LFS's in CHicago, IL

[Olakytrion]

Does anyone know a good fish store anywhere in the chicagoland area, suburbs or city? I only know of one good one, and they focus mostly on saltwater!! Thanks!

[Sponsors]

[TeutonJon78]

The Old Town Aquairum is probably the best. http://www.oldtownaquarium.com/
They have a lot of really good plants and fish. Probably the best FW/plant store in the chicago area (I've been to at least 90+% of them). Parking is a hassle. They validate parking at Piper's Alley, but that only gets you an hour. and if you are there over an hour, the clock starts over at $8/hr. But.....AWESOME STORE.

Living Sea Aquarium in Park Ridge is good. Not a big plant selection at all, but lots of fish. Also HUGE saltwater.
http://www.livingseaaquarium.com/

Old Orchard aquarium has a lot of plants as well. But the staff is generally very rude (especially the guy I think is the owner). http://www.oldorchardaquarium.com/

There is a group of petsores in Wilmette (625 Greenbay Road) and another one at 600W Dempster (Thee Fish Bowl in Evanston). The Greenbay road store is better. All but the cichlid tanks are planted and everything is for sale. REALLY good prices.

Regarding the chains, Petlsand in Arlington Heights and Tinley Park (or Orland Park), are really good. The one in AH is probably the best chain store I've been too. Fish are usually very healthy and they have plants. Try to get Evan as most of the other people there are kinda bad at netting fish. The PEtsmarts in Vernon Hills and AH are pretty good. The new Petco in Vernon HIlls is really nice at the moment, but generally, I find Petco's to be pretty bad. They have a plant tank though with lots of plants at very decent prices.

Almost every other petstore is pretty much SW only. Schaumburg ones are SW only (except the chains). The ones on the SW/S suburbs are mostly SW. Palos Pets in Palos Heights has a decent FW stuff and some plants. That was my pet store when I was growing up.

[Olakytrion]

yeah, ive tried living seas, but theyre all about fish, and i need plants, the fish are the easy parts, hahaha. old orchard is real close, i havent gotten the chance to check it out, but Old Town Aquarium sounds great, ill have to try it. thanks for the info!

[TeutonJon78]

for plants, I'd stick to Old Town, and the Wilmette/Evanston ones.

Or, frankly, the Petco in Vernon Hills did have a lot of nice plants (surprisingly). The Petland in Arlington Heights has a nice selection as well. I got some watersprite there that is doing awesome. Some of the plants are nice, some are ok.

Old town just has awesome plants, but you'll pay more for them.

[Gunter95]

I felt they [Old Town] charged me way to much for their plants. I got a bunch from animal Kingdom on Milwaikee in the Little Poland neighborhood.

[GraFFix]

Ocean Design Aquarium on the NW side of chicago. Irving and Narragansett (also called Nagle) Talk to Tony (owner) and he can try to order any special plants your looking for. he also carries a pretty good selection of plants and FW fish. He usually gets plant shipments on tuesdays i believe. thats the best day to go since you get the best choices..the plants seem to go fast in the store.

[TeutonJon78]

Old Town does seem to charge more for just about everything. It's probably my least favorite aquarium-only store in Chicago.

[Gunter95]

Thanks for the tip on Ocean Design Aquarium. That store is not that far from my house.

[Gunter95]

I have found here is a bad LFS. Avoid the Animal Kingdom at 2980 N Milwaukee.

[will5]

You might also want to try CHICAGO AQUARIUM & POND 5028 n clark st zip60640 They have where you can become a member and get a 5% discount and for every 20 you spend you get a dollar cridet. They have a fair amount of plants at a fair price. If you buy a plant from them its going to live. These are good people.

[GraFFix]

Wow..this thread was brought back from the dead lol. Ill add a few more to the list

Scott's Pet Shop
3054 S. Wolf Road
Westchester, IL

They have a great assortment of freshwater fish and usually a ton of plants.

------

Coral Reef Pet Center
7723 W Lawrence Ave
Norridge IL
60706-3303
708-456-0768

Usually dont carry alot of plants, maybe some swords and easy growers but they do have a good selection of fish and good prices. They usually have Rams and some of the odder tetras and loaches that most places dont carry.

hope this helps

[will5]

hers is another one KING CORAL 5541 W MONTROES
chicago,IL
(773) 283-5612
(773) 283-5618
mention web site and get a free 2oz of brine shrimp.

[GraFFix]

Originally Posted by will5

hers is another one KING CORAL 5541 W MONTROES
chicago,IL
(773) 283-5612
(773) 283-5618
mention web site and get a free 2oz of brine shrimp.

No offense but i wouldnt bother with king coral thats why i didnt list them. I used to live down the street from them and they USED to be a good store. I used to go there all the time. I even sold them Bearded Dragons when i was breeding them.
I went in there a few months ago and it was honestly one of the worst stores ive ever seen...

Dead fish in tanks.
Tanks half full with water with fish still in them...apparent that they are slacking on maintenence.
Dirty tanks..See above
Plants were terrible, rotting or just plain dead.
flickering lights over tanks
Half of their inventory looks like someones garage sale...being very old looking, opened boxes, unorganized shelves, dusty...etc.

Personally i wouldnt waste my time going there again...maybe they changed but theres alot of good pet stores in that neighborhood so ill stick with those.

Just my .02

[eds]

Went to Living Seas the other day.

Very nice selection of very healthy looking fish.
Extremely clean tanks, and pleasant helpful staff.
Prices struck me as a little on the high side, tho.
And a minor quibble, the prices were printed in extremely small print on small stickers - hard for my old eyes to read.

As you said, not many plants, nothing out of the ordinary, and pretty steep prices on what they had IMO - $12.99 for small coffefolia?

Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area, tho.
Very close to the 294/90 exchange by O'Hare, on Devon just E of Cumberland.

[GraFFix]

Yes Living sea is very expensive..They wanted $15.99 for some anubis nana..I was in shock. I go there all the time since its on my way home from work and i talked to the guy in the fish dept (i forget his name now) and asked him about cherry shrimp and he said he would order some for me. So the next week i went on delivery day to pick up some shrimp...well I was a little dissapointed when they were all sold already...untill i saw the price on the tank they were in. $12.99 each OUCH!

its a great store...and they have a great saltwater selection, I go there more for the possibility of finding something rare and to just look at the fish. Sometimes i find something worth the few extra bucks and ill buy it. like my clam.

On sundays they do shark feedings at 2 or 3pm i think. and 2 times a year they hold a midnight sale where things are really cheap, like 50% off or buy one fish get one etc...The line is usually outside the door waiting to get in. I used to go all the time when i had my reef setup.

Sorry im kind of a Fish store junkie...Ive been to all of them in a 50 mile radius from me