I know this forum is mainly for people in the Charleston Area Valley but there doesnt seem to be much interest up here in Morgantown on any of the boards so I wanted to post my thoughts about the LFS here in Morgantown. Please tell me if there are anymore stores near here. Thanks.
Here in Morgantown we have 3 local petstores.
Petco
4101 University Town Center Drive
Morgantown, WV 26501-2261
304-599-0670
It's a basic Petco, the freshwater and saltwater departments are about what you would expect from a chain store. They have some good days and bad days, mostly bad with over crowded tanks, one tank always seems to have ich. There are two pluses to the saltwater department though, they have decent LR and they have some good looking display fish for sale which are in separate tanks from the main little tanks. Also they display fish are for sale you just have to ask. They have a nice clown trigger that is about $100 he has ben there for over a year at least, I think that the price of the fish scares people away and over to the $3 damsel tank. They also have a nice Eel Blenny (C. subducens) in anoher display tank. In the last display tank the thing to note is a huge arrow crab.
Streetside Home Reef and Pets
401 Fairmont Rd
Morgantown, WV 26501
(304) 296-9218
This is the place to go for saltwater fish in Morgantown. I generally go there once a week because thats the saltwater shipment day. They are also more than happy to help with questions or make special orders for you. They are a small pet shop that doesn't have much in the way of dry goods or equipment, however he can order you tanks and stands pretty quickly. As for small animals he has good healthy chinchillas, usually I am not interested in the rest of the stuff. What I like most about his shop is that he honestly concentrates on the fish. He has a small fish room that is divided up into about half freshwater and half saltwater. There is also one larger tank that has nano corals for about $19.95 and some regular corals for about $39.95. I only keep freshwater discus and he doesnt carry those so I am no sure about his freshwater selection but they usually seem pretty healthy and lively when I go in there. There are about 12 saltwater fish tanks and 6 saltwater invertebrate tanks. The fish are generally pretty healthy, his saltwater and invert tanks have substrates and some live rock probably to make some inhabitants more comfortable. Usually there are no sick fish in the tanks and he tries to space the more agressive ones out a bit. For example in the upper right hand corner he has a nice huma huma trigger that is about 6-7 inches and he has been there for at least 2 months for $39.99 which is a pretty good price for around here. I also like the fact that when I ask questions they try to steer me in the right direction and even away from the more expensive items if they dont fit my needs. For example I was going to get that huma huma but they looked at my setup and steered me to a much smaller and cheaper trigger that would better fit my tank.
The last store is
Exotic Jungle
1716 Mileground Road
Morgantown, WV 26505
(304) 296-8552
Now the Exotic Jungle has the best reptiles you can find around here. The owner is a reptile afficionado. For example she basically has a room with one glass/acrylic wall where this one constrictor lives (about 12 ft long is my guess), there is also an albino cobra in another area, needless to say if you like reptiles this is your place. This place also has an abundance of dry foods and lots of dog/cat stuff. The store is always going through changes and because of that things get disorganized easily and the aisles just seem to get more narrow. Now if you want freshwater fish this is a fine place to come. And because they have greater space they have more freshwater tanks than the above store. They are also the only place to regularly carry discus. The overall health of the fish is on par with Streetside reef. Now the poor saltwater section, they have undergone renovations and previously had a decent saltwater selection but everything is just sad now because the owner told me she was getting disillusioned with saltwater and wanted to take a break for awhile, even disassembling the great display tank they had and selling it off. They had a giant clam in there that must have been about 1-1.5 feet across (don't know much about clams so I dont know if that is noral or not, anyway it was beautiful). Currently I am told that the saltwater section will be redone in the future sometime, but I can't really suggest much here in the way of saltwater livestock. However the jungle is the pet store with the best dry good, specialty foods for freshwater and lots of freshwater plants because they also do a lot of pond setups which means if you need koi you shoul probably come here. I think the one thing about this store that turns some people off is the age of the staff, everyone must be about 22 or younger. This doesn't bother me since this is close to my age bracket, and I think it's great that the owner is giving young people jobs, but I feel that sometimes people are turned off by that.
Here in Morgantown we have 3 local petstores.
Petco
4101 University Town Center Drive
Morgantown, WV 26501-2261
304-599-0670
It's a basic Petco, the freshwater and saltwater departments are about what you would expect from a chain store. They have some good days and bad days, mostly bad with over crowded tanks, one tank always seems to have ich. There are two pluses to the saltwater department though, they have decent LR and they have some good looking display fish for sale which are in separate tanks from the main little tanks. Also they display fish are for sale you just have to ask. They have a nice clown trigger that is about $100 he has ben there for over a year at least, I think that the price of the fish scares people away and over to the $3 damsel tank. They also have a nice Eel Blenny (C. subducens) in anoher display tank. In the last display tank the thing to note is a huge arrow crab.
Streetside Home Reef and Pets
401 Fairmont Rd
Morgantown, WV 26501
(304) 296-9218
This is the place to go for saltwater fish in Morgantown. I generally go there once a week because thats the saltwater shipment day. They are also more than happy to help with questions or make special orders for you. They are a small pet shop that doesn't have much in the way of dry goods or equipment, however he can order you tanks and stands pretty quickly. As for small animals he has good healthy chinchillas, usually I am not interested in the rest of the stuff. What I like most about his shop is that he honestly concentrates on the fish. He has a small fish room that is divided up into about half freshwater and half saltwater. There is also one larger tank that has nano corals for about $19.95 and some regular corals for about $39.95. I only keep freshwater discus and he doesnt carry those so I am no sure about his freshwater selection but they usually seem pretty healthy and lively when I go in there. There are about 12 saltwater fish tanks and 6 saltwater invertebrate tanks. The fish are generally pretty healthy, his saltwater and invert tanks have substrates and some live rock probably to make some inhabitants more comfortable. Usually there are no sick fish in the tanks and he tries to space the more agressive ones out a bit. For example in the upper right hand corner he has a nice huma huma trigger that is about 6-7 inches and he has been there for at least 2 months for $39.99 which is a pretty good price for around here. I also like the fact that when I ask questions they try to steer me in the right direction and even away from the more expensive items if they dont fit my needs. For example I was going to get that huma huma but they looked at my setup and steered me to a much smaller and cheaper trigger that would better fit my tank.
The last store is
Exotic Jungle
1716 Mileground Road
Morgantown, WV 26505
(304) 296-8552
Now the Exotic Jungle has the best reptiles you can find around here. The owner is a reptile afficionado. For example she basically has a room with one glass/acrylic wall where this one constrictor lives (about 12 ft long is my guess), there is also an albino cobra in another area, needless to say if you like reptiles this is your place. This place also has an abundance of dry foods and lots of dog/cat stuff. The store is always going through changes and because of that things get disorganized easily and the aisles just seem to get more narrow. Now if you want freshwater fish this is a fine place to come. And because they have greater space they have more freshwater tanks than the above store. They are also the only place to regularly carry discus. The overall health of the fish is on par with Streetside reef. Now the poor saltwater section, they have undergone renovations and previously had a decent saltwater selection but everything is just sad now because the owner told me she was getting disillusioned with saltwater and wanted to take a break for awhile, even disassembling the great display tank they had and selling it off. They had a giant clam in there that must have been about 1-1.5 feet across (don't know much about clams so I dont know if that is noral or not, anyway it was beautiful). Currently I am told that the saltwater section will be redone in the future sometime, but I can't really suggest much here in the way of saltwater livestock. However the jungle is the pet store with the best dry good, specialty foods for freshwater and lots of freshwater plants because they also do a lot of pond setups which means if you need koi you shoul probably come here. I think the one thing about this store that turns some people off is the age of the staff, everyone must be about 22 or younger. This doesn't bother me since this is close to my age bracket, and I think it's great that the owner is giving young people jobs, but I feel that sometimes people are turned off by that.
