luck 100!!! yay

State: IL
City: Park Ridge (just out of Chicago)
Address: 811 Devon Ave Park Ridge, IL 60068, US (just off of Cumberland)
Store: Living Sea Aquarium

Variety/ Selection: 10 big selection for SW and FW
Cleanliness and quality: 7
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 9
Smiley rating:

Website here

its kind of far from they city but a pretty cool place. kind of pricy but supposed 2 b the largest fish store in the Midwest

State: IL
City: Chicago
Store: Animal Kingdom

Variety: 9
C and Q: 8
Staff Niceness and Knowledge: 7
Smiley Rating:

Heres the Site.. pretty bad site but good place

its a general petstore but very nice. my favorite since its so close 2 me

aww man!!! you took my C Spot

Just my opinions for MA & RI:

State: Rhode Island
City: Providence
Store: Aqua Life Central
(401) 331-5376
http://www.aqualifecentral.com/
389 Wickenden Street
Providence RI 02903

Variety/ Selection: 9
Cleanliness and Quality: 10
Staff Friendliness: 10
Staff Knowledge: 10
Smiley rating:

Summary:
Aqua Life Central is a true Mom & Pop operation, and this place is awesome. I can’t say enough good things about them, and I don’t think I would buy fish or plants anywhere else. If you’re considering buying fish or plants in RI or SE MA, go to Aqua Life Central and don’t bother reading the remainder of my reviews. Can you tell that I like this place? They have a few gorgeous saltwater tanks, but not a huge saltwater selection.


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State: Massachusetts
City: South Easton
Store: Belmont Pet
(508) 230-3037
502 Foundry St
South Easton, MA 02375

Variety/ Selection: 5
Cleanliness and Quality: 7
Staff Friendliness: 6
Staff Knowledge: 7
Smiley rating:

Summary:
A decent little shop that offers a customer card – you basically get $10 off when you spend $100. They have about 2/3 tropical, 1/3 goldfish and saltwater. Prices are fair for tropical (can’t speak to the other 1/3). They are open pretty late.

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State: Massachusetts
City: Canton
Store: Coolen's Aquarium & Pet Supply
(781) 821-2044
35 Washington St
Canton, MA 02021

Variety/ Selection: 6
Cleanliness and Quality: 5
Staff Friendliness: 8
Staff Knowledge: 4
Smiley rating:

Summary:
Another nice small shop that is located at Cobb’s Corner. They have a decent fish selection. Staff is very friendly but not the most knowledgeable (from my experience). I’ve been in once where the tanks were atrocious, but on other visits they have been much better – I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.


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State: Rhode Island
City: Providence
Store: RI Aquarium & Pet Center
(401) 274-2520
www.riaquarium.com
905 N Main St
Providence, RI 02904

Variety/ Selection: 10
Cleanliness and Quality: 5
Staff Friendliness: 5
Staff Knowledge: (can’t rate – I haven’t asked them any questions)
Smiley rating:

Summary:
Huge selection of fresh and saltwater. Some tanks are extremely small for their occupants and definitely weren’t the cleanest either. Worth stopping by to look at the fish if you’re in Providence…on your way to Aqua Life Central.

MARYLAND

City: Randallstown
Store: Aquarium Depot

Variety/Selection: 7
Cleanliness and Quality: 9
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 4

Notes: Used to be a top 3 fish store on the east coast, with amazing variety, sparkling tanks, and friendly employees while under the name Aquarium Center. Has since degraded in a big way but is still a good fish store, overall a 7/10

p.s. go during the day, it's in a slightly bad area and there are a few thugs and possibly gang members walking around.
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City: Glen Burnie
Store: House of Tropicals

Variety/Selection: 8
Cleanliness and Quality: 7
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 1

Notes: A lot of fish with some great variety going, they even have suriname toads which flored me. What an oddball!!! But alas their employees are ridiculously unfriendly. They shouldn't be working as sales at any store. I had to say hello to one person 3 times before she would stop staring at me and say hello for once. Also an employee came up and asked another one what the price of a fish was. He said probably 6.95, but make it 7.95. That pissed me off. Great fish, bad employees. Overall 6/10

p.s. go during the day at this one as well, tons of thugs, black and white alike, the shady looking people with baggy pants that a slight prejudice may infact save your life from. The shopping center here is fine really but close by are poor neighborhoods where many of these people may live.
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City: Westminister
Store: Petsmart

Variety/Selection: 5
Cleanliness and Quality: 10
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 10

Notes: A large aquatics section for a chain store, fish are always healthy looking (except for their angelfish) and tanks are spotless. Employees are ridiculously friendly, knowledgable, and prompt. Overall 7/10
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City: Hampstead
Store: Deep Blue Tropicals

Variety/Selection: 5
Cleanliness and Quality: 10
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 5

Notes: Small store with healthy fish and clean tanks, some real oddballs too, but the staff is comprised of the owner and his wife. She doesn't know much at all about fish, and the owner is very arrogant and doesn't accept other peoples opinions. Overall 6/10

This post has been edited by ArauraDiscus: Aug 1 2007, 12:42 AM

Well I can now sum up some stores

Greenville South Carolina
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Petsmart
Location: Highway 29, just inside taylors
Variety/Selection: 8
Cleanliness and Quality: 7
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 9
General Traffic Situation:
Smily Rating

Summary: Large chain, best pet store around. almost everyone of the staff is friendly and knows what they are doing. Their quality is something to be desired but this is due to a couple of morons running the tanks into the ground for about a year. Their variety does rival Petsland. Though no saltwater fish. Getting in and out of the parking lot is a breeze too, from greer or greenville.



Petsland
Location: On Woodruff Rd across the street from Northern Tools
Varity: 10
Quality/Cleanliness: 6
Staff Friendliness/Knowledge: 5
General traffic situation
Smily rating:

Summary: A small pet store that has a wide selection of freshwater and saltwater fish, along with quite a few display tanks. Does indeed carry a BN Pleco and a shovelnose cat. Quality is pretty good however a large amount of algea in few tanks. Trey does know a few things however is'nt the most friendly of people. Traffic is a total nightmare however and would avoid unless you really like sitting in a hot car for about 10 minutes just trying to get out of the parking lot.



PetCo
Location: Off of 291 next to CherryDale Plaza
Varity: NA
Quality/Cleanliness: 3
Staff Friendliness: 0
General Traffic Situation
Smiley rating:

Summary: Wide selection of various aquarium equipment however their actual fish leave alot of room for improvement. Varity rating is NA because out of stock on just about everything. Bettas are in some horrible conditions, its just a small bowl, heck even Petsmart and Petsland has their betta connected to filtered water. Cleanliness wasnt that great. No even made notice that I was around or asked if I could get help. Traffic isn't too bad but can be if its the right time.

This post has been edited by DDeHavenII: Jul 19 2007, 05:38 PM

State: Oregon
City: Salem
Store:
Advanced Aquarium
120 17th St.
97304 Salem, OR

Variety/Selection: 7 (it's a specialty saltwater and reef store)
Cleanliness and Quality: 9
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 10
Smiley Rating:

Stores are really starting to dwindle in Salem

I love the store in Park Ridge. Animal kingdom was always my childhood favorite. But here's on more you should definatley check out. My current favorite.

State IL but also locations in OH and in NY

SW corner of Golf and Roselle Rd.
Hoffman Estates IL

website:
LINK TO AQUARIUM ADVENTURE IN IL

Variety/Selection: 9
Cleanliness and Quality: 10
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 9
Smiley Rating:

Members get discounts on fish and products. Sometimes memberships are free.

This post has been edited by tropical55: Aug 2 2007, 05:39 PM

31 fish 2-oscars, 1 firemouth,1- jack dempsey,1- green terror, 2 3-spot blue gourami, 1 kissing gourami, 6- tigar barbs, 6 silver dollars, 3-clown loaches, 3 placos, 2-platys, 1- mollie 2- goldfish

awesome, looks like me and my buddy will be taking some road trips to the north side of Chitown from the burbs.


State : Illinois


City: Westchester
Store: Scott's Pet Shop
Variety/Selection: 9
Cleanliness and Quality: 10
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 10
Smiley Rating:


the best mom and pop store i've found yet. Large fish area with smaller dog/bird/cat section. they have 2 125g tanks set up with a great selection of live plants. The staff are all true fish lovers and very informative. They are known to have nice 10% off sales, and the last time i was in there got a few bonus tetras when i asked for 10 after buying plants, a light and ghost shrimp. Very clean place, the floor was freshly mopped last time i was in there.

State: Ohio
City: Willoughby (Robinhood Drive)
Store: RMS AquaCulture

Variety/ Selection: 9
Cleanliness and Quality: 7
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge: 8

Smiley Rating:


I see that one of the other RMS locations in Ohio has been covered already.

This shop has an incredible selection compared to anything else I've seen in the area. I usually find something new every time I stop in. The tanks are very clean and well-kept, and the store has no problem removing entire groups from sale temporarily if they show any sign of stress. The one time I brought home a fish that turned out to be diseased, I came back the next day to find that the rest had already been quarantined by the staff.

The only points against cleanliness come from the small section of dogs, cats, ferrets, etc. near the entrance that occasionally stink the area up, and the frequently wet / dirty floor. These things aren't a big deal to me since it's clean where it really counts, but some people might be put off by it. The staff can also be hard to track down when you need them, and some don't seem to be extremely outgoing people, but I have never received bad advice from anyone in the store. They are not the sort to make guesses when they don't know something for sure.

If you're there for the fish, it's definitely worth visiting.

I have quite a few;

USA
Illinois
Skokie
Old Orchard Aquarium

Variety selection: 9
Cleanliness and quality: 10
Staff knowledge: 10
Price: Expensive
Health: 8
Smiley:

USA
Illinois
Evanston
Thee Fish Bowl

Variety selection: 5 (freshwater only)
Cleanliness and quality: 5
Staff Knowledge: I dunno....
Price: Cheap
Health: 7
Smiley

USA
Illinois
Wilmette
Wilmette Pet

Variety and Selection: 5 (freshwater only)
Cleanliness and quality: 7 1/2
Staff Knowledge: 8
Price: Cheap
Health: 8
Smiley:

USA
Illinois
Park Ridge
Living Sea Aquarium

Variety and Selection: 11
Cleanliness and quality: 10
Staff knowledge: 9
Price: Expensive
Health: 8
Smiley

OHIO

State: ohio
City: Brooklyn
Store: Aquarium Adventure
Variety/ Selection: 10
Cleanliness and quality: 10
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 10
Smiley rating:


City: Holland
Store: Tropical Reef
Variety/ Selection: 8 for marine, 4 for freshwater (you CAN special order though)
Cleanliness and quality: 9
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 9
Smiley rating:


City: Bowling Green
Store: Petco
Variety/ Selection: 6 for marine, 7 for freshwater
Cleanliness and quality: 5
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 3
Smiley rating:



City: Petsmart
Store: Toledo and Rossford
Variety/ Selection: 6
Cleanliness and quality: 8
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 3
Smiley rating:


City: Maumee
Store: Gary's Tropical fish
Variety/ Selection: 7
Cleanliness and quality: 6
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 4
Smiley rating:

State: California
City: Tustin, Orange County
Store: Window to the Sea

Variety/ Selection: 10 (Great salt water selection)
Cleanliness and Quality: 8
Staff Friendliness: 8
Staff Knowledge: 9

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State: California
City: Orange
Store: New Wave Tropical Fish

Variety/ Selection: 10
Cleanliness and Quality: 9 (Doesn't look very nice at first glance but all the fish are really healthy and look good)
Staff Friendliness: 10
Staff Knowledge: 9

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State: California
City: Tustin, Orange County
Store: PetCo (I'm only putting this on here as a warning to stay away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Variety/ Selection: 5
Cleanliness and Quality: 2 (lots of dead and unhealthy looking fish, really dirty water.)
Staff Friendliness: 2 (it's almost impossible to get help there)
Staff Knowledge: 5 (There is only one guy there who actually knows what he is talking about. Also a lot of fish are mislabeled so watch out)

AVOID IF POSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wheaton Maryland

Showcase Aquariums

Variety/ Selection: 8
Cleanliness and Quality: 9
Staff Friendliness: 10
Staff Knowledge: 10

Been in business since 1968. Average prices. He has all the common Fish nothing oddball.

Tropical Lagoon

Silver Spring Maryland


Variety/ Selection: 8
Cleanliness and Quality: 8
Staff Friendliness: 10
Staff Knowledge: Not sure

have been in the Hobby strong 10 years. Only been to the store Twice can't tell you their Knowledge, but was friendly. Store is average sized. Nothing big.

State: New Jersey
City: Clifton
Store: Absolutely Fish
Variety/Selection: 10
Cleanliness and Quality: 10
Staff Friendliness and Knowledge:9

These guys are the best I have seen. I have been looking for a good place to start the hobby and have been to alot of stores. This one is hands down the best.

IL, Bolingbrook
Aqualand Adventures is opening a new location in December.
i'm going to a job fair there tonight

State: Kansas
City: Lawrence
Store: Pet World

Variety/ Selection: 8
Cleanliness and quality: 7
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 5
Smiley rating:

Tons of fish, great variety. The fish seem healthy, but not all of them really are. I still have some that I got here two years ago and survived being moved across the country. The people aren't very helpful and I'm pretty sure they sell bettas to people that fight them. Still, a pretty good store.
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State: Minnesota
City: Minneapolis
Store: FTwin Cities Reptile

Variety/ Selection: 6
Cleanliness and quality: 8
Staff friendlyness and Knowledge: 10
Smiley rating:

Since it's a reptile store, they don't have a huge selection. But it's the only place in town to get Gold Tetras. All the fish I got here have been very healthy, no mystery losses. They tanks are a little dirty, but they actually have live plants in them. The workers are extremely helpful. One gave me a step-by-step of how to do DIY CO2. Very nice place. I also like looking at the reptiles, it's like a mini-zoo.

This post has been edited by Sackett: Nov 5 2007, 08:32 PM