tropic isle
 

no one has posted anything in massachusetts for a while so i thought i would
ask if anyone has been to tropic isle in Massachustts this is right by me.

say anything you want about tropic isle!

Ok store. Well lit and clean, large fish selection. Huge selection of saltwater.
Equipment and plants very pricey. Lots of fish unsuitable for most tanks (ie: red tail cats) Totally generic plant section and equipment, though it seems to have been getting better. Many of the employees are total A-holes.

I much prefer All Things Fishy and Uncle Ned's.

hey minsc,
i totally agree with you on the employee thing. do you know the guy with the huge nose ring he freaks me out. also last time i was there looking at fish, a few feet away from me a guy wanted to get some ghost shrimp, so when he takes them out to put in the bag he drops one then it takes him 5 tries to pinch and pick it up.

any other massachusetts dwellers out there?
even if you dont no about the fish store feel free to post where you live in MA

All things fishy is nice. When you are coming out of the road that tropic Isle is on, there is a tatoo and body piercing shop. ( I wonder if that is where the guy got his nose ring?)

ya lol except this is the tropic isle one not all things fishy, but your right thats definitely where he pierced it

come on you guys, where all all the massachusetts hobbyists?

The women at the counter (older and younger with red hair) are total jerks! Prices are very high! They do have the hard to find items. And the coupons the send you are a joke.

I would rather go to fintastic fish! And for plants, why does no one mention paradise water gardens?

What town is Tropic Isle located in?

Framingham.

their website is Tropicisleaquarium.com

I do buy stuffs from here once in a while but their customer services are the worst in town .. I dont go there anymore unless they have something no other stores have .. otherwise .. I would just rather to get it from the clubs or from forum ..

I buy everything from tropical isle, as it is way better then petco and petsmart. I have not heard of the other stores in MA that several of you have listed tho, can you refer me to some addresses or websites for them?

Thanks.

Poor service
 

Every time I go to Tropical Isle to buy fish (that is after I get done watching the reef tank at the entrance for 15 minutes) I am baffled by the lack of employees. There is always one poor dude running around like a mad man with 3 to 6 customers following him opening to be the first to say "I need some fish." Because of the unavailability of employees my questions are left unsaid and fish are left not purchased. They have a great saltwater selection, a good freshwater selection, and a decent plant selection. However, I find some of their nicest fish to be in the display tank and not for sale.

We have the same type of store here in Fort Myers, but the employees, though a bit overworked and in a very cramped store, still try to give the best cust service they can except for ignoring people, which is obviously going to happen when 5 people are following one guy around. I've left before due to that and the lack of space to move around once there are more than 5 customers and their brother in the store, but when it comes down to it, the staff tries to keep a good attitude. Imagine a guy plopping down on a turned up bucket, taking a deep breath, then peering up and asking in a winded voice, "anything I can help you with?", as if he just climbed a mountain, lol.

Hopefully this place you speak of isn't family owned, in that case you guys should shoot them this link so they can make the proper changes, ie hire and fire appropriately. If it's family owned than you'll probably get more attitude in return.

i don't live in New Eng, but I visit often as my fiance is from there and her fam is in Watertown. I'll be sure to visit these places when I'm back up.

Nice try, but the biggest jerks there are the married couple that own the place.
I actually heard the wife yelling at one of the nice employees, "You are here to sell fish, not chat with customers!" As if the two aren't related:icon_roll

Funny story, I used to tell my wife how much the big biker looking guy disliked me, and she never really believed me. One day we went in together, and I told her to flag him down to bag up some cories for me. She said he was nice and friendly to her and then, bang, he saw me, and suddenly became surly and uncommunicative.

To be fair, the fish I actually ended up buying there were always in good health. Of course, I always avoided the tanks full of dying coolie loaches or 1/2 inch SAEs.