All About Pets

I REALLY want to like and support local businesses. I’ve been in the fish keeping hobby for a few months now and All About Pets is located less than five minutes from my house. I was hoping it would be my «go to» fish store since it’s close and locally owned. After six months of doing business with them, I’d give them 2−½ stars.
I’ve been told that the owner, Dave knows a lot about fish. And, I guess this is true. I’ve been to three locally owned pet stores in Cincinnati and all the big chains. I get conflicting advice. So, I’m not sure who is right. Dave sold me three green Tiger Barbs to cycle in my first tank. At another store, the guy cringed when I told him I had Tiger Barbs. To be fair to Dave, he told me I could always bring them back after the tank was cycled. His prices on new equipment aren’t the best and aren’t the worst. You can do better on
. But, if you need to pick something up in a hurry, he’s likely to have it. I’m cheap and was thrilled to find that Dave sells used equipment. But, when I needed a filter for my 45 gallon tank despite all the used filters laying around, he told me there wasn’t one of the appropriate size for my tank and I ended up buying a new one from him. I had just left PetSmart where I had gotten a great deal on a tank and wanted to buy the substrate and filter from Dave and save some money. Sadly, i didn’t save on either.
I’ve bought three Tiger Barbs, a Panda Cory Catfish, a Siamese Algae Eater and nine assorted small Cichlids from All About Pets. Generally I’ve had good luck with fish with very few casualties. The Panda Cory died a few weeks after I got him. Not their fault. The Tiger Barbs survived not only the cycling but live six months later (except one that was killed by a mystery disease thanks to PetSmart). I got nine cichlids from Dave about two weeks ago. Four have died. In the same tank I have 10 other cichlids I bought from Aquatics and Exotics. None of them have died. Dave’s price on the small cichlids was better. But, when I take into account the casualty rate, they actually cost me more per fish than from other places. The first cichlid showed signs of being sick as soon as I got him home on a Saturday. By Sunday morning, he was floating. I tried to take the body back. But, All About Pets is only open until 4pm on Sunday and I got there about 20 minutes too late. Rather than keeping the body, I tossed it knowing they were closed on Monday. Tuesday I went back and mentioned to Dave what had happened hoping he”d just say «Pick out another fish». Nope. He needed to have the body. OK. I could have saved the body in the freezer. But, this wasn’t a $ 10 fish or a $ 40 fish. This was a $ 4.00 fish. That left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I picked up another three fish that day, two of which have died. No more for me. As I said, I’ve had 19 cichlids in that tank, not one of the others have died. To be fair, all of the cichlids that died were very small, from the same tank. Maybe he just got a bad batch.
Another experience that left me a little less than impressed. Since they sell used equipment, I thought they’d be interested in buying my equipment. My 45 gallon tank came with the standard hood and light. I upgraded the light. So, i had a 36″ fixture that had hardly been used. When, I called to ask Dave if he wanted it, he showed almost no interest. I ended up dropping by and literally giving it to him.
Since the store seems to be run by Dave and Dave alone (I’ve been in there probably a dozen times and he’s always there– maybe with someone else helping out), the hours are constrained. They’re not open on Monday. They’re open for four hours on Sunday. During the school year, Dave closes for an hour or so in the afternoon to pick up his kid from school. That’s fine. But, it took me about two or three trips to figure out that was what was going on as I seemed to keep going around that time.
As I said, I really wanted to like this store. They do have a good variety of fish. Their cichlid collection is quite impressive and I trust their fish more than say PetSmart who sold me a gourami that wiped out four of my other fish with some mystery disease (within 48 hours). But, there are a couple of locally own fish stores I tend to trust more.

I got depressed in here. Not even joking. Every tank was dirty and product was literally scattered all over the floor. Most the tanks look like they havent been touched in months. I really looked forward to checking out a nice local pet store. Sigh, I’m sad now.
I hate to shit on a pet store because I want the fish and other small animals to find good homes… I dunno what to say :(

Just inside Butler County in the Pisgah area is a small pet store called All About Pets. All About has not only pets such as fish and other small animals, but also a lot of pet supplies too. The best things about any pet store are the actual pets, especially the fish, so I went straight back to the large sections of tanks.
They had a good, large selection of fish, some of the bigger ones I saw selling for over $ 30, and some of the cheaper ones even in coming with deals such as three fish for $ 10 or three for $ 21. Like any pet store there are a lot of neat fish, but I didn’t see too many overly unique swimmers.
As far as supplies go, they have everything from decorative plants and backgrounds for aquarium tanks, to raw hide bones, bowls and doggy nail trimmers. They really seem to have fit a ton of stuff into a small store, but the overall combination of pets and pet supplies doesn’t stack up next to many of the stores I’ve been to over the years.
If you have a pet and need some «supplies,» chances are they will have it, but there are so many much nicer and larger stores. I liked it for what it was and the service was good too, but it was really in a junky location and the interior was not nice either. I think it was a pretty good store, but nowhere near great. Even though looks aren’t everything, you tend to feel like you’re in a great store when you walk into a nice store, and I didn’t feel that at All About Pets.