Tag: pet store

Pet’s World – Weymouth Massachusetts

Lately we’ve been trying to come up with new things to check out – when you’re always on the move sometimes you get to the bottom of the barrel when it comes to inspiration. I had however started to resume my exploration of independently owned pet stores after realizing that there are more out there than I gave them credit for and on this day my companion decided it might be time to check one out so we did.

I am not sure what the lure was for this particular one but as usual I was going just to see what they had and maybe get a betta fish or two if they had any girls. This was a small pet store with an even smaller parking lot but the outside was insane – completely glammed up in murals of animals. I was endeared to this alone.

When we went inside we were greeted by a counter full of locally made organic dog biscuits, which if I am to be honest looked like a human cookie counter. I mean the biscuits were frosted and huge! Further in we found a small corner of small animals, today mostly dwarf bunnies, and a room of birds behind a glass partition. Budgies, finches, a grey cockatiel, you know the standard fare. Out loose on a perch however was what I am guessing was the store mascot – a female eclectus. She seemed content. Although I do have a background in birds I never personally had an eclectus so I have no idea if this was an unusually mild bird or not.

The back room was where it was really going on though. There were a few fish, again standard fare, a rack of jarred bettas, some really cool but with no price tag so I didn’t ask. And then there was a number of tubs of juvenile fancy axolotls. Gawd where they cute. The rest of the room was even more impressive with some candy-colored corn snakes, some frogs, a big old tegu, and the most colorful bearded dragon I’ve even seen in my life. He actually had stripes of green and red. I took a picture but my cell phone camera sucks and did not register his full calico glory. And to be honest I wasn’t supposed to be taking photos as there was a sign up asking us not to in the reptile room. I get it, some of these animals are probably worth a lot of money and it’s best not to tempt robbers but still.. that’s an odd rule for a pet shop. I only broke it ever so slightly because 1) I probably won’t be back 2) I am ignorant to what the costliest critters were and 3) By the time anyone sees this blog entry their stock will probably be completely different anyway. I will note all the animals seemed healthy and clean and this place did not smell at all.

So, would I suggest this place? Sure, if you’re out for a unique reptile. As for anything else… ehhhh, maybe if you’re in the area. I honestly wouldn’t say this place was worth driving that far.

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A’s Aquatics and Pet Store – North Kingston RI

I had tried earlier on in the morning to check out Moonstone Beach to see if I could find some cool rocks for my fish tank but as I drove up I found the road and probably parking lot beyond flooded. Well… since I’m in the area anyway let’s see if I can find some other destination to spoil my fish. And boy did I find it!

From the outside it looked like just another plaza pet store so I wasn’t holding my breath for anything special. However, when I walked in I was greeted immediately with a very long wall of well stocked healthy fish of all kinds. And plants! Sure, the plants were mostly the super common beginners plants but my God were they cheap and healthy looking. $3.99 a bundle. I had been routinely paying $12 for bundles half the size. And these extremely reasonable prices seemed to extend to the fish. $6 for a rummy nose tetra and there was a whole tank of them. Having lost two batches of those, one to ick, one to a power outage, I had to talk myself down from buying more on that specific day (though I will very likely be back some day before going home to NH the same day!)

I looked around the rest of the store and found a small critter section. There I found the biggest zebra finches I’ve seen in my life, almost as big as the budgies they were housed next to! The feeder section also had enormous crickets, just huge. No idea what they were feeding them but wow! They were almost as big as the also exceptionally low priced (70 cents a head) dubia roaches.

Beyond that was a small quiet reptile section with two boas, a few empty enclosures, and an adorable fuzzy tarantula chilling in a nice actual enclosure, not a tub like you usually see! I must say the fact pet shops are starting to take an active part in helping people buy appropriately sized enclosures is really refreshing to see!

I was also happy to see this place had a tank full of live brine shrimp as a food option for the fish. I really suck at raising these myself so I was intrigued by finding a fresh supply. They also had a small saltwater section with a 40-something dollar Picasso clown fish I would have totally wanted if I had a saltwater set up. Gorgeous. Their coral frags were $20 a piece but larger than you’d usually find in that price range. Dare I say their goldfish section was also really decent and had some very pretty ones – which I don’t normally say as I’m not the biggest goldfish fan.

I decided to buy a couple plants and a couple packages of frozen food. This is the first time I tried buying anything with spirulina mixed in so I wasn’t sure my spoiled fish would want it. A baseless fear. They went NUTS for it!!

The man at the counter signed me up for a rewards program – a dollar off every 40 spent – and told me they have fish shipments usually twice a week, plant shipments once a month, and are open to special orders. Dangerous. Looks like I’ll be coming back to this place…

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Vance’s Tropical Fish and Exotics – Bucksport Maine

WE DID IT! I’ve officially gone to over 500 destinations for Catching Marbles and I decided to make Vance’s Tropical Fish the 500th entry because it epitomizes so much of what I am looking for when I am out exploring – independent businesses, weird places and things, and lovely people. This one also had the added benefit of some very beautiful and lively fish!

I had gone to Maine for a week with my travel companion and we went all sorts of places but I wanted to make sure I went to Vance’s because I’d heard from locals I needed to check for YEARS and I just never made it. Plus, I may have been in the market for a good betta. This place was a trip! As with any fish store I didn’t know what I was getting into. Perhaps naively I thought this was an actual streetside shop in town because Bucksport is very touristy but no… this place was up a long dirt driveway that clearly ended at someone’s house. Only after getting that far did we see the big sign. This was clearly a project of passion.

We drove up a few minutes before it opened and had to wait for someone to come out and unlock the place. When I walked in I found it was small but full of charm and character. I was also surprised to see that this wasn’t just a tropical fish store – that it also had an assortment of marine fish and corals. All the tanks were crystal clear with fully colored healthy looking fish swimming around real plants and corals. In fact when I asked about the bettas he said he’d gotten six in that morning but he forgot where he put them – they were all scattered among the community tanks. I had fun playing Find the Bettas for a few minutes while my travel companion stared into the mudskipper enclosure. Neither one of us had ever seen mudskippers before! They were surprisingly big! And active! And for some reason gave me the impression they looked like they should be barking (they weren’t and probably can’t. This is just my weird mind acting up.)

I managed to locate most of the bettas and they were pretty standard fair and mostly blue. But the first one I found had HUGE yellow fins and I ended up taking him home. He was so lively even with those outrageous fins. I bought him for a crazy reasonable price of $12.99 and named him Uncle Henry. If you’re from Maine you’ll get the joke. He colored up BEAUTIFULLY when I finally got him home almost a week later – having spent the interim in a Mason jar. I do apologize for my poor planning, but he eats like a bear and is doing great so this short stint in a tiny glass prison didn’t seem to harm him.

The rest of the tropical fish were pretty standard but man were they bright and active. Real quality and health here! The cherry barbs were the reddest I have ever seen and I’ve been to quite a few of these stores. And of course, I was enthralled by the mudskippers and a few marine fish I’d never seen before either. The shop had a corner that was decorated in Hawiian motif and had some instruments out. Another room read “arcade closed” and had a number of quite decent arcade machines. These were just the cherry on top of the cake, the things that made this place so delightfully weird and the shop keep was wonderfully friendly and helpful. All and all it was a great visit and I’m definitely coming back. Last photo is of Henry at home in my tank – which yes, has snails (they’re just a happy bonus for me – not sure why people get so upset about their existence.)

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Mike’s Aquatics – Manchester New Hampshire

It’s a sad reality that the vast majority of little mom and pop pet stores in New England have been absolutely obliterated by Petsmart and Petco, which if you’ve ever been there you know they lack soul amongst other things. Venturing to these small independent stores was like an adventure when I was growing up because you never knew what they’d have as far as critters were concerned.

This pet store reminded me of those days. It’s in the city but off the beaten path, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking this was a more or less vacant lot in the back of an auto mechanic. The good fish stores always have this super sketchy look to their exteriors. But after seeing the last of the little fish stores in my immediate area close for good I was told repeatedly that if you want fish you should go to Lucky’s in Worcester Massachusetts or Mike’s Aquatics in Manchester New Hampshire which is where I went on this day. So, I looked them up online and was delighted to find they had just set up a new betta rack. Obviously, I had to go check it out to see if there was any eligible studs for my bevvy of girls back home. And if they had something else, cool!

So, I drove the hour to get here, endured Manchester city traffic (which isn’t that bad but I’m a country bumpkin and love my long stretches to nowhere. They beat traffic lights and road rage any day of the week!) I was praying for a place that had actual parking because I haaaaaate parallel parking and what do you know, this place had a regular parking lot! But it was pretty hidden. A large sign aside the road said Mike’s Aquatics but I was confused because it was clearly over an autobody shop. Took me a minute to realize I had to turn into the lot and drive behind said mechanic. An adventure!

I was the only one here today. I walked in and two young women were running the store. This place was clean and sparkly. The entrance had driftwood and tanks for sale and little cups of plants. The display tanks were gorgeous! They had an ample supply of fish, all looking vibrant and healthy, being attended to by one of the staff testing the water. I looked around and found not just freshwater fish but plants, marine fish, and a quite varied rack of coral frags. And an empty betta rack. Hmmm. I looked to see if any of the other fish caught my fancy – the calico angels did indeed have my eye but I didn’t have $90 to fork out for three, nor the set up. Angels can be aggressive to each other and when you first get them it’s suggested you get at least three so they don’t get too territorial when adding more later. They were a decent size for the price though.

I was also surprised to find a single ADORABLE little turtle, a huge, planted display tank, and a herp room full of poison dart frogs, a chameleon, a stack of various tarantulas, some snakes, tubs of rolly polies?? and even a fruit fly culture. Funny, I always thought those things spontaneously appeared whenever there was a banana left out too long. Who would BUY fruit flies?? Clearly someone who has a pet that eats them but I don’t know what that would be. Lucky for me the tricolored hognose snake they’d posted on their Facebook page a few days ago appeared to have already found a home as his enclosure was empty. Just as well. I don’t need temptation and I find hognoses soooo goddamn adorable. But no. I must stay with fish. Fish are cheap and don’t care I live in a cold basement abode.

ANYWAY. I was thrilled to see this place also sold pet friendly plants and that their enclosures were very holistic with live plants and stimulation for the critters. I was SHOCKED anyone would buy 10 roly-polies (isopods) for $64 but who am I to make that call? I spent many hours in my childhood playing with woodlice outside, I get how stupidly charming these bugs are.

By now I was still the only one in the shop and I felt like I’d been here a little too long. I decided to make amends for this by buying some aquarium plants which were about the same price I could get online but without added shipping cost. I picked two. Some fluffy hornwort which looked positively unkillable and another little mat of baby tears. Because the ones I had kept getting pulled up and sent floating through the tank like little green refugees until they died. I’d put these in one of my ten-gallon fry tanks and avoid that issue this time. I did ask about the bettas… apparently the new rack system was so new it was still cycling so there were no bettas. I’d driven out here for naught. *cries* As I made my way to the counter I noticed their freezer and found a package of bloodworms for 6 bucks. Yes, please! My fishies are getting treats tonight!

Anyway… if you happen to be needing fish stuff and are in the area I would absolutely recommend this place. They are slightly on the pricey side but their livestock seemed to be of a high quality so maybe that’s completely worth it. Who’s to say, not me! At least not yet… I will be back to check out their bettas which I’ll be adding to my own fish project.

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Lucky’s Aquarium – Worcester Massachusetts

I’ve been meaning to check out Lucky’s for quite a while now as so many people seem to love this place. I knew however, that going to a well loved fish store might be a bit detrimental to my wallet. *sigh*

ANYWAY, as I drove up I discovered it’s in a warehouse dock. Certainly not what I was expecting but I’ve been to a lot of super sketchy aquariums and pet stores in the past so why not? There was a sign saying Lucky’s Aquarium, clearly handmade though almost hidden. I was alone today so I sent a quick text just to make sure if I ended up toppling into a serial killers lair someone would know…

As I walked in there was some aquariums and equipment in a hallway, still not giving me the best vibes until I saw one display tank with some very fat and happy looking newts. And beyond them there was an actual fish store! It was small but well maintained.

There was a counter full of probably 30 or 40 bettas of all kinds and sexes. And they all seemed healthy, a few of the females were even a bit on the chonky side. I found a GORGEOUS male, almost all orange, but for $45 he had the wrong tail type for my little breeding colony. To be fair the prices were anywhere between $7.50 and $65 per betta. It was the best selection I’ve seen at a petstore so far.

By now I was looking around and seeing a number of exotic large fish including two tanks of stingrays, some dinosaur fish, a selection of large fresh water puffers, a lung fish, and a fairly sizable arrowana.

I knew this place was popular and they seemed pretty sold out of most things on this day but they did have a nice selection of live plants and the small fish they did have were all super decently priced which is how I came home with a $4 plant and two almost adult hillstream loaches for $19 each!

This place is deffinately well worth a looksey if you’re in the area and wanting some healthy fish. Although they did have some tanks and supplies this place was mostly just live fish – catering to a crowd who already is in the aquarium game.

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One Stop Country Pet Supply Keene NH

Today I decided to go to the last pet shop that’s within an hour of home. As usual I was looking for somewhere that might sell aquatic plants, a search which has been so unfruitful I had literally no expectations for this place. I’ve been here once when the place first opened but that was years ago and at the time all it had was pet supplies. No fish, no critters. I didn’t think anything had changed until a friend told me I really needed to check out the fish. The fish?

This place is right next to Home Depot which was convenient considering I broke the sink trying to set up an RO water filter for my own fish babies. I had to go in there anyway, might as well just wander over to the pet store and take a peek… Maybe rescue a Betta for cheap or free. I’d heard of other people going to large chain pet stores and purposely picking Bettas that are two breaths away from death, convincing the staff they’d never sell it alive, and getting insane discounts on said fish, sometimes even bringing them home for free! If you’re talented enough to nurse it back to health you can get decent Bettas this way.

As I walked in the first thing I noticed was a very good variety of wet dog and cat food. Lots of leashes and whatnot. The place was very open, very clean, and the cashier was wearing a mask which is much appreciated by immune suppressed self. I didn’t see any critters or fish tanks but I walked to the back of the store and there they were. The first thing I saw was a rack of Betta fish in the usual plastic cups but unlike all the other pet stores these cups were hooked to same water as all the fish tanks and the Bettas were SO HEALTHY and vibrantly colored! I had never seen Bettas this robust in all my years of poking around pet stores. There wasn’t a ton of them but the ones that were here were amazing and they were sitting next to cups of various kinds of moss that was just as healthy! I expected these fish to be top dollar as they were so perfect and was shocked at their low prices. They ranged from $6-14 each. And then I saw him – a gorgeous dark blue crown tail. AHHHH. I have a particular fondness for crown tails and aside from pictures online I’d never seen one with full fins like this. Turning the corner there was also a female crown tail for $7! The male was $10. I had been planning on buying a pair of crown tails online and was expecting to pay $25 a fish plus shipping, this was a steal! They came home with me with a little tub of Taiwan Moss.

As I continued deeper into the fish section I noticed it was small but had a fairly decent variety and everything was intensely robust. Even better they had plants! For very decent prices! FIRST time I’d seen this in the area. I was impressed. A single saltwater tank had a very well-fed clownfish. Nearby the reptile section had a solitary resident, a large and vibrant chameleon. Chameleons are notorious for being hard to keep healthy so seeing this guy here was eye-opening. At the front of the store there was guinea pig, some mice, and rats, all in large very clean enclosures. Everyone was bright eyed and glowing.

I am going to be back to this place! HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED. And in the meantime if you’re wondering how my two new babies are doing – the female is a voracious eater and the male is very very docile for a male. I have yet to name them.

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OSA Aquarium Superstore and Services – Seekonk MA

The antique stores we had chosen earlier on in the day were kind of meh so we decided a change it up a little bit and check out another fish store. I’m still looking for places I can buy healthy plants and maybe more for my own freshwater tank. It’d be nice to be able to help support one of these little stores instead of continuing to buy plants online.

When we drove up I noticed their logo was a piece of coral and I wondered if we hadn’t accidentally ended up at another saltwater store. The storefront windows were all blocked with posters, I am sure to keep algae growth down, and DAMN were these some clean tanks! And quite a few of them! Every single one of them was fresh water so I have no idea what the logo was about. There was a pretty sweet collection of larger fish – cichlids, angels, discus, and an adorable catfish that was swimming upside-down for some reason. Everyone looked healthy and they even and some snails and freshwater shrimp! The range of nano fish was also decent. They even had some rainbow fish.

But what really made me smile was a big set of shelves full of various driftwood. You’d think a store with driftwood would have plants but alas no, every tank I noticed with plants had garish plastic ones. Oh well, at least now I know. Otherwise this place looks like a great place for fish or driftwood. They even had a little river tank that kept the fish on the move. It was sweet.

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Pet Supplies Plus – Lunenburg MA

Having failed to find any aquarium plants that tickled my fancy at Forest Wonders I decided to continue down the street to find Pet Supplies Plus which is a larger store – a chain store – though I think one that might be locally owned (but don’t quote me on that.)

Walking in it looked more or less like PetCo or Petsmart – big, open, a sort of Wal-Mart for pets, though I don’t know about the pricing! There were a few cashiers and one of them warmly greeted me as I came in. I went straight for the fish isle which was labelled critters for some reason. They had a nice assortment of tanks, especially ones on the smaller side. At the end were the bettas. Just a handful, all looking as pitiful as bettas in little plastic tubs always do. There was one really small one for five bucks. He looked half dead but then again that’s how they normally look in these places. I talked myself out of it. I don’t have the right set up for a betta. Next to the bettas was two small tubs of plants. One read cryptically, “assorted plants” and had only one dried up brown plant in it. Aquarium tumbleweed? The other tub was java moss and looked almost as bad.

Within the fish department there were rows of tanks with the usual assortment of glo fish and whatnot. One tank had a few plants in it. $7 for a little pot of dwarf baby tears actually was a super decent price. Too bad the plant itself was yellow as fuck and I didn’t feel like I knew enough about rescuing plants to bring it back to life. Not yet anyway. Seems I struck out once again.

I stayed a little longer only to see what they had for critters – a furless guinea pig, two ferrets, and some miscellaneous fuzz that were probably hamsters – before leaving. The staff flagged me down again and asked if I needed help.

“No, I’m good, but thank you!” I smiled. At least the personnel here were super friendly. I give them that!

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S & S Exotics Pet Store – Houston texas

Texas is an odd state where you can have almost any pet without too much (if any) trouble. And when I say any pet I mean things that should be in zoos… monkeys, lemurs, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my! I also had seen this one pet shop in Houston online that seemed to have the most bizarre things, little mammals I had never heard of (and I’ve been in the hobby a looong time, it takes a lot too stump me!) People seemed happy with this place too according to the reviews. I thought Ishould visit at least one pet shop on my travels anyway.

I did not expect it to be situated in the middle of a trailer park. The place was small, much smaller than I expected, it was… a normal pet store. I walked around anyway. They had such a lovely variation of reptiles, including the cutest baby tortoises you could ask for and a lizard that I swear to god just skittered in from Jurassic Park. Reptiles were the one kind of house pet I’d never had. Still lizards fascinate me and the snakes were rather cool too. Too many pythons though, I really don’t like the idea of selling a little snake that grows up to be aggressive and 18 feet long. Sigh.

Finally I wandered to another corner and found the mammals. This is what I was here for! There was someone here handling some sort of Asian ground squirrel. In cages there were a couple degus, another squirrel, some very healthy looking furless and furred rats, some skinny pigs, a kinkajou and a lemur. Texas is the only state in which lemurs are legal to own as pets as far as I know. Kinkajous are only legal to keep in a handful of states. I was slightly disappointed. I sorta wanted to see some of the really unusual things this place often had on their website… like capybaras, pacas, or maras, or something I’d never heard of and couldn’t identify (like the one fossa fossa I found on an ad one day.) Still it was sort of neat…

Then I saw what I came to see. Just outside, behind a fence, there was a young lion, no more than 3 or 4 years old, and apparently his mate, a large orange tiger. apparently hybrids were legal here too. It was pretty amazing, seeing two large cats living not only in someone’s back yard but in a trailer park in Houston. I’m all for exotic (domestically bred) pets, but even this is too far for me! Still, the animals at the shop, including the cats were very robust and healthy. Everyone looked great. They even had classically fussy animals like chameleons and sugar gliders that looked very healthy. And let me tell you the furless rats didn’t have a scratch on them! That’s an accomplishment! And I know because they were my favorite breeding project once.

I left the shop only to find a large tortoise wandering the yard and the three micro-mini potbelly pigs in a pen. They were so cute! She said they only got to be about 35 pounds. Man if I had a place of my own, with a nice yard, and this little shop were closer that would have been super tempting. The largest was a salt and pepper gray with a little white star. So cute. Its been way too long since I’ve seen piggies.

On the way out I got to witness one of the funniest sights I had yet seen – it was a couple, the man obviously a stoner, grinning ear to ear, a lemur on a leash going bat shit crazy in his car, his girlfriend looking disgruntled like, “Why did you just buy a fucking monkey?! Now I can’t even get into the car!”

If you are enjoying Catching Marbles please consider adding a dollar or two to my limited gas money fund so I can continue going on adventures and sharing them with you! Thank you!


 

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