Please delete this post

 

[Big_eyes]

My local one used to be terrible but recently has picked up to an astonishing degree. The fish are all very healthy and the tanks all look great. The staff seem to be knowledgable now and are actually very informative about fish needs etc. They do actually quarantine fish now too.

Even though I've been going in nosing for god knows how long and they know me, they still reeled off every possible bit of info I could have needed to know and were quite critical about details of the expectant new home for the fish being bought.

I don't work for them but for how well they (my local store) has picked up I cannot fault them now. They are 100 times better and more 'concerned' about who they sell to than my local lfs. Who frankly is terrible and doesn't seem to care!

 

[pjandnoo]

I went do the Southend Branch of Pets at Home and bought a Flying Fox today but I also bought some Gouramis there a few weeks ago which are healthy, out of the two Swallows (a big fish store in Rayleigh) or Pets at Home, Swallows wins hands down but Pets at Home is handy as its just round the corner and the staff are great in the fact they know there stuff and better still all the fish look healthy with clean tanks. This store certainly gets 5*

Hi Lex,
I have to agree that their tanks there looked good and the fish did seem happy and active. We only live around the corner from Swallows and agree that they do have some good fish stock in there but think their other fish related stuff is a tad expensive! I reckon we are a little bit spoilt for choice here in Southend, have you been to either fishy business in Southend or fishy friend in Basildon?

 

[Goodygumdrops]

I would go as far as to say never ever EVER buy fish from PAH if you value your current stock.I got angels there a while back as they were the exact colour ones I was looking for and they were dead within days.I did take a risk there as at the time when I went in there were dead fish in some tanks
Went in more recently and tanks were LOOKING much better,ie,they'd probably actually been doing the hourly checks they're supposed to and tanks looked pretty clean,so I bought some khuli loaches,BAD IDEA.
I hadn't bought fish for months,and within the space of a few days,I'd lost,first my existing adult khulis,two rainbowfish,two angelfish and my male gouramis.Heart is in my mouth now for my appistogrammas and bristlenoses.
Never again.

 

[finalfantay85]

I recently went into pets at home newport road cardiff and was really impressed.
There fish all looked healthy with no dead fish in site,their tank's were spotless and their marine section was fab, they have really cleaned up their act.
I would buy from them.

Checked the one on Newport Road out on Saturday and I have to say I was amazed. They were really busy but the tanks were spotless, they had a large selection of different Marine fish as well as really good looking tropicals tho they didn't have a huge amount of stock due to the weather stopping them getting deliveries in. Also they had individual tanks for their bettas, they were small but at least they weren't in with guppies or neons or an oscar (I kid you not i've seen that before, the oscar dwarfed the poor guy).

 

[Josh16v]

My local is great.
The tanks are always spotless, with no dead fish. Everynow and again you'll see a tank with whitespot, but to be fair they do put a sign saying "These fish are not for sale" and will not let you take them home!
Value is brilliant, and my local will replace any fish that died in transit up to about a week after purchase.
The staff are all very, very honest AND a few OATA specialists are in each store. If you ask them a question they don't know, they'll find someone that does.