Favorite aquarium stores?

There has been a few of these threads popping up lately with many interesting views. Being located in Blacktown I am relatively close to many aquariums, including Neptune, Aquarama, Strictly, Blacktown Pet and Produce plus some more that are a bit further away but still relatively close.

What's everyones views on their local stores? Post constructive critisisim perhaps using the following guideline as otherwise this thread will be locked or moved out of the general forum.

- Pricing: Expensive/cheap/average

- Variety of stock: Do they have natives, tropicals, africans, americans, marines, oddballs and coldwater?

- Level of service: Do they know what they are talking about?

- Reliability: If they say they will get something for you do they?

Neptune - Cheap prices generally with a wide range of fish encompessing tropicals, africans, americans, natives, oddballs, marines and coldwater species. The amount of stock is often quite eradic and they go through periods of high levels of stock and low levels so that could be more consistant as it is a pain in the bottom waiting for orders sometimes. Level of service is ok. Majority of staff are young but the young guys who work on weekends do seem to know their stuff.

Aquarama - Expensive prices with a decent range of fish. Great place to visit if you have the money to splurge on larger fish and don't mind paying inflated prices. They do keep a regular stock up though of natives which is always good and their tropicals are usually all good sizes and on par with other shops prices. Downside for me is they don't stock alot of accessaries or tanks. Service is quite slack with the asian guy seeming very lazy playing on his phone when by himself. To give them credit if they say they are getting something they do get it. I once asked for an adult 7 bar frontosa. They called me a few months later saying they had one, downside was it was a tilapia. :lol:

Strictly - Never really visit them but use to have a good range of marine products. I've since heard this has changed?

Blacktown pets and produce - Cheap prices and always an excellant range of goldfish, africans and tropicals. Service is always very friendly and good. The older man (Owner I believe) went out of his way to provide names of aquariums who may stock a product I was after so thumbs up for him.

Thats all I can really comment on. What's everyone elses experiance with the mentioned shops or any others?

Whilst I know you have been a member here for some time I still believe the forum holds rules to discussion about stores who are not sponsors here.

If this was to change thou I believe threads like this one would be fantastic for many cities around Aust to weed the bad from the good.

I know what your saying mate. My reasoning for this thread is there is currently no aquarium store sponsors as such. Rather all the sponsors are importers or online stores so these threads will not compete with either business at the end of the day.

lol, the asian guy, at aquarama, omgosh, hes useless..and he is always sittin there so quite you dont notice him, and hes always playin a game ..lol. that shop is so dead man, and prices are overpriced in my opionon. and i checked out the discus, wasnt impressed in my opinion. but they always have heaps of stock, no doubt.

and pet and produce,i bought my red rose juvi from dem.. they have 3 juvis there when i went, i wasnt really impressed in the way they were kept. they could hardly swim straight..lol, cuz the filter seemed on overdrive. but the cheap labour hire there no nuttin, except the old man, the rest tell me a story of the discus..lol, and its origin.. deep in the amazon, he said, great help..:P and all i wanted to know what strain of discus this was..lol

And neptune, gee, ripp offs in my opionon ,there juvis they have are ova 100 bucks when i went there, and i asked em u got any under like 50 for atleast a juvi he goes, all 100 and ova.

and yes strictly, have excellent collection of marine, actually really stunning in great condition.i was impressed with there shop and its layout, but i didnt notice any discus, which i was lookn for..

but thats my opionon of all those shops.. cheerz.

I went to a former sponsor of this site today, located on Anzac Parade.

Went at 11:45. Closed.

Left and came back at 12:30. Closed

Went across the road, took a look at strathfield car radio and had a look at fishing gear. Came back at 12:40. Still closed.

Sign on the door says they open at 10. Letters are visible under the door, which means that nobody had opened the door all day.

Couldnt see anyone inside, but the tank lights were on.

B&C Aquariums down in Matraville didnt have that much discus, but they did have a good range of mosses and had CRS. They had a good range of tropical fish, and they seemed well priced.


Over in the Hills, we dont have too much. Aquamart in Castle Hill is quite expensive.

Kellyville pets is expensive and their selection of discus is poor.

Fishrock in Eastwood is usually well priced and I have found their staff to be friendly and helpful. They usually have a good stock of discus too.

Theres not that many places that I know of anymore. I'd like to know what places get good discus in, since Xtreme has aparently closed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fiftycal

B&C Aquariums down in Matraville didnt have that much discus, but they did have a good range of mosses and had CRS. They had a good range of tropical fish, and they seemed well priced.

Fishrock in Eastwood is usually well priced and I have found their staff to be friendly and helpful. They usually have a good stock of discus too.

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B&C - Some of the cleanest tanks i have ever seen...
Fishrock at Eastwood? Tried to find them several times (on the way to JMS at Carlingford :wink: ).
I took the phone number with me last time but they didn't answer. Closed on Mondays??

Yes, we need to support the forum's sponsors, but we also need to support the industry as a whole. We seem to be losing too many businesses atm. ..And if the LFS is a hole...

JMO
Old Dave

I have no problem with this thread, so long as it sticks to the facts, and any negatives can be fully explained to give a better perspective of things then go for it.

And yes, we are losing aquarium stores at an alarming rate, over 15 aquarium related stores have closed in the Sydney area this year, and this will continue to grow if things don't improve (and it isn't just the small stores closing, Aquamart, who had 4 stores went into receivership several months back, they are still trading but 2-3 of there stores had to close down with the restructure)

Quote:

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I went to a former sponsor of this site today, located on Anzac Parade.

Went at 11:45. Closed.

Left and came back at 12:30. Closed

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If that is the store I am thinking of, I am pretty certain Wednesday is the one day of the week they are closed. Could be wrong, but you could check by phoning them.

That could explain why. I'll try them another time.

Fishrock at eastwood is off a main street. There was a Malaysian restaurant next to them last time I was there (ages ago). You have to turn just after the lights.

Come to think of it, B&C had extremely clean tanks indeed.

I'll call into JMS when I am next free.

I really cant think of anymore proper aquariums in the Hills area. Most places are pet shops, so they only stock a minimal amount of fish, and the fish are usually the more common types.

I may check out Lam's in parra again.

Bronco, when I enquired about their discus the smaller ones were $45, medium around $70 (?) and the largest over $100. Make sure whoever serves you knows what they are talking about. Some of the workers during the week seem to be really only employed as maitanance staff so don't strictly know much about the fish and seem to make things up rather then clarify with the owner.

Yes the Pet and Produce staff are a good laugh sometimes, but not for lack of trying! :P