Richmond, VA Fish Stores

[enrgizerbunny]

I searched the sticky thread for "Richmond" and I got one post raving about Fish World. While I agree that they are an EXCELLENT salt specialist in the southside/north Chesterfield area, there are other options. This is an incomplete list that I will update as I visit more stores personally.

Fish World
Saltwater Specialist
11634 Busy Street
Richmond, VA 23236
Fish World is the place to come for saltwater on southside. Tucked away in an office park, you'd never know it was there if you weren't searching for it. The only sign that I saw was on the building label. As previously mentioned, they have a 1500g display tank- it is beautiful. As far as equipment and accessories, the display was somewhat limited, but the clerk was helping assemble a lighting assembly when I was there. I spoke with him briefly (I'm not a saltwater guy, so I can't tell you his knowledge level).



Richmond Aquarium
3645 Speeks Drive
Midlothian, VA 23112
Located in "Midlothian" this store is off Hull Street Rd at the end of Speeks drive on the left. There are 3 sections, Coral Frags, Saltwater, and Freshwater respectively. They also had a selection of equipment and carried some quality chemicals/fertilizers/foods from what I saw. I did not have much time to spend in the store, but the freshwater fish selection included several varieties of cichlids, tetras, even gar. Definitely outside of the "big box" selection. The have a very long saltwater display tank in the front of the store with some nice fish in it.


Atlantis Aquarium
9602 Patterson Ave, Richmond, VA ‎
Have not visited personally, but from google reviews it seems to be the west end counterpart to Fish World. Right off Patterson near the intersection with Gaskins.

Off The Ark Exotic Pets, LLC
11334 Iron Bridge Rd, Chester, VA ‎
NOT A FISH STORE- but very good for reptiles.
I stopped and visited this place on a trip down Iron Bridge one Friday afternoon. They specialize in reptiles and had many snakes and lizards in stock. Very few mammals. I saw corn snakes, ball pythons, reticulated pythons, colombian redtails, bearded dragons, iguanas, monitors, frogs, and more other types of snakes than I can recall.


Petsmart
1276 Carmia WayRichmond, VA 23235
Typical petsmart, carries low grade essentials, some quality supplies available. Good for common fish on sale. Staff is helpful.

Petsmart
12264 Chattanooga Plz
Midlothian, VA 23112
Typical Petsmart, smaller than Carmia Way. Staff seems more knowledgeable. The girl I spoke to in aquatics claimed to have a personal tank, suggesting first hand experience.

Petco
9700 Midlothian Turnpike, Richmond, VA ‎
This is a small Petco, lacks in the aquatic department.

Petco
349 Perimeter Drive
Midlothian, VA 23113
This is a larger store. Small salt section, "Big Box" selection of freshwater. Some quality supplies available, cheap also available. $1/gallon sale is awesome.

Staff is helpful and knowledgeable.

 

[melosu58]

Thanks for posting. I frequent fish world and Richmond aquarium alot.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Skoolz of Fish
1503 Chamberlayne Avenue
Richmond, VA 23222
This is a very good freshwater store. They have a limited saltwater selection, but it seemed specialized with 2 lionfish in the store. The remainder of the 1600 sqft of store is freshwater tanks. They have a 220g display tank with wild caught discus and freshwater rays. There is what I presume a ray petting pool, also small, medium and large discus for sale. Various cichlids (SA/African/Malawi) are all available. This store seems to specialize in FISH, I didn't see much room for equipment or food, all the space was consumed with tanks.

 

[snufaluph]

I like Skoolz of Fish, personally, though I live in the West End and didn't know about the place at Patterson and Gaskins. I'll be checking them out this weekend.

Don't forget about other places north of the river!

Fin and Feather
5208 Lakeside Ave
Richmond, VA 23228

They are a bit more of a general pet store, but they have a nice selection of fish accessories and you can feel good shopping local.

Azalea Aquariums
5112 Richmond Henrico Turnpike
Richmond, VA 23227

In addition to all their cichlids and other freshwater fish, they have a big selection of saltwater fish. I am new to freshwater and won't be venturing into saltwater anytime soon, but they're fun to look at. They also have nice live plants for sale.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

I live in Powhatan, so I don't make it up there too often.

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[snufaluph]

I live in Powhatan, so I don't make it up there too often.

That's ok. I haven't been to any of the stores you listed in Midlothian. There's just something about Richmond... No one ever wants to cross the river unless it's a life-or-death situation.

That said, thanks for the southside listings. I may check them out sometime. And if you don't make it to Lakeside or the East End, I don't blame you.

 

[OhNeil1969]

Realize this thread is a little old, but I wanted to add that Azalea Aquariums has always provided me with healthy fish. I've purchased fish from Petsmart on Laburnum and Skoolz of Fish. Both stores have sold me fish that had ich. That being said, I would still go back to Skoolz (I am comfortable with dealing that particular condition).

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[snufaluph]

I like Skoolz of Fish, personally

I probably should have updated this. I liked Skoolz at first. I was still really new to fishkeeping, and one of the employees recommended a jewel cichlid, who nearly murdered our tiger oscar, Frank. We returned the jewel for store credit and got a small school of pearl danios instead, which had ich and we lost all but Frank and one other fish.

Surprisingly, we've had the best luck with fish from the Petsmart at Libbie and Broad. Except for tetras, since Frank has now eaten nearly half of them. Didn't think he'd outgrow them so fast. The ciiiiiiiiiiiiiiircle of liiiiiiiiiiiife...

Anyway, if one of their small baby fish kept by inexperienced people like me can survive getting ich while missing all his fins, I'm alright with Petsmart.