Jan’s Tropics and Elegant Pooch

My daughter has a Bearded Dragon and Jan’s is the best place to buy crickets. They even carry the food to feed the crickets while they are awaiting to be fed to the lizard. We also get our dogs groomed there. Outstanding people and a wonderful asset to Carson City. Thanks so much!

Yes, it is different than the local fish places, but I so enjoyed all the different large fish they had! I purchased a panda Cory Fish and he is doing great. The grandson of jan’s tropics has answers for all the questions I had, and is a very nice guy. I will return soon, even if it is to see all the big fish!

Supporting local businesses, love Jans Tropics. They appear to take good care of the pets they are selling, my sons fish is still alive after a few months unlike the fish we got from Petco. Customer service is good when they aren’t too busy.

This is truly a small «mom and pop» style shop. Think of the big stores such as Petco and PetSmart. They have a lot of money from corporate HQ for custom displays, big layouts, and bright lights. Now imagine if you personally wanted to start up your own Petco or PetSmart. You wouldn’t have the big financial backing so you’d start small and simple. Rather than have a large custom fish wall you would probably want to use commercially available individual fish tanks of various sizes. It quickly becomes apparent that «simple» is also «scalable» and I think this shop figured it out. The aquatic life is housed in numerous tanks, placed in the store from front to back, and each seemingly individually filtered and controlled. I like to think of their configuration as the Lego version of the big box stores.
Now, imagine further that this Lego style setup is then deployed across the entire store!
Personally, I think something like this adds some charm to a store. We’re so used to big box stores that have become sterile and carbon copies of each other. Having something so different here is a welcome change. The downside to this configuration is that the shop is a little dirty and a little dusty. You can tell what gets maintained and what gets left alone. The tanks are generally clean but the outside may have spots and the price tags will be water stained from the splashes caused by cleaning. There aren’t enough tags to describe everything. I think the tags fell off and nobody replaced them.
Also, be aware that the shop is deceiving large. It may be narrow but it is fairly deep. The layout is a little choppy and I truly felt like I was traveling through the shop.
Some would say that this is no way to run a small business, especially with so much competition with the big box stores. Maybe yes, maybe no. I would say that for a niche business like this in a small town like ours this is the kind of shop we need. A place like this with so much décor, with so many tanks, and so many items can really grab you! It makes you want to wander around two or three times over to make sure you saw everything.
On the down side, something needing as much maintenance as this place does open the door for heedlessness. Fish grow and suddenly the 10 – 30 gallon tank it started off in is too small. Plants grow over the top. Algae is in the corners. I don’t think this is necessarily harmful or evil to the fish but it’s probably not ideal. Some of the fish do look a little sad and slothful. Maybe that is their nature and I just don’t know it but I do know proportion. When I see something disproportionately large in a small tank I understand that something is not ideal.
The aquatic section is dim, which I liked because I always think that bright lights stress out customers and the fish.
I don’t know too much about the grooming side of the business. That section seemed small compared to the aquatic section. My review doesn’t take this into account.
I came in on Friday in the later afternoon and I found the staff to be very friendly, engaging, and social. If you come to them with questions they will happily answer you. If you want to be left alone they will leave you alone and not pester you with, «Are you sure I can’t help you find something?» I had nice conversations with them and I enjoyed their engagement.
My overall rating is a very strong 3 stars or a very weak 4 stars. It feels like they are doing the right thing the right away but are just overwhelmed with the maintenance of the shop. The staff of two needs to be a staff of 3 or 4. I will settle on 4 stars since I felt very satisfied with the overall experience.
I will definitely be coming back when my hobby fund gets recharged.

I was saddened to learn yesterday that jan the owner had passed away 1 month ago. i have been going to jans for 14 years. jan’s grandson nick is now running the fish side of the store, and jans daughter owns the elegant pooch. she will be missed.:(

Have been going to have Jennifer groom my dogs for 8 years now. She does a great job, even when she has my 4 beasts to deal with. Also, Suzanne is great with my one dog, he has epilepsy and though he loves to go to the groomer for some reason it triggers mild seizures, but Suzanne is able to hold and pet him and can actually stop the seizure!
They really care about my babies and my babies get soooo excited to get all fancied up! Pretty reasonable, 4 small dogs = $ 120.00 plus tip. Thats a deal, If I had to shave them, they would be 4 little walking disasters.

I don’t know about the grooming side of the store but I know a thing or 2 about fish stores.
Walking in to this place Is like a weird trip back in time. this store does not look like it has changed in over 20+ years. They have lots of fish the stock it pretty healthy for the most part well The small fish are. The prices are ok not great. The staff is not very helpful or friendly. They have a pacu in a 40 gal tank it’s sad. Then there is a larger jack dempsy that’s in a 20gal and all deformed. I think part of the problem is people bring unwanted large fish to the store when they don’t want them.
The fish selection is pretty good. There is lots to see.

Great grooming prices and friendly groomers. They do our 2 cockers. They are so nice to them. We used to have them done at Petco, but now I drive the dogs all the way to Carson to get groomed because these people really care about pets. Our dogs aren’t afraid to go to the groomers anymore.