Aquatic Wildlife

[Stepho725]

Went to Aquatic Wildlife in Manchester for the first time today. Ive gotta say its one of the best stores Ive been to! They have stingrays and huge display tanks with some gorgeous BIG specimens in them. They have a really nice variety of fish. Their coral selection leaves something to be desired but as far as I know, its under new management and he talked about how he has lowered prices and is making improvements. So we will see how things go but I was really impressed with this place! I dont know why I hadnt heard about it before!

 

[captc07]

Derek is the owner of the store he has been there for about 10 years. His staff has been a bit of a revolving door, but after talking to a few of them it seems like they want to put more focus towards quality frags versus generic colonies. I do a walk through atleast once a week...eager to see if the transformation happens.

 

[Trump]

Yea I live about 5 mins from there and the pricing has been wayyyy to high for my taste. If the prices are coming within reason I have no problem buying from them.

 

[PL-Reef]

+1. Prices have always been high there, I work right around the corner from the store and very rarely go in. I usually don't bother wasting my time on tanks full ich and inflated prices.

 

[Stepho725]

I saw zero signs of ich. And the prices were comprable of Headie Corals in North Haven. Maybe a BIT more. $25 for baby Ricordeas...alot of showy large pieces that would be more expensive...they could definitely still come down a bit more but it wasnt anything crazy like Ive seen elsewhere and nice variety as i said before.*edit: of fish...not so much coral.

 

[MADtanks]

I was talking to Derrick the other day actually, and I dont know if its just me but when i come in I always get a decent discount... although its not a Set % but still gives me a bit off the price and usually comparable with other stores. I was talking to him about salt and if he could get the right price on it, that i bet he would have a bunch of new customers. I gave him the prices that were posted here and said he would consider something, but I have not gone back in the last week or two so not sure.

I did however find that he had the best price for the DSA tanks. Everyone else i called wanted 650 to 800+ for the 105g, his quote was much less than that. So I think a lot of the bad rep he got in the past he is working through it.

For me being that i live so close the place(less than 5 minutes) I dont mind paying a bit more as long as he gets me what i want! He carries Elos, Tunze, Kessil(has the 350 models right now) and other gear that i typically dont see at other LFS, but then again have been out of the Reefing game for a while so cant speak for all other lfs.

I say if you have not been there in a while give it a shot, last time i went he had some nice pipefish, a nice looking Sohal that was priced correctly for his size about 200 or 250 cant recall, had purple tang as well that looked great.

Just my 2cents

 

[benray4fun]

I go there every once in a while & gotta say they always have a good selection of fish, fresh & marine. All stores deal with ich, that's the nature of the business. The coral section is being restarted with a new kid & the guy is doing a better job than the last by far. The owner has def changed his tune for the better a while ago, stress will make you temporarily unpleasant, but the guy is def cool.
I can't wait to see his coral section completed, but don't cut them short, they have some eye candy as we speak & the place is roomy...worth a trip

 

[sweet d]

Stopped in tonight had some nice and HEALTHY fish, got to talking to Derek and he will be carrying new era food has well soon.

 

[yuquita]

Its a good store for buying fish, they have many diffrent types of fish..but for corals they are expensive and they dont have alot of corals there few frags nothing much on rare corals...

 

[brewman1987]

I had bought my 2 clownfish from here back in July of 2013 , the store then looked great all tanks nice , clean and colorful. Stopped in 2 weeks ago at potentially buying a anemone and was disappointed. All there marine tanks seemed to of been recently stripped and starting over. New higher prices, the anemone tank was dirty and had massive aiptasia in there as well. Prices ranged from 55.00 and up. The only nice one was a RBTA in there frag tank but was 120.00.

Hopefully it's just a phase they are going through.

 

[Famos799]

Derek himself is a good guy. I go in and check the store out a lot because I live down the street. I used his RODI water once, as fattraxx said, and I've never had more of an algae bloom than when I used that water. Prices are outrageous compared to the stores in southern ct. Only fish I EVER had die was from his store. Dry goods also insane prices. I've saved a ton of money getting the APC club card and driving the distance to get everything than buying it from him. Just my opinion though

 

[mtc1966]

He lies and is not a good person how are you gonna sell Rodi water to people when it's tap and charge for it come on now

if this is true . that is very sad to hear .:angryfire:

 

[Stepho725]

:-/ Makes me feel even worse about getting my water from pet stores...

 

[MADtanks]

About to walk up in there later with a TDS Meter.... If I go I'll report back.

 

[thoughtIKnew]

Place was a lot cleaner than I remembered this past weekend coral selection was dismal and while the tanks looked nice I saw two fish with OBVIOUS ick and one with lateral line... Although I will say the fish pricing was not out of line mabey LA $ + 20%

 

[sassAwrasse]

They have a flame wrasse pair there. So pretty! Kicking myself for not buying the pair back when PC was open.

 

[Pallobi]

Very high prices and frequently he fills the "Rodi vat with tap and water conditioner and lies to people saying its Rodi water just one of the many reasons I quit

How do you know this? Have you seen this in person for yourself? I'm not putting it past anyone, but unless you have seen it in person, it's hard to verify this as truth.

For what it's worth, I am not an advocate for this location. Just being objective.

 

[Rwinfrey]

Fattraxx it sounds like you have you own personal issues with him. I personally have been there once seemed like a nice store.

 

[MBC2012]

We tried to find it this past weekend. Couldn't find the store, or even locate a sign.

 

[saltaddict89]

It's in the plaza across from McDonalds. It's between the Panera Bread and Fedex store. You will miss it everytime if you haven't been there before. There sign is hard to read let alone find.