Big Al's Pets - Ottawa East in Ottawa

🕗 opening times

comments 5

• 

  Gennesse Walker-Scace

  :: 18 April 2018 07:59:27

  Haven't bought fish here yet, but went in to get some aquarium filters and starters. Staff at the front of house was really useful and friendly when talking about best filters for the unit I have, and didn't up sell me. Went to the back to see their fish and talked to a fish staff. He was really useful explaining the types of fish we will want to get as starters. Tons of good aquarium accessories and awesome displays. They also have a lovely shark.

• en

  Kaitlynn Henderson

  :: 14 April 2018 23:58:07

  I love this place! People tend to give it a bad rep because sometimes your fish may catch ick or you may get mystery snales but these things can be avoided really easily if you just look at the fish you buying and look in the bag to make sure. It's really hard to prevent this from happening with the amount of fish they have in each tank, but they do a pretty good job at keeping it under control, trust me, I've seen worse. Also, if your fish dies a few days after purchasing it than it's not always the stores fault. There are a lot of things that could have happened to the fish while it was in YOUR tank. Over all I really love this store!

• 

  Stephanie Voss

  :: 20 March 2018 13:23:43

  I have been here so many times over the last few years - from setting up a new salt water aquarium to getting a new lizard enclosure and then to frequent trips to buy crickets. I feel like the service has for sure gotten worse over the years. I was hopeful with the new management take-over that things would get better, but it's not so. If you know what you want, call ahead to check if it's in stock. Though even calling ahead will sometimes result in a trip for nothing as whoever answered the phone didn't actually check to see if the item was there or not. Recently, I've had to go elsewhere to find pin-head crickets as they so rarely have them in, even if you specifically special order them (still waiting for them to call about the order I placed 3 weeks ago). They also don't appear to feed their crickets, so unless you go on the day they arrive, your container will be half dead. I mentioned that the last time and they now only do special orders because "they just die so quickly". They also don't do refunds, even on unopened boxes. All you'll get is store credit. If you can shop elsewhere, I would suggest supporting a smaller local place where the service will be better. That's my two cents!

• en

  Natasha B

  :: 27 February 2018 11:49:29

  Nice shop and a great array of fish and other aquarium critters. I wasn't expecting to see lizards but that was a fun surprise for me and my nephew who loved them. They also had this cool little baby shark that he keeps begging me to bring him back to see. The staff are very friendly and knowledgeable, they make it easy to make an informed decision on what you choose to purchase, even if you first came there with no knowledge of marine life. They have lots of aquarium equipment to choose from as well.

• en

  Andrew Eden

  :: 24 February 2018 11:11:17

  Go here if you want good friendly advise of Marine and freshwater aquariums. Decent selection of saltwater fish and corals. Huge selection of freshwater fish and plants, I'd be very surprised if you couldn't find what you're looking for here. Prices are reasonable, but not the cheapest when it comes to equipment. The knowledge of the staff and conveniences generally off-set the cost difference.