LFS's in CHicago, IL

[eds]

It is on the E side of Main Street, North of Roosevelt, South of the train tracks. Maybe 1 mile N of Roosevelt, 1/2 mile S of St Charles.
Just S of the Prairie Path. The store has an orange awning, door and parking on the south side of the building.

(It is a couple of blocks N, and on the other side of the street from their old location.)

Main Street is maybe 3 miles West of Rte 83, and 2 or so miles E of 53/355.

Is that good enough for you?

[Sponsors]

[Blackeyes]

i gotcha, thanks ed and rob. Well i stopped by TropiQuatics on sunday it wasn't actually kinda busy. I wasn't impressed with thier plant selection,only had two tanks with Bacopa and Anacharis which kinda ticked me off. As for the fish, awesome prices especially on my favorite DISCUS small ones 2 for $30. So as soon as i get this 40gal from my cousin im gonna head over there for some very nice discus.

[eds]

Yeah - they have about the best prices on fish I have seen. Get a lot of healthy fish from local breeders.

If you plan on buying much, check out their "buyer's club." 10$ for the year gets you 10-15% off most everything in the store.

Tho they said they were gonna go heavily into plants, it hasn't panned out over the past year. A little disappointing.

I have been avoiding giving them my business since a couple of recent episodes where they gave me some blatant BS. I asked about something in particular, and the owner said it would be in that weekend. So I went back that weekend, and his son(?) said it would be in the next weekend. I said that was what I had been told the previous week, and the son acted surprised and apologetic. Whereupon the owner's wife(?) gave me some attitude about how they couldn't order it until they had a minimum order or somesuch.

I didn't say anything - no desire to get into an argument or anything. But somewhere along the line someone was flatout lying to me. I was just trying to buy something I needed at a LFS, instead of heading to a nearby Big Box where I know they had it (and most likely at a lower price!)

For the last year or so, tho, I do most of my fish and plant purchasing at the Chicago Cichlid Club's swap meets. There will be another one coming up in the fall. I know they have tons of beautiful angels dirt cheap. I'm not as familiar with discus, but I recall seeing some there in the past.

[alphacat]

Quick question for my friends in the greater Chicagoland area-

I'm returning to the ol' hometown, arriving tomorrow: are there any places with exceptionally good equipment prices, by chance?

[Ryzilla]

Originally Posted by alphacat

Quick question for my friends in the greater Chicagoland area-

I'm returning to the ol' hometown, arriving tomorrow: are there any places with exceptionally good equipment prices, by chance?

Nothing that I can think of. I shop at old orchard aquarium to buy fish because I know they have the highest quality in Chicago. I dont care if they are expensive or If you want equipment the petsmart in Evanston on Oakton St. will price match.

[alphacat]

Thanks Ryzilla!

[crazie.eddie]

Yeah, if you want discus, buy them at local breeders. I bought 4 of some common variety for $20 each. They were a good size, about 2.5"-3.5". If I bought them at an LFS/LPS, I would surely pay over $50 for just one at that size.

Talk to Bill Eagan of Absolute Discus in Naperville. Join www.simplydiscus.com, becuase he will give discounts to simply members. He's a good guy and very helpful and will never steer you wrong.

Also Butch at Chicagoland Discus at 773 481-0366. He's very busy though and may not respond immediately.

There are other discus breeders, but the best are Bill and Butch.

[zos]

Over the last couple of weeks i've ventured out to Aquarium Adventure in Hoffman Estates and Deep Reef Aquatics in Downers Grove.

Aquarium Adventure: This place is amazingly good. I'd recommend everyone in the region to check this place out. Every tank looked clean and their selection was second to none. They had more plants and varieties of plants than any store I've seen. Their show tanks were awe inspiring. I purchased a Bristlenose Pleco for one of my tanks and was pleased that when I asked for one with as few bristles as possible that the woman netting the fish said "oh! you want a girl!" It's a small thing, I know, but compared to the ignorant employees of other stores I was pleased that she displayed some knowledge about the fish. The only downside of this store? They are fairly limited in their equipment (not counting tanks and stands).

Deep Reef Aquatics: This place looks fairly awful, inside and out. They have a lot of fish, no doubt about it, but their fish are in filthy tanks that are not kept up much at all. Every tank had been labeled with the fish that were supposedly in there, but only a fraction of what was labeled was what was actually in there. When asked if they had any freshwater shrimp (I saw a label for Amano's on one tank, but saw none) an employee said that they didn't have any in, not even Ghosts. After looking through tanks for anything interesting I also noticed that there were a fair amount of dying or sick fish as well. They have some extremely hard to find marine fish, which would be cool if that was what I was looking for. A lot of the marine fish looked injured or sick though. I saw some large, beautiful Congo Tetras, which was probably the high point of what I saw. But there was nothing beautiful about their plant selection, which was ridden with algae and was a meager selection. I don't know if they were in the process of changing things around or what, but their equipment selection was extremely small and there was a lot of open space on the racks and floor space that was unfilled. I don't plan to ever go back to this store.

I've been getting back into the hobby this year and I plan to check out some of the other stores mentioned here and some others I haven't seen mentioned. I'll be sure to give my impressions here.

[AxolotlFarmer]

Hey- they just opened a place by me. its like near the Corner of Archer and Halstead. I am pretty sure it is owned by Chinese, has billions of flowerhorns and silver arrowanas. Been there once, didnt notice the prices, just went to look arround. They sell the same turtles for pets that they sell for food down the street in the grocery we sometimes go to. I noticed a lot of nice equipement for sale. The people working there seemed really nice and said they could special order me this and that. They had lots of black worms in a tank there, some plants in other tanks, some of the best looking koi and goldfish I have seen. Like I said only been there once so anyone else who has bought there would be better on input than me.

[Blackeyes]

If anyone has a chance, during the week head over to Scott's Pet Shop. They have a ton a new plants. I was just there on Friday and bought some Corkscrew Vals, Tealeaf Rotala and some Cabomba. They had a lot of swords: Ozelot, Melon, Amazon, tropica ect. They also had some Rotala Wallichii, Wisteria, small micro swords and some other plants I can't remember. I might head back there hopefully during the week after school and see if they have Three- stripped African Glass Catfish. I saw a few in one of their display tanks. I was very tempted to ask for em lol.

[AxolotlFarmer]

Instead of getting fish suplies and supporting the Giant Box Box stores that begin with "Pet", go here:

Alright, the LFS by me is called:
Golden Aquarium
1516 S. Halsted ST.

They sell nano tanks there, some nice supplies, nice fish, lots of goldfish, even have BEE SHRIMP. There are plants, most are in good shape. I got a bunch of blackworm there for only a dollar. If you like flourite, i saw many bags of it.

It is a nice place to go to especially if you live in Loop/SouthLoop, Bridgeport, Chinatown, Pilsen, UIC, etc. It right across from Orangeline-Halstead. There are several bus routes near, I know definately #8 and #62.

[eds]

Scott's used to get their plants in on a certain day. I forget which - haven't been there in a couple of years, but I think it might have been Tuesday or Thursday. You might want to ask them the next time you stop by (don't waste your time trying to phone) and stop by the next day for the best selection. I was fortunate in that for a couple of years my kid took piano lessons a couple of miles away on the day after their shipments came in.

[Blackeyes]

Originally Posted by eds

Scott's used to get their plants in on a certain day. I forget which - haven't been there in a couple of years, but I think it might have been Tuesday or Thursday. You might want to ask them the next time you stop by (don't waste your time trying to phone) and stop by the next day for the best selection. I was fortunate in that for a couple of years my kid took piano lessons a couple of miles away on the day after their shipments came in.

Will do, I think its about time you check out Scotts eds. They have some fish I haven't seen any where else i.e: Flowerhorns, sturgeon,

[eds]

Originally Posted by Blackeyes

Will do, I think its about time you check out Scotts eds. They have some fish I haven't seen any where else i.e: Flowerhorns, sturgeon,

I've been there many a time. In fact, another kid is taking piano lessons now, and I'll be in the area tonight. If not tonight, I'll stop by one of these Wednesdays.
But IME their fish tend to be priced on the high side, and their return policy struck me as unrealistic. In any event, I'm pretty well stocked and able to satisfy my needs/wants at the cichlid swaps.

[crazie.eddie]

I agree about not ever calling Scott's Pets. They never answer. They DO answer through faxes though. I got fed up once waiting a long time for them to ring, that I tried faxing my question over to them. I received a call back. So since then, I'm been faxing my questions and always get a call back. They even have left messages with the answers.