atmmachine816

Here's where you can rate your LFS's on there variety/selection, cleanliness/quality, and staff friendlyness and knowledge. 1 being the worst and 10 being the best. Please rate as I did below, if you don't want to include the city you do not have to but please include the store and state. Enjoy Also I did not come up with this idea somebody from another forum did, I just edited it a little.

State:Ohio
City:Strongsville
Store:Strongsville Pet Emporium

Variety/Selection: 6 (Ok SW seletion)
Cleanliness/quality: 2
Staff Friendlyness and Knowledge:3 unless you get the GM then its 7
smiley rating
comments: Only in for the buisness, don't care at all about their fish

State:Ohio
City:Strongsville
Store: Petsupermarket

Variety/Selection:7 (No SW)
Cleanliness/Quality:7
Staff Friendlyness and Knowledge:5
Smiley rating:
comments: not a big selection but have never had any problems and they seem to care about their fish

State:Ohio
City:Strongsville
Store:Pet Supplies Plus

Variety/selection:3 (No SW)
Cleanliness/quality:1
Staff Friendlyness and Knowledge:0
Smiley rating:
Comments: Overpriced and overall bad

State:Ohio
City:Middleburg Heights
Store: RMS Aquaculture

Variety/selection:8 (some SW but not much)
Cleanliness/Quality:7
Staff Friendlyness and Knowlege:6
Smiley rating:
comments: Overall good and very reasonably priced with most people giving good advice

State:Ohio
City:Parma
Store:Petsmart

Variety/selection:7
Cleanliness/Quality:5
Staff Friendlyness and Knowledge: 4
Smiley rating:
comments: They don't give accurate information, say silver dollars only get 4 inches

State:Ohio
City:Cleveland
Store:Aquarium Adventure

Variety/selection: 9
Cleanliness/Quality:10
Staff Friendlyness and Knowledge: 10
Smiley rating: 8) 8) 8)
comments:Excellent store, take great care of their fish, great advice, not a good selection of plecos and a few other fish, great display tanks, don't buy anything there though unless you can't find it anywheres else because they are WAY overpriced, go to RMS instead

newbie101

State: MN
Store: Fleugel's Lawn, Garden, and Pet Supply
Selection of fish: 6
cleanliness/quality: 7 but it smells like dog food, understandably so, dog food STINKS!!
Staff knowledge: 8
smiley rating: um...
But I still like Walmart better for supplies, a lot cheaper

Marc

StoreCityState---VarietyQualityStaffRating
Petland DiscountsAnsoniaCT773
Purr-Fect PetsMilfordCT979
Turnpike Pet Ctr.FairfieldCT9910
Slither & Swim PetsWest HavenCT881
Pet Supplies PlusOrange/FairfieldCT322
Norwalk AquariumNorwalkCT101010
Waterbury AquariumWaterburyCT101010

0morrokh

State:MN
Store:A Wet Pet
Selection:8
Quality:10
Staff:9
Rating:
only reason I didn't give it a is because the stuff is so expensive!

atmmachine816

My lfs's SUCK

czarben

Sate: MI
City: East Lansing
Store: Preuss Animal House

Variety/selection: 9
Cleanliness/quality:6
Staff Friendlyness and Knowledge: 8
Smiley rating:

Dino

I am currently lfs less.
Last shop I worked with let their tanks go to .
So, it's online and the clubs I belong to for now.

Dino

Gunnie

So Michael's is a wash?

Dino

Sad to say, but yes.
Shop kept looking worse and worse each visit. His freshwater tanks looked pathetic.
I would not be surprised to see it close if nothing changes by years end.

Dino

Gunnie

I'm so sorry Dino. Gunnie is now on a mission to locate another great lfs to go to when traveling up there..............

newbie101

hey I know where that is never been there though if I could drive I would be to like all the stores within a 50 mile radius of me...just to find one that is good

0morrokh

If you can you should check it out...they've got tons of fish including saltwater and unusual species. I think it's the only place I can go to without getting depressed by all the fish with ICH. I've seen KUHLI LOACHES there before!! (now you gotta go ) Although I don't think they have them currently. They've got a huge tank with discus and a mated pair of piranhas right now, along with the usual 10 thousand species of tetra and cichlid and goldfish, plus every other common and less common fish, oh yeah and marine fish. Really awesome place.
hehe now you'll be so mad if your parents won't take you there...

Marc

Bump! This is a good resource - we should keep it in view!

Butterfly

Stickied it so it will stay on top andwe can continue to add to it as a resource. Good idea Marc
Carol

Marc

If we get it big enough I'll make a page where you can search for them, order by rating, etc., and if Mike wanted, he could add it to the site. Bad pet stores, beware!

fish_r_friend

Store-------------------------City---------------State-----Variety-----Quality-----Staff-----Rating-------Comments
PetSupply Plus Newark OH 6 5 5 7 could be better maintained

Petsmart Renaldsburg OH 8+ 9+ 8+ 9 very Little variety

Petsmart Easton OH 8 9 9 9 good all around fish store

Aquarium Adventure Dublin OH 10 10 10 10 the best LFS (that i have been to)

around

Manicivy

Queens, NYC area:

ALL Petland Discounts (I've been to 6 or 7 in the area) get 3's in all categories! Always giving wrong information, fish are always sick! Very sad. Last time I was there I asked for a cory and the man had me point it out because he didnt know which one was a Cory!!!!

Petco, Union square & Petco Howard Beach: Variety=5 Quality=6/7 Staff=8

Paradise Aquarium, Ridgewood= Variety=8 Quality=9 Staff=8 Most staff very knowledgeable, sometimes will tell you things to get you to buy more fish, expensive.

I'm trying a new store today for ottos called Fish Town USA so I'll get back to you about them.

Manicivy

Fish Town USA gets 9's across the board! Excellent excellent store...GREAT prices and TONS of selection

Kanadian

the best LFS where i am @ in Lethbridge Alberta Canada is where i work!!! but hey @ my Petcetra store.. if i was a customer i'd have to say 8 staff knowladge selection 9 as we got a mass variety of everything from FW brac and good variety of salt! clean... ehh well what big pet store doesnt have mice! lol quality i'd say a 7.5 as we deal with a larger quantity its hard to keep it all perfect

Boxermom

Locally, we are lucky to have one of the few PetCos that really takes good care of their fish. We don't buy much in the way of aquatica there though, we tend to go to the not-so-local store up in Milwaukee. The best one by far is Aquatics Unlimited in West Allis/Greenfield on Highway 100. First rate fish, great customer support, staff that really knows a thing or two, wonderful variety. http://www.bestfish.com

There's another one in Milwaukee called Hoffer's Aquatic Life that I won't buy livestock from, and their hardware is usually much more expensive than I can buy online. Their tanks almost always have several dead fish in most of them, they haven't got a clue how to care for their puffers so they are mistreating them, the staff isn't very knowledgeable, etc. The only thing we get there are live blackworms, as they are cheaper than at AU.

fish_r_friend

Store-------------------------------City-------------------State-----Variety-----Quality-----Staff-----Rating-------Comments
Jacks Aquarium and pets Easton OH 8 7 9 N/a Could be a little more spread out

SunnShadow

State: Ohio
City: Van Wert
Store: PetLand
Variety/Selection: 9
Cleanliness/quality: 7 (little ich, some algae bloom.... but normally very healthy fish)
Staff friendliness/Knowledge: 7 (10 for fish manager!!)
Smiley Rating:
Comments: Their prices are great, the selection of FW fish is pretty good (they have Kuhli Loaches regularly, and something called a dinosaur something-or-other.... and BEAUTIFUL Bettas!!!!!). They seem to care about their animals (not JUST the fish), but will try to sell you all the accessories you don't really need....... Will test your tank water for free, and offer non-medicinal fixes as well as the medicinal ones (the Manager knows the pea remedy for Bettas)

S.

S.

Marc

http://fstorm.org/lfsrate/poll.php

I made a page to rate them - feel free to add more and rate any you've been to! This is a much easier tool to use and you can search by state, rating, and rating in that state!

chickadee

Using Sunni's System:

State: Nebraska
City: Beatrice
Store: Earl May's Garden Center (only sells fish and inverts)
Variety/Selection: They have 80 tanks and a lot of Invertebrates The selection is great though not many of each fish.
Cleanliness/quality: Extreemly clean. give 'em a 10!
Staff friendliness/Knowledge: Staff 8/Manager 9
Smiley Rating:

I, who make it a practice never to do the buying locally for fish and supplies, love this store. The only problem I have is getting there. It is a couple of miles from here and I don't drive and walk poorly so I only get to go when I can pay for a ride or get a family member to take me (not often). They leave me alone to shop and do not try to sell me anything. (but are very available to help when needed) I did buy my Otos there the last time and all of the Snails came from there. I will say that I have never seen such fantastic looking tanks in a fish store before. They put all the others I have been to to shame. They were CLEAN and the fish looked well fed and healthy. Those were the healthiest Otos I ever got and they are happy little guys even yet.

Rose

Buzz

For a country (island) in the tropics, we really have a poor variety of Tropical Fish I think though that most of the lfs’s here are in it for a quick buck…a lot of the staff are really clueless. Come to think of it, I can’t think of a single “fish store” here – we simply have pet stores with everything from baby ducks and chickens to puppies and pigeons and the fish are off to one side or stuck in a corner. Needless to say, the quality of water is pretty poor and for this reason, we always quarantine new fish for at least two weeks. Lately, we’ve been losing one or two from every batch of new fish we purchase. The choice of ornaments and accessories are also pretty limited.

Buzz

atmmachine816

bump

alex5455

10/10 for everything because i work there and can guarantee everything is being done right
t