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youronlysin

Aquarium Advice FINatic
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
Messages
716
Location
Toano, Virginia!
I've been on my new job with Infineon for a couple of weeks now near Richmond Virginia and I am loving the area thus far. The company is really great and will allow us to be able to live like real people for change.
We finally got our house but the movers cant make it out to unload until Oct. 4th. Thats ok, we're just glad we were able to get the house we wanted. Its a beatiful new 1680 sq. ft. 4 bed, 2.5 bath 2 story home with a 2 car garage and its located in Toano just off of 60. Nice little neighboorhood called Hunters Creek. The area is gorgeous and it works out great for us.....my wife can be closer to her parents in Williamsburg and I can still make it to work in decent time. Im already getting jumpy and want to get the house settled and the tanks up and going again. Im gonna have to find a goof lfs here now. TG, help me out here? :D
I look forward to living in the area and cant wait to settle in and enjoy it. See you all soon!
 
Yay! Welcome to the area! We went to Colonial Williamsburg last weekend and had a great time - it is gorgeous there. Next weekend we hope to go to Busch Gardens, which you just must do, especially with the kids.

My current favorite LFS is Azalea Aquariums, near the Fairgrounds on Richmond/Henrico Turnpike. There is also Fish Tales, which is on Laburnum near the Airport, actually very close to the Laburnum exit off I-64, but they opened not too long ago and last time I was there they did not have their fish tanks set up yet. I am sure they are by now, though.

There may be a LFS in the Williamsburg area, I have no idea. I used to know some people who lived in Croaker and back then your area was extremely rural - is it pretty developed over there now?

Liz
 
Its still very rural; at least it is to me. There are a few small stores, but nothing big at all. Williamsburg is also pretty small compared to where I was before.

When we came up on vacation a month or so ago, we did take our daughter to Busch Gardens. What a beautiful park that is! Kings Dominion is on our list of things to do in addition to Water Country USA. Where I'm staying right now in Williamsburg is only minutes from Water Country USA and Busch Gardens. I'm right off of 199 and Jamestown Rd.

There is a small pet store in town but it only has a few rodents and very few fish. Wal-Mart has a better selection. I'll have to venture into Richmond one of these days and check out the pet stores there. The one you mentioned that is your favorite must be decent, so Id like to start there. I have a couple of days off next week....maybe I'll check it out.
 
Welcome to the area. :)

I like Azalea too. They have a lot of stock, and they dont' bother themselves with other pets. Just fish. Lots of fish.

Fish Tales had all of their freshwater and a couple salt tanks set up the last time I was there, which was I guess sometime in May. I haven't been there since I moved, but I'm sure they have all of their tanks up by now. They're nice people and worth a visit, and about 20 minutes closer to you than Azalea I think (but 295 helps).

-j
 
Welcome to our little corner of the world!!! If you do come into Richmond to check things out you have to check out a couple of stores ............... Fish World is a must if your a salty and Fin and Feather isn't but a few miles from Azalea Aquariums.
 
Fish World has been a help to me, too - they ordered base rock for me that I used in my African tank, and at a very good price. They also got me some Caribsea African cichlid sand, no shipping. They have a very good business ethic - they don't care if you are FW or SW, but just want your business (probably assuming that someday you will come over to the dark side... 8) )
 
It is in an industrial park area that does not look a bit like a place where a LFS would be, go all the way down Busy St. and it is on the right at the end.
 
FYI, I went to Fish Tales today and they still have some tanks not set up. They have a pretty good selection of freshie stuff, and what looks like reasonable prices. They only have a couple salt tanks (I saw a shipment of percs come in today, they were less than an inch long....so cute), but it looks like they're working on maybe a dozen more salt tanks.

-j
 
Thanks for the update! It is so cool to know what's what before taking a drive over.

Today I went to the Ashland Fin and Feather and I must say it is in much better shape than the one in Lakeside. Teeny shop but very good looking fish, and they even had some spunky kuhlie loaches and some very nice plant specimens. I will definitely be back there.

I also paid a visit to Azalea, where things are hunky dory as always. They are going to be under new management by a couple of the younger fellows, and they are planning on having a website. I invited them to AA so hopefully someday they will become a sponsor. I got myself some lovely sunset hygro and resisted any other purchases.

Anybody been to Richmond Aquariums recently? They were going to increase their FW selections but I have not "crossed the river" in a while!
 
Stopped by Fish tales on Thursday. Not a bad shop but had way more reptiles and other critters than I expected. They could use a little more diversity in their fish stock, imo. Prices werent too bad although, not the greatest I've seen in a lfs. The young kid providing customer service could use some lessons as well. Im sure he meant well, but it bothers me when I have to tell someone four or five times in 15 minutes that I dont need any help. Everytime I wandered down a new isle he would practically yell "You need help?". I was preparing to ask him the same thing. Nice kid, just needs a little honing. Other than that, I thought they had some decent prices on their tanks. 55 gallon tank for 119 bucks isnt anything to sneeze at, as compared to other lfs'. I'd deffinitely go back provided I needed something quick.

I'd like to check out some of the other stores you mentioned, but I dont know the area well enough to venture across town just yet. I'd be coming up 64 or 60 from Toano/Williamsburg area and I dont know how big of a trip it is to get across Richmond. Fishtales is only about 35-40 minutes from the house, so not too bad; straight up 60 to Labernum. I'll need some coaching to go much further than that. One of these days when Im off work, I'll go on a leisure ride to check the town out. I got a tour from Long and Foster during my vacation/interview trip in August, but I wasnt driving and should have paid more attention. I'll check back here and try to visit them all soon. Thanks guys!!!!
 
No rush - I'm sure it won't take you too long to get the lay of the land. We should do a "LFS Crawl" tour one day, and hit every shop in the Metro area! If you go the opposite way on Laburnum that you did to get to Fish Tales you will be in the neighborhood of Azalea Aquarium - very Mom & Pop.
 
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