Overall I am not completely happy with the place. They do have a wider selection of fish than the Petsmarts and Petcos in the area and its the only place around with a saltwater selection, but the employees I have run across lately are not very knowledgeable. On a 1-10 I'd list it at 5 and ONLY because of their selection of fish. I have to share my most recent story about this place to explain, so read on if you'd like.
I was in there about a week ago to buy some fish for the bottom level of my community tank. Ive always wanted banjo catfish or khuli loaches but they dont carry them at the petsmarts and I saw banjos listed on Maru's website (
www.marupets.com) so I decided to see if they had any. I didnt see any while browsing but I found some khuli loaches and decided to get a couple. I asked the lady if they had any banjos in stock and she told me she didnt think so, fair enough. While she was trying to fish out the loaches (after I had to remind her they were the snake like ones at the bottom of the tank when she tried to grab tetras out!) I saw a couple banjos in a tank with a few plecos nearby. The tank had plecos listed (along with about 4 or 5 species that were no where in sight!) and I basically got into an argument with her about it. At the time I was about 99% sure they were banjos and she told me they were plecos because banjos werent listed on the tank but plecos were. I decided to go with the loaches and not give them any more of my money. When I walked up to the counter, there was nobody in sight! I could have easily just walked out the store, but after about 3 minutes of waiting at the counter and saying "hello" 10 times, a girl comes out of a spare room who couldnt have been more than 14 years old. She obviously didnt want to be there and looked like she couldnt crack a smile if her life depended on it. I suppose she couldnt read the price on the bag so I had to tell her how much they were listed as (I should have said 50 cents) and then tried to charge me for 5 of them when I only bought 2!
Its not like they're like this ALL the time, mabey it was just a bad day, Ive been there in the past and the employees have been friendlier than the girl at the counter and have been slightly more knowledgeable in the fish department. If you decide to go, just know what you're looking for or just check out what the have at the time. One positive thing about the store is they will take fish if you dont want them anymore and usually have large oscars and always have a different variety of fish because of this, Ive seen huge pacus, freshwater eels and Ive even given them a Jack Depsey when it began to outgrow the tank. I suppose it was just one of those times when it was a bad experience and just kinda ruins it. I would just expect a little bit better from a locally owned petshop but at the same time I will more than likely return in the future
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