Overall Experience 3
Cost 3
Quality of Fish 4
Variety 4
Service 2
My wife and I came in to look at setting up a small tank and had a great experience, at first. The staff was really helpful and very nice, and suggested a 3.5 gallon to start, with about 5 Glofish in it. Knowing what I know now, I never would have attempted to start with such a small tank, we had several ammonia spikes and even with consistent water changes and prime were just unable to get it going. I think that the people helping us didn't really have enough knowledge to suggest a setup, everywhere i've gone since recommends a 10 gallon tank to start or larger because of course the larger the tank, the easier it is to get an ecosystem going. They didn't tell us to run the tank 24 hours before adding fish etc, and it had been so long since I kept fish that I trusted their information rather than going on what I had always done in the past. While the fish world has changed a lot it's still very much the same, it's easier to keep fish now than it was in the past (in my opinion..) but you can't expect to setup a 3.5 gallon tank and have it run great and put fish in it right away. We've since bought a 60 gallon and the 3.5 gallon houses a very happy Betta, a few Norman Lampeye's and a Pigmy Cory. I live right near here but I will make the drive to Tropical Fish World in Sumner, or The Aquarium Coop up north, i'd much rather have healthy happy fish and better advice.
It's my opinion they didn't think we would buy a large tank right away so they downplayed the task of setting up a small tank.