Sierra- Renton

[cjag]

Overall Experience 4
Cost 3
Quality of Fish 2
Variety 5
Service 5

Went there yesterday to check out their hardscape supplies and was very pleased with the selection. They sell huge driftwood pieces by the pound, and I ended up buying their two largest pieces. Happy about that.

Now the livestock was another story. Most of their community fish seemed pretty okay and reasonably healthy but I went there to look at cichlids, and oh boy they did not look good. Without exaggeration all of their cichlid tanks either had dead fish or visibly ill fish. Ich and lots of concave bellies.

I did however, receive very enthusiastic and friendly help from the aquatics employees.

All in all I would buy rocks and wood from them but probably never livestock unfortunately. Biggest reptile supply selection I have ever seen in a retail store as well.

 

[sir_keith]

This used to be one of the go-to places in Seattle for cichlids, back in the days when Kevin was running the fish department, but that was ~20 years ago...

 

[Madness]

This used to be one of the go-to places in Seattle for cichlids, back in the days when Kevin was running the fish department, but that was ~20 years ago...

He ran Sierra? I know he ran Fish Gallery until they closed down.

 

[sir_keith]

He ran Sierra? I know he ran Fish Gallery until they closed down.

Wasn't it called the Sierra Fish Gallery? Across the street from all the car dealerships on Grady Way? I thought they were one and the same.

 

[Madness]

Wasn't it called the Sierra Fish Gallery? Across the street from all the car dealerships on Grady Way? I thought they were one and the same.

Fish Gallery and pets on east hill in Kent

 

[sir_keith]

Fish Gallery and pets on east hill in Kent

That's a different store from what I'm talking about. I have a vague recollection that Kevin may have worked there after leaving Sierra, but for sure he was in charge of the fish department at Sierra in Renton in their heyday. That was a long time ago.

 

[lloyd378]

Stopped by today on the way home

overall experience 2
Cost : 0 as most fish weren't forsale for various diseases and illnesses
Quality of fish: 0 I saw fish with ich in the planted tanks, and close to 65% of tanks had NFS listed on them for “sick fish”
Variety: 3 they had a decent selection of the fish if they were healthy
Service: 1 I asked for a location on a specific plant and was told “middle isle” didn’t bother to show me

I haven’t been in there in over 3 years and it appears to be a sad sad sight! Very disappointing and I can’t recommend going in at this time!

 

[lloyd378]

This used to be one of the go-to places in Seattle for cichlids, back in the days when Kevin was running the fish department, but that was ~20 years ago...

Did he run Sierra in Renton or blue Sierra in issaquah ( which I used to love )

 

[sir_keith]

Did he run Sierra in Renton or blue Sierra in issaquah ( which I used to love )

Sierra in Renton, on Grady Way.

 

[Madness]

Yes Sierra is a sad place right now.

 

[sir_keith]

Yes Sierra is a sad place right now.

Has been for quite a while...

 

[DMD123]

Overall Experience 5
Cost 5
Quality of Fish 4
Variety 4
Service 5

I stopped in just to see if they had any fish of interest that were a bit more unusual or some interesting pleco and they had both.
I saw many different bn pleco, green phantom, blue phantom, false leopard pleco and one I really was interested in a "red bruno'. Sadly the Red bruno had some damage to fins that I wasn't willing to spend $59.99 on to see if it would heal out. I might check back with them in a month or so and see if its still there and healed up. The fish I ended up with was for my 90g community tank with my severum and hoplo catsih. I got a trio of leporinus arcus.


They were very healthy and alert and are doing very well in my tank.

Overall I was very happy with my visit to Sierra because the girl working in fish was very friendly and there was great customer service. My satisfaction of course was also very dependant on the fact I was looking for unique community friendly fish which they had exactly what I wanted. If I had been looking for cichlids... well it could have been better. But overall a very nice shopping trip.