LFS's of Saginaw.

True Review

Aquatic Gardens: C-

Disappointed with the quality and quantity.
Some tanks were clearly infested with Ich, and only 1 was labeled not for sale.

Limited selection, higher than average prices.

Nice staff, if not entirely helpful, I met the younger woman and man.

Dog was cute as hell though.

Final review in my opinion, not worth more than 10 minutes drive.
decent for locals.



OOPS Ocean Odyssey Pet Store B-

Large stock compared to other stores in general area, especially FW.

Fish looked healthy, and happy mostly.

Quite a few were mislabeled, such as various cichlids and Plecostomus being sold as pirhana haha, could just be they didn't change signage yet.

The two younger women I saw in the store were nice, but they recommended to another customer who didn't even know the size of her tank, that She get a 12"pleco, 8" black ghost knife, a shovelnose catfish and a few dozen tiger barbs. The customer, thought she had a 55-70 gallon but compared it to the 40 Gallon breeders for display.

Oh and they had a 20% off FW gimmick, that seems to be constant.

bottom line, I'd shop here, but not get advice from the workers I met.


Exotic aquatics, address listed is a P.O. box.
Could not find on my own, and could not find with the help of anyone in the area either, and was told it may be closed by most.


And the Pet supplies "plus" by State, had the best selection of aquariums, hoods, Filters, and media. and a large variety of foods.

Fish are not recommended from them though haha.


Sorry I didn't get names, no one offered, and I didn't have the energy to track them down and ask names, without having too many questions to follow.

I will Give any LFS a chance, and sometimes more than one.

Thanks M.E.

I thought maybe I was being a bit harsh.

But AG had a few tanks with Ich in them, and only one was labeled not for sale from, and their guppies had fry and no food smaller than freeze dried brine shrimp, whole.

Thanks for agreeing with most of it.
Let me know if you find anything better in the Greater Mid-Michigan/Bay area.

I will give AG and OOPS another try at the beginning of November.
I hope to be impressed with both stores.

OOPS has more potential to become worse, and AG has the potential to improve a lot, if they can just get the business they need.

I was in AG this past weekend too. They said their pump just broke down for their saltwater selection so that might be why its a little run down looking at the moment. So I agree with the hit and miss thing.

You will have to teach me how to spot ich in tanks cus I never saw it in any store tank before even though it was probably right in front of my eyes.

I did however buy two discus from Ocean Odysee before and a few plants and by the end of the week all my fish had ich and almost lost the whole group back in April 2012! Since then I haven't spent a penny there because the store in general just is very dirty IMO.

Last Thursday I ventured up to bay city and went into Saldons or something. They had all kinds of great looking fish. Hard not to add to my tank. I also saw a wings and things but showed up 30 minutes too late. Found out they close at 6...

Mr. Fish in Bay city is also someones home. Not too sure who said that was a fish store but they were wrong!

You also missed Petsmart on Titty wassy. I buy my frozen food from there and wonder their store for odds and ends.

Ich/ICK

It's incredible hard to be sure ick is in the tank.

But when I walked into AG's freshwater section the very first tank had numerous fish clearly coated in white spots, and upon closer inspection they looked like little granules of salt stuck to the fish.

This is what I've have been told to look for as an outbreak of ick in a tank.

And they had one fish laying in that tank on it's side with granules falling off of him.



I understand that fish get sick, and tanks get infections, but that clearly infected tank was the only infected one, which was labeled not for sale, hopefully for treatment.


I truly hope that AG improves, and I'd love to give them some business to make sure it happens, but I won't get livestock from them till I see the improvements.









And also Quarantine! it's important whether it's 1.99 guppies or 199. Discus!

Marine edge

He beat me to it, but yes exactly what Marine Edge said.

Whenever you buy new fish they should be monitored in a quarantine tank.

At the very least keep them there for a week, and treat for internal parasites.


That way your show tank, or display tank doesn't die from a single new purchase like an exploding discus.

P.S. sorry for your loss and I know it sucks to lose pets and the money spent for them, but just say Exploding Discus out loud, it's funny.

Rosies and whiteclouds

I went to my friends house to check out his newest addition, a dinosaur bichir and noticed his entire tank, and his feeder bowl was covered.

all fish were fine when he bought them, but his GF put 9 1.5" goldfish in a 1 gallon bowl, they were covered in ick, tongue to fin tip.


I made them clear it out, with the salt and heat method, giving away a heater in the process.

And then donating a 2.5 Gallon pet carrier for white clouds to quarantine in
and he ended up getting 30 WC's and 10 Rosies for it.


Needless to say he doesn't much care about the feeders, but he at least plans to trade off his other fish when they get too big.