sde219 August 5, 2009 Share August 5, 2009 I had some time to kill on Saturday and I took a swing through what seemed to be the three largest saltwater stores in Richmond. Here are my thoughts. Keep in mind, this is just my impressions and was based on visits lasting between 20-40 minutes. Richmond Aquarium - 3645 Speeks Dr, Midlothian, VA (no website I could find) -Pretty underwhelming store with a few pleasant touches. Staff(2 people actively with customers) were helpful but there wasn't much to check out. It kind of seemed like the extension of a hobbyists garage and a tank maintenance business. They did however has some nice fish in stock - a few angels and triggers I would not consider regular finds. Seemed to sell a lot of used systems although the prices weren't exactly indicative of the used status. The physical space was across three or four units in a warehouse complex basically as big as like 10 car garage. Not a whole lot of inverts or coral but some and it looked decent. I'll give it 1 of 4 stars. If you're in the near neighborhood, might be worth a visit otherwise though save your gas. It'd basically say it's nothing more than a warehouse version of Wallys. Atlantis Aquarium - http://www.atlantisva.com - Nice store, high end equipment on the their tanks with coral for sale. Full Deltec setup on a display tank. Had some ORA frags. Decent selection of fish - probably slightly less tanks of fish for sale than Pristine Aquarium (saltwater portion) or BRK. Nothing really jumped out at me but everything was very clean. They did have a pretty large quantity of coral for sale. While I was there it seemed 3-4 employees went in and out, only one was really on the sales floor. Probably 3 customers stopped in over the course of my visit - most for water. None of the employees were particularly chatty but I wasn't exactly seeking out conversation. This shop definitely stocks the high-end manufacturers and certainly displays their products. They have some very nice acrylic shallow tanks for coral sales. They seemed to have a QT system and also holding tanks for fish from maintenance tanks in the rear. This store doesn't really seem comparable to any setup in the DC Metro Area but perhaps seemed like Pristine Aquariums (in terms of size and cleaniness) but with a particular emphasis on high-end consumers. I didn't take a close look at prices but more than anything it means they probably weren't particularly high or low. I'll go 2.5 of 4 stars on this. Nice enough that I would probably stop by regularly if it were near by but I'm not sure I'd go out of my way for it. Fish World - http://www.fishworldric.com/ - I can't say enough good things about this place. I think I'd recommend that anyone traveling to or through Richmond consider a brief(good luck!) stop. Honestly, I could have spent a few hours there. The fact that there were 1200g, 900g, 450g, and three or four 120-250g displays was unbelievable - those are display volume numbers. The 1200 was something like 8x4x5. It was truly a daunting tank. Outside of public aquariums (and even including some), I've never seen a more impressive single display. It had probably 15 tangs, a clam at least 30" in length, and a monti cap that seemed to be about 24-30" in diameter and at least four tiers and 18" tall. The 900 display was really eye opening - it's size was almost deceptive, seemingly appropriate for a hobbyist but also overwhelming as you worked your way around it. I think I totalled over 5000 watts of lighting on the two largest systems alone. Fish World also had the single largest variety of fish that I've seen outside of stores that deal in wholesale or ship fish as a large portion of their business. Pretty solid mix of common fish and a lot of the less common but desirable fish (6 blue spotted jawfish, at least two each of sargassum, pink-tailed, blue-throat triggers). Every two tanks of fish for sale are run on individual sump setups. That seems likely a potentially costly and labor intensive approach but also means the risk for the spread of disease was nicely curtailed. I honestly didn't look at the inverts and corals for sale very closely. They seemed to have a nice variety. Assuming the pricing on the fish is indicative, I suspect they were pretty fairly marked particularly for the quality of the care provided. Both of the employees in the store were amazingly helpful. Joe, who owns the place, showed me a book of the custom systems he's done. If I ever stop enjoying the DIY stuff, I'll give him a call. It's my understanding that he's done a large variety of custom installations all over the country including some very nearly fully automated setups. The other employee, Cody(I think?) was completely enthusiastic and sought out answers to every question I had even ones I probably shouldn't have asked. The store seemed to have a pretty good system of drygoods also. I didn't look much because the living stuff was too distracting. Just to keep from being too laudatory, their website is as good as one would hope. 4 of 4 stars for me and worthwhile place to stop because there is a enough to enjoy that kids, wives, and others will be entertained and perhaps not see the cash changing hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boret August 6, 2009 Share August 6, 2009 Thanks for the reviews sde219!!! If I am ever in Richmond I will definitely go to Fish World. I can always drop the wife at IKEA and keep going south.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lhcorals August 6, 2009 Share August 6, 2009 I am a regular at fish world. Joe and Jan ( his wife ),and his staff are great people. He will always find time for conversation even though he is very busy. Never a dull moment in the store. The best time to visit is Friday through Sunday. That is when the store is really stocked. He still has a pretty good selection Monday through Thursday, but he get a lot of traffic on the weekends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefhunter August 6, 2009 Share August 6, 2009 (edited) All I have to say is that Atlantis is expensive and not friendly. I will never go there again. The person I dealt with is unreasonable, unsocial and a pretty disappointing person in general. Don't waste your time. Edited August 6, 2009 by reefhunter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen August 6, 2009 Share August 6, 2009 All I have to say is that Atlantis is expensive and not friendly. I will never go there again. The person I dealt with is unreasonable, unsocial and a pretty disappointing person in general. Don't waste your time. I've always had good experiences at Atlantis and thought the prices were decent. It takes a bit sometimes to get waited on if they are busy but other than that no complaints except that they don't have a very large selection of dry goods and it being a drive to get there. But then again so is everywhere else from this little hole I live in. Sadly Dr. Fosters and Smith, Bulk Reef Supply, Unique Corals, Aquacave, and Vivid Aquariums are my local fish stores. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary August 6, 2009 Share August 6, 2009 Atlantis is near my Richmond office so I've stopped there several times on my way home and have always had a good experience. Sounds like I need to check out Fishworld as well now! Too bad it's in the opposite direction from home, though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary August 12, 2009 Share August 12, 2009 Fish World - http://www.fishworldric.com/- I can't say enough good things about this place. I think I'd recommend that anyone traveling to or through Richmond consider a brief(good luck!) stop. Honestly, I could have spent a few hours there. Since I had meetings in Richmond today I made a point of stopping by Fish World, and I totally blame you for the fact that I needed a large cooler for the drive home and actually did spend a few hours there..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sde219 August 12, 2009 Author Share August 12, 2009 Since I had meetings in Richmond today I made a point of stopping by Fish World, and I totally blame you for the fact that I needed a large cooler for the drive home and actually did spend a few hours there..... Glad to hear that the recommendation hit the mark. It's a really great store. I'm have tempted to drive down to Richmond again before moving out of the area and I don't even have a tank to put anything in. Anything to add to the comments? I really was blind to the coral selection when I entered the shop. His displays were too impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary August 12, 2009 Share August 12, 2009 Coral selection was really interesting and was probably fair for what you were getting but not cheap. There was a gorgeous blue tort (kind of blue/green/purple) in the display, and the 3" frags of that one started (I think) at $169 or so. Probably very worth it, but not until my tank is guaranteed to allow it to thrive! They had some really interesting pieces, including something Australian that looked like goniopora but wasn't. I bought a small piece of milli that is almost a sky blue with brown polyps - very different, and only $40. I didn't price the inverts but they had huge fire shrimp and plenty of skunk cleaners and peppermints. Some really nice clams, a small but nice selection of sps and a bigger collection of lps (including a head of purple frogspawn) kept me drooling for awhile. Interesting variety of fish, and when I pointed out a clown getting picked on by his tankmates Shane promptly moved him to a different tank. I'll definitely stop by again (unfortunately for my wallet). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Garrison August 12, 2009 Share August 12, 2009 I've been to Fishworld once with lhcorals (it's all his fault) and I would gladly go there again, Joe and his wife are great people and they keep a very nice store. I stopped in to Atlantis with Reefhunter and found it expensive and disappointing. There prices on fish are easily $10-30 higher than other more local LFS and they were indeed not very friendly. I'll not be going back there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lhcorals August 13, 2009 Share August 13, 2009 Since I had meetings in Richmond today I made a point of stopping by Fish World, and I totally blame you for the fact that I needed a large cooler for the drive home and actually did spend a few hours there..... That's what you get for trying to steal our Red Planet. You should make it a point to go Friday thru Sunday. So you can meet Joe and Jan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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