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LFS: Shark Aquarium - Hillside, NJ

7K views 14 replies 10 participants last post by  jeep8rus 
#1 ·
Shark Aquarium
245 Route 22
Hillside, NJ 07025
www.sharkaquarium.com


I believe this is the second or third incarnation of this shop, it has moved around a bit.

Shark Aquarium is a fairly large aquarium fish shop. I say aquarium fish shop because the dry goods available at the store are minimal. Few choices very limited stock. The shop is neat and clean, something I always look for. There is a large variety of fish, which looks like it is going to be wider judging by all of the empty aquariums being place on the racks and plumbed for filtration. Selection is good. They usually have lots of Cories and Plecos. Fair selection of Barbs and Rasboras. Tetra selection could be a lot better. Hopefully this is what all the new aquariums will be for.

The place seems to specialize in predatory fish. Big ones too. There is a big variety of Cichlids and Piranha.

Forget plants. Selection is poor, and the quality is just above garbage. they have set up a pretty large planted display aquarium, but it's days are numbered.

All in all, not a bad shop. Worth a poke around for sure.

Mike
 
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#6 ·
Just visited them earlier today and was pretty impressed. Had a pretty good variety of fish and they seem to import a lot from Germany. Picked up a zebra oto and 3 very pretty dwarf plecos (forgot what the scientific name they had listed was cause it wasn't like any pleco name I had seen before but they look like plecos, just really, really small). They also had a very pretty solitary male black swordtail that I was very tempted in picking up but just couldn't justify it cause I have no place to put him.

Plants are located only in 2 big tanks in the left row and didn't seem too bad. I don't think they're well-lit enough though. They did have microswords and glosso though.

They also seem to have a decent selection of dry goods and a wide variety of tanks.

Think they're worth keeping an eye on. Making my rounds will now include these guys, Pet Shanty and Absolutely Fish. :proud:
 
#7 ·
The plecos were simply labeled "Dwarf peckolita". George Willms and I were there last week and he picked up three of them. The owner of the shop, in addition to being pretty rude, was unable to give us any more information than that. The fish just seemed to show up on the wholesalers list, and he bought them up. They are mystery fish right now. It will be interesting to see what you and George wind up with.

Mike
 
#8 ·
Momotaro said:
The plecos were simply labeled "Dwarf peckolita". George Willms and I were there last week and he picked up three of them. The owner of the shop, in addition to being pretty rude, was unable to give us any more information than that. The fish just seemed to show up on the wholesalers list, and he bought them up. They are mystery fish right now. It will be interesting to see what you and George wind up with.

Mike
Yeah that's the one! Eh, didn't interact with the owner much so not sure of his rudeness but the guy I did deal with seemed personable enough to me. Although I'm assuming his answer to my question "how large are these things going to get?" is probably suspect (about 3 inches) if you're saying they don't know much about these guys. I'm hoping they stay small though. Was quite excited to see them though cause they're a bit more colorful than the small clown and bushynose plecs that I normally see.
 
#12 ·
I checked out this store yesterday. They have an enormous selection of aggressive fish and a pretty large selection of everything else too. Their red discus were breathtaking! They also have a really big square plant show tank set up with some really pretty (and unusual) fish in it. The plant selection for sale left something to be desired though. The man who helped me was very nice, but he had to ask the owner a few times about some obscure fish I was asking about (for my sister, she is into cichlids). I left with a reverse trio of cobalt guppies that they had imported from Germany. I was a little nervous about going there because everyone said how rude they were, but both the man helping me AND the owner were very knowledgeable and friendly. I will definitely return there when I need fish for my 30 cube tank I am setting up! :thumbsup:

Tina
Somerset, NJ
 
#13 ·
Zebra otos!

In case anyone's interested a few days ago I dropped by SA and they had a ton of gorgeous zebra otos. $9.99 or 3 for $25. Quite a deal considering I had just picked up the sole remaining one at Absolutely Fish a few days before that for $19.99. Argh...
 
#14 ·
Shark Aquarium 01/02/06

Visited the Shark Aquarium last weekend 01/02/06 and was disappointed in their plant selection, there are two large tanks with plants toward the back and many of them were brown/yellowing. Java moss was already in plastic bags ready to go for $5.99, be warned that I found snails inside and on the outside outside of the bags, rinse well.

As far as fish, they certainly have the best selection of catfish I have ever seen, including lots of upside-down catfish. They also have good selection of cories. Be warned that the staff sometimes seems rushed and they dump all of your fish into the same bag, not sure how their water system/filtration works, but I don't think this can be good for the fish.
 
#15 ·
I can confirm the snails in the java moss. I checked it, but didn't have the time to put it in a chlorine bath and now I have snails...grrr. I just picked up a clown loach to clean up the tank after he's out of quarantine.

The staff wasn't "chit-chatty" when I was there and they didn't have a good sized bag for individual adult discus. All they had were small bags and super bags that you could ship a watermelon in. I ended up putting two adults in one "uber" bag. They made the flight home fine, but one had some excess scale damage that could have been prevented had they been individually bagged. Next time I go I'll bring my own shipping bags.

-Russ
 
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