Papa Jim’s Tropical Fish

I have been buying fish here for a couple of years. They are friendly and knowledgable. Just this morning, I «returned» two Koi and a couple of ‘gold’ catfish. In a couple of months they had grown too large for my outdoor 60 gallon stock tank. We horse-​traded and I left happy with a couple of small Koi, snails, and a water plant.

This place is so sad to look at. The animals are overcrowded in tanks. The place smells horrible I expect a pet store to not smell the best but this smell made me nauseous. The reptiles are all stuffed in glass tanks except the «expensive» pets. I only come here for fish food since it’s close to my house but after today I will no longer help fund this place. There were several instances where we had to inform the employees that something was wrong with their animals, they were caught in something, or in danger. The employees would just say «oh it’ll be fine» and would never help them. The tanks and cages are filthy and look like they are never cleaned. This incident just did it for me. I walked to the bird area and see they have about 12 chicks in a small tank. I look closely and see what I thought was a dead chick. It had no feathers left it looked like they were torn off. It’s neck looked broken and it was limp. I look at the stomach and it’s still breathing! It was alive and soaked in feces and urine! It was paralyzed and the other chicks were walking over it. It was so sad all it was doing was breathing. It looked like it had been there at least a day or two since the feathers were completely gone. I walk to the front and see the two employees texting and eating in the office by the register. I can’t believe this place does not even check on the animals for days at a time.

Attached to the Botanical next store, Papa Jim’s Tropical Fish is an aquatics and small animal store with a large variety. I haven’t found very many pet shops that carry items for tortoises in the city, so I was impressed that they had an array of bedding and feeder options. I do sympathize with some Unilocalers I’ve read from, because some of the animals are kept in quite close quarters, especially for those that are aggressive breeds. I have noticed that their turnover is fairly quick though so the animals are only kept that way for short periods. One can only hope that none are sick to infect others!
I do enjoy going to Papa Jim’s just for the experience sometimes. It’s a fun place you can spend an hour in the AC browsing around, and it’s almost a mini zoo to the little ones! Honestly it is as good as many aquariums I’ve been to. Put it on your to-​do list at least once; maybe you’ll visit on a rainy day!
Rating system:
5 stars = I’ll drive across town specifically for this, and rave to all my friends about it!
4 stars = Would recommend visiting.
3 stars = Average, acceptable, positive.
2 stars = You might be able to drag me here.
1 star = I will not be returning.

This store is dirty, the animals are not very well taken care of. there prices are ok but if the fish dies it doesn’t matter. bought 8 Colombian tetra, 5 of which died, I would be careful when going to this place.

This place is awesome. Great prices, huge selection and some of the coolest animals in any pet store. For daddy day this place makes a great cheap alternative to going to the zoo.

One of the worst «pet shops» I’ve ever seen. They don’t take care of their animals. One of their employees, Hugo, calls himself an «animal expert» when the truth is, he’s an animal abuser. He has no idea on how to actually take care of bettas and he is very rude about it. He will curse you out if you tell him how to properly take care of them. He will proudly post pictures of him abusing the fish on his Instagram. I’m sorry, but bettas don’t belong in a light bulb and males should not be kept together.
Definitely pass on this place. Buying from this place means you are supporting animal abuse.

The most amazing tropical fish shop in town!
They offer a wide variety of tropical fish, birds, turtles, koi, spiders, mice, they’ve got it all! I bought two fish here, Ferdinand and Isabella from the huge stock-​tanks they have in the back. The fish lasted about three years!!! I like to buy all my pet food here because Papa Jim’s is local, and the service is friendly. Yea, the prices are a tad higher than Petco, but this place has definite character, and this place offers something that those big chain stores can’t possibly ever offer– It’s connected to the Botanica next door that you have to check out…
They have a wide assortment of birds, but I try to stay out of that part of the store.

I hate this place. I wish they would go out of business. Their supplies are overpriced and if you catch them on an off day, you’ll see that they don’t treat their animals so «fantastic». Then again, if your one of those types of people who like to chain out your dog in the backyard in the blazing heat, well I guess you really wouldn’t care about how animals are being treated around here.
Go to southside Aquatics. Much nicer place.

My first visit to Papa Jim’s I only expected to mostly see… well, fish and fish stuff. I can’t say that I visit the southside too often but I was still interested in seeing what they had to offer. I found the business card at Bubblehead’s and headed over to Papa Jim’s.
Driving there I noticed that the entrance to the parking area was a tiny bit tricky (mostly if there’s a lot of traffic and since this is a bit of a major intersection, it can easily get congested). The entrance to their fenced in parking area can block cars from behind you into the intersection if they’re not expecting it.
The door to the shop faces the main street (Flores) and when I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to see how clean and neat everything was. There were fish (surprise, surprise), geckos, tarantulas, other kinds of reptiles and bunnies! There were three black and white ones and each one was cuter than the next. =)
While I browsed around, I was asked on a couple of different occasions if I needed help and to just let them know if I needed anything. In the back, there was another room with huge tubs of mollies, koi and turtles.
I didn’t purchase anything on my first visit but I couldn’t resist the bunnies. So yes, I came back. When I did there was only one left — a Dutch — and the tiniest of the bunch. A male kit who’s 8 weeks old and is now named «Momiji» (or Momo). The staff was especially accomodating when I purchased him and two Chinese Algae Eaters. We talked about my other bunny (my mini lop, Mochi) and getting them to mesh and so on and so forth.
I definitely recommend this place. The prices are really good and the animals seem to be well taken care of.