LFS in Richmond

Moved to the "Fish Store" section.

 

CAs?

I frequent FishWorld on busy street at least weekly. It's saltwater only. The owner, Joe, is incredibly knowledgeable and all of his staff are accomplished in their various marine specialties. His store has been around for over 20 years and is incredibly clean, stocked with healthy fish, beautiful corals, and reasonable supplies. I've never had any diseases from their fish, and I've never had a coral from them die.

Richmond Aquarium on midlothian is mostly saltwater, with a very small freshwater section. They get some of the more rare fish of the trade, but many of the fish I've bought from them introduced diseases into my quarantine tank, and many of the corals I've acquired from them were difficult to salvage. Their equipment isn't that great and horribly priced, but it's the closest saltwater store so if I'm in a bind I normally swing by their place on the way to others.

Atlantis Aquariums (I believe on parham?) has the best selection of corals in the area, and probably the best selection on equipment too. Marv, the owner, is knowledgeable and most of his staff are frag/coral junkies Their equipment is some of the cheapest for a salt specialty store in the area, and they normally have a few ultra-rare fish but their fish selection as a whole didn't knock my socks off.

PetClub is absolutely horrible as far as their saltwater section goes, but freshwater's great.

That's about all the Richmond LFS advice I've got

 

petco has an OK fish selection too. and you cant forget the walmarts! (they have some interesting stuff at the walmart fish section) as for crabby island, that address is chesterfield town center and they usually just sell hermit crabs at christmas time... but i havent seen them there in quite a few years.... golly- i havent worked at that mall in like 3 years... and they were there before that... and i cant find arnies pets to save my life (i used to live off of turner) and perfect pets has an OK selection which is on broad street.... i know there are more... but i cant remember
~kin

 

He has the best stuff but the owner is a jerk! I prefer Fin and Feather on Lakeside Ave instead. But they do not do saltwater anymore which would move you to Azaleas.

 

Yup, he also told me that Discus should be kept in Hard, Alkaline water! He insisted that the books are all wrong, that they are all out of date and that the only reason people think Discus should live in soft, acidic water is because people waited until the dry season on the Amazon to pick out the discus. He also tried telling me that the "Mixing of the Rivers" is just a short period phenomenon and does not happen all year. He said that the Rio Negro was a white-water river.....

I could go on-and-on. Needless to say, I just wont go in there at all now!

 

There's also Atlantis in Richmond that is supposed to be a very nice place. I haven't made it there yet though.

 

+1 regarding Azaleas, wont go there now.

+1 regarding Atlantis - it's saltwater only but shaweeeeeeeeeeet corals there.

 

Oops, yeah forgot to mention it's saltwater only.

 

There's a new Fin and Feather on Broad street next to Contes Bicycle shop. They aren't as stocked up on fish as they are in Lakeside but the owner will order whatever you ask him for. Their prices are awesome. I lost one of my fish I bought there 2 weeks ago. I bought a few today and he replaced the one I lost for free...

 

hi guys! i'm new here - first post - haven't even had a chance to go introduce myself yet. BUT... i do have an interesting azalea's experience.

i went in there for the first time a few weeks ago (native to richmond, used to LOVE pet club on parham for freshwater, and am heartbroken that they closed), and wanted some unbiased advice. i was always an oscar/aggressive fish owner, and have a new 55g setup that i just wanted as a nice peaceful community tank.

well, you're right, the owner is a jerk. after walking around for a while (and being hit on by a random guy in there), i said "ok, i just want some honest advice, i'm used to having oscars and other large cichlids, but i want to start a docile community tank, and i want any and all creative ideas..."

he launches into how i don't know what i'm talking about because a "community tank" is any tank with different types of fish in it, etc etc and that he can't really make any recommendations based on my description because i could want discus for all he knows (then asks me if i know what a discus is).

am i the idiot here? i know that semantics could bring you around to his argument, but when you say "docile community" i think that pretty much lowers the bar to a specific subset. eugh.

 

Yup... Horrible place it is! A shame that he has some of the best products and livestock in Richmond

 

Lemon Discus is right on. Fin and Feather is probably the best one to go to. They just opened a new store on Broad Street. He doesn't have a lot of fish yet but he's slowly getting more. The one in Lakeside is awesome! The owner is very knowledgeable and super cool. Well priced and fish are always healthy. I also like the Pet Club. The one on Parham was my favorite but they are closed now. There was a guy named David that used to manage that store. He was really cool and knew a lot about fish. I'm not sure if he moved to another store but I know they moved all of their inventory to the south side location.

 

(Pet Club) Yes they moved to the Hugeunot Rd location... they used to have bot locations and they just merged to the one....

 

I was sorry to see them go. I just stick to Fin and Feather now...

 

i was really disappointed in fin & feather the last time i was there. the tanks were FULL (like, can't see the fish full) of algae and i heard a rumor that corporately they are moving away from fish altogether (don't see how they can do that without major rebranding). the new one on broad has a VERY limited fish selection right now (maybe 10-15 tanks), but i'll keep an eye out for it to improve.

great news about pet club though - i will definitely be heading over there to check out the huguenot store.

 

Yes unfortunately they are moving away from fish. They pretty much have done already what they are going to do.

They moved the fish from the large part (the section where you walk in) to the smaller part (over in the room on the far right). Basically they switched the dog and the fish sections around.

They also removed ALL of their saltwater tanks and fish. All they run now is fresh. It should stay like it is. Keep in mind they will order ANY fish for you they can get. (contact them on a Monday and you get your fish on Wednesday)

As far as the green water is concerned it is MUCH better to have green water/algae than it is to have nothing. Remember if the dont have plants (they dont) in the tanks with the fish, the nitrate levels go up. The algae, even though it is ugly, is actually quite beneficial to the health of the fish.

They also keep their tanks separately and NOT on a system, preventing cross contamination of illnesses. Petsmart, even though they are cleaner (usually) are all on a few large systems so if one fish gets sick almost all of them do.

 

all good points. thanks for the update!