I've visited Pets Etc, and found at least one of the staff to be fairly ignorant of what they were doing. On the bright side, there were no dead fish in the tanks.. yet. They seem to lack knowledge, but were good about keeping the tanks clean. The fish seemed fairly healthy, so I'm assuming someone else was taking care of them other than the person I talked to. I'd consider buying a fish there, but after researching it somewhere else - I wouldn't take the staff's advice. The Seahorse tank in front made my eye twitch.. let's just say it didn't look too healthy.. even for a Seahorse that was being blown sideways by the water flow.
I've also been to Pet Paradise, but only once. The staff was friendly and helpful, and set me up with my first
SW tank. I'd go back if it was on my way.
None of the Petcos or Petsmarts have been appropriate places to purchase fish, but I will occasionally pick up dry goods there. When you go to the fish section and ask if they sell Amazon Swords, and get "I don't know what kind of fish we have" as a response, that's not a good sign. Also, the ratio of dead fish to tanks should probably not be around two to one. I won't mention the feeder Goldfish tanks.
..No, I will. Dead fish lined the filter intake. Entirely. I also found one stuck to the wall in the live plant tank. Staff at every Petco I've ever been to has almost *insisted* that I buy their smallest bowl with any Betta purchase. Some have flat out insisted, informing me that the Betta would somehow be *happier* in a plastic vase because it was more like "home". 8O
Aquatic World in Chicago is decent. They sell a fair variety of animals, and are mostly
SW based. Some of their inverts don't look so good, but that may have been due to poor handling before they arrived.
LR seemed overpriced, especially the uncured. It did have some nice shapes though. Staff is very friendly, and is happy to answer questions. I go every now and then, sometimes just to see what they have in next.
Petland had some variety of fish, but I wouldn't be surprised if a purchase didn't make it through the week.