A5 Aquatics

Having not brought any fish for over 18 months due to sword tails breading! I decided to give a5 aquatics a go as the place i usually go the quality of fish seem to have deteriorated, What a mistake! although the fish look fine I brought some neon’s and introduced them to the tank, Now here’s the problem WHITE SPOT! and bad! it’s 6 days since i have put the fish into the tank and noticed one dead silver tip lost another 1 hour later, all my fish are covered in in it I have now treated the tank but expect more deaths!
The thing is not had white spot for over 18 months, this is the first fish I have brought in 18 months, cycle for white spot is about 5 days.
Make up your own mind but I won’t be using them again!
Just an update
now lost 10 fish! not happy even lost my big rainbow fish, tears all round had him 3 years! avoid this place like the plague they can’t be quarantining the fish before they sell them.

I went to A5 Aquatics for the first last week to look for fish tanks. Brought a Fluval Edge tank, was a really good price as i have been looking for a little while. Staff were really friendly and very helpful as i am a new commer to this. The selection of fish looks amazing. Cant wait to go back and get my fish.

Initially we were impressed with A5 aquatics & the staff seemed to be fairly knowledgable & if they didn’t know would find out the info for you. However after purchasing our 3^rd lot of fish from them (a couple of weeks between each purchase). (1^st lot being 10 neon tetras & 4 mollies. 2^nd lot being another 10 neon tetras & 2 more mollies). I have a 400L tank so there is plenty of room in the tank & it isn’t overstocked.
We purchased 2 plecos, 4 clown loaches, 6 guppies, 2 cat fish, but a day later we noticed some of the Guppies looking a bit limp & lifeless, a day later both catfish died as did three guppies & 1 clown loach. I tried calling them on the wednesday to tell them that I wasn’t happy & request a refund /​echange, but they are closed wednesdays. When I called back on Thursday I was told that it was now over their 48 hour guarentee period & I wasn’t entitled to anything. (They even went so far as to argue that 48 hours is 48 hours exactly, if my till reciept had 12:01 on it it was exactly 48 hours from that point). I can understand policy is policy & all that, but half of my newly purchased fish died in just over 2 days. The other fish were & still are all perfectly healthy, so I doubted a water quality issue.
I had tested the water & all my levels were safe, but I even offered to bring a sample of the water to them to test with the hope that if they found it to be fine a possibility of a credit note etc or if they did find a problem I would have accepted the blame & asked for advice on how to fix it.
The person I spoke to on the phone told me that the test strips that I had used were pretty much useless even though one of their sales assistant had advised me to buy them for there ease of use. I took a sample of the water to a local garden center who also have an aquatcs section & they tested the water for me & turned out to be fine.
The last place I would ever consider to purchase my fish from again, which is a bit of a shame as they have a good variety of tropical fish at good prices. I had intended to purchase nearly all my fish & accessories from them originally (even if it is a 40 mile round trip). Now I just go anywhere but there & haven’t had any problems with the new fish (2 more clown loaches, 2 sydontis catfish, 2 upside down catfish, 4 platys & 6 more guppies).

This is not a garden centre — its purely wall to wall aquatics as the name suugests. Set back from the main road its easy to find, and the store is housed in a beautifully restored 17^th century building, within a small area of semi-​landscaped grounds.
Everything here is geared around aquatics, outside is a large pond filled with impressive sized Koi that are incidentally (I am told) bred in Situ, and there is a good range of water features and sculptures to adorn your outdoor aquatic displays. Once inside there are four distinct rooms. The main area which had food, accessories, one of the best ranges of reference books I have seen, and the till area. A smaller room off this is full of tanks and cabinets — again one of the most diverse ranges I have seen locally. They have regular offers and sales in this area and I have seen some real bargains — they are also really keen to advise (but in a non-​pushy way) — so top marks for the service. A larger room stems off at the rear and is laid out with larger pond style displays full of Koi and other cold water specimens — yes there are goldfish too for you purists out there! A third middle sized room houses all the warm water inhabitants including tropical and marine varieties. I would say that they are generally slightly more geared toward tropical as the percentage of stock is about ⁶⁰⁄₄₀ in favour of this. You can get R/​O water easily without ordering and their live rock is particularly good value and of a good standard. Because of the limited size of the marine displays I have not seen many of the more unusual critters here, but the tanks are well kept and the fish look in good condition. We bought our first two clown fish from here and a feather duster worm about a year ago and they are growing well and thriving.
The staff are commendable, and not at all intrusive — they let you browse just for the sake of it without too much hassle, and always seem to rememeber you when you go back. I am sure they all have a genuine concern for the welfare of the livestock too, as they always ask lots of question before selling you anything, to make sure that your set-​up suitable for your purchase. Full of lots of down to earth, no nonsense advice — just as I like it.
Be warned — if all you want is a goldfish for your child — you will probably come out with a 4 ft tank and a full array of equipment.