What is the best fish store in ottawa?

[JoLy]

I'm sorry, this must be the 100th time someone has asked but I would love to know your personal opinion!

[KLKelly]

What are you looking for? Dry goods, livestock, good service, specialty stuff?

Are you new to the hobby or you know about fish already (cycling, water quality etc)?

You'll get a mix of answers.

[JoLy]

What are you looking for? Dry goods, livestock, good service, specialty stuff?

Are you new to the hobby or you know about fish already (cycling, water quality etc)?

You'll get a mix of answers.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I'm new to the hobby. I'm using an older aquarium set up that my dad was using when I was a kid. I'm trying to build up my knowledge to eventually buy a much larger aquarium. I've been to many of the local shops, the most impressive one was Big Al's on Innes because of the variety and of course the shark.

[chima_p]

As you learn more about keeping fish you will come to loathe the shark tank.

I used to like the Super Pet chain of stores for fish and the Big Al's for dry goods. 

Now that petsmart took over Super Pet I am looking for a good source of fish as well.

[KLKelly]

Each fish has different needs.  What fish are you thinking of getting?

You should do fishless cycling.  Don't go throwing a fish into water that hasn't been through the nitrogen cycle.  Its hard on fish.  Don't use feeder fish for cycling you introduce diseases and its cruel to the fish.  Laura has a better link but here are two articles that will introduce what cycling means and one on fishless cycling with household ammonia (pure ammonia from home hardware).  I have some if you need it.  your tank will go through two toxic phases - ammonia (burns), then nitrite(poisons) and then the biobugs in your filter and tank will convert ammonia and nitrite to harmless nitrate that is removed with weekly water changes.  You'll learn a ton about water quality also.

http://thegab.org/Articles/WaterQualityCycling.html

http://thegab.org/Articles/FishlessCycling.html

until you really get your feet wet you can post your questions here - don't take the word of fish store staff.  They are hit and miss.  You'll get a lot of feedback and maybe save on buying some useless stuff.

Prime is an amazing water conditioner.  It can detox a small amount of ammonia in an emergency also.  Its cheaper because you use drops per ten gallons not capfuls.

[dan2x38]

Here is a list of our sponsors: http://ovas.ca/index.php?page=19

There is also a Big Al's in Kanata they carry a fewdifferent fish from Innes. There is also Pet Cirrus a little shop on Bank Street very friendly, helpful and surprising reasonable prices for such a small shop. La Niche in Gatineau is always a must visit a different atmosphere nice shop. Of course there is Critter Jungle in Hampton Plaza very nice people small shop different selection the rare find from time to time. A none sponsor but interesting livestock now and then is Little Critters at Billings Bridge.

Like mentioned depends what you are looking for. Can't really say there is one place to stay clear of (totally). Try to avoid impulse purchases. If you are interested in a fish most shops will hold a fish or plant for you for a short time rush home and research them. But remember to call them back if you decide against it... only fair to both the store and another hobbyist.

[JoLy]

I've had some tiger barbs and some rosy barbs for about 2 months now. I'm sorry to say I didn't know anything about cycling and I wish I would have, the poor fish managed to make it threw though.  Do you think the fact that the tank was previously used could of had an impact? It's only a 10 gallon tank.

[Fishnut]

Welcome to the hobby!

First and foremost, there are no perfect fish shops.  Some are better than others, depending on what staff member you get.  There are some experienced staff at the Big AL's on Innis.  I live close to the shop so that's where I usually go to get fish but I have overheard some bad/unclear advice being given to customers who clearly have no experience.  I find petsmart or petcetera have employees who give more wrong/bad advice than any other shop I have ever been in, so those places should be avoided.

The best thing to do is to get really familiar with Google .  Between that and the people at OVAS, you should get good direction of what to do.  Even on OVAS, you'll get differences of opinions on what to do sometimes.  Always research anything to make sure the advice you're given is sound advice.  Often there are several ways of doing things within the hobby and people have to pick the method that works best for them.

When I started I was a child.  My father was an experienced fish keeper, but he insisted I read and learn most of it for myself.  I had nothing else to go on other than some of his old, good books about tropical fish.  OMG, what we had to do without Google!!;D  Books are still my main resource.  I have a collection of the Beansch Aquarium Atlases that I still refer to after keeping fish for 20+ years.

I didn't even understand the cycling process until about 15 years ago either.  There was a tried and true method of setting up tanks and introducing fish in those old books that I followed.  I don't remember loosing tones of fish.  To this day I still follow that method, but since I understand the process I can figure out what's going on IF there is a problem.  Anyways, get to know the nitrogen cycle.  You'll have MUCH better luck with it if you understand it.

Cheers

[KLKelly]

And do get advice from here not fish stores on stocking your ten gallon.  It is a smaller tank.  I bet you'll be upgrading in no time though.

[pcole6765]

We went from taking a coworkers 29 gal tank to buying a 33 gal and now I'm looking at tanks near or in the 100s

[pcole6765]

The boys and I went on a field trip today and visited a few of our different sponsors. By far I have to say that out of those we visited La Niche was the best. I love the way they have their fish room set up. Unfortunately they didn't have what I was looking for but I will definitely be going back to get some fishies.

[pcole6765]

I also forgot to mention that I LOVE how La Niche has their plant tanks set up. All the plants that are the same are together in a row and identified. And they have an awesome variety IMO.

[dan2x38]

The boys and I went on a field trip today and visited a few of our different sponsors. By far I have to say that out of those we visited La Niche was the best. I love the way they have their fish room set up. Unfortunately they didn't have what I was looking for but I will definitely be going back to get some fishies.

Sounds strange but check out La Niche's washroom... seriously! It is the most amazing public washroom especially for a fish store... have to visit it a must see... LMAO worth the price of admission... 

[pcole6765]

OMG that's totally what I said to my hubby. The little one had to use the bathroom and I was AMAZED at how beautiful it was. I really like that store.

[mseguin]

My recommendation for tanks that size (assuming you have a heater) is often small tetras. Glowlights, neons, as well as white cloud minnows or zebra danios, are colourful, active, and almost impossible to kill.