your local fish store(s)

[totalbeginner]

i have two fish stores locally, the differences between them are like night and day, the one i use (pets at home, dundee branch) has a limited stock but the tanks are always crystal clear, i am on holiday from work this week so i have been in a few mornings and leaned the they do daily water tests and i have never seen a dead fish. The store i don't use (house of pisces, strathmartine road, dundee) is a local business with a massive range of stock, but, there tanks are disgusting ( i am keeping this to total fact only, seen it with own eyes) lots of them have green algae on the glass(i'm not just on about a tinge, actual growths), there were a few floaters in some tanks too, plus i saw 6 4" angelfish in a tank approx 3-4gal, not nice staff are good in both though. house of pisces has a great range of tanks, all brand new,

What are your LFS like?? good/bad/ugly?

[minx]

Pets at Home is my nearest, however I don't use them for fish, just filter spares & food. They have way too many dead fish in the tanks for my liking & the fish never seem that lively.

I get my fish from a little place outside Sheffield. It's a place called Mastin Moor, the kind of village which is a couple of houses round a crossroads. Can't even remember what the shop's called but they have a great choice of fish and a huge dog that looks like Hagrid's dog in Harry Potter!!

[totalbeginner]

my pets at home has a "pets at home fish store of the year" for some year not too long ago. one of the attendants there takes it WAY too seriously, not too long ago he tried to get me to buy £70 worth of tank to quarantine a £4 siamese fighter for a wee bit of white spot (but i would be treating the main tank too of course), he is better now by the way, no quarantine. he's not a scam artist, he just loves the fish ( i feel sorry for the fish!! ).

[Grant R]

I use a local shop in my town, 'Maidenhead Aquatics'. They have shops up & down the country and it just so happens that the largest one is in my town. I'm always quite impressed with the staff knowledge and variety / condition of fish.

http://www.FishKeeper.co.uk is their website.

[Somethingfishy]

I frequent and purchase most of my stuff from the local LFS, Pets Fayre, in Tunbridge Wells. I also sometimes go to Darford and Darford Aquatics, Grant they have 4 - 5" Clowns if you are interested.

I do also on the odd occasion purchase some of the stuff on-line from www.aquatics-online.co.uk.

[totalbeginner]

How do you find the advice at these places my LFS's advice varies between them, but both seem to contradict most articles on the 'net ( one guy told me to cycle a tank with neons, i was told by EMS503 that danio's are more suited, did a bit of research and found this to be true. )

There should be some sort of code of practice for all livestock retailers.

[Somethingfishy]

You would think they would have something like that, but most are just init for a quick buck. My LFS knows his stuff and most of the advice he gives is close to accurate, only a couple of times have I proved his info wrong, one of those times being the identification of one of the fish I bought.

But other than that pretty good.

[Grant R]

Mine is pretty good, I think you get conflicting advice wherever you go though and it will always be the same. Just one of those things unfortunately. A lot of the advice on here will always differ as people in America may often do things differently to those here in the UK.

[Vicshaw]

The shop in Boston is called'Boston Aquatics Centre' Its a small little place, nice though and they sell many different types of fish-a good selection to chose from!

[Somethingfishy]

Hey Vicshaw,

Where abouts is Boston?