Upscales-Fish & Reptiles

Upscales is always our first choice when it comes to our saltwater needs, I’m in here almost once a week so I’ve gotten to know the shop pretty well. We run into Tom most of the time and Tom has been fantastic when it comes to answering our questions about coral, equipment, fish, you name it and he’s genuine and helpful with his advice. The owner Travis is also great but honestly Tom is the reason we keep coming back. They’ve got an awesome selection of coral and will usually order something for you if you don’t see it!

I am new to the area and was excited to check this place out. I have had a slight fish addiction since I was a child. So, I was hoping to find a new store to feed my hobby. Boy was I wrong. Yes, this store has a lot of saltwater creatures. However, I was utterly shocked to see that many of the stands that are holding the tanks are covered in rust. The place is dirty. Saltwater tanks are tedious to care for and the presentation of the store calls into question their ability to care for the animals. I’m very interested in chameleons and initially was excited to see them here. That quickly faded when I got close to them. They have several geckos here. All the reptile tanks have excessive feces in the tank. The geckos looked healthy to me. However, one of the chameleon has a badly infected eye. I wouldn’t doubt that he will lose it. Glass tanks, lots of feces leads to bacterial infections and sick and dying reptiles. The reptile supplies are covered in dust. I don’t even know how to express my disappointment. My child begged me to leave this place. He has been reading about how to care for chameleons for about three days and he was very saddened to see the state of them here. I would say most kids might not notice these types of things but I guess this speaks to the state of this place. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, someone is on vacation and they will get this placed cleaned up.

Shopped a few fish stores when I started with my Reef tank, back in 2013. Made the decision to switch from freshwater to salt, and came by several times before buying the setup here. I had already had the tank and sump, so needed the rock first, and some corals. Travis was great every single time I stopped in, even the times when I didn’t spend money.
I bought a few things from the other stores but the majority of all I get now, is from Travis. He is always good at helping me, and sometimes did so with issues that were not his fault. The other guys are great and helpful as well. Over 2 years in this hobby I have learned a lot, had the growing pains, the losses, and equipment changes. I will always buy from this store.

I asked a simple question «Do you or do you know someone that sells tilapia?» The response was «Call on of those doomsday preppers stores. Thanks for the help guys!!! Real A+++ joint you have…

I have been shopping at Upscales since 2006 and almost exclusively since 2008. I actually found them through a referral from another LFS in the area; their display at that time was a thing of legend and I even took my parents and friends to see it when they came in from out of town (separate trips). It was the tank that inspired me to get into stony corals. That tank has since been torn down, but a new very impressive display is still in the shop.
One of the reasons I like to go their so much is because you just never know what cool thing they have that week.
Upscales has cornered the market on SPS in this region since well before I found them. Some of the frags are priced so low it is ridiculous for what they are. The store doesn’t juice their lights so when you take them home, that is actually what they look like. The same frags of what they sell go online for 3−4x as much.
In addition to SPS they have a great selection of LPS, Softies, Fish, and Inverts at reasonable prices.
Having a store owner with so much experience who will tell you straight out, «this is what I use, that is what my tank looks like,» is amazing when it seems so many try to keep «trade secrets». Travis has always been there to answer questions, even when you have to wait in line to talk to him, and if you ask him he will give you honest advice even if it means costing him a sale (Just today I was at the register buying something and he showed me something for less then half the price that would be better for me).
I have always enjoyed talking to the other staff there as well. I think Barry is a great guy (especially for being an A’s fan) and always helpful. He’s just a great person to talk to about your tank. Tom and Zack have always been fun as well.
When you need advice, it’s nice to ask someone who knows. When you need an odd pump part a good LFS will save your butt. When you need water in a jam, or your tank cracks and you need to stash your corals somewhere. A good LFS is so valuable to the hobby.
I meet a lot of people in this hobby, and I ask everyone, «Have you been to Upscales?». If your into reefing, this is the destination spot in the Portland area.

WORST customer service ever!!! I would NEVER return to this store. We brought our kids in to look at fish — the kids were very well behaved — however, they did TOUCH the glass on one of the tanks (they did not tap or bang, or anything else) — but you would have thought they had climbed in. The guy «working» ran over and told them he’d just «windexed» the tank and that it was a $ 30K tank — My son noted that it looked like they had polyps in the back and asked if they were raising jellyfish — he was answered dismissively «I don’t know — there is a lot going on back there». When asked if they sold Jellies he was told «no» (we’ve seen them there before — I suppose they could have stopped carrying them — but it just seemed to go with the attitude). He smirked and waved, windex in hand as we left.
*Just because they are young, does not mean that they do not have allowance, birthday and Christmas money to spend — their parents have been know to purchase a thing or two as well. We’ll buy our fish elsewhere thank you.

These guys are great. Love the help and quality fish. Shop fish here. Travis is a cool cat.

After purchasing an entire set up from an unnamed competitor and having dismal results I found Upscales and with that I found success.
I have really enjoyed developing my 85gal. soft coral reef aquarium over the past 2 years but I am now loving my new 225gal. aquarium they designed me! This place also has the best saltwater selection in the NW and their corals are buy 1 get one ½ off (even their Australian and other rare corals). #GREATPDXBUISNESS

Terrible salt water store. Over priced and the owner is a complete jerk.
DO NOT GO HERE

Shopped other places then I found Upscales. They have a huge selection of rare corals and fish at good prices.
The only place I go for my saltwater stuff.
Staff had always been cool to me.
If you have a salt water tank this is the place to go. Travis is the man.

Great store ! Great selection ! Out of all the saltwater stores in town the employees here are helpful and attentive. Iv been to a lot of other stores and the employees treat me like an idiot because I haven’t been in the hobby that long.. Everything iv learned in this hobby iv learned from you guys. Thanks upscales !

I cringe to give it one star. Salt water setups may be fine, but the reptiles and amphibians are badly kept. The tanks are mislabeled and they mix species on horrible substrate and bad temperatures. Created geckos, day geckos, leopard geckos, and fat tails should not be kept in the same setup. Crickets were left in cages but I saw no fruit diets or greens for the omnivorous species, and with the mislabeling any idiot would buy a pet and not know what it was. The adult axolotls are kept on small pebble substrate, at severe risk for impaction as any axolotl breeder would and should know. Every reptile/​amphibian was kept on bark with one heat lamp and no UVB. Come on! They had a depressing day gecko lapping at dried and probably days old remnants of diet, and a pathetic little leopard gecko lying half on its side. Their chinese water dragon was almost full grown and shoved into a twenty long that it could not even extend its tail in. The tortoises were labeled as Russians but clearly not all Russian, and every tank had similar mislabeling.
I walked in to get some insects, and left disgusted. I refused to buy anything from that shop, and until they fix their serious care issues, I advise other people to not throw their cash at them either.

This store is awesome. The best selection of SPS coral I’ve ever seen other than in coral reefs! Fish selection is great, they have rare imports such as Harlequin Tusks as well as standbys such as Damsels and Clowns. They have great selections of coral such as Xenia and Mushrooms for cheap prices, awesome macroalgae, live rock, all sorts of shrimps and crabs, and great reef cleaner prices. All the cleaners are placed in seperate tubs so that they can be picked out by the dozen if needed. The only thing they could have more of is actual tanks, but otherwise a great store.

I can’t believe no one has written a review for this store. This is one of the best spots in the Portland area for saltwater fish and coral. Their display tank is one of the most beautiful I have seen, it’s worth stopping in just to see it. I know currently they run a buy one get one half off special on all corals, which is rare in this hobby, and you can really get hooked up here. Prices are fair and the staff is knowledgable.
You can by RO/​DI water from them I believe, and they have a lot of hardware, too, I don’t know how pricing is on this stuff because it is always cheaper online.
I knocked a star off for two reason, 1) they have tons of flat worms in their tanks. I always have to freshwater dip to make sure my tank doesn’t get over grown, once this issue is out of hand it is very difficult to solve. 2) sometimes customer service is a bit lacking, the guys that work there can be a bit short, and sometimes you feel like they are looking down their nose at you, but that is pretty common in this hobby, so you kind of have to get used to it. All in all, like I said, one of the best joints in the metro area for this kind of thing, definitely check them out.