UK Fish Store Directory

[jimr75262000]

As far as Coral Reef is concerned I will never set foot inside that place again. The lady owner is more than "huffy" she is a nightmare. They sold me a fish with finrot and when I took it back to them after it died (3 days after I got it) they said it was my water! I took water in for them to test and it was fine yet still refused to give me a refund on the basis that if it was a problem with the fish it would have died the day I got it. Do they know anything about marine fish at all? There are frequently dead fish in the tanks and they haven't a clue about the species of fish that they sell. They sold me a magenta dottyback by telling me it was a strawberry basslet That was in my earlier less knowledgable days.

I tend to agree about Coral Reef in Glasgow i'll never buy any fish out of there as i've went in a couple of times and each time i've been in theres been dead fish in quite a few tanks.

As a new fish Keeper are there any updated aquarium shops in the Glasgow area?

Jim

 

[ecotack]

Google Map

If I get bored over Christmas I may fill in the rest, but I'll probably be to drunk. Just checking there are no objections. Takes a bit of time for each one, because I have to fill in the longitude latitude position.

Possibly could do with a more relevant web site though

 

[fenwoman]

Wisbech and area:

Walsoken aquatics.Green Lane Walsoken Wisbech Cambridgeshire United Kingdom PE14 7BJ Tel: 01945 584456
knowledgeable and helpful owners. Not a huge selection but everything clean and well laid out.


Mill lane pet centre,Mill Lane Leverington Common Wisbech Cambridgeshire PE13 5JP tel: 01945 410420
Family run. Very helpful and knowledgeable. Soon to be opening a marine section in the new year.Very good selection of tropical and cold water fish, tanks all clean and fish all healthy.

 

[KathyM]

ill add a few.....


Fish People (Keighley)

Variety 9
Quality 9
Service 9

I'll back this one up too. It's not a big place, but it's my only "proper" LFS and we've had no problems with them.

Update 29th December 2006: Please ignore above recommendation. Since I've used them more and more, they've gone further and further downhill. Original staff are ok, not talkative or what-have-you, but ok. New staff member doesn't know his arse from his elbow, and the fish quality absolutely sucks now, although they say they've got new, better suppliers. Variety has gone up, quality has gone down. Very, very disappointing. Was miles better with the original owner years back. A huge shame.

 

[mikeb2k2001]

I'd like to add a couple for the South East.

Maidenhead Aquatics - East Grinstead.
Variety - 8
Quality - 9
Staff - 9

Maidenhead Aquatics - Hickstead
Variety - 7
Quality - 9
Staff - 8

FisheyBuisness - Ditchling
Variety - 7
Quality - 2
Staff - 3
(Warning, every fish I've baught from here have died after 2 weeks. Plants come infested with snail eggs. Plus they're expensive, strong warning.)

 

[cloudnine]

Hey this is a very useful topic. There are a few god shops here in Brighton, I'll find out the exact addresses and post them soon. I just haven't got enough money to buy stuff!

 

[bassline babe]

hey there,

well theres a few aquatic shops near me: i am located in the south east of the coutry:

Chenies aquatics @ Farnham royal

Variety : 5 they only stock coldwater and tropical
Quality: 8
Staff : 11*

Quite a small shop but have 2 outlets another in chenies near little chalfont, The staff are brilliant really helpful and know there stuff.. If you go there ask for graham he knows his fish!! they have lent us tanks before when we were desprate, thats how nice they are!!
could stock more fish as they do not have a wide variety, but the quality is good .

smiley rating


Maidenhead aquatics @ hillingdon

Variety 6
Quality 8
staff 7

Nice shop always clean and well staffed. They sell a wide range of tropical fish and some real nice discuss and some other types of unusual tropicals, also have a good range of tanks and extras. They also sell some reptile products which is handy

smiley rating

maidenhead aquatics @ iver

variety 7
quality 4
staff 3

This shop is big and sells a wide range of anything you need to do with tropical, coldwater or marine. Altho they do tend to sell you things no questions asked and with incorrect information on the species some times. is good for bits and bobs and tanks tho!


Waterlife @ near heathrow

Variety 7
quality 5
staff 4


they have a wide variety of fish, altho they keep there male bettas in goldfish bowls with no heating filter etc.. i disagree with that way of keeping.. There reptile house is superb tho

smiley rating

Funky fish @ near heathrow

variety 4
quality 5
staff 8

Have some good deals on tanks etc.. staff are friendly but the fish room is very small..


I have been looking for a aquatic center near heathrow, i went there as a child but can not remember where it was all i know it was by heathrow. I swear there was a shark there but unsure, if anyone knows of a huge place like that near heathrow, please let me know

cheers
emily

 

[lilfishie]

Coalville Aquatics
2a North Avenue
Hugglescote
Coalville
Leicestershire
LE67 3QX
Tel: 01530 814449

Variety: 6
Quality:6
Staff:6
Family run shop with pond fish as well as tropicals, coldwater and limited marines. Owner is nice enough and helpful. Often ill fish still in tanks, used to be a favorite, but getting more wary of stock quality.

has got better now i rarely see dead fish in there

 

[GordonTGopher]

Pet Paks of - Hardwick

Variety: 6
Quality: 8
Staff: 8

sorry about this but petpaks of hardwick is a dump, i would say

Variety: 7
Quality: 3
staff: 4

never seen so many dead fish! or seen the staff having to remove so many dead fish. I went in there last week and it made me so angry to see clown loaches, dwarf puffers and all manners of fish dead diseased or quite clearly suffering from stress. i go in there quite alot and it seems to be getting worse. i even saw a khuli loach that had been squashed under a log. the way they handle the fish when removing them from the tanks is a disgrace

Have to agree I lost count of the dead fish today, some tanks had 3 or 4 No reason to go there when Maidenhead @ Cambridge is only just down the road

Maidenhead @Cambridge

Variety: 8
Quality: 9
staff: 9

 

[shell4375]

Colletta and Tyson discount garden centre near Hull has recently added a Pets section called 4pets.
I have bought two juwel tanks from them and have found them not only cheap but very helpfull.
Today I bought two clown loaches which under there lights looked very happy and active. I put them in to my tank but when I turned the lights on about 2 hours later I realised to my horror that they had white spot

I will be going back to the store tomorrow to make a closer inspection of the loaches and to get some free treatment.
I also bought 2 potted plants from them on close inspection when I got home I saw snails, lots of snails. So rinsed them off and snails are gone.

variety-8
quality-4
staff-7

have now been back to the store and they were very happy to give me some white spot medication. I checked the tank with loaches in and most of the fish had spots to some degree, I told the staff member that served me but he seemed uninterested and carried on with what he was doing, so beware the loaches are still for sale.

 

[Arfie]

Mill Garden Centre
Whittington Way
Whittington Moor
Chesterfield
Derbyshire
S41 9AG

This is a garden centre which apparently about a year ago opened up an aquatics centre.

They have a large number of coldwater vats and one large indoor pond and one HUGE indoor pond with very large expensive looking fish

The tropicals are a mix of standard run of the mill community stuff, with a few rare fish like zebra plecs and some nice looking discus. They seemed to have quite a few different corys and ones that I don't see too often around shops in this area. They are looking to add more oddballs and currently have a few including a pacman catfish, motoro, puffers (including an mbu) and other things with teeth that will probably make CFC salivate there was also a nice little mudskipper tank on the counter. And they have a few tanks of plants.

There is no marine section at present, but the tanks had arrived last weekend and they are about to install I think they said 90 tanks which will eat up some of the space taken up by coldwater fish.

Loads of dry goods, but they have stacks of space for more so many of the shelves look empty They did have some large pieces of nice wood, but I think they were for the pesky reptiles

I chatted with the manager who is a young lad (that might be more to do with my age though ) and was very friendly and seems very knowledgable. I thought i spotted whitespot in a tank and he was right over and netting a fish to have a closer look, turns out it wasn't but nice to see someone jump right on it.

I think they'd struggle to really challenge Wharf Aquatics, but they are having a go and as they are only a few miles from me, they are more convenient than the 25 minute drive to Wharf

Variety - 8 (possibly 9 if I knew what I was looking at )
Quality - 9
Staff - 9 (I spoke with the manager and a brief chat with the guy who runs the coldwater and they were both really nice.)

As an aside there is also a pet area, with fluffy stuff like bunnies and rodents, they have some HUGH birds (not Michelle McManus!) I'm gonna be ignorant and call them Parrots and a large reptile area which to my untrained eye looks as good quiality and well run as the aquatics area.

If you are in the area it's worth a look It's not worth a long trip if you keep normal run of the mill stuff (like me) but if you are an oddball keeper and are making a journey to Wharf, it's worth making the trip up from Junction 28 to Junction 29 and having a peek or if you are near Sheffield it's a quick trip down the Dronfield bypass

Arfie

 

[jon17]

A and D aquatics
oldbury

variety-8
quality-8
staff-10

nice aquarium get most my fish frm here

 

[brittlestar]

Ok I have a few:

The first two used to be local to me and are not since I moved last March, hence why I've not bough fish from there for a while! These are mostly MA reviews as I haven't been anywhere else for years!

Maidenhead Aquatics @ Polhill, Sevenoaks
Last visit - December 2006 , haven't bought livestock for 2 years

Variety - 7 (closed their marine bit but big koi and fairly large cichlid section)
Quality - 7
Staff - 6 (before this was a MA store and was independant I have to say they had better staff)


Maidenhead Aquatics @ Dartford
Last visit - January 2006
Variety - 8 (lots of discus and trops but no marine)
Quality - 9 (never ever a sick fish)
Staff - 10 (staff always impressed us and were very serious about water quality and checking we knew what we were buying and its care. The best MA I've been to for knowledgeable staff.)


Maidenhead Aquatics @ St. Albans
Last vist - February 2007, spoke to the manager about marine set ups.
Variety - 9 (Good coral (hard and soft) section, large marine and cichlid section. Tropical tanks can look a bit empty. Big supplies and tank showroom area as large store. If you want a Rena tank they have all of them on show! Lovely pair of stingrays in display tank. They had a nice reef display tank but that has been emptied...........not sure why
Quality - 8 (have only bought 2 fish from there - 2 peppered corys, so can't really judge. But they did breed in my tank!! )
Staff - 7 (Again, not that knowledgeable but the old manager guy is OK. Will try and sell you the most expensive of everything of course! They did rehome my plec that came with a tank I bought off eBay who was too large for the tank, so I have to give them thumbs up for that, although I'm sure they made a profit!


Maidenhead Aquatics @ Bourne End
Last vist - January 2007, some rainbowfish purchased last August. Regularly visit for supplies.
Variety - 8 (no discus but marine and quite big tropical and coldwater bit. Some L number catfish seen)
Quality - 7 (livestock pretty good but always seem to be out of stock of some filter media/ live food!!)
Staff - 3 (God what can I say, if you go on a weekend you might get the tall guy (you will know who he is), he is STUPID!!! He does not know a thing. Doesn't seem to be a marine specialist based there either ) Don't go if you need advice as you won't get any.

Currently moving to another part of the Garden Centre, so hopefully store will get bigger and better variety!!!! Probably no hope for the staff!


Maidenhead Aquatics @ Iver
Last vist - February 2007, bought some live rock for new marine setup. Was ripped off at 15 quid a kilo! Regularly visit for supplies.
Variety - 8 (no discus but good marine and large tropical bit. Stingrays for sale too!! Also cichlids and coldwater well represented. Seems to be quite good for corys. Nice display tank with arrowana and stingrays, although thought stingrays like sand not gravel.........)
Quality - 8 (livestock pretty good but one of the more expensive MA shops. V2Skim 400 was 20 quid more expensive here than Bourne End!!!)
Staff - 6 (better than Bourne End but haven't heard of a "Clean up crew" apparantly!!!!!!!)


Maidenhead Aquatics @ Syon Park
Last vist - February 2007, bought some live rock for new marine setup. This one is local to my work so thought I would try it!

Variety - 8 (Small shop but marine bit fairly large. Good rainbowfish and tetra section. Lovely large rainbowfish display tank had me drooling!! Nice reef display tank too. Didn't look at anything else)
Quality - 8 (Excellent live rock. Will be visiting again today for some turbo snails)
Staff - 7 (Guy I saw on Tuesday was pretty good and he actually knew that blue legged hermies were more aggressive than red!! woohoo!!)

Hobby Fish @ Milton Keynes
Last vist - February 2007, went to view a certain tank and for the marines.......

Variety - 6 (Medium sized shop but marine section tiny)
Quality - 1 (Absolutely shocking...........trop tanks were overcrowded and all species mixed up. Bettas kept in plastic tubs which probably held no more than 500mls of water. I realise you can keep them in small tanks but OMG. Hardly any were moving. Was appalled to see they sold discus too. About 12 juves in a tank no longer than 1 foot. Whole place a real mess. One point because the display tanks - reef and malawi cichlid were nice.)
Staff - 2 (Can't even comment as I will just get angry!!!!!!! The manager is reasonable but the others are either mute or vv abrupt.

Yet to review:

Funky Fish @ Heathrow - will visit 17/02/06
Tropical and Marine @ Mortlake - will visit 17/02/06

 

[edfishman]

Pet's Pad, Southside Shopping Centre, Wandsworth, London.

Variety - 7
Quality - 8
Service - 9

 

[Irf]

Went to Shirley Aquatics (outskirts of Birmingham) at the weekend. Ratings as follows:

Variety: 7 (reasonable range but nothing special.... I was looking for cichlids and they had a few but were all mixed together with labels not accurately fixed and also no pics on the labels).

Quality: 7 (reasonably clean and tidy tanks, though a few had what seemed to be dead pish in pieces. Couldn't work out whether they were originally tank mates or were supplied as food).

Service: 6 (very attractive young ladies didn't know which cichlids were which - see above comment. However the older and very busy guy seemed to know his stuff).

Also, I found that they bag the fish and then add only what I can guess to be oxygen from a compresed air supply - a nice touch I thought.

Overall, it's a great place if you want Koi - and reasonable for run-of-the-mill tropicals.

Just my opinion.

Irf.